Summary
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Lunar Society. In the late 18th century, with the ascendant British Empire centred on London, a small group of friends met at a house on the crossroads outside Birmingham and applied their minds to the problems of the age. Between them they managed to launch the Industrial Revolution, discover oxygen, harness the power of steam and pioneer the theory of evolution. They were the Lunar Society, a gathering of free and fertile minds centred on the remarkable quartet of Matthew Boulton, James Watt, Joseph Priestly and Erasmus Darwin. The potter Josiah Wedgwood, another member, summed up the ethos of this group when he said that they were ‘living in an age of miracles in which anything could be achieved’.But how did the Lunar Society operate? What was the blend of religious dissent, entrepreneurial spirit and intellectual adventure that proved so fertile and how did their discoveries permanently change the shape and character of this country?With Simon Schaffer, Reader in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge; Jenny Uglow, Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Warwick and author of The Lunar Men: The Friends who Made the Future; Peter Jones, Professor of French History at the University of Birmingham.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
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| 0:47.2 | Hello in the late 18th century with the ascendant British Empire centered on |
| 0:51.7 | London a small group of friends met at a house on a |
| 0:54.6 | crossroads outside Birmingham and applied their minds to the problems of the age. Between them, |
| 0:59.2 | they helped launch the Industrial Revolution, discover oxygen, harness the power power of steam and pioneer the theory of evolution. |
| 1:05.6 | They were the Lunar Society, a gathering of free and fertile mines centered on the remarkable |
| 1:10.3 | quartet of Matthew Bolton, James Watt, Joseph Priestley, and Erasmus Darwin. |
| 1:14.7 | The Potter, Joseph Wedgwood, another member, summed up the ethos and ambition of this group |
| 1:18.9 | when he said that they were living in an age of miracles in which anything could be achieved. But how did this |
| 1:24.7 | lunar society operate? What was the blend of religious dissent, |
| 1:28.2 | entrepreneurial spirit, and intellectual adventure that proved so fertile? And |
| 1:32.0 | how did their discoveries permanently |
| 1:34.0 | change the shape and character of this country. With me to discuss the Lunar Society |
| 1:38.7 | at Jenny Uglo, honorary visiting professor at the University of Warwick and author of |
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