REVIEWS {JON SCOTT RUSSELL: A OHIAT VICTORIAN ENGINEER AND Nava ARcuTTECT. By George S, Emmerson. hn ray, 1977 sep tltd. £650) Britain's Though and commercial dominion was based fundamen: tally upon her maritime strength, naval architects and engineers have generally been much neglected by comparison with the famous figures in her industrial and railway development. The most outstanding exception is 1 K. Brunel who, however, owes at least as much of his farne to railway building as to his great steamships. Moreover, as this book clearly demonstrates, Brunel's achievements in ths ler field have been inflated at the expense of less famous pioneers, most notably John Scott Russell (1808-2), the subject of this biography, whose importance asthe aval architect and builder of the Great Eastern is: haere convincingly demonstrated. ‘The Great Eastern drama occupies the centre of the sage in this book, in which Professor Emmes- structural design and most of the building and ‘were cartied out by Russell, while some of the major difficulties were due to rejection ‘of his expert advice, Perhaps the main reason for this comparative neglect of Russell's achievements is that he failed to come up to the Smilesian model Copyright (c) 2007 ProQuest LLC Copyright (c) Manchester University Press 61 interests from early steam +o the Sige of ball dupes, dng © ln wree nd theory, 20 influential on steamship construction in the second half of the nineteenth century, combined with his other structural innovations such as the “longitudinal system’ of framing, (oe), jt a he Bad ly prime mover the Great Exhibition of 3851; similarly he was one of the most outspoken advocates of scientific and techniesl education in this country, in view of foreign industrial competition, “This account of Russell's career in maval arerather tedious, they arenccesrary tore-rstablish Russell's reputation, A.B MUSSON FROM CAPS TO CAPS. THE HISTORY OF LYLE SHIPPING ‘company. By John Orbell, with Edwin Green a Midas Michael Moss (Pan! Harris Publishing, Ema enareaa pp. £7'50.) The history of ‘Company user ee ein ofthe Fete neg ber oF Lyle family who held shares in a small sloop belonging to the port of Greenock in 1791. But ipowni hhave been