Lives of the Engineers
With an Account of their Principal Works; Comprising Also a History of Inland Communication in Britain
3 Volume Set

Table of Contents

Volume 1: Preface
Part I. Early Works of Embanking and Draining:
1. Ancient British earthworks
2. Water the chief element
3. Cornelius Vermuyden
4. Vermuyden undertakes to drain the Great Level of the Fens
5. Breaches in the Thames Embankment
Part II. Life of Sir Hugh Myddleton:
1. Water supply of London in early times
2. The Myddleton family in north Wales
3. Myddleton elected representative of Denbigh in Parliament
4. Method of constructing the New River works
5. Brading Haven
6. Sir High enters upon his mining enterprise in Wales
Part III. Early Roads and Modes of Travelling:
1. Uses and influence of roads
2. Ordinary modes of conveyance in early times
3. Influence of roads on manners and customs
4. Improvements in travelling
5. Memoir of John Metcalf
Part IV. Bridges, Harbours and Roads:
1. Old fords
2. Thames ferry between London and Southwark
3. Memoir of William Edwards
4. Insignificant character of the English navy in early times
5. Inland navigation
Part V. Life of James Brindley:
1. Brindley's native district
2. Begins business as a wheelwright
3. Lancashire navigations
4. The Duke's first canal acts
5. Brindley surveys an extension of the Duke's canal
6. Brindley constructs the Duke's canal to Runcorn
7. The Duke of Bridgewater's pecuniary difficulties
8. The Grand Trunk Canal
9. Brindley's opinion as to the use of rivers
10. Brindley's domestic life
Index. Volume 2: 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. Volume 3: Preface
1. The colliery districts of the north
2. Wylam colliery and village
3. Jolly's Close, Newburn
4. Sobriety and studiousness
5. Self-improvement
6. Various expedients for facilitating coal-haulage
7. Frequency of colliery explosions
8. The Killingworth mine-machinery
9. The Bishop Auckland coal-field
10. Insufficiency of the communications between Liverpool and Manchester
11. The Liverpool and Manchester bill before Parliament
12. George Stephenson appointed engineer
13. Robert Stephenson mining engineer in Colombia
14. The railway finished
15. The London and Birmingham railway projected
16. Projection of new lines
17. George Stephenson's views on railways and coal-traffic
18. Robert Stephenson's career
19. George Stephenson surveys a line from Chester to Holyhead
20. George Stephenson's life at Tapton
21. Characteristics of the Stephensons
Appendix
Index.