A political and social reformer, Samuel Smiles (1812–1904) was also a noted biographer in the Victorian period, paying particular attention to engineers. His first biography was of George Stephenson (1781–1848), whom he met at the opening of the North Midland Railway in 1840. After Stephenson died, Smiles wrote a memoir of him for Eliza Cook's Journal. With the permission of Stephenson's son, Robert, this evolved into the first full biography of the great engineer, published in 1857 and reissued here in its revised third edition. This detailed and lively account of Stephenson's life, which proved very popular, charts his education and youth, his crucial contribution to the development of Britain's railways, and his relationships with many notables of the Victorian world. It remains of interest to the general reader as well as historians of engineering, transport and business.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859) was one of the outstanding civil engineers of the nineteenth century. He began his professional life while still in his teens, as his father's chief assistant engineer on the Thames Tunnel, and remains famous for projects including the Clifton Suspension Bridge and the SS Great Eastern. This study by his elder son, who was assisted in technical details by his engineer brother and by colleagues of their father, was published in 1870. The opening and closing chapters discuss Brunel's childhood and his private life, but the main body of the book presents Brunel's work thematically, with sections on bridges, railways, steamships, and dock and pier works. In all these areas Brunel was an innovator, pioneering the use of new materials and revolutionising early Victorian transport networks. The book also includes reports to the directors of the Great Western Railway and Great Western Steamship Company.
Published 1839–52, this two-volume work records the contribution of William Scoresby (1789–1857) to magnetic science, a field he considered one of 'grandeur'. The result of laborious investigations in
