{"product_id":"lives-of-the-engineers-volume-3-9780715342817","title":"Lives of the Engineers Volume 3","description":"\u003cp\u003eThese three volumes contain much of the basic history of the development of civil engineering in this country. When they were first printed in 1862, Samuel Smiles was able to gather most of his information from living sources, which brings an immediacy to his writing that is lost in later derivative books. Smiles set himself a monumental task: to describe within the framework of biography the gradual accumulation of technique and method that made the Industrial Revolution possible, and the men who contributed to it. Blind Jack of Knaresborough, Rennie, Telford, Smeaton, Brindley and the Duke of Bridgewater, the two Stephensons, and a host of others whose names are house-hold words owe some of their fame to Smiles's chronicle. Indeed, without it, we should probably only know them from their account books and the diminishing remains of their works on the ground. Grave doubts were expressed at the time of writing on the practicality of Smiles's project, but the result amply justified the author's labours. With its combination of hearsay and history, LIVES OF THE ENGINEERS is still a most valuable contribution to our knowledge of the Industrial Revolution and the men who made is possible. Each volume of this reprint contains a new introduction by L. T. C. Rolt, who has also written an introduction to the reprint of complementary INDUSTRIAL BIOGRAPHY.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHardback with dust jacket, 14x22cm, 508 pages, black \u0026amp; white photographs\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCondition: Good\/Very Good\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"David \u0026 Charles","offers":[{"title":"Secondhand (285)","offer_id":58117478547839,"sku":"9780715342817","price":15.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1910\/7111\/files\/9780715342817.jpg?v=1786203132","url":"https:\/\/rail-books.co.uk\/products\/lives-of-the-engineers-volume-3-9780715342817","provider":"Rail Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}