- Industrial Revolution
- The Lunar Society
- The Steam Engine
The Lunar Society
Members: Erasmus Darwin, Matthew Boulton, Joseph Priestley, Josiah Wedgwood, William Hershel, John Smeaton
Erasmus Darwin
Biographical Info
Born: 1731
Died: 1802
Biographical Notes Provided by The University of California Museum of Paleontology, Berkeley
Career Highlights:
- English Physician and Poet
- Member of The Lunar Society
- The Botanic Garden (1791)
- Zoonomia (1796)
- Phytologia (1800)
- The Temple of Nature (1802)
Matthew Boulton
Biographical Info
Born: 1728
Died: 1809
Career Highlights:
- Partnered with James Watt, Boulton helped to produce steam engines mainly for the purpose of pumping water from mines.
- 1786: applied steam power to coining machines; he produced coins for Britain and foreign governments as well
Joseph Priestley
Biographical Info
Born: 1733
Died: 1804
Career Highlights:
- Theologian and Scientist
- Dephlogisticated Air (oxygen)
- History of Electricity (1767)
Josiah Wedgwood
Biographical Info
Born: 1730
Died: 1795
- A Potter in the family business at Churchyard Works
- Unitarian and Political Reformer
Career Highlights:
- Invented green glaze and Queen's Ware
- Developed Egyptian Black objects (black basaltes)
- Introduced "division of labor" in his factories
- 1766: helped build the Trent & Mersey Canal
- Supported universal male suffrage, annual parliaments, and social reform
- Joined the Society for Constitutional Information
- Helped form the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade
James Watt
Biographical Info
Born: 1736
Died: 1819
Scottish: University of Glasgow
Career Highlights:
- Inventor, Instrument Maker
- Member of The Lunar Society
- 1769: Improvements to the Newcomen Steam Engine, including a separate condensing chamber, an air pump to bring steam into the chamber, and insulated engine parts
- Conied term Horsepower
- Watt, unit of electrical power
Matthew Murdock
Biographical Info
Born: 1754
Died: 1839
Major Works:
- Worked with Watt and Boulton in Birmingham
- Experimented with gas lighting
- First person to develop a steam gun
Benjamin Thompson/Count Rumford
Biographical Info
Born: 1763
Died: 1814
- Was born in Woburn, Massachusetts but, because he was a loyalist, he left (abruptly) with the British in 1776
- Spent much of his life as an employee of the Bavarian government where he received his title, "Count of the Holy Roman Empire"
Career Highlights:
- Known primarily for the work he did on the nature of heat
- Improved fireplaces, made them smaller and shallower with widely angled coverings so they would radiate better
- Established a successful welfare system in Munich
- Deduced that heat was molecular motion, not a fluid
- Designed better stoves and better chimneys
- A nutritionist, he wrote several essays on the benefits of coffee over tea
- Played a large role in founding the Royal Institution in 1800
Joseph Jacquard
Biographical Info
Born: 1752
Died: 1834
Major Works:
- Developed a machine where the punched cards were joined to form an endless loop that represented the program for the repeating pattern used for cloth and carpet designs
- His invention influenced the later Power-loom, of which there were about 100,000 by 1833
Samuel Crompton
Biographical Info
Born: 1753
Died: 1827
Major Works:
- 1779: produced his spinning mule, so called because it was a hybrid that combined features of two earlier inventions, the Spinning Jenny and the Water Frame. The mule produced a strong, fine and soft yarn which could be used in all kinds of textiles, but was particularly suited to the production of muslins.
Richard Trevithick
Biographical Info
Born: 1771
Died: 1833
Major Works:
- Chirstmas Eve 1801: exhibited his Puffing Devil, a steam powered locomotive
- 1804: Penydarren, reached speed of 5mph
- 1808: Catch Me Who Can, reached speed of 12mph
- Visit The Spartacus Internet Encyclopedia page on Richard Trevithick
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Biographical Info
Born: 1806
Died: 1859
Major Works:
- 1829: designed a suspension bridge to cross the River Avon at Clifton, project abandoned
- 1833: appointed chief engineer of the Great Western Railway
- 1838: his steamship Great Western made 15 day voyage to America
- 1845: steamship Great Britain
- 1852: steamship Great Eastern