The Lunar Society

The tea time inspired the Industrial Revolution. And what if everyone drank tea and drank it in chinese cups of

porcelain? What if everyone in England could dress like hight society?

Soho House

• The Lunar Society was a remarkable grouping of gifted polymaths who met every month in  Birmingham (Soho house) on the Monday nearest the full moon (when there was most light to travel home by) from 1765 until 1813.

• It has been written that 'The Lunar Society was second only to the Royal Society in its importance as a gathering place for scientists, inventors and natural philosophers during the second half of the eighteenth century'. In fact, it was more than that. These men were interested not merely in science, but especially in the application of science to manufacturing, mining, transportation, education, medicine and much else. They were, if you like, the revolutionary committee of the Industrial Revolution.

The Lunar Society members

Matthew Boulton 1728–1809

• English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineerJames Watt.

•  Boulton & Watt steam engines

Erasmus Darwin 1731 – 1802

• English physician.  natural philosopher, physiologist, slave-trade abolitionist, inventor and poet.

• A copying machine (1778).• Charles Darwin`s

grandfather.

Thomas Day (1783–1789)

•  A British author and abolitionist. He was well known for the children's book The History of Sandford and Merton (1783–1789) which emphasized Rousseauvian educational ideals.

Richard Lovell Edgeworth 1744 – 1817

Anglo-Irish politician, writer and inventor.

Road construction

Samuel Galton 1753 - 1832

• A Quaker he was an arms manufacturer. He was a member of the Lunar Society and lived at Great Barr Hall.

James Keir 1735-1820

•  AScottish chemist, geologist, industrialist, and inventor, and an important member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham.

•  An important inventor and industrialist, making contributions to an understanding of gases, glass production, the manufacture of chemicals, metallurgy and coal mining.

Joseph Priestley 1733 – 1804

• English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works. He is usually credited with the discovery of oxygen ,

William Small1734 – 25 February 1775

• He was Scottish, he was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, then one of Britain’s American colonies.

• Thomas Jeffersons teacher

Jonathan Stokes 1755 – 1831

•  An English physician and botanist, a member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, and an early adopter of the heart drug digitalis.

James Watt 1736 –1819

•  A Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to theNewcomen steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world.

Josiah Wedgwood 1730 – 1795

•  An English potter, founder of the Wedgwood company, credited with the industrialisation of the manufacture of pottery.  He was the grandfather of Charles Darwin and Emma Darwin.

John Whitehurst 1724 – 1792

•  An English civil engineer responsible for the design of bridges, canals, harbours andlighthouses. He was also a capable mechanical engineer and an eminent physicist. Smeaton was the first self-proclaimed civil engineer, and often regarded as the "father of civil engineering".

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William Withering 1741 – 1799

• An English botanist, geologist, chemist, physician and the discoverer of digitalis.

James Brindley 1716 – 1772

He was born in Tunstead, Derbyshire, and lived much of his life in Leek, Staffordshire, becoming one of the most notable engineers of the 18th century.

Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790

• A world-famous polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among other inventions.

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