The Lunar Society and its canal connections
In this new series, Robert Davies looks at a group of 18th century luminaries and their contribution to the Industrial Revolution.
OCCASIONALLY historians will debate the question – why did the Industrial Revolution take place in Britain and not elsewhere? The discussion will take note of certain inventions, the availability of capital, entrepreneurialism and all kinds of other forces, even the fact that we were a nation of tea drinkers – which helped to keep the workforce healthy!
And the truth is, there were many contributing factors, but a most important one was the gathering of men (sorry girls, but it was nearly all men) into groups that had a great zeal for knowledge and advancement. One group that probably had more influence on the change from an agriculturalbased world to an industrial world, and especially the world of canals, was The Lunar Society. But just who were they?
They were a group of individuals who, although coming from diverse social backgrounds and a variety of geographical locations, became firm friends.
The group included James Watt, of steam engine fame; Matthew Boulton, one of the first men to operate a modern-style factory; Josiah Wedgwood, who created stylish pottery of international renown; James Keir, the adventurer chemist; Joseph Priestly, clergyman/philosopher and chemist; Samuel Galton, the arms manufacturer; Erasmus Darwin, doctor, poet and inventor, of Lichfield; Dr William Small, William Withering and a few occasional luminaries such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Day and Richard Lovell Edgeworth.
Though often divided in their political and religious persuasions, these men were united in friendship, advancement of science and a love of knowledge. Legend has it that they were unofficially called Lunatics initially by
Samuel Galton’s butler, because it was convenient to travel and meet in their various homes at night by a full moon. No street lights in those days, you see.
Some of the names you will instantly recognise from your school history lessons, others are less well known. How do we start to describe them? Well, they were doctors, engineers, businessmen, scientists and even clergymen, but added to that, they were also family men and above all friends. Friends who loved to talk, to share a meal and laughter together and of course to encourage each other in whatever endeavour that they were excited about at that moment.
They mainly kept in touch by letter and between them they wrote hundreds of pieces of fascinating communication. Fortunately for history and for us, much of that correspondence has been preserved. They lived in a time of great social change, the second half of the 18th century. This was the period when cities were growing fast, the factory made its first appearance, and there was a general move by people away from the countryside and into the towns looking for work.
They also had strong views on the French Revolution, a war on class distinctions and the struggle for American independence. This time was also the birth of the Industrial Revolution, which wouldn’t have gone far without the construction of the canal system, and these men were instrumental in the promotion of our industrial canals.
Each man is a study in his own right. There is James Watt with his amazing steam engine, and Joseph Priestly who discovered oxygen; Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the Unites States, but perhaps the most intriguing of the group was the overweight and stammering genius Dr Erasmus Darwin.
Dr Erasmus Darwin
Certainly we automatically think of Charles Darwin, of evolution fame. But it was his grandfather Erasmus who was the real originator of Charles’ thoughts. The teaching that all life came from simple systems is as old as the Greeks, but it was Erasmus with his critical view of the clergy – and various religious teachings – that picked up this ideology and carried it further.
On the side of his personal coach he had the Latin phrase E Conchis Omnia written… ‘all things from shells’. Here is a small sketch of Erasmus from a lady who knew him well.
“What then was my astonishment at beholding him as he slowly got out of the carriage? His figure was vast and massive, his head was almost buried in his shoulders, and he wore a scratch wig as it was then called, tied up in a little bobtail behind. A habit of stammering made the closest attention necessary, in order to understand what he said. Meanwhile, amidst all this, the doctor’s eye was deeply sagacious – his observation was most keen; he constantly detected disease from his sagacious observation of symptoms apparently so slight as to be unobserved by other doctors.”
Certainly Erasmus was more than a doctor, for he was constantly designing and redesigning parts for his horsedrawn carriage, inventing the type of steering that we use on the car today. When unusual bones were dug up at the construction of the Trent & Mersey Canal, it was Erasmus who they consulted for enlightenment.
As the navvies dug deep for the Harecastle tunnel during the 1760s, they came across all kinds of unusual stuff. At the time there was much interest in the age of the earth, and many, including the Lunar members, collected rocks and minerals.
The ancient remains of a large vertebra were sent to Darwin for examination and hopefully identification. Of course the doctor was at a loss as to what they were; and in a letter to Wedgwood he wrote: “The bone seems to be the third vertebra of the back of a camel. The horn is larger than any modern horn I have measured, and must be that of a Patagonian ox….”
Darwin was of course talking through his hat, and Wedgwood knew it, and as the years rolled by, it was Erasmus who developed his theory of evolution. It was however much too early for such an anti-God scheme to be published. Darwin lived under the shadow of Lichfield Cathedral, and he realised that he would cause a great deal of trouble if he took on the religious establishment of that time.
This theory has obviously been rumbling on for more than 100 years, but in 1859, the year that Charles Darwin finally published his Origin of Species he was unaware that much later in the 20th century, the discovery of DNA, and the complexity of the cell, would make many question the validity of this teaching and many scientists have moved over to the ‘Intelligent Design’ camp. And the argument continues.
I hope this article has inspired you to find out more about this fascinating and influential group, maybe take a visit to the Millennium Museum to see Watt’s engine, or even visit Boulton's house in Soho. Certainly as for reading, the first real book on the subject was written and published by Robert Schofield in 1961, entitled The Lunar Society of Birmingham. This is still available, but even on Amazon, is a hefty £56. A more recent work is the excellent and probably more accessible work by Jenny Uglow simply entitled The Lunar Men – The Friends Who Made the Future.