Curated category
People of the Industrial Revolution
- Thomas HighsThomas Highs was born in Leigh, Lancashire during the year 1718. He lived most of his life within this same town. His initial trade involved making reeds for…
- Abraham Darby IIAbraham Darby II was born on the 12th of May 1711 in Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, into a family that would leave its mark on the early Industrial Revolution.
- John LombeJohn Lombe died in Derby on the 20th of November 1722, at around twenty-nine years old, leaving behind a half-finished story that would outlast him by…
- James Beaumont NeilsonJames Beaumont Neilson was born in Shettleston on the 22nd of June 1792, the son of a millwright who had once partnered in one of Glasgow's ironworks.
- James HargreavesJames Hargreaves was an illiterate hand loom weaver from Stanhill, Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, and yet his name is attached to one of the most consequential…
- 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…
- John RoebuckJohn Roebuck of Kinneil died in Edinburgh on the 17th of July 1794, but he left behind a world his own hands had helped build.
- Abraham Darby IIIAbraham Darby III was born in Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, on the 24th of April 1750, into a family that had already changed British industry once.
- Claude Louis BertholletClaude Louis Berthollet spent decades arguing a point that every other leading chemist of his era believed was wrong. He was born on the 9th of December 1748…
- Joseph AspdinJoseph Aspdin patented something he called an artificial stone, and he named it after a quarry that most of his customers would never see.
- 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…
- Abraham Darby IAbraham Darby was born on the 14th of April 1677 in a place called Wren's Nest, in Woodsetton, Staffordshire, into a family of English Quakers.
- 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.
- Thomas SaveryThomas Savery was born around 1650 at the manor house of Shilstone, near Modbury in Devon. He received a solid education that prepared him for military…
- 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…
- Henry MaudslayHenry Maudslay was born on the 22nd of August 1771, the fifth of seven children, in a family that lived in a narrow alley off Beresford Square in Woolwich.
- Marc Isambard BrunelMarc Isambard Brunel arrived into the world on the 25th of April 1769. He was born on a family farm in Hacqueville, Normandy.
- Samuel CromptonSamuel Crompton was born at 10 Firwood Fold in Bolton, Lancashire on the 3rd of December 1753. His father George worked as a caretaker at Hall i' th' Wood…
- 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…
- Robert StephensonRobert Stephenson was born on the 16th of October 1803 at Willington Quay, east of Newcastle upon Tyne, to a father who would become known to history as the…
- William MurdochIn 1763, a young William Murdoch built a tricycle from wood and hand cranks. He called it his wooden horse on wheels. This small machine appeared in the…
- Antoine LavoisierOn the 8th of May 1794, in Paris, Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier was guillotined alongside 27 co-defendants, at the age of 50.
- Josiah WedgwoodJosiah Wedgwood was baptised on the 12th of July 1730, the thirteenth and last child of a Staffordshire potting family, in a village where every pot-works…
- Humphry DavyIn 1799, Humphry Davy breathed sixteen quarts of a gas for nearly seven minutes, and it absolutely intoxicated him. He called it laughing gas, and he laughed.
- George StephensonGeorge Stephenson could not read or write until he was 18 years old. Born in 1781 to parents who were both illiterate, he grew up in a colliery cottage where…
- Henry BessemerHenry Bessemer was born on the 19th of January 1813 in the village of Charlton, near Hitchin in Hertfordshire, into a family already fluent in the language…
- Thomas TelfordThomas Telford was born on the 9th of August 1757 on a hill farm called Glendinning, three miles east of Eskdalemuir Kirk in the rural parish of Westerkirk…
- Charles TennantCharles Tennant entered the world on the 3rd of May 1768 at Laigh Corton in Alloway, Ayrshire. He was the sixth child among thirteen surviving siblings born…
- Edmund CartwrightEdmund Cartwright is the name behind a machine that a Manchester mill owner never got to finish installing. In 1790, Robert Grimshaw built a weaving factory…
- Henry CortHenry Cort died on the 23rd of May 1800 with a government pension and a reputation as one of England's great industrial innovators, yet he died, by all…
- John Loudon McAdamJohn Loudon McAdam was born in Ayr, Scotland, on the 23rd of September 1756, the youngest of ten children and second son of the Baron of Waterhead.
- Joseph WhitworthJohn Street in Stockport, Cheshire, marked the birthplace of Joseph Whitworth on the 21st of December 1803. The site now holds a blue plaque on the back wall…
- Matthew MurrayMatthew Murray was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1765, and he left school at fourteen with no particular distinction to his name.
- Richard TrevithickRichard Trevithick died on the 22nd of April 1833 in a hotel room in Dartford, Kent, penniless and alone. No relatives or friends had come to his bedside…
- John SmeatonJohn Smeaton called himself a civil engineer at a time when that phrase did not yet exist. Born on the 8th of June 1724 in Austhorpe, Leeds, he would spend…
- John Wilkinson (industrialist)John Wilkinson was born in 1728 in the small settlement of Little Clifton, Bridgefoot, Cumberland, the son of an iron founder who stoked his blast furnace…
- Benjamin HuntsmanBenjamin Huntsman was born on the 4th of June 1704 in Epworth, Lincolnshire, the fourth child of a Quaker farming couple named William and Mary Huntsman.
- Ned LuddNed Ludd never organized a single protest, wrote a single letter, or swung a hammer at a single machine. He may never have existed at all.
- Nicolas LeblancNicolas Leblanc was born in Ivoy le Pré, Cher, France on the 6th of December 1742. His father worked as a minor official at an iron works before dying in…