James Brindley's notebooks have been transcribed and annotated by Victoria Owens who is an independent scholar and a member of the Newcomen Society. Brindley (1716-1772) began his working life as a millwright and spent some years exploring steam power before devoting himself to canal engineering. His surviving Notebooks, which date from 1755 - 1763, contain a mix of accounts, lists, records of travel and occasional reflections. They offer a vigorous portrayal of a mid- eighteenth-century engineer's working life.