George Dodd (1808- 1881) was a journeyman author employed in supplying Victorian publications with the type of factual article for which there was a vast demand. During nearly half a century he was known as an industrious and painstaking writer. An aptitude for presenting statistics in an attractive form made him a useful assistant to the publisher Charles Knight. He wrote numerous articles on industrial art in the Penny Cyclopaedia, the English Cyclopaedia, and supplements. He edited and wrote much of the Cyclopaedia of the Industry of All Nations (1851). He contributed to the Penny Magazine, to London, to The Land we Live in, and to several other of Knight's serial publications.' (ODNB)

This work is the first edition, which contains twelve articles on various industries. The article on "Calculating and registering machines" contains an account of Charles Babbage's Difference Engine no. 1 and a brief notice of the Analytical Engine. Other papers describe the manufacture and/or industrial uses of glass, wood, iron, electricity, paper, gold, textiles, etc.

First collected edition; 8vo ( 15 x 23 cm); [4], 24, 24, 24, 24, 24, 24, 24, 24, 24, 24, 24, 24, advertisement at end pp.; later ink and pencil notes to preliminary pages, publisher's brown cloth, some fading and marking, extremities rubbed, overall a very good copy.