Engineering design in the time of Thomas Telford

Thomas Telford, the Institution of Civil Engineers' first president, was born 250 years ago this year. His career spanned a half-century that saw some of the most remarkable changes in the way European engineers approached the design of buildings, bridges and machines. This paper reviews the development of engineering design, science and education during Telford's era, revealing that Britain was then far behind France, Germany and other European countries. Through the work of Telford and others, Britain's engineers embraced the practical experimental approach that scientists throughout Europe had developed in the eighteenth century to generate new engineering knowledge and understanding. By the early nineteenth century Britain was emerging as a leading engineering nation.