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The focus of this series is engineering, broadly construed. It covers technological innovation from a range of periods and cultures, but centres on the technological achievements of the industrial era in the West, particularly in the nineteenth century, as understood by their contemporaries. Infrastructure is one major focus, covering the building of railways and canals, bridges and tunnels, land drainage, the laying of submarine cables, and the construction of docks and lighthouses. Other key topics include developments in industrial and manufacturing fields such as mining technology, the production of iron and steel, the use of steam power and chemical processes such as photography and textile dyes.

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151 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Technology

Page 6 of 8

Catalogue of the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus at the South Kensington Museum 1876
  • Volume 1
  • Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    29 December 2011
    First published in:
    1877
  • In 1876 the South Kensington Museum held a major international exhibition of scientific instruments and equipment, both historical and contemporary. Many of the items were retained and eventually formed the basis of important collections now held at the Science Museum, London. This is the 1877 third edition of the exhibition catalogue, which was expanded to include a 'large number of objects' received since the publication of the second edition, and which also included corrections in order to 'afford a complete record of the collection for future reference'. In two volumes and twenty sections comprising over 4,500 entries, the catalogue lists a huge variety of items, ranging from slide rules and telescopes to lighthouse parts and medical equipment. It gives detailed explanations of how they were used, and notes of their ownership and provenance, while the opening pages comprehensively record the contributing individuals and institutions in Britain, Europe and America.

Catalogue of the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus at the South Kensington Museum 1876
  • Volume 2
  • Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    29 December 2011
    First published in:
    1877
  • In 1876 the South Kensington Museum held a major international exhibition of scientific instruments and equipment, both historical and contemporary. Many of the items were retained and eventually formed the basis of important collections now held at the Science Museum, London. This is the 1877 third edition of the exhibition catalogue, which was expanded to include a 'large number of objects' received since the publication of the second edition, and which also included corrections in order to 'afford a complete record of the collection for future reference'. In two volumes and twenty sections comprising over 4,500 entries, the catalogue lists a huge variety of items, ranging from slide rules and telescopes to lighthouse parts and medical equipment. It gives detailed explanations of how they were used, and notes of their ownership and provenance, while the opening pages comprehensively record the contributing individuals and institutions in Britain, Europe and America.

Passages from the Life of a Philosopher
  • Charles Babbage
  • Published online:
    05 October 2012
    Print publication:
    12 October 2011
    First published in:
    1864
  • The mathematician and engineer Charles Babbage (1791–1871) is best remembered for his 'calculating machines', which are considered the forerunner of modern computers. Over the course of his life he wrote a number of books based on his scientific investigations, but in this volume, published in 1864, Babbage writes in a more personal vein. He points out at the beginning of the work that it 'does not aspire to the name of autobiography', though the chapters sketch out the contours of his life, beginning with his family, his childhood and formative years studying at Cambridge, and moving through various episodes in his scientific career. However, the work also diverges into his observations on other topics, as indicated by chapter titles such as 'Street Nuisances' and 'Wit'. Babbage's colourful recollections give an intimate portrait of the life of one of Britain's most influential inventors.

A Short History of the Steam Engine
  • Henry Winram Dickinson
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    17 February 2011
    First published in:
    1939
  • A Short History of the Steam Engine, first published in 1939, remains one of the most readable and clear explanations of the topic for the non-specialist. H. W. Dickinson limits himself to stationary engines and boilers, and only touches on the beginnings of locomotive and marine engines. He puts the stages of development in their context, showing how economic and social factors were involved in the evolution of the steam engine. The illustrations are plentiful and the text, while technical, never becomes impenetrable. The successive improvements to the simple engines of the seventeenth century, as new materials or purposes arose, are developed chapter by chapter to the twentieth century. Each engineer was building on the work of his predecessors, rather than there being any single inventor of genius. Dickinson also wrote biographies of key figures of the Industrial Revolution, which are being reissued in this series.

James Watt
  • Craftsman and Engineer
  • H. W. Dickinson
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1936
  • This 1936 book, published to celebrate the bicentenary of Watt's birth, examines his career as a craftsman and engineer, rather than offering a purely narrative biography. Watt began his life as a maker of mathematical instruments, and throughout his working life enjoyed the challenge of such skilled work. Watt's inventions did much to power the Industrial Revolution and its economic and social consequences. However, he owed much of his commercial success to his long partnership with Matthew Boulton, a far more astute businessman, and a considerable portion of the book is devoted to the achievements of this period. An engineer by profession, H. W. Dickinson researched widely, and published highly readable works on the steam engine, Watt, Boulton and Trevithick. He succeeds in producing a work which appeals to the scientist, the historian and the general reader, without feeling obliged to over-simplify the technical details.

Matthew Boulton
  • H. W. Dickinson
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1937
  • This 1939 work gives deserved recognition to the achievements of the engineer and businessman Matthew Boulton. Boulton's importance has generally been overshadowed by that of his partner James Watt, but he was a significant figure in his own right, particularly in relation to the Soho Foundry and his production of coins and medals. He belonged to a network of highly significant men of the period, including Josiah Wedgwood, Erasmus Darwin and Benjamin Franklin, and was a founding member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham. An engineer by profession, H. W. Dickinson researched widely, and published highly readable works on the history of the steam engine, Watt, and Trevithick, also reissued in this series. He succeeds in producing a work which appeals to the scientist, the historian and the general reader, without feeling obliged to over-simplify the technical details.

Memoirs and Letters of Sidney Gilchrist Thomas, Inventor
  • Sidney Gilchrist Thomas
  • Edited by R. W. Burnie
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    19 May 2011
    First published in:
    1891
  • First published in 1891, this memoir describes the life of the metallurgist and inventor Sidney Gilchrist Thomas (1850–1885), best-known for discovering the method of eliminating phosphorus from pig iron which revolutionised the commercial production of steel. Professing a desire to give a 'true' account of a life in contrast to the somewhat hagiographic approach of some contemporary writers, Thomas' biographer, R. W. Burnie, sets out to construct 'a brief history of a very striking and individual character'. The details of Thomas' short life are narrated in 22 chapters, beginning with his early education, his work as a schoolmaster and police clerk whilst studying law and chemistry at night, his career, and his work-related travels, which took him everywhere from central Europe to New Zealand. The memoir also includes a postscript which reveals that Thomas left his considerable fortune to workers in steel production.

Electrical Papers
  • Volume 2
  • Oliver Heaviside
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    16 June 2011
    First published in:
    1892
  • A self-taught authority on electromagnetic theory, telegraphy and telephony, Oliver Heaviside (1850–1925) dedicated his adult life to the improvement of electrical technologies. Inspired by James Clerk Maxwell's field theory, he spent the 1880s presenting his ideas as a regular contributor to the weekly journal, The Electrician. The publication of Electrical Papers, a year after his election to the Royal Society in 1891, established his fame beyond the scientific community. An eccentric figure with an impish sense of humour, Heaviside's accessible style enabled him to educate an entire generation in the importance and application of electricity. In so doing he helped to establish that very British phenomenon, the garden-shed inventor. Combining articles on the electromagnetic wave surface and electromagnetic induction with notes on nomenclature and the self-induction of wires, Volume 2 serves as an excellent source for both electrical engineers and historians of science.

Life of Richard Trevithick
  • With an Account of his Inventions
  • Volume 1
  • Francis Trevithick
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    20 January 2011
    First published in:
    1872
  • Cornishman Richard Trevithick (1771–1833) was one of the pioneering engineers of the Industrial Revolution. Best remembered today for his early railway locomotive, Trevithick worked on a wide range of projects, including mines, mills, dredging machinery, a tunnel under the Thames, military engineering, and prospecting in South America. However, his difficult personality and financial failures caused him to be overshadowed by contemporaries such as Robert Stephenson and James Watt. This two-volume study by his son Francis, chief engineer with the London and North-Western Railway, was published in 1872, and helped to revive his neglected reputation. It places its subject in his historical and technical context, building on the work of his father, Richard Trevithick Senior, and the Cornish mining industry. It contains much technical detail, but is still of interest to the general reader. Volume 1 covers his predecessors, and early life, before examining his work thematically.

The Electromagnet and Electromagnetic Mechanism
  • Silvanus Phillips Thompson
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    30 June 2011
    First published in:
    1891
  • 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 importance and function of the electromagnet. Starting with the history and development of electromagnets, the work looks at the principle of the magnetic current, and gives detailed descriptions – including numerous technical illustrations – of electromagnetic motors and machine tools, providing an engaging guide to the latest forms of scientific knowledge at the end of the nineteenth century.

Life of Richard Trevithick
  • With an Account of his Inventions
  • Volume 2
  • Francis Trevithick
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    20 January 2011
    First published in:
    1872
  • Cornishman Richard Trevithick (1771–1833) was one of the pioneering engineers of the Industrial Revolution. Best remembered today for his early railway locomotive, Trevithick worked on a wide range of projects, including mines, mills, dredging machinery, a tunnel under the Thames, military engineering, and prospecting in South America. However, his difficult personality and financial failures caused him to be overshadowed by contemporaries such as Robert Stephenson and James Watt. This two-volume study by his son Francis, chief engineer with the London and North-Western Railway, was published in 1872, and helped to revive his neglected reputation. It places its subject in his historical and technical context, building on the work of his Father, Richard Trevithick Senior, and the Cornish mining industry. It contains much technical detail, but is still of interest to the general reader. Volume 2 continues examining his work thematically, and includes his work in Peruvian mines.

Dynamo-Electricity Machinery
  • A Manual for Students of Electrotechnics
  • Silvanus Phillips Thompson
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    19 May 2011
    First published in:
    1888
  • Silvanus P. Thompson (1851–1916) was a physicist and electrical engineer. A professor by the age of 27, he taught at University College, Bristol, and the City and Guilds Finsbury Technical College in London, and was a leading expert on the newly emerging subject of electrical lighting. This work, first published in 1884, is considered a classic in the field. In this third edition (1888), Thompson explains that he has updated much of the work, and made an important amendment in Chapter XIV about the introduction of magnetic circuits into theoretical arguments about energy production. The book begins with an explanation of how dynamos turn mechanical power into electricity, and moves on to discuss some historical background and theoretical aspects before giving detailed descriptions and illustrations of the many types of dynamo. It is an important source document for the field of electrical engineering at the end of the nineteenth century.

Principles of the Manufacture of Iron and Steel
  • With Some Notes on the Economic Conditions of their Production
  • Isaac Lowthian Bell
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    23 December 2010
    First published in:
    1884
  • Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell (1816–1904) was a leading metallurgist and industrialist who served as president of both the Iron and Steel Institute and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He combined business skills with scientific expertise and was recognised as a world authority on blast furnace technology. His major works reveal both technical know-how and commercial awareness, and show that he was conscious of the threat to Britain's early lead in industrialisation from foreign competition. He supported free trade, and believed that British industry needed a firm scientific base in order to maintain its global position. Although his posthumous reputation has been eclipsed by that of his contemporaries, he was highly respected in his lifetime, receiving a baronetcy in 1885 for his contribution to industry. This book was first published in 1884 and deals with the economics of iron production in Britain and abroad as well as the processes themselves.

Electromagnetic Theory
  • Volume 3
  • Oliver Heaviside
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    02 June 2011
    First published in:
    1912
  • Oliver Heaviside FRS (1850–1925) was a scientific maverick and a gifted self-taught electrical engineer, physicist and mathematician. He patented the co-axial cable, pioneered the use of complex numbers for circuit analysis, and reworked Maxwell's field equations into the more concise format we use today. In 1891 the Royal Society made him a Fellow for his mathematical descriptions of electromagnetic phenomena. Along with Arthur Kennelly, he also predicted the existence of the ionosphere. Often dismissed by his contemporaries, his work achieved wider recognition when he received the inaugural Faraday Medal in 1922. Published in 1912, this is the last of three volumes summarising Heaviside's enormous contribution to electromagnetic theory. It includes a review of his work on waves from moving sources, and an appendix on vector analysis that compares its merits to quaternions.

The Design and Construction of Harbours
  • A Treatise on Maritime Engineering
  • Thomas Stevenson
  • Published online:
    05 February 2012
    Print publication:
    30 June 2011
    First published in:
    1874
  • 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 the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and considerably expanded in a second edition of 1874 which is reprinted here. Stevenson studied how the wind, waves and tides would act on the coastline and man-made structures, and the design of each harbour needed to take a wide range of factors into consideration.

Journal of a Voyage to Australia, and Round the World for Magnetical Research
  • William Scoresby
  • Edited by Archibald Smith
  • Published online:
    05 January 2012
    Print publication:
    19 May 2011
    First published in:
    1859
  • This work by William Scoresby (1789–1857) was edited by Archibald Smith (1813–1872) and published posthumously in 1859. It is the account of Scoresby's final voyage and last scientific study, which took place between February and August 1856. Scoresby made his Australian voyage on board the Royal Charter, owned by the Liverpool and Australia Steam Navigation Company. He wished to observe the changes that take place in the magnetic state of iron ships travelling on a north-to-south magnetic latitude, and to assess how magnetic changes affect the working of a compass so that he could discover the most reliable location for it on board ship. The first part of the work is an exposition of magnetic principles, followed by the results and conclusions of Scoresby's experiments. The second part contains a travel account of the actual voyage. It is a key work of nineteenth-century navigation science.

A Treatise on the Practical Drainage of Land
  • Henry Hutchinson
  • Published online:
    05 November 2011
    Print publication:
    19 May 2011
    First published in:
    1844
  • Written in 1844 by Henry Hutchinson, this book, as the title suggests, focuses on the practical aspects of land drainage, advising readers to first consider the plan, cost, and mode of draining carefully. The treatise begins with a general address to the public which offers advice to landlords for dealing with tenant farmers, information on valuing land for fair rent, and ways of improving substandard soil. Lamenting that 'a great deal has been written by parties who really know nothing of the practical working of a system', Hutchinson, a land agent, valuer and 'professor of draining', writes from a zealous desire to educate the public correctly on the art of land drainage. Hutchinson's approach is scrupulously thorough, with separate chapters on shallow draining, deep draining, bastard draining, boring, and impediments to draining, as well as the history of land drainage in England.

Our Iron-Clad Ships
  • Their Qualities, Performances, and Cost
  • Edward James Reed
  • Published online:
    05 November 2011
    Print publication:
    19 May 2011
    First published in:
    1869
  • Sir Edward James Reed (1830–1906) was an innovative naval architect who, after attending the Central School of Mathematics and Naval Architecture in Portsmouth, was appointed chief constructor of the Navy in 1863. This was a crucial time for the navy, as traditional wooden sailing ships began to be armoured or rebuilt in iron in response to more powerful weaponry. Reed pioneered the methodical use of scientific calculations to determine a ship's weight, strength and stability, and was responsible for a number of revolutionary designs. He later founded his own consultancy and designed ships for other countries including Germany, Chile and Brazil. This illustrated handbook, first published in 1869, contains a comprehensive overview of the various classes of iron-clad ships of the time – the new features they incorporated, their capabilities, performance, and their cost. It also deals with converting existing wooden battleships into iron-clads.

Shipbuilding in Iron and Steel
  • A Practical Treatise
  • Edward James Reed
  • Published online:
    05 November 2011
    Print publication:
    17 February 2011
    First published in:
    1869
  • Sir Edward James Reed (1830–1906) was an innovative naval architect who, after attending the Central School of Mathematics and Naval Architecture in Portsmouth, was appointed chief constructor of the Navy in 1863. This was a crucial time for the navy, as traditional wooden sailing ships began to be armoured or rebuilt in iron in response to more powerful weaponry. Reed pioneered the methodical use of scientific calculations to determine a ship's weight, strength and stability, and was responsible for a number of revolutionary designs. He later founded his own consultancy and designed ships for other countries including Germany, Chile and Brazil. This textbook, first published in 1869, contains a comprehensive overview of the design and construction of the various classes of iron ships of the time, and the new features they incorporated. It also includes descriptions of procedures in Royal Dockyards and various civilian shipyards.

Richard Trevithick
  • The Engineer and the Man
  • H. W. Dickinson, Arthur Titley
  • Published online:
    05 November 2011
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1934
  • To mark the centenary of Richard Trevithick (1771–1833) H. W Dickinson and Arthur Titley published a fascinating book on the engineer and his work. They succeed in producing a work which appeals to the scientist, the historian and the general reader, without feeling obliged to over-simplify the technical details. Today best remembered for his early railway locomotive, Trevithick worked on a wide range of projects, including mines, mills, dredging machinery, a tunnel under the Thames, military engineering, and prospecting in South America. The book and other centenary activities helped to restore Trevithick's rather neglected reputation as a pioneering engineer of the Industrial Revolution, although his difficult personality and financial failures caused him to be overshadowed by his contemporaries such as Robert Stephenson and James Watt. The book places his achievements in their historical context, and contains many illustrations of his inventions.

Page 6 of 8