TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 1059 At the SF’s Topeka shops he participated in the transformation from steam to diesel, did rebuild designs, and conducted road tests on a fleet of approximately 1,550 locomotives. From the Santa Fe he became superintendent of motive power on the Belt Railway of Chicago, a 27-mile line connecting the main lines entering the city. At the Belt Railway he varied his tasks, running locomotives during strikes, pounding iron, and managing men. In 1976 he retired, but he ventured to Egypt to study its railroads. Although the book details Smith’s work on specific railroads at specific times, it is universal in its review of steam and diesel locomotive technology as well as the day-to-day activities of an engineman, mechanical engineer, and engineer-turned-manager. Smith writes in a chatty style, turning from one topic to another, from mines to towns, fellow workers to offices, but always returning to his main focus and passion, locomotives. He worked on locomotives from design to drawings, steam tests, paint shop, operation, rebuild, and scrapyard. His interest in photography is well displayed in the numerous pictures of equipment reproduced in the book, one of its strengths. In the text he bemoans missed opportunities for taking photographs or the pain of hearing of the loss of the Santa Fe archive of glass plate negatives in a flood. One Man’s Locomotives is a unique contribution, the firsthand account of a self-taught mechanical engineer. He recalls fellow engineers and railroaders, giving us his candid opinions of their abilities and skill. He details the specifics, not just of locomotives, but of their various parts, especially the poppet valve, which he helped to disseminate. The work lacks analysis about innovation or technological change and fails to place one man’s lifework into a broader context of historical change, but that was not its purpose. It is the personal reflections of one man, one who loved the pungent odor of coal smoke and hot valve oil. Robert L. Spude Mr. Spude works for the National Park Service in Denver. Innovation and the Rise ofthe Tunnelling Industry. By Graham West. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Pp. xv + 355; illustrations, tables, notes, glossary, index. $47.50. Graham West provides a scrupulous and well-organized examina tion of the development of tunneling technology between 1825 and 1985. Precise description, instructive illustrations, and thoughtful documentation make this book valuable not only to engineers, histo rians, and their students but also to the general reader who lacks engineering knowledge. West’s extrapolations concerning technology in general, however, require reconsideration. The substitution in the 1060 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE book title of the word “in” for “and” would more accurately describe what this book is about and what it treats best. Although “not intended to be a history of tunnelling” (p. 1), this is indeed a history whose international perspective is directed toward the machines that have been designed and employed to solve the problems intrinsic to the making of “holes in the ground” (p. xiv). It is not an anecdotal account of every underground passage man has ever bored; tunnels are cited only if their creation depended on the use of new technology. Economic, political, and sociological factors are hardly touched on; the focus is trained on the artifact. For an overall historical and technological account of tunneling, the reader is directed to Gosta E. Sandstrom’s Tunnels (1963). The structure of the book allows it to be used as reference or to be read straight through; West’s readable text allows quick and easy grasp of what is being described. The evolution of hard rock drilling is followed through the sledgehammer, nitroglycerine, compressed air and hydraulic drilling machines, and tungsten carbide. Softground technology described includes tunneling shields, compressed air tunneling, and prefabricated tunnel linings. Recent innovations, such as pipe jacking (pushing the lining forward from the rear as boring progresses) and remote-controlled tunneling devices, are discussed. In the concluding chapter, West attempts to categorize tunneling innovations according to the nature of their source. He then suggests that such categorization may be applied to other industries. The classification of innovation...
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Jul 1, 1992
L Shale 
Open Access