Cambridge Library Collection: The Technology Collection
This is more of a review of a successful project by Cambridge University Press (CUP) than an individual review of a book. Digitally reprinted copies of out-of-print books can be disappointing, so it has been a pleasure to see the standard set by the Cambridge Library Collection and the republication of a number of out-of-print titles with some 175 titles under the Technology series. Sadly, the project started by CUP has now come to an end and with it the reissuing out-of-copyright scholarly books. However, the list of titles is impressive and of great interest to engineering historians and I would like to flag up two titles issued towards the end of the project in the Cambridge Library Collection: The Technology collection; David Stevenson, Life of Robert Stevenson: Civil Engineer, ISBN: 9781108070584, and Charles Stewart Drewry, A Memoir on Suspension Bridges, ISBN: 9781108070539.
The first title; a biography of Robert Stevenson (1772–1850), originally appeared in 1878 and was written by his son David (1815–1886), also a civil engineer and uncle to the author Robert Louis Stevenson. David used his father’s professional reports, diaries and letters to scientific journals and societies as the basis for the engineer’s life and works. Robert Stevenson is most famous for his lighthouse work for the Northern Lighthouse Board, making the Scottish coastline a safer place for ships to navigate but, in the case of Bell Rock, a cause of controversy since its completion. This concerned the role of the consulting engineer John Rennie as all credit for Bell Rock lighthouse was claimed by the Stevenson family. (See Roland Paxton, Dynasty of Engineers: The Stevensons and the Bell Rock, 2011).
Drewry’s book was first published in 1832 and was the first English book on suspension bridges in Britain and Europe. Charles Stewart Drewry (1805–1881) worked for the prolific suspension bridge builder; Captain Sir Samuel Brown, on his (unsuccessful) design for the Clifton Suspension Bridge and used information from engineering contemporaries on the construction of suspension bridges. This is a key reference for the early history of these structures and discusses various methods and materials used, such as rope, chain and wire, along with experiments on the strength of iron bars and wires. Foreign structures and accounts of British examples constructed up to 1832 are illustrated by lithographic plates and woodcut illustrations, some of which, folded in the original and too large for the new edition, can be downloaded from the CUP website for personal use.
Both titles can be made available as eBooks. Based on the above examples, the standard for digitally reprinted books has clearly been set by the Cambridge Library Collection. See http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/engineering/series/cambridge-library-collection-technology?options%5B%5D=Historic%2Btitles.
Quarrying Industry in Wales – A History
This is a book that gives a new perspective on stone, not just as a building material in its own right, but its wider applications as limestone and dolomite flux in iron and steelmaking, and as aggregates for road construction and in cement manufacture. The importance of stone for construction and industry are well detailed as well as the myriad of uses found for stone in everyday life. This book is also on a subject hitherto little recorded in Wales compared with coal and slate. The first two have been well recorded elsewhere, and this work is a revelation in its history of the industry in Wales, which is still a major source of stone. As part of a local history society that made a small contribution to this book on the quarries of Wenvoe, it was a pleasure to see the finished result; Quarrying Industry in Wales – A History written by Ian A. Thomas. The quality of production can be appreciated straight away – a coffee table book on the subject that has clearly been a labour of love for the author, who has brought the history of the quarrying industry to life. The book is well rounded with examples of the development in twentieth-century transportation for the industry. It is fully illustrated with historical and modern photographs, line drawings and artwork, all of which make the technical subjects easy to understand in a bilingual – Welsh and English – format.
