Curated category
Industrial Revolution in England
- Roberts LoomThe Roberts loom arrived in 1830, and within a few years it had helped push the number of power looms across Britain from around 55,500 to 100,000.
- Lewis PaulLewis Paul died in 1759, but his story began much earlier with a family steeped in medicine and faith. His father served as the physician to Lord…
- Cotton-spinning machineryThe spinning wheel appeared in the Islamic world by 1030. It traveled to China by 1090 and reached Europe and India during the 13th century.
- Lunar Society of BirminghamThe Lunar Society of Birmingham earned its name from the full moon. Each month, a group of some of the most remarkable minds in Britain timed their meetings…
- John Kay (flying shuttle)John Kay entered the world on the 17th of June 1704 in the Lancashire hamlet of Walmersley. His father Robert owned the Park estate there before dying before…
- Textile manufacture during the British Industrial RevolutionIn 1734, John Kay stood in a workshop in Bury, Lancashire, and invented the flying shuttle. This device allowed a single weaver to produce cloth twice as…
- Richard Roberts (engineer)Richard Roberts was born on the 22nd of April 1789 at Llanymynech, Powys. This village sat directly on the border between England and Wales.
- James Watt"I can think of nothing else but this machine." Those words belong to James Watt, the Scottish inventor, engineer and chemist born in Greenock on the 19th of…
- Richard ArkwrightRichard Arkwright was born on the 23rd of December 1732 in Preston, Lancashire, the youngest of seven surviving children in a family that could not afford to…
- Boulton and WattMatthew Boulton and James Watt signed a formal agreement in 1775 to commercialize the separate condenser patent. This partnership formed the core of what…
- Matthew BoultonMatthew Boulton stood at the furnace of the modern world. Born in Birmingham on the 3rd of September 1728, he spent his life turning that city into something…
- Calico ActsThe Calico Acts of 1700 and 1721 set off one of the most turbulent trade disputes in English history, pitting the world's most powerful trading company…
- The Condition of the Working Class in EnglandFriedrich Engels walked the streets of Salford and Manchester between 1842 and 1844. He saw children dying from smallpox, measles, scarlet fever, and…
- The Iron BridgeThe Iron Bridge spans the River Severn in Shropshire, England, and when it opened on the 1st of January 1781, it carried something no bridge in the world had…