[Rarebooks] FS: 1857 Edition of Buck's Essay on Oblique Bridges

[Joslin Hall Rare Books]

TITLE: “A Practical and Theoretical Essay on Oblique Bridges”

By George Watson Buck.
Published in London by John Weale in 1857. 2nd edition, corrected.

DISCUSSION: George Watson Buck [1789–1854] was an innovative engineer who
worked on canals, railways and associated bridges. He was resident
engineer for the building of the London and Birmingham Railway, and his
work on oblique (or skew) arch bridges on that project led him to publish
this book on the subject, the first edition coming out in 1839. This was
the first book to apply trigonometry to the design of the skew arch
railway bridge, and was a standard reference work among bridge engineers
until the end of the 19th century.

Here is a bit from Wikipedia on the importance of this type of bridge, and
controversies surrounding Buck’s work-

“A skew arch (also known as an oblique arch) is a method of construction
that enables an arch bridge to span an obstacle at some angle other than a
right angle. This results in the faces of the arch not being perpendicular
to its abutments and its plan view being a parallelogram, rather than the
rectangle that is the plan view of a regular, or "square" arch. In the
case of a masonry skew arch the construction requires precise stonecutting
as none of the cuts form right angles. In his book “A Popular and
Practical Treatise on Masonry and Stone-cutting” (1828), Scottish
architect and engineer Peter Nicholson first set out in clear and
understandable terms a workable method for determining the shape and
position of the stones required for the construction of a strong skew
arch. In 1839, George Watson Buck, having worked on the London and
Birmingham Railway, published a work entitled “A Practical and Theoretical
Essay on Oblique Bridges” in which he  acknowledged Nicholson's
contribution but, finding it lacking in detail, applied his own original
trigonometrical approach and considerable practical experience to the
problem. Buck's Essay, containing its criticism of Nicholson's work, was
published in July 1839, just a few months before Nicholson's “Guide to
Railway Masonry”. [Buck's unfavourable comments [on Nicholson] were
comparatively mild... Nevertheless, Nicholson, by this time in his mid-70s
and his health failing, felt the need to exercise his right of reply.
Unfortunately this exchange escalated into a paper war that became
increasingly acrimonious.”

DESCRIPTION: Hardcover. 7.5”x11”, v + 56 pages, plus 13 folding plates.
Publisher’s embossed cloth with paper cover title label.

CONDITION NOTES: Covers with some wear and light soil, some snags on the
spine and several small areas of separated cloth on the spine (please see
the photos, above and below).  Endpapers toned, light internal soil.
Period bookseller/stationers blindstamp on the endpaper, reading-  “(?).
Franklin – New Castle on Tyne – Bookseller Newspaper Agent Stationer etc”.

PRICE: $100.00

SOME PICTURES =>

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