The canal pioneers : Brindley's School of Engineers /Christopher Lewis.

"James Brindley was the pioneer of the practical age of canal construction in eighteenth-century Britain. Unlike John Smeaton, Brindley was untutored, and began his work as an apprentice millwright. However, it was Brindley who developed and laid down the principles of early canal construction. The surveying and building of what was the beginning of a national system of canals was too great for one man. Brindley's vision and organisational ability was evident when he created what Cyril Boucher has called a A School of Engineers, to reflect his designs, draw detailed maps, survey territory under his direction and built the canals he was commissioned to construct. Hugh Henshall, Samuel Simock, Robert Whitworth, Josiah Clowes, Thomas Dadford and Samuel Weston were talented colleagues friends and relatives who belonged to the Brindley school of engineering. Within this school, Brindley instructed and trained these men to his own high standards and many of these engineers went to extend Brindley's original system, based on his Great Cross of waters ways, as the country came to realise the enormous benefits in the transportation of heavy goods and material. Their works included the further development of the integration of canal and river navigations throughout the country; from the Forth and Clyde to the Bridgewater Canal, from the Trent and Mersey to the Thames Navigation and the canals that served Wales. This illustrated book chronicles the lives of these engineers as well as their various achievements and gives an insight into their other associated entrepreneurial activities. Supporting the unique aspects of this latest analysis of Britains's emergent canal system, the book includes a detailed gazetteer which provides opportunities for the reader to visit many of these significant sites around Britain and gain a greater understanding of the interconnected world of these pioneers and their contribution to our transport system."--Back cover.