The engineer and technical writer Frederick Walter Simms (1803–65) ranked as a leading authority on tunnel construction for railways. After working for a time at the Royal Observatory, Simms assisted Henry Robinson Palmer and later Sir William Cubitt on the South Eastern Railway. He was awarded the Telford medal by the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1842 for his articles on tunnelling, and further employment on railways in England and France was followed by engineering consultancies to the East India Company and the London, Chatham and Dover Railway. He gained greatest recognition, however, as the author of authoritative engineering textbooks, notably this work, first published in 1844. Considered the standard textbook on the subject at the time, it sets out the approved practices of the day, using the Bletchingley and Saltwood tunnels, whose construction Simms supervised, as key examples. A number of technical illustrations accompany the text.