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

Spanning from the Roman to Victorian period, this three-volume work (1861–2) provides detailed biographies of Britain's most notable engineers.

Samuel Smiles (Author)

9781108052931, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 August 2012

526 pages, 121 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 3 cm, 0.66 kg

A 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).

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.

Subject Areas: History of engineering & technology [TBX]