294. Curr (John) Directions for Manufacturing..Frame Engines for Drawing Water...and Rotative Engines for Drawing Coal, original manuscript, 75 pages of which 54pp are text and 18 colour plates, 4 folding, the large plates are poorly folded and frayed at edges, one also has a section detached, some text pages with line drawings and calculations, some browning and foxing, the balance of the ms. pages are blank except for a double ruled border, (an extra note concerning an experiment of the Strengh of Iron is subsequent to the actual ms. dated Sept.17 1813, and is situated at the end of the work). 1800; bound with The Coal Viewer, and Engine Builder’s Companion, first edition, complete with 5 folding plate and an additional coloured hand-drawn folding plate, printed plates in this part are quite worn at the edges, original red staight grain morocco, black lettering label, gilt, worn, [Kress B3373], 1797.
est. £3000 – £4000
This unique piece could possible have been the property of Curr himself, considering that it does not seem that the ms. has ever been published, (no copy appears in the British Library), and that a copy of the Coal Viewer has been extra-illustrated and bound with this ms.
John Curr, the mining engineer and the coal viewer, made great contributions to the development of underground haulage in South Yorkshire collieries during the Industrial Revolution. In his book on coal-mining technology, The Coal Viewer and English Builder's Practical Companion , his inventions in underground haulage were recorded. He improved underground haulage in the collieries superintended by him - namely by examining underground cast-iron plate rails. He designed more advanced rails with flanges to suit the tramways and the flanged wheel as used on modern railways.