Remarks on Canal Navigation,: Illustrative of the Advantages of the Use of Steam, as a Moving Power on Canals. With an Appendix, Containing a Series of Experiments, Tables, &c. on which a Number of Proposed Improvements are Founded. Also, Plans and Descriptions of Certain Classes of S

London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green,, 1831. First edition, inscribed on the title page "To Mr Hart, Galsgow, With the Author's compliments". Fairbairn's first book, documenting his experiments on the properties of iron boats, and the possibility of applying steam-power for traction, to improve communication on canal lines, is "written in a plain, perspicuous, and unpretending manner - no small merit in this age of quackery" (Pole). Sir William Fairbairn (1789–1874), first baronet of Ardwick, was a Scottish civil engineer, structural engineer and shipbuilder. "Fairbairn was elected president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1854, and was president of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society from 1855 to 1860. He made numerous contributions to the Transactions of the Royal Society as well as to the proceedings of other learned societies" (ODNB). Octavo. Original drab boards rebacked to style, untrimmed. 5 numbered folding lithographs by H. G. James. Stationer's ticket of Kerr & Richardson, Glasgow, to front pastedown. Sometime rebacked to style, slight wear to corners, ink stain to rear board, scattered foxing and toning to contents, paper repair to short tear in margin of plate 3; still, a very good copy. William Pole, "The Life of Sir William Fairbairn, Bart.", p. 135.