Curr (John) The Coal Viewer, and Engine Builder's Practical Companion, only edition, 5 folding engraved plates, tables, slight foxing to plates, a few minor marginal repairs at edges, a crisp copy in modern calf, red morocco label, spine very slightly faded, [Kress B3373; Ottley 172], 4to, Sheffield, for the Author, by John Northall, 1797.

⁂ Possibly the first printed account of an iron railway. John Curr, a mining engineer, made great contributions to the development of underground haulage in South Yorkshire collieries during the Industrial Revolution. He introduced underground cast-iron plate rails in the collieries superintended by him and designed more advanced rails with flanges to suit the tramways and the flanged wheel as used on modern railways. In the Preface he notes that he introduced railroads to Sheffield Colliery in the 1770s, being "much easier and less expensive, and...that they have been generally imitated and made use of in most collieries for the last three years, especially in the southern parts of the kingdom".