Tables for Calculating the Cubic Quantity of Earth Work in the Cuttings and Embankments of Canals, Railways and Turnpike Roads.

Pages: xxxviii, (2), 254, + four engraved plates. Contemporary green vellum with spine ruled and lettered in gilt. Sir John Benjamin MacNeill (1792-1880), a native Ballymascanlan near Dundalk, was one of the most prominent Irish engineers of the 19th Century. As a young man he obtained employment with Thomas Telford, becoming one of his principal assistants. After a spell as a consulting engineer in London and Glasgow he returned to live at his family home in County Louth. He was appointed irst Professor of Civil Engineering at Trinity College, Dublin. He was entrusted with the finishing of the Drogheda and Dublin Railway which had run into difficulties both in construction and finance. His success in this endeavour led to more railway work in Ireland and he was knighted in 1844 following his completion of the Great Southern and Western Railway. In this, his first published book, he regrets being unable to incorporate "Mr. Babbage's valuable investigation as to the best tint of paper and form of type for insuring distinctness in tabular printing." When a second edition was published in Dublin in 1846 it was printed on yellow toned paper. Corporate ownership stamp on front free end-paper and title-page, light foxing to plates, otherwise a very good copy of the first edition of a rare and important book .…