The Stockton and Darlington Railway, the first public railway to be empowered to convey goods and passengers by steam traction, has been dismissed by historians as fulfilling little more than a precursory role in the inauguration of the 'Railway Age'. This book establishes its claim to recognition as a significant element in the maturing phase of Britain's industrialisation after 1830, through an examination of its critical role in the contemporary national debate on the merits of steam power and its direct effect on the economic growth of south Durham and north-east Yorkshire, a region which...

This is the first of two projected volumes on the history of operational research (OR) in Britain commissioned by the UK Operational Research Society. Based upon a vast array of published and unpublished sources, the book provides an original account of the discipline's pre-war and wartime origins. This serves as a prelude to a wide-ranging analysis of the diffusion of OR into the public and private sectors after 1945. The chapters on the role of OR in iron and steel and coalmining, and its rapid adoption in the UK corporate sector after 1960, will be of particular interest to practitioners....

This is the first of two projected volumes on the history of operational research (OR) in Britain commissioned by the UK Operational Research Society. Based upon a vast array of published and unpublished sources, the book provides an original account of the discipline's pre-war and wartime origins. This serves as a prelude to a wide-ranging analysis of the diffusion of OR into the public and private sectors after 1945. The chapters on the role of OR in iron and steel and coalmining, and its rapid adoption in the UK corporate sector after 1960, will be of particular interest to practitioners....