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Reviews
Trains and Technology: The American Railroad in the Nineteenth Century, vol. 4, Bridges and Tunnels, Signals. By Anthony J. Bianculli. Newark: Univ. of Delaware Press, 2003. 219 pp., illus., diags., table, notes, bibl., index. $65 hb (ISBN 0-87413-803-5).Landmarks on the Iron Road: Two Centuries of North American Railroad Engineering. By William D. Middleton. Indianapolis: Indiana Univ. Press, 1999. 194 pp., illus., diags., bibl., index. $40 hb (ISBN 0-253-33559-0).
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This is the fourth and last volume of Anthony Bianculli's (a mechanical engineer and member of SIA) survey of American railroad technology: Trains and Technology: The American Railroad in the Nineteenth Century. Previous volumes included Locomotives (2001, vol. 1; reviewed in IA, vol. 28, no. 1, 2002 by Efstathios J. Pappas); Cars (2002, vol. 2); and Track and Structures (2003, vol. 3). Volume 4, Bridges and Tunnels, Signals, covers the technological development of bridges and tunnels and signals on the American railroad during the 19th century.
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The author of the second volume being reviewed here is William D. Middleton (a civil engineer and also a member of SIA) who has written a number of previous books on rail transportation, including The Time of the Trolley: The Interurban Era; When the Steam Railroads Electrified; and South Shore: The Last Interurban. The present volume, Landmarks on the Iron Road, focuses on the most important bridges and other structures constructed by North American railroads in the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries.
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The focus of both books is the technological development of American railroad bridges, primarily in the 19th century, but they do not entirely cover the same territory. One-third of Bianculli's book deals with railroad signals, which are not covered by Middleton's. On the other hand, Middleton's book discusses yards, docks, and terminals, which are treated by Bianculli in volume 3 of his series. Bianculli deals exclusively with the 19th century, whereas Middleton also includes examples from the first half of the 20th century. Middleton also includes examples from Canada and Mexico. Nonetheless, both books are primarily about the development of the American railroad bridge.
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The technological development of American railroad bridges is a huge subject. Since each of these books is approximately 200 pages, the books are not encyclopedic but, rather, surveys of the topic. They are heavily illustrated surveys and, hence, their value. Both draw heavily on the wonderful 19th-century explanatory illustrations published in journals such as Scientific American, Engineering, Journal of the Franklin Institute, and others. These drawings alone are probably worth the price of either book. Both volumes provide dimensions, details, plan and elevation views, and sometimes construction illustrations not available from photographs and certainly of interest to SIA members. For his survey Bianculli has more drawings (some of which he has redrawn, for clarity, from original sources). Middleton has more photographs, excellently reproduced by Indiana University Press. Indiana University Press has done a better job reproducing the 19th-century illustrations than University of Delaware Press, but the reproductions in Bianculli's work are still quite readable. Although some of the subject bridges are duplicated in both books, rarely are the illustrations.
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Bianculli's organization of the subject begins with a brief definition of engineering terms, followed by a somewhat longer discussion on what might be called the basic bridge issues: what materials to use, how to build a bridge's foundation, and what are the types of bridges that could be constructed. The bulk of the text is a discussion of the evolution of American railroad bridge technology, highlighted by discussing individual bridges—beginning with the masonry arch Carrolton Viaduct (1829) on the Baltimore and Ohio near Baltimore and ending with lift bridges, such the Erie Railway bascule bridge (ca. 1896) near Rutherford, New Jersey.
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Middleton's organization is to present individual landmarks sequentially. For each landmark, Middleton presents several illustrations, a discussion of how that landmark fits into the overall technological development of railroad bridges, and, usually, a sidebar containing a photograph and short biography of the engineer responsible for that structure. He also includes several sidebars on various engineering aspects of bridge design and construction, such as "Mr. Cooper's Loading" (the railroad live-load loading scheme devised by Theodore Cooper) and "Railroad Engineering: Grade, Curvature, and Cut and Fill." These, like Bianculli's definitions of engineering terms, are helpful, but neither book should be seen as an engineering dissertation on railroad technology. Both are introductions to that subject.
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There are important differences between these two books. Middleton only cursorily deals with Bianculli's discussion of the development of bridge foundations, an important subject frequently overlooked in bridge technology historical accounts. Middleton includes for each of his landmark bridges a very helpful section entitled, "Getting There," of particular interest to SIA members who would like to visit these structures. Bianculli includes a section on bridge failures, an important mechanism for bridge technological development during the 19th century. He also includes a section on "Railroad Navies," a reminder that American railroads operated extensive fleets of ferries, barges, lighters, and other vessels. The final third of Bianculli's book discusses railroad signaling and control devices, including ball signals, banners, banjos, interlocking, semaphores, and other devices needed to control the rail line.
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Mention must also be made of the publisher's copyright policy on the verso of the title pages for all of Bianculli's four volumes. Copyright is not held by either the author or the press, as is usually the case, but by "Rosemont Publishing & Printing Corp." Below this name is printed a statement: "Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use, or the internal or personal use of specific clients, is granted by the copyright owner, provided that a base fee of $10.00 plus eight cents per page, per copy is paid directly to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, Massachusetts 01923." This proviso seems to contradict Section 107 of American copyright law, which generally allows reproduction for "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship or research." Middleton's book has no similar restriction.
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| These books are excellent illustrated surveys of a large and complex topic. Bianculli's volume 4 to his series, Trains and Technology: The American Railroad in the Nineteenth Century and Middleton's Landmarks on the Iron Road are worthwhile additions to an industrial archaeology library. They complement each other, and both would be well suited to SIA members new to the subject or those desiring access to some wonderful railroad illustrations. |
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