100 Books Like Henry Maudslay and the Pioneers of the Machine Age

What really attracted to me about this book was Jenny Uglow’s ability to bring the eighteenth century alive in her biographies of five men – Josiah Wedgwood, Mathew Boulton, James Watt, Eramus Darwin, and Joseph Priestley – who met every month near Birmingham when the moon was full (so that they could see their way home).

These men genuinely transformed the world with their discoveries that created and powered the first factories and revolutionized our understanding of the natural and chemical worlds. For some reason I always remember Uglow’s description of Wedgwood, who invented the process for mass producing china, being so scientifically curious that he insisted on sitting up to watch his own leg being amputated.

This book is a wonderful, personal introduction to the English Enlightenment.

Men of Iron examines the Crowley Iron Works, one of the eighteenth century’s foremost industrial enterprises.

Sir Ambrose Crowley founded it and used his understanding of the period’s logistics to undercut competitors by setting up a nailery in Sunderland, moving to Winlaton in 1691. There he could import bar iron from Sweden and ship products by sea to a London warehouse complex, avoiding the era’s slow and muddy roads.

With the good fortune of two lengthy wars, he built a major military supply business, with 1,500 employees, becoming a City of London Alderman and a Tory MP. At Winlaton, he established the “Law Book of the Crowley Iron Works” which instituted enlightened personnel policies and an old-age pension scheme.

Crowley’s life shows that the Industrial Revolution, which included new techniques of HR and logistics management as much as steam engines, was already stirring before 1700.

James Brindley built the core elements of Britain’s canal system, which halved the coal price in several industrial cities.

He began as the son of an impoverished rural farmer, then apprenticed to a millwright, before setting up as a craftsman-engineer. Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Gower hired him to survey a potential Trent and Mersey Canal, before introducing him to his brother-in-law Samuel Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater who wanted to connect his Worsley coal mines to Manchester.

Corble’s book centres on the Bridgewater Canal, which Brindley surveyed, developing new “puddling” techniques to seal the bottom. Brindley then used the Bridgewater Canal as a demonstration project for his much larger “Grand Cross” canal system, connecting the Severn, Trent, Mersey, and Thames rivers.

With Gower’s help, Brindley got Parliamentary authorization, raising capital from local landowners and country banks. Brindley’s Grand Cross became a gigantic infrastructure leap forward, kick-starting the Industrial Revolution. 

Josiah Wedgwood (1730-95) was a pioneer in the many non-steam-engine aspects of the Industrial Revolution.

Descended from a long line of low-end potters, Wedgwood specialized in design, then joined the high-quality pottery of Thomas Whieldon before in 1759 setting up his own business in pottery. Wedgwood was an excellent chemist, discovering several new glazes that revolutionized the pottery business.

He was also a superlative marketer, using a sale to Queen Charlotte to market “Queen’s Ware,” marketing “Etruscan” pottery with a specialized glaze to fulfil a mania for Etruscan art following new discoveries and opening a London showroom to attract wealthy patrons – he pioneered the production of chinaware for display as well as for use.

His “Etruria” works opened in 1771 beside the new Trent and Mersey Canal, which revolutionized pottery transportation, reducing breakages. Dolan gives a lively account of this multiple innovator, whose business survives today.    

Knowledgeable academic experts often write technical tomes that are as dry as their subjects, But Deane's historical exposition of Britain's Industrial Revolution is fascinating, full of insights, and well-written.

Why Britain first? The answers intrigue and engage. Why did other countries (the United States and Germany) outstrip the British from the mid-nineteenth century?

Using the modern view of science, many economic historians have sought to diminish the effects of science on the technologies in the 18th and 19th centuries. This wonderful book by a sociologist documents how science, as it was then practiced, pervaded the whole structure of British society, from preachers teaching that Newton had revealed the architecture that God had imposed during creation, to a journal teaching Newtonian science to women. As Jacob puts it: “The role of science…was not that of general laws leading to the development of specific applications. Instead it…[provided] the theoretical mechanics and the practical mathematics that facilitated technological change. Brought together by a shared technical vocabulary of Newtonian origin, engineers and entrepreneurs…negotiated…the mechanization of workshops or the improvement of canals, mines, and harbours.

This is one of the great literary biographies: impeccably researched, stylishly narrated, refreshingly indifferent to academic convention, and authentically Dickensian in its pungency of atmosphere and solidity of characterisation.

This book has given me more delight than just about any other book dealing with the woodlands. It is not a herbarium or any other dry enumeration of plants. The Oxford Don takes us by the hand and shows us enchanted spinneys, lovely copses, ancient savannas, woodland pastures, and so much more that were once enchanting. In the everyday environment, the inspiration of poets, the meeting place of lovers, and the haunt of human beings seeking solitude. 

"A state-of-the-art survey of Britain’s woods by the acknowledged expert in the field… He seems to know woods like old friends, each with its unique past, its cranky or capricious personality, and its hoard of secrets. And he writes like an angel.” - The Times 

In the year 1500 European civilization was fractured, deficient in natural resources, and unremarkable in its military technology. By 1800 it had gained control over one-third of the globe. How? This seminal work by Geoffrey Parker tackles that question with a sweeping assessment of global developments during the period, revealing the suite of innovations that allowed the West to expand so dramatically. Sparking a debate that continues to this day, it is a must-read on the subject of early modern technology, imperialism, and warfare.

I find the very word “novella” delicious. Edith Wharton is one of my favorite writers, and this book is near the top of my deliciousness list. How can you resist a book with a killer first line like this: “I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story.”

The setting is so important here, too: a bitter Massachusetts winter that reflects the tale’s somber mood. Unlike the characters in Wharton’s The Age of Innocence, the characters here are not of the upper class, but in both books the characters share the internal crisis of whether to honor the moral constraints of their times or follow their aching hearts.