Nonfiction · 1867
The Life of Thomas Telford, Civil Engineer
With an Introductory History of Roads and Travelling in Great Britain
The Life of Thomas Telford, Civil Engineer, first published in 1867, has been pulled into the Bibliomancer archive: the complete text, carefully cleaned and typeset, free to read online. Its editorial introduction is still being prepared.
Contents
- Epigraph
- Chapter I — Early Roads and Modes of Travelling: Old Roads
- Chapter II — Early Modes of Conveyance
- Chapter III — Influence of Roads on Society
- Chapter IV — Roads in Scotland last centuary
- Chapter V — Travelling in England last century
- Chapter VI — John Metcalf, road-maker
- Chapter I — Eskdale
- Chapter II — Langholm—Telford a Stonemason
- Chapter III — Arrives in London
- Chapter IV — Becomes Surveyor for the County of Salop
- Chapter V — Telford’s First Employment as an Engineer
- Chapter VI — The Ellesmere Canal
- Chapter VII — Iron and other Bridges
- Chapter VIII — Higland Roads and Bridges
- Chapter IX — Telford’s Scotch Harbours
- Chapter X — Caledonian and other Canals
- Chapter XI — Telford as a road-maker
- Chapter XII — The Menai and Conway Bridges
- Chapter XIII — Docks, Drainage, and Bridges
- Chapter XIV — Southey’s tour in the highlands
- Chapter XV — Mr Telford’s later years—His death and character
- Preface
- Chapter I — Old Roads
- Chapter II — Early Modes of Conveyance
- Chapter III — Manners and Customs Influenced by the State of the Roads
- Chapter IV — Roads and Travelling in Scotland in the Last Century
- Chapter V — Roads and Travelling in England Towards the End of Last Century
- Chapter VI — John Metcalf, Road-Maker
- Chapter I — Eskdale
- Chapter II — Langholm—Telford Learns the Trade of a Stonemason
- Chapter III — Telford a Working Mason in London, and Foreman of Masons at Portsmouth
- Chapter IV — Becomes Surveyor for the County of Salop
- Chapter V — Telford’s First Employment as an Engineer
- Chapter VI — The Ellesmere Canal
- Chapter VII — Iron and and Other Bridges
- Chapter VIII — Highland Roads and Bridges
- Chapter IX — Telford’s Scotch Harbours
- Chapter X — Caledonian and Other Canals
- Chapter XI — Telford as a Road-Maker
- Chapter XII — The Menai and Conway Bridges
- Chapter XIII — Docks, Drainage, and Bridges
- Chapter XIV — Southey’s Tour in the Highlands
- Chapter XV — Mr. Telford’s Later Years—His Death and Character
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About this edition
The text is free of copyright. This edition was prepared from an authoritative digitisation, processed by Bibliomancer under its own review protocol; every automated correction is recorded in its transformation log. Rights assessed for CA, EU, GB, US.
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About the author
1812–1904 · Victorian
Samuel Smiles (1812–1904) was born in Haddington, Scotland, trained as a physician, and worked as a newspaper editor and railway administrator before finding lasting fame as a writer. Self-Help (1859), expanded from a series of lectures to a mutual improvement society of working men, argued that individual character, diligence, and perseverance — not birth or privilege — were the true engines of personal and national progress, illustrated throughout with brief biographical sketches of engineers, inventors, and self-made men; it became one of the best-selling books of the Victorian era and gave the English language its enduring sense of the phrase "self-help." He followed it with further books in the same vein, including Lives of the Engineers, a multi-volume study of the era's great civil engineers. He died in London at ninety-one.
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