Lives of the Engineers

by Samuel Smiles

The results of the working of railways have been in many respects different from those anticipated by their projectors.  One of the most unexpected has been the growth of an immense passenger-traffic.  The Stockton and Darlington line was projected as a coal line only, and the Liverpool and Manchester as a merchandise line.  Passengers were not taken into account as a source of revenue, for at the time of their projection, it was not believed that people would trust themselves to be drawn upon a railway by an “explosive machine,” as the locomotive was described to be.  Indeed, a writer of eminence declared that he would as soon think of being fired off on a ricochet rocket, as travel on a railway at twice the speed of the old stagecoaches.

330 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2009

About the author

Samuel Smiles (23 December 1812 – 16 April 1904), was a Scottish author and government reformer, who campaigned on a Chartist platform. But he concluded that more progress would come from new attitudes than from new laws. His masterpiece, Self-Help (1859), promoted thrift and claimed that poverty was caused largely by irresponsible habits, while also attacking materialism and laissez-faire government. It has been called "the bible of mid-Victorian liberalism", and it raised Smiles to celebrity status almost overnight.

Reviews

[Jc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly engrossing! Not action packed but awesome for understanding what was going on during the birth of the industrial revolution.