Lives of the Engineers

First published in the 1860s, this series of biographies recounts the careers of the men who built Britain's canals, harbours, bridges, roads, and railways. Samuel Smiles typically treats figures such as James Brindley, John Smeaton, John Rennie, Thomas Telford, James Watt, and the Stephensons, following each from apprenticeship through the works that made his name. The emphasis is on perseverance, practical experiment, and public usefulness rather than private scandal. Projects - aqueducts, steam engines, the Menai crossing, locomotive design - are described as problems solved. The book is collective industrial biography, a set of exemplary lives, not a technical manual.

Bound in brown cloth cover blocked in black nd gilt with an image. Black slipcase.