- Paperback: 608 pages
- Publisher: Douglas & McIntyre / Not Applicable; Reprint edition (Oct 1 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0374528888
- ISBN-13: 978-0374528881
- Product Dimensions: 20.1 x 14 x 4.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 703 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#400,217 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #94 in Books > Professional & Technical > Engineering > Patents & Inventions
- #95 in Books > Engineering > Patents & Inventions
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
In the late 1700s, five gifted inventors and amateur scholars in Birmingham, England, came together for what one of them, Erasmus Darwin, called "a little philosophical laughing." They also helped kick-start the industrial revolution, as Jenny Uglow relates in the lively The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed the World. Their "Lunar Society" included Joseph Priestley, the chemist who isolated oxygen; James Watt, the Scottish inventor of the steam engine; and Josiah Wedgwood, whose manufacture of pottery created the industrial model for the next century. Joined by other "toymakers" and scholarly tinkerers, they concocted schemes for building great canals and harnessing the power of electricity, coined words such as "hydrogen" and "iridescent," shared theories and bank accounts, fended off embezzlers and industrial spies, and forged a fine "democracy of knowledge." And they had a fine time doing so, proving that scholars need not be dullards or eccentrics asocial.
Uglow's spirited look at this group of remarkable "lunaticks" captures a critical, short-lived moment of early modern history. Readers who share their conviction that knowledge brings power will find this book a rewarding adventure. --Gregory McNamee --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
This hefty volume combines prodigious research with an obvious fondness for the subject matter. Uglow, an editor at U.K.'s Chatto & Windus publishing house, garnered praise for her incisive book on the life and images of William Hogarth as well as for her biographies of Elizabeth Gaskell and George Eliot. Here, Uglow details the wild inventions of the 18th century, with the turbulent changes in the Georgian world as backdrop, and so delivers a complete, though at times ponderously detailed, portrait of the men who formed the Lunar Society of Birmingham. The society was a kind of study group for the nascent Industrial Revolution, which would transform England in two generations. Among the lunar men were toy maker Matthew Boulton, James Watt of the steam engine, potter Josiah Wedgwood, Joseph Priestley, who discovered oxygen, and physician and evolutionary theorist Erasmus Darwin, Charles Darwin's grandfather. As Uglow writes, its members met on the full moon (to facilitate travel at night), "warmed by wine and friendship, their heads full of air pumps and elements and electrical machines, their ears ringing with talk, the whirring of wheels and the hiss of gas." Each was accomplished in his profession, and yet each applied boundless reserves of energy and inventiveness to outside interests, from the practical, such as canal-building, herbal medicines and steam-propelled water pumps, to the outright bizarre, such as Erasmus Darwin's fantastic mechanical talking mouth. Uglow's writing has great breadth of subject and character-along with the occasional bawdiness, too.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
On 12 December 1731, Erasmus Darwin was born at the Old Hall in Elston, about ten miles north-east of Nottingham, the sturdy seventh child of Robert and Elizabeth Darwin. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
On 12 December 1731, Erasmus Darwin was born at the Old Hall in Elston, about ten miles north-east of Nottingham, the sturdy seventh child of Robert and Elizabeth Darwin. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Lunar Men,
By
Ce commentaire est de: The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed the World (Paperback)
It is the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in England.It is not like you learned in school. It is so much better. Can you imagine reading about air? You will read about it in this book. A treasure.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Makers of the Modern World,
By
Ce commentaire est de: The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed the World (Paperback)
This extraordinarily well researched book about some extraordinary men is a wonderful discourse on the impact of the few on the many. It is a big book, richly filled with its illustrations and portraits, passionate for its subject, and a machine for readers wishing to be transported to another, most glorious, era. The time is the early industrial revolution in England and Scotland, and the men are the inventors and scientists, movers and shakers, who transformed England from a pastoral society into the cutting edge, world class industrial power.Foremost among them were James Watt and his partner Matthew Boulton, masters of the dramatically improved steam engine, which was to be critical in the parade of innovations to come. Erasmus Darwin and William Small, inventors of all sorts of peculiar things, performed the essential sociological act of keeping the circus of contacts going and diplomatically holding the center. And Priestly, discoverer of early chemical science, inventor of soda pop, makes his majestic performance in the drama. And we can even behold the trapeze-work of such lesser known figures as Keir and Wedgewood, who developed the business practices that finally got large scale industry churning. Hardly making an appearance in this treatise are the churchmen, politicians, activists for the poor, and other clowns and negativists who impotently resisted them. This book is not just about the innovations of these men, but about their character, philosophy, and political views during those tumultuous, even riotous times. And characters they must have been. In this book you'll discover all of the weaknesses and trivialities that made them human, and the romance and perseverance that made then heroes. How I should like to have known them! These men, and they were all men, we discover in Uglow's book, worked the rough edges of wealth and bankruptcy all their lives. The risks they took seem almost unimaginable today, with all of its restrictions, safety committees and assorted paranoias. This is a real feast for anyone interested in discovering the courage and intelligence of these Northern Europeans, and the story of their headlong rush to transform the world.
5.0 out of 5 stars
First Rate Book on Intellectual History,
By A Customer
Ce commentaire est de: The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed the World (Paperback)
Excellent book on a fascinating group of men. It is interesting the realize the close connection between these brilliant people, and it is interesting learning about the lesser known members of the circle, who made important contributions in the history of science.
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