Thomas Stevenson (1818 1887) was the son of the engineer Robert Stevenson, and father of the writer Robert Louis Stevenson. Like his brothers David and Alan, he became a lighthouse designer, being responsible for over thirty examples around Scotland. Throughout his career he was interested in the theory as well as the practice of his profession, and published over sixty articles on engineering and meteorology. He was an international expert on lighthouses and harbour engineering. This work was first published in 1864 as a development of his article on harbours in the eighth edition (1857) of...

Silvanus P. Thompson (1851 1916) was an engineer and physicist who researched aspects of electricity, magnets and optics. He spent his career teaching, first as a professor in Bristol and later in London, at the City and Guilds Finsbury Technical College, and he was a frequent public speaker on scientific matters. Over the course of his career he became especially interested in technical education, and produced many books that explained complicated scientific concepts with clarity, including his most famous work Calculus Made Easy. In this work, published in 1891, Thompson explains the...

Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802 75) was a shoemaker's son whose fascination with physics led him to become one of the most celebrated scientists and inventors of his time. Apprenticed to his uncle, a musical instrument manufacturer, Wheatstone studied the physics of sound, publishing his first scientific paper in 1823. He was the chief developer of telegraphy, inventing increasingly advanced instruments for transmitting and receiving information. Telegraphy revolutionized communication in the Victorian era, eventually making almost instantaneous global communication possible. This collection of...

Frederick Smeeton Williams (1829 86) was a Congregational minister and pioneering railway historian. His first major transport work, Our Iron Roads (1852), enjoyed significant popularity, reaching its seventh edition by 1888. This, his second such effort, first published in 1876, is a lively history of the incorporation and development of one of Britain's first major railway companies following the earliest large-scale railway amalgamation of the Victorian age. Including 123 illustrations and 7 maps, this book is especially valuable for its contemporary description of the building of the...

In 1889, a year after both he and Heinrich Hertz discovered electromagnetic waves and for the first time demonstrated the truth of Maxwell's great theory of the electromagnetic field, physicist Oliver Lodge (1851 1940) published his deepest reflections on the nature and meaning of electricity, how it originates, and its different manifestations. There had been great scientific advances the work of Faraday and Maxwell, his own experiments and those of Hertz and a revolution in technology. There were also puzzling questions. What is the connection between electricity and the ether that occupies...

By the late nineteenth century, twenty-nine Chinese ports were open for foreign trade. Often run by foreign commissioners and no longer subject to the stringent local laws, these ports levied one of the smallest import taxes in the world, and Chinese commerce therefore exploded. Originally published in 1900, this account by William Barclay Parsons (1859 1932) investigates the ensuing surge of economic and industrial development in the eastern provinces. Including an introduction to China's history and the structure of its civil service, the book analyses the corrupt but ingenious world of...

Sir Charles Tilston Bright (1832 88) was a renowned telegraph engineer, best known for his role in laying the first successful transatlantic cable in 1858, for which he was knighted. Bright later worked on the telegraph networks that would span not only the British Empire but the entire globe. Written by his brother Edward Brailsford Bright (1831 1913) and son Charles (1863 1937), both telegraph engineers who worked alongside him, this two-volume biography, first published in 1898, would do much to cement Bright's reputation as an electrical engineer, providing an insider account of...

Sir Charles Tilston Bright (1832 88) was a renowned telegraph engineer, best known for his role in laying the first successful transatlantic cable in 1858, for which he was knighted. Bright later worked on the telegraph networks that would span not only the British Empire but the entire globe. Written by his brother Edward Brailsford Bright (1831 1913) and son Charles (1863 1937), both telegraph engineers who worked alongside him, this two-volume biography, first published in 1898, would do much to cement Bright's reputation as an electrical engineer, providing an insider account of...

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...

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...