Books
by Jenny Uglow
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Lunar Men: The Friends Who Made the Future |
The Lunar Men were a Birmingham-based group of friends who shared a common interest in science and innovation. All well and good, but when the group includes Darwin Senior, Josiah Wedgwood and James Watt and the ideas they shared helped shape the modern world then it's bound to be a Christmas cake of a book, rich, moist and very full. If anything the suspicion remains that the source material was just a bit too rich!
(Clive Yelf - bwl 51 May 2009) |
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The Lunar Men - The Friends who made the future - 1730 - 1830 |
A fascinating, readable and authoritative history of eighteenth century inventions. The great pioneers of the day, most notably Matthew Bolton, James Watt, Josiah Wedgwood and Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles) dined together each Full Moon to exchange ideas and conduct experiments. The crucial developments, such as steam power, are covered with impressive authority but Jenny Uglow also enriches the story with a woman's eye on the family and social conditions of the day.
(Michael Fitzgerald-Lombard - bwl 18 April 2003) |
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