This book was first published in 1970, and the fact that the 7th edition is now on sale speaks for itself. The book gives a readable overview of the developments in engineering during the Victorian era, with chapters on railways, steam power, steam ships, agriculture, machine tools, steel, lighting and civil engineeing.

L T C Rolt goes into sufficient detail on each of these to show the way engineering developed, and why certain developments were important, as well as giving thumbnail sketches of the characters involved to turn this into a human story as well as an engineering one. It shows how Britain came to be foremost amongst technologically developed nations, and then lost the lead later.

This book would be a good place to start if you are interested in developments during that era, or in the biographies of engineers such as Brunel, as it gives the background into which more detailed reading can be fitted. (The ISBN/price given above are for the edition currently available on Amazon, pub. 2007. The review is of the first edition, from 1970)