James Brindley

James Brindley, with little formal schooling, was apprenticed to a millwright near Macclesfield in 1733 and became known for repairing and improving mill machinery. The Duke of Bridgewater hired him to build the Bridgewater Canal, opened in 1761, which helped start Britain's canal age. Barely able to write, he reportedly worked out designs in his head, a mill-builder's practical intelligence applied to landscape engineering.