Lives of the Engineers
Lives of the Engineers
NZD$91.95
inc GSTA political and social reformer, Samuel Smiles (1812–1904) was also a noted biographer in the Victorian period. Following the engineer's death in 1848, Smiles published his highly successful Life of George Stephenson in 1857 (also reissued in this series). His interest in engineering evolved and he began working on biographies of Britain's most notable engineers from the Roman to the Victorian era. Originally published in three volumes between 1861 and 1862, this work contains detailed and lively accounts of the educations, careers and pioneering work of seven of Britain's most accomplished engineers. These volumes stand as a remarkable undertaking, advancing not only the genre, but also the author's belief in what hard work could achieve. Volume 2 includes accounts of the lives of three important engineers of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries: John Smeaton (1724–92), John Rennie (1761–1821) and Thomas Telford (1757–1834).
Product details
August 2012Paperback
9781108052931
526 pages
216 × 140 × 30 mm
0.66kg
121 b/w illus.
Available
Table of Contents
- Part VI. Life of John Smeaton:
- 1. John Smeaton's birth and education
- 2. Placed in an attorney's office
- 3. Dangers of the Eddystone Rock
- 4. Lord Macclesfield's recommendation of Smeaton
- 5. Smeaton appointed receiver for the Derwentwater estates
- 6. Smeaton's home at Austhorpe
- Part VII. Life of John Rennie:
- 1. Rennie born at Phantasssie, East Lothian
- 2. Fletcher of Saltoun introduces barley-mills
- 3. The Rennie family
- 4. London in 1785
- 5. Recommends the employment of the steam-engine in fen drainage
- 6. Dr Robison visits Rennie in London
- 7. Growth of the trade of London
- 8. Dangers of the Bell Rock
- 9. Rennie extensively employed by the government
- 10. Plymouth Sound
- 11. Rennie's extensive and various employments
- Part VIII. Life of Thomas Telford:
- 1. Eskdale
- 2. Telford apprenticed to a stonemason
- 3. Telford a working man in London
- 4. Superintends repairs of Shrewsbury Castle
- 5. Advantages of mechanical training to an engineer
- 6. Course of the Ellesmere Canal
- 7. Use of iron in bridge-building
- 8. Progress of Scotch agriculture
- 9. Highland harbours
- 10. Canal projected through the Great Glen of the Highlands
- 11. Increase of road-traffic
- 12. Bridges projected over the Menai Straits
- 13. Résumé of English engineering
- 14. Telford's residence in London
- Index.
