James Renwick (physicist)

James Renwick (30 May 1790 – 12 January 1863), was an English-American scientist and engineer.

Renwick was born in Liverpool, England, on 30 May 1790. He was the son of Jane Jeffrey Renwick (1773–1850) and William Renwick (1769–1808). His paternal grandfather was James Renwick (1743–1803).

He graduated from Columbia College in 1807.

In 1820, Columbia appointed Renwick professor of natural philosophy, a position he held until 1854. In 1838, the U.S. government appointed him one of the commissioners to explore the line of the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick, which was settled in 1842 by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty.

In addition to his collegiate duties he wrote biographies of Robert Fulton, David Rittenhouse, and Count Rumford for Sparks's American Biography; a memoir of DeWitt Clinton (1834); and Treatise on the Steam-engine (1830). His textbooks, Outlines of Natural Philosophy (1822), Elements of Mechanics (1832), and First Principles of Chemistry (1840) were among the first works of their kind published in the United States. The first and third of these, along with other educational works of his, passed through multiple editions.

In 1828, Renwick was elected to the American Philosophical Society. In 1863, he was elected an Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Renwick was responsible for the idea and initial design of the inclined planes on the Morris Canal. The design of these planes were later copied for the Elbląg Canal in Poland.

Renwick married in 1816 Margaret Anne Brevoort (1791–1868), from a wealthy and socially prominent New York family. Together, they were the parents of: