Born in the village of Brandon near Durham, in 1802, Thomas Tredgold travelled to the city to take up an apprenticeship as a cabinetmaker. Despite having received only a basic education, he had a passion for self-improvement and devoted his free time to studying architecture and engineering.

Leaving his apprenticeship in 1808, Tredgold moved to Scotland to work as a carpenter and later moved to London to work in office of his uncle, the architect William Atkinson. He published several books on carpentry and engineering which became standard texts on the subjects for many years.

The Steam Engine was the last book Tredgold published in his lifetime. The first edition was printed in 1827 and was a great success both in Britain and in Europe. It provided a comprehensive history of the steam engine and its uses. Tredgold died of exhaustion in 1829 and this second edition was edited by the North Shields actuary Wesley Stoker Barker Woolhouse (1809-93) and published in 1838.

Woolhouse was greatly interested in the development of the steam engine and its uses in steam locomotives and steamships. The second edition was extended to incorporate the works of contemporary engineers and includes a significant section on the design of steamships and paddle wheels.

The work was dedicated to Queen Victoria and the set in the Royal Library contains two dedication pages in the first volume, one of which is loose in the book. The pages have slightly different wording, the loose page is headed “By Command” and contains the line “are inscribed” while the second has removed the heading and changed the line to read “Are (by Her Majesty’s Gracious Permission) Inscribed”. The wording may have been changed following recommendations made after the receipt of an advance copy from the publishers before the book’s general release.