£ 47.15
by ROBERT F. HARTLEY
£30
PLUS International economy postage – £17.15, TOTAL DUE: £47.15
Hardback ISBN 978 1 0686874 0 2 H = 245mm, w = 170mm
400 pages, with 16 pages in colour; 60 illustrations and photographs (25 in colour); 37 specially drawn maps
NOTE THIS PAGE IS FOR COPIES TO BE SENT OVERSEAS AT INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY RATE. IF YOU ARE IN THE UK YOU NEED TO GO TO THIS PAGE
George Stephenson was the most influential engineer of the 19th century. As a young man he saw the potential of the locomotive steam engine, and for over a decade studied every aspect of the subject, bringing together all the essential elements of the railway system we still use today. In the second half of his career he was employed by the country’s foremost financiers to plan the most important core routes of England’s railway network.
This completely new biography takes full account of the valuable recent research done by many fellow contributors to the eight successive International Early Railways Conferences. The author has also made a detailed study of nearly a hundred railway surveys made by Stephenson and preserved in County Record Offices. While fully respecting the work of Samuel Smiles – Stephenson’s first and most famous biographer – the author has been at pains to avoid both Smiles’hero-worship, and the prejudices of more recent historians. Wherever possible he has quoted the direct opinions and observations of Stephenson’s contemporaries.
The engineer’s crowded life is followed year-by-year, set against the background of national and international events, including three hectic periods of ‘Railway Mania’. We see how Stephenson identified the potential in many others, and how his vision and incredible energy drew together a remarkable circle of family, friends, colleagues, investors, and apprentices. In the process he took a leading role in establishing the entire profession of mechanical engineering.
In 23 punchy chapters, Hartley paints a picture of George Stephenson from those who knew him. As he notes in his introduction, George is a difficult person to get to know: little has been recorded of his inner thoughts, and pretty much his entire life to the age of 40 is obscure. In producing this portrait of the ‘father of the railways’, Hartley draws on the major contributions made to the study of early railways thanks to the Early Railway, and Early Main Line Railways series of conferences since 1998. The 8th conference is being held in September this year.
He firmly places George in his historical context: he was not working alone, but crucially had powerful allies especially at Killingworth. Unlike other collieries it was rich, had owners who were interested in modernising it and who rewarded talent. He was also good at making friends in the right places. These were vital allies in George’s obstinate advocacy of the steam locomotive and were transformative in how his life would develop. Without them, George, like his friend Nicholas Wood, could have remained a great but relatively obscure north-country mining engineer.
The George who emerges is not quite the dashing hero of Samuel Smiles who pulled himself up by his own boot straps. Rather, it shows George as a true polymath who was fascinated in the world around him and how it worked: he was quick-witted, fiercely intelligent and with a sarcastic sense of humour.
George was quick to see talent in others and encourage them, drawing together a remarkable ‘circle of genius’. He was a man with a very strong personality who came to dominate those around him, including, sadly, his own son.
Chapters 1 to 4 outline his early life, such as is known; the Stockton & Darlington and the Liverpool & Manchester are discussed in Chapters 6 to 10, whilst in Chapters 7 to 11 Hartley shows the enormous amount of work as an engineer George got through and sheds new light on the genesis of the Grand Junction Railway. It also demonstrates George’s canny attitude and concerns over the several ‘railway manias’ and resulting bursting financial bubbles.
This, however, is not an engineering history which goes through every nut and bolt, and every survey in detail. Hartley shows George as a competent, empirical engineer who had a systems-wide view of the railway. If the reader wishes to explore engineering history in such detail, they i are recommended to read the various proceedings published by the Early Railway Conferences.
The paper and print quality is excellent but the use of a colour plate section rather than having them integrated throughout the text is somewhat old-fashioned, but can be understood on cost-grounds. An extensive bibliography of sources is provided and references can be found at the end of each chapter, but it appears no archival material was consulted. One or two recent texts on Rainhill and the Liverpool & Manchester are absent but these are minor quibbles.
Detailed but never dull, this is an excellent high quality book of which the R&CHS can be proud. A much-needed new, scholarly biography of George and one which is also accessible. It is a worthy and welcome successor to L. T. C. .Rolt’s biography of Stephenson père et fils of 1960.
