Richard Stone

Deposits of coal, formed over 300 million years ago, lie beneath almost all of Staffordshire. Accessible surface outcrops were mined for domestic use in the Middle Ages. Industry, such as it existed, was cottage industry. All that began to change in the 16th century. The first blast furnace in the Midlands was built in Staffordshire around 1560. Demand for coal increased and rocketed with the Industrial Revolution. Mining was no longer a cottage industry. Extraction required teams of fit men and collective, structured employment marked the beginning of private enterprise industry. As decline set in whole communities faced the challenge of a new life. Commercial mining ended in the country in 1998 when Silverdale, the last deep pit, closed. Since then, derelict buildings and slagheap have been reclaimed and landscaped, but memories remain of a once proud industry and a lost way of life.

This book contains a full translation of a major but little-known Soviet work on Soviet national income accounts for a crucial stage in the social and economic transformation of the Soviet economy from 1928 to 1930. These were years of mass collectivisation and the launching of the Soviet industrialisation drive. The USSR was perhaps unique in having a well-developed statistical service able to record the detailed changes in economic relationships that were taking place at this time. The translation is accompanied by three introductory articles which explain the structure and contents of these materials, what new light these materials throw on the development of the Soviet economy in this period and describe the significance of these materials for the history of Soviet statistics and planning. Amongst other questions this evidence casts some doubt on recent attempts to show that Soviet industrialisation resulted in a change in the net flow of goods between industry and agriculture, in favour of agriculture. It also shows that considerable attempts were made by some influential statisticians and planners in the early 1930s to analyse the relationship between different branches and sectors of the economy. In a foreword Professor Sir Richard Stone sets the achievement of the construction of these materials in the context of the history of Western works on national income accounts.

In the introduction of Automotive Engineering Fundamentals, Richard Stone and Jeffrey K. Ball provide a fascinating and often amusing history of the passenger vehicle, showcasing the various highs and lows of this now-indispensable component of civilized societies. The authors then provide an overview of the publication, which is designed to give the student of automotive engineering a basic understanding of the principles involved with designing a vehicle.From engines and transmissions to vehicle aerodynamics and computer modeling, the intelligent, interesting presentation of core concepts in Automotive Engineering Fundamentals is sure to make this an indispensable resource for engineering students and professionals alike.

In this adventure-filled narrative, science writer Richard Stone follows two groups of explorers- one a Russian-Japanese team, the other a French-led consortium- as they battle bitter cold, high winds, and supply shortages to carry out their quest. Armed with GPS, ground-penetrating radar, and Soviet-era military helicopters, they seek an elusive prize: a mammoth carcass that will help determine how the creature lived, how it died- and how it might be brought back to life.A riveting tale of high-stakes adventure and scientific hubris, Mammoth is also an intellectual voyage through uncharted moral terrain, as we confront the promise and peril of resurrecting creatures from the deep past.

This book describes the development of economic, demographic and social statistics in the British Isles from the mid-seventeenth century to the end of the nineteenth as represented by the work of twelve pioneers in these fields. Its most distinctive feature is its tables, which bring together in clear and succinct form an impressive body of data collected from a large number of disparate sources and are complemented by an exhaustive description of their historical context. An important aspect of the book is the short biographies that open each chapter and bring to life the personalities of its central characters.