DODD, Ralph.

Reports, with Plans, Sections, &c. of the Proposed Dry Tunnel, or Passage, from Gravesend, in Kent, to Tilbury, in Essex; demonstrating its Practicability, and Great Importance to the Two Counties, and to the Nation at Large: also on a Canal from near Gravesend to Stroud. With some Miscellaneous and Practical Observations.

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Two double-page aquatint plates & one engraved map. viii, [2], 28 pp., one leaf of ads. Large 4to, modern calf-backed marbled boards, uncut. London: J. Taylor, 1798. First edition of one of the earliest serious proposals to build an underwater tunnel. "Dodd's Gravesend Tunnel project was the earliest proposal to bore a passage beneath the Thames. It probably came about as a result of his previous scheme to dig a tunnel beneath the Tyne, which attracted considerable interest as the first ever underwater tunnel scheme. The present item contains Dodd's preliminary plan and estimate for a tunnel 900 yards long and 16 feet in diameter passing 20 to 30 feet beneath the Thames, together with an account of the meeting held in Gravesend Town Hall to canvas support and his resulting revised report. The book also demonstrates the need for such a tunnel, describing its advantages over those of a bridge, and includes a shortened version of the Tyne Tunnel report as well as two aquatint plates. All this was persuasive enough to result in an Act in 1799 and a vertical shaft was dug on the Gravesend side. However, there were problems with drainage and when the uninsured pumping-engine house burned down in 1802, the project came to an end. The idea of a Thames Tunnel was revived by Robert Vazie, but it was Marc Brunel who finally brought it to fruition, though at a different site, in 1843."­Elton, Cat. 9, 46. Very nice copy with the half-title and leaf of ads. Ex Bibliotheca Mechanica. Skempton 379.

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• libraire: Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller, Inc. (USA)