Fred Dibnah's Age Of Steam
By (Author) David Hall
By (author) Fred Dibnah
Ebury Publishing
BBC Books
15th September 2006
6th July 2006
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
Engines and power transmission
621.1
Paperback
224
Width 153mm, Height 234mm, Spine 16mm
296g
Britains favourite steeplejack and industrial enthusiastic, the late Fred Dibnah, takes us back to the 18th century when the invention of the steam engine gave an enormous impetus to the development of machinery of all types. He reveals how the steam engine provided the first practical means of generating power from heat to augment the old sources of power (from muscle, wind and water) and provided the main source of power for the Industrial Revolution. In Fred Dibnahs Age of Steam Fred shares his passion for steam and meets some of the characters who devote their lives to finding, preserving and restoring steam locomotives, traction engines and stationary engines, mill workings and pumps. Combined with this will be the stories of central figures of the time, including James Watts - inventor of the steam engine - and Richard Trevithick who played a key role in the expansion of industrial Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries.
"Fred Dibnah's Age of Steam was reviewed by the Good Book Guide (1 July) who called it "A loving testimony to a seemingly lost era of beautiful machines and elegant engineering"."
David Hall is one of Britain's bestselling non-fiction writers. The biographer of Fred Dibnah, he was also Fred's TV producer for many years, as well as a close personal friend, and has published a number of books celebrating Fred's life and interests. David's 30 years producing and directing network television programmes include a number of years at both Yorkshire Television and the BBC, as well as making landmark documentaries for Channel 4 and the History Channel. A lifelong Manchester United fan, one of his books chronicles life in Manchester in the aftermath of the deaths of the Busby Babes in the Munich air disaster.