John Penn (engineer)
| John Penn | |
|---|---|
John Penn
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| Born | 1805 Greenwich |
| Died | 1878 Lee, Kent |
| Nationality | British [English] |
| Spouse(s) | Ellen English (m. 1847) |
| Engineering career | |
| Institutions |
Royal Society Institution of Mechanical Engineers |
| Significant advance | High-power oscillating engine Trunk engine Lignum vitae stern bearing (with Francis Pettit Smith) |
John Penn FRS (1805–1878) was an English marine engineer whose firm was pre-eminent in the middle of the 19th Century due to his innovations in engine and propeller systems, which led his firm to be the major supplier to the Royal Navy as it made the transition from sail to steam power. He was also president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers on two occasions.
John Penn was born in 1805 in Greenwich, the son of engineer and millwright John Penn (born in Taunton, Somerset, 1770; died 6 June 1843). The senior John Penn had in 1799 started an agricultural engineering business on the site at the junction of Blackheath and Lewisham Roads (close to modern-day Deptford Bridge). It grew in two decades to be one of the major engineering works in the London area. The focus of the firm was mainly in agriculture and more specifically mills for corn and flour. Although John Penn senior lived in Lewisham he stood as a reformist candidate for Greenwich in the December 1832 parliamentary election.
Penn entered his father's works at an early age and became a partner in the early 1830s whereupon the firm became John Penn and Sons. When his father died in 1843 the sole possession of the works passed to Penn, although for some years previously he had had sole management of the works. Penn was an inventor of engines and one of the earliest engines he produced was the grasshopper beam engine, a six horsepower version being the first steam engine to power the machinery at the works.
Penn shifted the focus of the works to marine engines. His 40 horsepower beam engines were fitted in the paddle steamers 'Ipswich' and 'Suffolk', and it is likely these were the first marine engines to be designed and built by Penn. He then focussed on improving the oscillating engine from the version patented by Aaron Manby in 1821. In 1844 he replaced the engines of the Admiralty yacht, HMS Black Eagle with oscillating engines of double the power, without increasing either the weight or space occupied, an achievement which broke the naval supply dominance of Boulton & Watt and Maudslay, Son & Field. His enhanced reputation due to this notable advancement was further augmented by Penn's introduction of trunk engines for driving screw propellers in vessels of war. HMS Encounter (1846) and HMS Arrogant (1848) were the first ships to be fitted with such engines and such was their efficacy that by the time of Penn's death in 1878, the engines had been fitted in 230 ships. Initially, ships were adapted to incorporate these engines, but in 1851, the Navy ordered its first ship specifically designed as a steam-screw auxiliary, HMS Agamemnon. In 1852 the new owners of SS Great Britain decided to recognise the rapid advances in propeller engine technology, and replace the original engines with a pair of smaller, lighter and more modern oscillating engines, designed and built by John Penn and Son.
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