John Weale

John Weale (1791 – Dec 18, 1862, Maida Vale^[1]) was an English publisher of popular scientific, architectural, engineering and educational works.

Life

He went into the trade first with George Priestley in St Giles-in-the-Fields who died around 1812, and worked then with Priestley's widow.^[2] He took a particular interest in the study of architecture. In 1823 he issued a bibliographical Catalogue of Works on Architecture and the Fine Arts, of which a new edition appeared in 1854. He bought the architectural publishing business at 59 High Holborn built up by Isaac Taylor and his son Josiah Taylor as The Architectural Library,^[3] after Josiah's death in 1834.^[2]

He followed the Catalogue in 1849–50 with a Rudimentary Dictionary of Terms used in Architecture, Building, and Engineering, a work which reached a fifth edition in 1876.

Diagram of an annular engine, from Robert Murray, Rudimentary Treatise on Marine Engines and Steam Vessels (1858), published by John Weale.

Weale died in London on 18 December 1862.

Works

Weale published also:

• Steam Navigation, Tredgold on the Steam Engine, Appendix A, edited and published by John Weale, London, 1839
• A Series of Examples in Architectural Engineering and Mechanical Drawing, London, 1841; supplemental Description, London, 1842.
• Designs of ornamental Gates, Lodges, Palisading, and Ironwork of the Royal Parks adjoining the Metropolis, edited by John Weale’ London, 1841.
• The Theory, Practice, and Architecture of Bridges of Stone, Iron, Timber, and Wire, edited by John Weale, London, 1843, 2 vols.; a supplemental volume, edited by George Rowdon Burnell and William Tierney Clark, appeared in 1853.
• Divers Works of early Masters in Christian Decoration, London, 1846, 2 vols.
• The Great Britain Atlantic Steam Ship, London, 1847.
• Letter to Lord John Russell on the defence of the Country, London, 1847.
• London exhibited in 1851, London, 1851; 2nd edit. 1852.
• Designs and Examples of Cottages, Villas, and Country Houses, London, 1857.
• Examples for Builders, Carpenters, and Joiners, London, 1857.
• Old English and French Ornaments, comprising 244 Designs. Collected by John Weale, London, 1858

He edited Weale's Quarterly Papers on Engineering, London, 1843–6, 6 vols., and Weale's Quarterly Papers on Architecture, London, 1843–5, 4 vols.

Weale's Rudimentary Series

Weale was on good terms with many men of science, and published cheap literature for technical education. His Rudimentary Series (over 130 works, usually selling at one shilling)^[2] and other educational series comprised standard works, both in classics and science. They were suggested initially by William Reid,^[4] and were continued after his death, first by James Sprent Virtue.

Source: Lists at end of the publications.^[5] The series was later taken on by the publisher Crosby Lockwood, who added volumes while retaining the system of reference numbers (across editions).^[6]

Series number	First published	Author	Title	Comments
1	1849?	George Fownes	Rudimentary Chemistry	WorldCat editions archive.org Read Online (1853).
2	1848	Charles Tomlinson	Introduction to the Study of Natural Philosophy	WorldCat editions
3	1849	Joseph Ellison Portlock	Rudimentary Geology	WorldCat editions There was an 1871 rewrite as Rudimentary Treatise on Geology by Ralph Tate: WorldCat editions
4, 5	1848	Delvalle Varley	Rudimentary Mineralogy	WorldCat editions Later editions with James Dwight Dana, as Rudimentary Treatise on Mineralogy. Delvalle Varley was the second wife of John Varley, and daughter of Wilson Lowry;[7] her mother Rebekah Eliza Delvalle was a mineralogist.[8]
6	1849	Charles Tomlinson	Rudimentary Mechanics	WorldCat editions archive.org Read Online
7	1848	William Snow Harris	Rudimentary Electricity	WorldCat editions Google Books, 1851 edition
8, 9, 10	1850	William Snow Harris	Rudimentary Magnetism	WorldCat editions
11	1852	Edward Highton	The Electric Telegraph: its history and progress	Edward Highton was the brother of Henry Highton, and they both experimented with electricity, taking a particular interest in telegraphy.[9] WorldCat editions archive.org
12		Tomlinson	Pneumatics[10]
13, 14, 15, 15*	1848	Henry Law	Rudiments of Civil Engineering	Henry Law (1824–1900) was a civil engineer, a pupil of Brunel much involved in the Thames Tunnel.[11] WorldCat editions archive.org Read Online, 1852 edition
16	1852	William Henry Leeds	Rudimentary Architecture (Orders)	Google Books
17	1849	Thomas Talbot Bury	Rudimentary Architecture (Styles)	WorldCat editions Google Books (2nd edition)
18, 19		Edward Lacy Garbett	Architecture (Principles of Design)[10]	Garbett (died 1900) was son of the architect Edward William Garbett.[12]
20, 21		G. Pyne	Perspective[10]
22		Edward Dobson	Art of Building[10]	Dobson emigrated to New Zealand where he had a successful career as an engineer.
23, 24		Edward Dobson	Art of Tile-making, Brick-making[10]
25, 26		Edward Dobson	Masonry and Stone-cutting[10]
27, 28		George Field	Art of Painting[10]
29		G. R. Dempsey	Art of Draining Lands[10]
30		Dempsey	Art of Draining and Sewage of Towns and Buildings[10]
31		Burnell	Art of Well-sinking and Boring[10]
32		J. F. Heather	Art of the Use of Instruments[10]
33	1853	Samuel Hughes	A treatise on gas works	Samuel Hughes (c. 1816–1870), son of the engineer Thomas Hughes,[13] was a civil engineer and Fellow of the Geological Society.[14] WorldCat edition
45		G. R. Burnell	Limes, cements, mortars, concretes, mastics, plastering etc.	George Rowdon Burnell (1814–1868) was a writer on architecture and engineering, "one of the very few who have united a Fellowship of the Royal Institution of British Architects with a Membership of the Institution of Civil Engineers".[15] WorldCat edition
61	1850	Thomas Baker	Rudimentary treatise on mensuration
63-65	1852-53	G. H. Andrews	Rudimentary treatise on agricultural engineering	George Henry Andrews (1816–1898), though trained as an engineer, was better known as a marine watercolorist.[16] WorldCat edition
66	1852	John Donaldson	Rudimentary treatise on clay lands and loamy soils	John Donaldson (1799–1876) described himself as a 'Professor of Botany'.[17] He taught at the Agricultural Training College at Hoddesdon, established in the 1840s under the headmastership of William Haselwood. WorldCat edition
69-70		Charles Child Spencer	A rudimentary and practical treatise on music	Charles Child Spencer (1797–1869) was an organist and choirmaster of St. James's Chapel, Clapton, London.[18] WorldCat edition
80		Robert Murray	Rudimentary treatise on marine engines and steam vessels	WorldCat edition
83	1853	Editor Charles Tomlinson, materials by Alfred Charles Hobbs, compiler by George Dodd	Rudimentary Treatise on the Construction of Locks	Alfred Charles Hobbs; George Dodd (1853). Rudimentary Treatise on the Construction of Locks. J. Weale. Retrieved 10 May 2013.
99–100		John Radford Young	Tables intended to facilitate the operations of navigation and nautical astronomy	John Radford Young (1799–1885) was professor of mathematics at Belfast College from 1833 to 1849.[19] WorldCat edition
101	1852	W. S. B. Woolhouse	The elements of differential calculus	WorldCat edition
102	1852	Homersham Cox	The integral calculus	At archive.org
	1852	Robert Main	Rudimentary Astronomy[20]
132		S. H. Brooks	Erection of Dwelling-houses	WorldCat edition

One of John Weale's earliest books published was Steam Navigation, Tredgold on the Steam Engine Appendix A which was edited and published under direction from Thomas Tredgold himself. Steam Navigation, Tredgold on the Steam Engine, Appendix A was printed by W. Hughes, King’s Head Court, Gough Square.

Its value in August 1839 was twelve shillings.

• John George Swindell, Well-digging, Boring, and Pump-work
• Edmund Beckett Denison, Clock and watch making^[21]
• 

  First Edition. Very good condition, In the current possession and care of Capt. Mouck. Was received from a very old friend, who received it from who at his time was a very old British captain for some work which was done on his boat,. From the extensive research done, it has been proven to be original. The closest reference to another original would be in a museum in Ohio, and that book is in a sealed case with no one allowed to touch it. That book is in far worse condition then the one shown also it is Appendix B.
  Joseph Glynn, On the construction of cranes, and machinery for raising heavy bodies^[22]
• Joseph Glynn, On the power of water, as applied to drive flour mills, and to give motion to turbines and other hydrostatic engines^[23]
• Alan Stevenson, On the history, construction, and illumination of lighthouses^[24]
• William Snow Harris, On Galvanism^[25]
• Thomas Roger Smith (1861) Acoustics^[26]

References

•  "Weale, John". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

Notes

1. Appletons' annual cyclopaedia and register of important events of the year: 1862. New York: D. Appleton & Company. 1863. p. 695.
2. Topham, Jonathan R. "Weale, John". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/28908. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
3. http://www.racollection.org.uk/ixbin/indexplus?_IXACTION_=file&_IXFILE_=templates/full/person.html&_IXTRAIL_=Names%A0A-Z&person=11548
4.  "Reid, William (1791-1858)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
5. https://archive.org/stream/atreatiseongasw00hughgoog#page/n398/mode/2up
6. https://archive.org/stream/rudimentsofartof00dobsrich#page/n189/mode/2up
7. Kauffmann, C. M. "Varley, John". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/28115. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
8. Guyatt, Mary. "Lowry, Wilson". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/17103. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
9. https://archive.org/stream/historyofwireles00fahirich#page/40/mode/2up
10. Robert Main (1852). Rudimentary astronomy. John Weale. p. 157.
11. Obituary (PDF)
12. Howard Colvin (1978). A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600–1840. John Murray. p. 331. ISBN 0 7195 3328 7.
13. A. W. Skempton, A biographical dictionary of civil engineers in Great Britain and Ireland, p. 378
14. 'Obituary - Samuel Hughes', Geological Magazine, vol. 9 (1872)
15. Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Volume 31 (1871), pp. 211 –212
16. Martin Hardie & Dudley Snelgrove, eds., Water-colour Painting in Britain: The Victorian period, 1966, p. 80
17. ODNB
18. Jamie Croy Kassler, The science of music in Britain, 1714-1830: a catalogue of writings, lectures, and inventions, Volume 2, 1979, p, 961
19. Norman St. John Stevas, ed., The Collected Works of Walter Bagehot: Letters, Harvard University Press, 1986, p.
20.  Lee, Sidney, ed. (1893). "Main, Robert". Dictionary of National Biography. 35. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
21. Google Books
22. Google Books
23. archive.org
24. Google Books
25. archive.org
26. Dictionary of National Biography, Smith, Thomas Roger (1830–1903), architect, by Paul Waterhouse. Published 1912.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Weale, John". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.