Thomas Telford, Engineer by Alastair Penfold (Hardcover)

Thomas Telford, Engineer by Alastair Penfold (Hardcover).

For several years the Telford Development Corporation and Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust have been stimulating interest and research into the life and works of Thomas Tel-ford, after whom the new town is named. In April 1979 these efforts culminated in a seminar held in Iron-bridge. The aim was to provide an up-to-date summary of current research by leading experts on Tel-ford, keeping a balance between the technical and historical. Of particular interest to engineers will be Professor Skempton's analysis of the

'bridge that never was' - the 600 ft cast iron arch proposed for London Bridge - but papers also cover Tel-ford's early years in Shropshire, the Shropshire canal, Holyhead Road, the evolution of the Menai Bridge design, Telford's imaginative appreciation of steam for road vehicles, his administrative problems on the Caledonian Canal - with which many engineers will have sympathy

-and his work on the bridges for the highlands of Scotland, which still aid communication. Both academics and practising engineers provide new and fascinating material on one of the greatest British engineers, which should appeal to historians and civil engineers alike.