percent holding. Established canal and railway engineer This was the beginning of the ironworks, 'Benjamin Outram & Company' which began trading in 1790. The following year William Jessop and John Wright, a Nottingham banker, also became partners. Starting with a nominal capital of £6000, Outram was the only partner active in the management of the company, assisted by his younger brother, Joseph. Over time the business expanded to include a limestone quarry, limekilns, collieries and ironstone pits. Outram became a leading advocate in the construction of tramways using L-section rails, which along with the wagons were manufactured at his Butterley Ironworks. His first tramway was a line slightly over in length, built to carry limestone from quarries at Crich to Bullbridge Wharf on the Cromford Canal, for use by his works. In 1792 he became engineer for the Nottingham Canal and in 1793 the Derby Canal, working in the meantime on the Nutbrook Canal. One of his major works was the long single-span Holmes Aqueduct on the Derby Canal, which opened in February 1796 and was one of the first cast-iron aqueducts. It was cast by Benjamin Outram & Company and predated Longdon-on-Tern Aqueduct, Thomas Telford's longer aqueduct on the Shrewsbury Canal at Longdon-on-Tern by one month. It proved troublesome and needed substantial remedial work in 1802, 1812 and 1930, eventually being demolished in 1971. An important extension to the Derby Canal was the Little Eaton Gangway, a feeder for the Derby Canal built on the pattern of that at Crich. Such tramways became an important part of his later canals. A common misconception is that the word "tramway" comes from Outram's surname but the word actually derives from the Low German word "traam" meaning "a beam" (of a wheelbarrow). Outram always referred to tramways as railways. Outram was the consulting engineer for the construction of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, which included the pioneering Standedge Canal Tunnel. In 1794 he was the engineer for the Peak Forest Canal, which included the Marple Aqueduct. The climb from Bugsworth was negotiated by the Peak Forest Tramway. Stodhart Tunnel on this tramway is believed to be the first railway tunnel in Derbyshire. In 1796 he reported on the extra funds needed to complete construction of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal. In 1798, he was retained to complete the final section of the Ashton Canal which included the Store Street Aqueduct, among the