Well-surfaced roads are essential to a growing industrial nation.

As roadmaking in Britain improved from the late eighteenth century, heavy rollers hauled by men or horses were used to compact the surface. Steam power was first used to propel road rollers in the 1860s and thereafter there was rapid development, in parallel with that of the traction engine.

This book outlines the development of steam rollers, with some technical details, and illustrates the different types.