Collection of 45 Autograph Letters to Charles Manby (1804-1884), British Engineer, Manager of the Adelphi and Haymarket Theatres in London, and General Man About (Many) Towns

by Manby, Charles; Dickens, Charles; Adelphi and Haymarket Theatres, London; Engineering

$250 · Offered by Biblio

London, 1841-1887. Ephemera. Very Good+. Collection of 45 autograph letters to Charles Manby, from numerous correspondents, spanning 1841-1887, the majority dated in the 1860s and '70s, 2 after Manby's death. Condition varies from VG+ to fine, some just a little worn or fragile -- clean and legible overall. Charles Manby was one of the most prominent British engineers of the mid-19th century, serving as the Secretary to the Institution of Civil Engineers for nearly 50 years. He began his career in his father's Horseley Ironworks, devoted primarily to the design and construction of steam-engines, and machinery -- he assisted his father in building and sailing the world's first seafaring iron steamboat (called the "Aaron Manby"), and he engineered the first pair of marine engines with oscillating cylinders. He worked extensively in France, where he helped establish the gasworks of Paris, constructed a number of marine engines at Charenton Foundry, reorganised the Creusot Ironworks, and constructed the State Tobacco Manufactories. He went from Beaufort Ironworks in South Wales, to Ebbw Vale Iron Company (where he introduced severl ingenious modifications in the rolling of rails), to Bristol Ironworks -- before finally settling in London in 1835 to specialize in the warming and ventilation of buildlings, known as Price and Manby's system. In "The Old World and the New," William Ballantine remarked, "I never knew exactly how it came to pass that Charles Manby, whose reputation dep

• Year: 1841
• Binding: unknown

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.