Description

Subtitled An Historical Description of the Rise and Progress of the Harbour of Glasgow this book originated as a paper presented to the ICE in 1873, when it was awarded a Telford Gold Medal and premium.  The author, who was Engineer of the Clyde Navigation, revised and updated it to 1876 in anticipation of the Glasgow meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science to be held in that year.

There are few questions about the history of the Clyde Navigation up to the year 1876 that are not answered by this work. The large folding plates, a feature of this publication, include sketch surveys (the author calls them “cartoons”) of both banks of the river in 1800, 1840, and 1876, from Albert Bridge to Govan. These indicate how rapidly  industrialization took hold and show the location of every shipyard and engineering works.

A very satisfying book with a high ratio of facts to opinions.