James Meadows Rendel (engineer) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids James Meadows Rendel
James Meadows Rendel painted by Sir William Boxall
Born	December 1799 Okehampton, Devon, England
Died	21 November 1856 Kensington Palace Gardens, London, England
Nationality	English
Occupation	Engineer
Engineering career
Discipline	civil engineer
Institutions	Institution of Civil Engineers (president) Fellow of the Royal Society

James Meadows Rendel (born December 1799, died November 1856) was a very important British civil engineer. He designed and built many bridges, harbors, and railways during his lifetime. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society, which is a big honor for scientists and engineers.

Early Life and First Projects

James Meadows Rendel was born in December 1799 near Okehampton, Devon, England. His father was a surveyor, and his mother was the daughter of an architect. From his uncle, he learned how to build mills. His father also taught him some basics of civil engineering.

When he was young, Rendel moved to London. He worked as a surveyor for Thomas Telford, another famous engineer. He helped Telford survey for a planned suspension bridge over the River Mersey at Runcorn.

Around 1822, Rendel moved to Plymouth. There, he started building roads in northern Devon. One of his early projects, which you can still see today, is a bridge built in 1826 over Bowcombe Creek.

In 1824, he was hired to build a bridge across the Catwater, an area of the River Plym near Plymouth. To stop the strong currents from washing away the bridge, he created a special artificial bottom. This bridge cost £27,126 and opened in 1827. It was one of the largest iron bridges at the time. In 1836, Rendel received a Telford Medal for explaining how he built it.

Innovations in Plymouth

Rendel soon partnered with Nathaniel Beardmore in Plymouth. His work quickly became very popular. In 1826, he built Bowcombe Bridge. This was one of the first times that hydraulic power was used to help build swing bridges.

In 1831, he came up with a new way to cross rivers using chain ferries powered by steam. In 1832, he built a floating bridge using this idea across the River Dart at Dartmouth. Between 1832 and 1834, he built similar floating bridges at Torpoint and Saltash across the River Tamar. These bridges made it much easier to travel between Devon and Cornwall. Rendel won another Telford Medal in 1838 for these projects. The Torpoint Ferry is still used today, though it has been updated a lot.

During this time, Rendel also worked on improving harbors and rivers in southwest England. This made him an expert in hydraulic engineering, which is what he is most famous for. Here are some of his projects:

• In 1829, he designed the harbor at Par Docks in Cornwall.
• In 1835, he worked on the Bude harbor and Bude Canal.
• In 1836, he designed Brixham harbor and the breakwater at Torquay.
• In 1836–37, he designed the Millbay Docks in Plymouth. These docks were later built by another famous engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
• In 1843–44, he built canals in Devon and worked on the Colchester and Arundel navigation systems.
• In 1844, he designed harbor improvements for Newhaven and Littlehampton in Sussex.

He also worked a lot for the British Admiralty (the government department in charge of the navy) and other government groups. In 1835–37, he helped fix the Montrose suspension bridge after it collapsed. He introduced a new way to strengthen the bridge's roadway. This method helped prevent the swaying that had destroyed many similar bridges. It quickly became a standard safety feature for bridges.

Moving to London and Major Projects

Around 1838, Rendel ended his partnership in Plymouth and moved to London. However, he still worked mostly on projects in his home county. In 1841, he built the Millbay Pier in Plymouth. This was a difficult project because the water was very deep. Here, he used a new building method that was later used for the harbors at Holyhead and Portland.

In 1839, he planned a railway line between Exeter and Plymouth that would cross Dartmoor. Not enough money was raised for this project at the time, but a different coastal railway line was later built by I. K. Brunel.

In 1843, Rendel made plans for docks at Birkenhead. He had to defend his plans in front of parliamentary committees against people who didn't want the docks built. This was a long and hard fight, and the constant work may have shortened his life. His published notes from this time are a valuable record of engineering practices.

From 1844 to 1853, he built docks at Grimsby. He also worked on extensions for docks at Leith (1848–53), Garston on the Mersey (1850–53), and the East and West India and London docks. At the Grimsby docks, he was one of the first to use W. G. Armstrong's hydraulic machinery system. This system used water pressure to operate lock gates, sluices, and cranes. For this work, he won a grand medal of honor at the Paris Exhibition of 1855.

For the Admiralty, he planned and built the packet and refuge harbor at Holyhead in 1845. In 1847, he built the harbor of refuge at Portland. For these huge harbors, he found a clever way to drop large stones vertically from railway trucks using tall wooden platforms. By building the stone structures very quickly above sea level, he greatly reduced the damage caused by strong waves during construction. Sometimes, as much as 24,000 tons of stone were placed in just one week! In 1850, he started building a new harbor at St. Peter Port, Guernsey.

River Improvements and Later Work

Rendel spent a lot of time improving rivers. In 1852, he worked with Sir William Cubitt and Richard John Griffith to study and report on drainage systems in Ireland. In 1855, he finished building the suspension bridge across the River Ness at Inverness. Other countries also asked for his help.

• In 1852–53, he designed docks for Genoa, Italy.
• In 1853–55, he reported on the harbor of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• In 1854, he advised the Prussian government on a naval base at Heppens on the river Jade.
• In 1854–55, he inspected the Elbe river from Hamburg to Cuxhaven for the Hamburg government.
• For Spain, he planned a railway system between Madrid and Oviedo and suggested improvements for the Ebro river.

In England, he didn't work on as many railways, but he did build the Birkenhead, Lancashire and Cheshire Junction Railway. In India, he oversaw the construction of the East Indian and Madras railways. In 1856, he reported on the new Westminster Bridge in London. His very last project was a design for a suspension bridge in St. James's Park, London.

In 1852 and 1853, Rendel was the president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, which he had joined in 1824. He became a member of the Royal Society in 1843 and was elected to its council. James Meadows Rendel passed away on November 21, 1856, at his home in London. He is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.

Lasting Impact

James Meadows Rendel was a very energetic person. People trusted him because he was efficient, smart, and honest. His biggest projects were the harbors at Holyhead and Portland. These amazing works show why his name is often mentioned alongside other great engineers like Smeaton, Rennie, and Telford.

Rendel wrote several important papers for the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He was married to Catherine Jane Harris, who passed away in 1884. His third son, Stuart Rendel, became a Member of Parliament and was later made a Lord. Many of his other children also became successful engineers or married into important families:

• Sir Alexander Meadows Rendel (1829–1918) – a civil engineer
• George Wightwick Rendel (1833–1902) – a civil engineer
• Emily Frances Rendel (1836–1897) married Charles Bowen, 1st Baron Bowen
• Emily Catherine Rendel (1840–1921) married Clement Francis Wedgwood
• Hamilton Owen Rendel (1843–1902)

His nephew, James Murray Dobson, became the chief engineer for the Buenos Aires harbor works in the 1880s and 1890s. The engineering company Rendel started eventually became a partnership called Rendel Palmer & Tritton. Today, it is known as Rendel Ltd.