George and Robert Stephenson are well known names in the canon of
railway history. Henry Booth (who designed Rocket's boiler) was the
world's first railway manager and was instrumental in the adoption of
Greenwich Mean Time. Timothy Hackworth, the Methodist engine-wright from
Shildon, established his own engineering firm, which built one of the
first locomotives to run in Russia. Although his locomotive Novelty was
a failure, John Ericsson found fame as the designer of the USS Monitor.
This book seeks to explore the social history of the Rainhill Trials,
who these engineers were and the times they lived and worked in.