The Civil Engineering of Canals and Railways before 1850

by Michael M. Chrimes (Editor)

Overview

Between 1750 and 1850 the British landscape was transformed by a transport revolution which involved engineering works on a scale not seen in Europe since Roman times. While the economic background of the canal and railway ages are relatively well known and many histories have been written about the locomotives which ran on the railways, relatively little has been published on how the engineering works themselves were made possible. This book brings together a series of papers which seek to answer the questions of how canals and railways were built, how the engineers responsible organised the works, how they were designed and what the role of the contractors was in the process.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781351892636
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/08/2017
Series:	Studies in the History of Civil Engineering
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Michael M. Chrimes

Table of Contents

Contents: Introduction; Part One: Canals: Canals and river navigations before 1750, A.W. Skempton; The Waltham pound lock, K.R. Fairclough; Rivers and canals, C. Hadfield; The construction of the Huddersfield narrow canal, 1794-1811: with particular reference to Standedge tunnel, R.B. Schofield; John Pinkerton and the Birmingham canals, S.R. Broadbridge; Managerial organisation on the Caledonian canal, 1803-1822, A. Penfold; Along the water: the genius and the theory. D'Alembert, Condorcet and Bossut and the Picardy canal controversy, P. Redondi; Poverty, distress and disease: labour and the construction of the Rideau canal,1826-1832, W.N.T. Wylie; Hugh McIntosh (1768-1840) national contractor, M.M. Chrimes; Part Two: Railways: Some railway facts and fallacies, C.E. Lee; The Influence of landowners on route selection, F.A. Sharman; England's first rails: a reconsideration, R.S. Smith; The Butterley Company and railway construction, 1790-1830, P.J. Riden; Cast iron edge-rails at Walker colliery, 1798, A.W. Skempton and A. Andrews; Embankments and cuttings on the early railways, A.W. Skempton; The railway navvy - a reassessment, D. Brooke; Railway contractors and the finance of railway development in Britain, H. Pollins; The origin of American railroad technology, 1825-1840, D.H. Stapleton; Tracks and timber, J.H. White; Index.

Introduction

This volume is concerned with the civil engineering of canals and railways, more specifically the construction of transport systems which revolutionized communications in Europe and North America c.1600—1850, a revolution largely achieved by the use of manual labour. The significance of these civil engineering works can scarcely be understated. Robert Stephenson, Writing in January 1865, described them graphically thus,

At the end of 1854. the aggregate length of railways opened in Great Britain and Ireland—measured about 8,054 miles—about the diameter of the globe…It will naturally be asked what amount of capital has been required for the construction of these vast works…£286,000,000 has absolutely been raised…It is more than four times the amount of the annual value of all the real property of Great Britain…If you consider the extent of the earthworks… they will measure 550,000,000 cubic yards… Imagine a mountain half a mile in diameter at its base, and soaring into the clouds one mile and a half in height — that would be the size of the mountain of earth which these earthworks would form.

By 1850 the British achievement was by no means unique.

Editorial Reviews

A collection of key contributions to the field of history of civil engineering, originally published from the 1950s to the 1990s. Papers focus on the construction of transport systems which revolutionized communications in America and Europe, especially Britain, from 1600 to 1850. Work encompasses the design and execution of canals, artificial waterways, and railways, and the professional work of civil engineers, including preparatory work, design and construction of earthworks, contract organization and management, navigation devices, and the development of rail technology. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

'The aim of Ashgate's twelve volume series is to bring together collections of important papers on particular topics from scholarly journals, conference proceedings and other hard-to-access sources. This is a wholly laudable objective. Some of the papers in the volume under review [The Civil Engineering of Canals and Railways before 1850] cannot be found even in abundantly-resourced academic libraries. The series opens up, directly or indirectly, debates over the nature of historical evidence which arise from the profoundly different approaches to the past of historians of technology, whose works are principally represented in these volumes, industrial archaeologists and social and economic historians.' Industrial Archaeology Review, Vol. XXI, No. 1 'This is a collection whose sum is greater than its parts. It goes beyond the nuts and bolts of canal and railway construction to connect their technology with business and labor history. Perhaps most significantly, by juxtaposing material on canals and railways in a single volume, it pushes home the central truth that the technology of railway engineering developed directly out of the experience of the canal builders.' Technology and Culture, Vol. 41 'Each chapter is by an expert in his own field and the writing is of an accurate and meticulous nature, as one would expect from the eminent historians who have contributed....Altogether this is a magnificent book, well researched and documented...' The Structural Engineer, vol. 78, no. 19,

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