Cold Duty: Selected Readings from the Diary of a Gelusian Repairman

In 1860s Manchester, young Jamie Broadman wasn't much to look at, and he was even less to talk to. His wealthy industrialist father wasn't impressed with him, his brother was a prodigy engineer, so they both allowed him to drift into a life in the stables. It was a life he wanted--working with horses, keeping company with servants, living in the country far from the concerns of education, business, culture, and politics.
But when he mends the track's generator without spare parts or instructions, his brother recognizes an innate mechanical genius and inducts him into the family business, forever changing the face of the Broadman Royal Materials Corporation, the Empire, and-when he discovers the ghastly royal secret behind a Mason's door in the factory-the shape of world history. With the kind cooperation of the British Museum and the Broadman Estate, these are the edited diaries of the man who single-handedly created the modern world...by accident.