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First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author at the head of the title page, "Monsieur Eloi Béral, with the Author's Compliments." This desirable work includes a 22-page discussion of the construction and opening of the Shanghai-Woosung railway and eight photographs showing construction in progress, the engine (Pioneer), the crowd for Pioneer's first journey, Woosung station, and the engine and carriage sheds at Shanghai. In the early 1870s, Richard Rapier (1836-1897), of the engineering company Ransomes & Rapier, began exploring the possibility of introducing railways into China. Co-operating with Jardine, Matheson, he arranged for a team of six British engineers, led by Gabriel James Morrison, to Shanghai to oversee construction of a line nine miles in length and stretching from Shanghai's American Concession to the mouth of the Huangpu river. An engineering feat, it required 15 bridges and 20 culverts to traverse creeks and watercourses. The first journey, along three-quarters of a mile of completed track, was made on 14 February 1876 by Pioneer, a 1,300-kilogram saddletank specially designed for use in China by Ransomes & Rapier. Over the next few months, the remaining line was put in place to link the two terminals, and page 103 reproduces China's first ever railway timetable advertising services to run after 3 July 1876. New engines and carriages were shipped to Shanghai to extend the service, but it stopped abruptly in autumn 1877 as Chinese official support waned. The short-term success of the historic Shanghai-Woosung line set the stage for an explosion in railway construction later in the 19th century. The recipient (1838-1908) was a French engineer and politician. His library label is on the first blank. Large octavo. With 8 Woodburytypes, laid down on captioned leaves as issued, showing the opening of the Shanghai-Woosung railway; 9 folding tables, woodcuts and tables in text. Original red cloth over bevelled boards, recently rebacked with red cloth, spine lettered in gilt to style, front cover lettered in gilt and with gilt vignette and black double-rule frame, similar frame on rear cover in blind, yellow coated endpapers, edges gilt. Boards with some toning and silverfishing, light foxing internally, original photographs well preserved: a very good copy.
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