The Harnessing of Power: How 19th Century Transport Innovators Transformed the Way the World Operates

Maxwell Gordon Lay

ISBN 10: 1527510956 / ISBN 13: 9781527510951

Published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018

About this Item

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Seller Inventory # rev7305520818

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Harnessing of Power: How 19th Century Transport Innovators Transformed the Way the World Operates
• Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1527510956
• ISBN 13: 9781527510951
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Good
• Weight: 499 grams

About this title

Synopsis

This book examines how the 19th century’s transport legacy of bicycles, trains, ocean-going steamers, trucks, trams, buses and cars arose, creating numerous new technologies and markets. Nothing like this range of transport changes had occurred before, and the 20th century changes were incremental compared with those of the 19th century. The book explores where the key transport features came from, and why there were so many inventions, innovations, and inconsistencies. The Industrial Revolution was a key part of the process as it had strong links with transport developments. This text adopts a broad, global perspective, but has a strong British orientation, as the Industrial Revolution was a process predominantly initiated and implemented in Britain. Nevertheless, when the Revolution lost momentum, Britain began to lose its leadership. By century’s end, France and south-western Germany were dominant change-makers and the USA was appearing on the horizon. The book also highlights the many individual inventors and entrepreneurs who caused the dramatic transport changes, and notes that they did this predominantly through individual initiatives to satisfy personal, rather than corporate or national, goals and that they were often hindered, rather than aided, by officialdom.

About the Author

Dr Maxwell Lay is a widely recognised expert in both road technology and road history. His Handbook of Road Technology is now in its fourth international edition, and his world history of roads, Ways of the World, has been a major work in this field for two decades. In 2005, Lay was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia, for service to engineering, particularly through leadership in the delivery of quality road infrastructure and the development of new contract management processes, and as an educator and historian. In 2000, the Australian Road Research Board named its library the M. G. Lay Library to honour his passion for the dissemination of high quality professional information. In 2014, Lay was awarded the Peter Nicol Russell Medal, the highest award offered by the Australian engineering profession. He has written over 760 books, book chapters, papers and reports, and has had terms as President of the Australian Automobile Association, the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria and the Royal Society of Victoria.