author
James (Civil engineer) White
An inventive early engineer whose work ranged from machinery to transport, he is best known today for A New Century of Inventions, a lively collection of designs for one hundred machines. His surviving story is fragmentary, which makes his book an especially interesting window into the practical imagination of the early 1800s.
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About the author
James White was an English civil engineer and inventor born in 1762 in Cirencester. He showed an early interest in mechanics, moved to London in the 1780s, and developed a series of inventions, including work related to gear systems and lifting machinery.
In 1792 he moved to Paris, where he continued his engineering work and became part of the industrial world that grew after the French Revolution. He later published A New Century of Inventions in 1822, describing one hundred machines connected with manufacturing, domestic life, transport, and other practical uses.
White died in 1825. Although biographical details about him are relatively scarce, his writing preserves the mind of a restless maker—curious, ambitious, and always looking for a better mechanical solution to everyday problems.