About the Cover

“Transformation—From Steam Engines to Super-Conducting Maglev Railway Technology”

The composition of this oil painting by Jack Black (1948–) alluding to the maglev test track at Yamanashi, Japan, is based on the artwork of J. M. W. Turner, 1844, “Rain, Steam and Speed—The Great Western Railway at Maidenhead”, and the sky is based on the artwork “The Fighting Temeraire, Tugged to Her Last Berth to be Brocken Up, 1838”. Both original paintings are exhibited in the National Art Gallery, London.

The book cover is a composite painting in oil based on these two paintings. As a romantic artist, the topics tackled in these paintings are nostalgia for the past—as river boats were being replaced by steam engines—and the demise of the 98-gun sailing warship that once fought heroically at the Battle Trafalgar, and was now being towed by a steam-driven boat on the River Thames to be broken up as scrap.

The reproduction of this painting is allowed by permission from its owner, Yoshitsugu Hayashi, Senior Research Professor, Chūbu University, Nagoya, Japan, and was photographed by Mr Kiyoaki Suzuki.

The cover was designed by Anna Gatti.