Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...
is one of England's principal industrial centres and has a history of industrial and scientific innovation. It was once known as '
city of a thousand trades' and in 1791,
Arthur Young (the writer and commentator on British economic life) described Birmingham as "the first manufacturing town in the world".
Right up until the mid-19th century Birmingham was regarded as the prime industrial urban town in Britain and perhaps the world, the town's rivals were more specific in their trade bases.
Mill
Mill may refer to:
Science and technology
*
* Mill (grinding)
* Milling (machining)
* Millwork
* Textile mill
* Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel
* List of types of mill
* Mill, the arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine early ...
s and
foundries across the world were helped along by the advances in
steam power
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be tra ...
and
engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...
that were taking place in the city. The town offered a vast array of industries and was the world's leading manufacturer of metal ware, although this was by no means the only trade flourishing in the town.
By the year 2000, of the 4,000 inventions copyrighted annually in the UK, 2,800 came from within a 35-mile radius of Birmingham. Peter Colegate of the
Patent Office stated that "Every year, Birmingham amazes us by coming up with thousands of inventions. It is impossible to explain but people in the area seem to have a remarkable ability to come up with, and have the dedication to produce, ideas."
While the time line of industry and innovation listed below is extensive, it is by no means a comprehensive list of Birmingham's industrial and scientific achievements, more a guide to highlight the great diversity in the city's industrial might, which can still be seen today.
Pre-17th century
![Deritendware Jug and Sherds](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Deritendware_Jug_and_Sherds.jpg)
Birmingham's reputation for trade and innovation really begins to take off in the 12th century with the expansion of a market held there by the
De Birmingham family
The de Birmingham family (or de Bermingham) held the lordship of the manor of Birmingham in England for four hundred years and managed its growth from a small village into a thriving market town. They also assisted in the invasion of Ireland ...
. Around this time the
Birmingham Bull Ring
The Bull Ring is a major shopping area in central Birmingham England, and has been an important feature of Birmingham since the Middle Ages, when its market was first held. Two shopping centres have been built in the area; in the 1960s, and the ...
begins to take shape, and with the town's markets there arises a necessity to produce items good enough to be sold elsewhere.
Medieval crafts in the town include
textiles
Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...
,
leather
Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffalo, pigs and hog ...
working and
iron
Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in ...
working, with archaeological evidence also suggesting the presence of
pottery
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and ...
,
tile
Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or ...
manufacture and probably the working of bone and horn. The following period sees the new town expand rapidly in highly favourable economic circumstances and there is archaeological evidence of small-scale industries taking place such as
kiln
A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...
s producing the distinctive local
Deritend ware pottery.
The following decades, Birmingham becomes very productive in several trades
metal working, including making small, high value items, possibly
jewellery
Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry ( U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a w ...
or metal ornaments, for Master of the
Knights Templar
, colors = White mantle with a red cross
, colors_label = Attire
, march =
, mascot = Two knights riding a single horse
, equipment ...
. They are sufficiently well known to be referred to without explanation as far away as London.
![John Rogers - Willem van de Passe](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/John_Rogers_-_Willem_van_de_Passe.jpg)
Birmingham's first notable literary figure is
John Rogers, the compiler and editor of the 1537 ''
Matthew Bible
''The Matthew Bible'', also known as ''Matthew's Version'', was first published in 1537 by John Rogers, under the pseudonym "Thomas Matthew". It combined the New Testament of William Tyndale, and as much of the Old Testament as he had been able ...
'', parts of which he also translates. This is the first complete authorised version of the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...
to be printed in the English language and the most influential of the early English printed Bibles, providing the basis for the later ''
Great Bible
The Great Bible of 1539 was the first authorised edition of the Bible in English, authorised by King Henry VIII of England to be read aloud in the church services of the Church of England. The Great Bible was prepared by Myles Coverdale, worki ...
'' and the ''
Authorized King James Version
The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by sponsorship of K ...
''. Rogers' 1548 translation of
Philip Melanchthon
Philip Melanchthon. (born Philipp Schwartzerdt; 16 February 1497 – 19 April 1560) was a German Lutheran reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, intellectual leader of the L ...
's ''Weighing of the Interim'', possibly translated in
Deritend
Deritend is a historic area of Birmingham, England, built around a crossing point of the River Rea. It is first mentioned in 1276. Today Deritend is usually considered to be part of Digbeth.
History
Deritend was a crossing point of the River Rea ...
, is the first book by a Birmingham man known to have been printed in England.
By the early 16th century Birmingham has already evolved into a well established arms manufacturing town, in 1538 churchman John Leialand passes through the Midlands and writes:
![Nye-Almanacke](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Nye-Almanacke.jpg)
''I came through a praty street or ever I entered Bermingham. This street, as I remember, is called Dirty (Deritend). In it dwells smiths and cutlers and there is a brooke that divides this street from Bermingham ........ There be many smiths in the towne, that use to make knives and all manner of cutting tools, and many lorimers that make bittes, and a great many naylours, so that a great part of the towne is maintained by smiths, who have their iron and sea-coal out of Staffordshire."''
Birmingham loses its
Lord of the Manor
Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...
in the 16th century, and the district as a whole remains an area of weak lordship throughout the following centuries. With local government remaining essentially
manorial, the townspeoples' resulting high degree of economic and social freedom is to be a highly significant factor in Birmingham's subsequent development.
![Saker](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Saker.jpg)
In 1642 the early Birmingham mathematician and astronomer
Nathaniel Nye
Nathaniel Nye (baptised 1624 – after 1647) was an English mathematician, astronomer, cartographer and gunner.
Biography
Nye was baptised in St Martin in the Bull Ring, Birmingham on 18 April 1624, and was probably the son of a governor of t ...
publishes ''A New Almanacke and Prognostication calculated exactly for the faire and populous Towne of Birmicham in Warwickshire, where the Pole is elevated above the Horizon 52 degrees and 38 minutes, and may serve for any part of this Kingdome''.
Birmingham's principal tradesmen during the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I (" Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of r ...
were the smiths, who were called upon to manufacture over 15,000 sword blades, these are supplied to
Parliamentarian forces only. One of the town's leading minds, 'Nathaniel Nye' is recorded as testing a Birmingham cannon in 1643. Nye also experimented with a
saker
Saker may refer to:
* Saker falcon (''Falco cherrug''), a species of falcon
* Saker (cannon), a type of cannon
* Saker Baptist College, an all-girls secondary school in Limbe, Cameroon
* Grupo Saker-Ti, a Guatemalan writers group formed in 1947
* ...
in
Deritend
Deritend is a historic area of Birmingham, England, built around a crossing point of the River Rea. It is first mentioned in 1276. Today Deritend is usually considered to be part of Digbeth.
History
Deritend was a crossing point of the River Rea ...
in 1645. From 1645 he became the master gunner to the
Parliamentarian garrison at
Evesham
Evesham () is a market town and parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon. It lies within the Vale of Eves ...
and in 1646 he successfully directs the artillery at the
Siege of Worcester, detailing his experiences and in his 1647 book ''The Art of Gunnery'', believing that war is as much a science as an art.
![Snaphance Lock, External View, Cocked](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Snaphance_Lock%2C_External_View%2C_Cocked.png)
The earliest known clock makers in the town arrived from London in 1667. Between 1770 and 1870 there are over 700 clock and watch makers in the town.
In 1689 Sir
Richard Newdigate, one of the new, local
Newdigate baronets, approaches manufacturers in the town with the notion of supplying the British Government with
small arms
A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions).
The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes ...
. It is stressed that they would need to be of high enough calibre to equal the small arms that were being imported from abroad. After a successful trial order in 1692, the Government places its first contract. On 5 January 1693, the "Officers of Ordnance" chooses five local firearms manufacturers to initially produce 200 "
snaphance musquets" per month over the period of one year, paying 17
shilling
The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence ...
s per musket, plus 3 shillings per
hundredweight
The hundredweight (abbreviation: cwt), formerly also known as the centum weight or quintal, is a British imperial and US customary unit of weight or mass. Its value differs between the US and British imperial systems. The two values are disti ...
for delivery to London. During the 18th century, Birmingham became the leading supplier of guns for the expanding British Empire.
18th century
1722: Richard Baddeley,
ironmonger, patents a method for "casting wheel streaks and
box irons".
1727: Birmingham is becoming a hot-bed of creative activity and local businessman and bookseller
Thomas Warren
Thomas Warren (fl. 1727–1767) was an English bookseller, printer, publisher and businessman.
Warren was an influential figure in Birmingham at a time when it was a hotbed of creative activity, opening a bookshop in High Street, Birmingham arou ...
opens a bookshop in the Birmingham's High Street. Warren is an influential figure in Birmingham at this time.
![Birmingham Journal 1733](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Birmingham_Journal_1733.jpg)
1732: The ''
Birmingham Journal'' is founded and published from Thomas Warren's book store. This is possibly Birmingham's first weekly
newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, spor ...
; one of its contributors is the very notable
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...
of nearby
Lichfield
Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west o ...
.
1733: Thomas Warren edits and publishes Samuel Johnson's first original writing—a translation of
Jerónimo Lobo's Voyage to Abyssinia. Johnson works for the Journal while he lodges with Warren. Johnson later moves on to greater things and
James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 ( N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of his friend and older contemporary the English writer ...
writes of Johnson's life: "After nine years of work, Johnson's ''
A Dictionary of the English Language
''A Dictionary of the English Language'', sometimes published as ''Johnson's Dictionary'', was published on 15 April 1755 and written by Samuel Johnson. It is among the most influential dictionaries in the history of the English language.
T ...
'' was published in 1755; it had a far-reaching effect on Modern English and has been described as "one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship". The dictionary brings Johnson popularity and success. Until the completion of the ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a c ...
'' 150 years later, Johnson's dictionary is among the most influential dictionaries in the history of the
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...
.
![Waterframe](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Waterframe.jpg)
1738:
Lewis Paul
Lewis Paul (died 1759) was the original inventor of roller spinning, the basis of the water frame for spinning cotton in a cotton mill.
Life and work
Lewis Paul was of Huguenot descent. His father was physician to Lord Shaftesbury. He may hav ...
and
John Wyatt, of Birmingham, patent the
roller spinning machine and the flyer-and-bobbin system, for drawing
cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...
to a more even thickness, using two sets of rollers that travel at different speeds. This principle later becomes the basis of
Richard Arkwright
Sir Richard Arkwright (23 December 1732 – 3 August 1792) was an English inventor and a leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial Revolution. He is credited as the driving force behind the development of the spinning frame, known as ...
's
water frame
The water frame is a spinning frame that is powered by a water-wheel. Water frames in general have existed since Ancient Egypt times. Richard Arkwright, who patented the technology in 1769, designed a model for the production of cotton thread; ...
.
1741:
John Wyatt, mechanic and inventor, designs and constructs a cart-weighing machine, later referred to as a
compound lever
The compound lever is a simple machine operating on the premise that the resistance from one lever in a system of levers acts as effort for the next, and thus the applied force is transferred from one lever to the next. Almost all scales use som ...
weighing machine; the design works by way of levers that hold in place a platform, no matter where the weight is placed the load is transferred to a central lever. Weights attached to that lever then help in obtaining a reading of accurate weight. The simplicity, efficiency and accuracy of the weighing machine prove extremely popular across England, subsequently weighing errors are reduced to approximately one pound per ton, this remains a high standard of measurement into the mid-19th century.
1741: The
Upper Priory Cotton Mill
The Upper Priory Cotton Mill, opened in Birmingham, England in the summer of 1741, was the world's first mechanised cotton-spinning factory or cotton mill. Established by Lewis Paul and John Wyatt in a former warehouse in the Upper Priory, near ...
opens as the world's first
mechanised cotton-spinning factory. It is financed by local businessman
Thomas Warren
Thomas Warren (fl. 1727–1767) was an English bookseller, printer, publisher and businessman.
Warren was an influential figure in Birmingham at a time when it was a hotbed of creative activity, opening a bookshop in High Street, Birmingham arou ...
, and opened by John Wyatt and Lewis Paul.
1742:
John Baskerville
John Baskerville (baptised 28 January 1707 – 8 January 1775) was an English businessman, in areas including japanning and papier-mâché, but he is best remembered as a printer and type designer. He was also responsible for inventing "w ...
takes out a patent for making
metal
A metal (from ancient Greek, Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, e ...
mouldings, rolling, grinding and
japanning
Japanning is a type of finish that originated as a European imitation of East Asian lacquerwork. It was first used on furniture, but was later much used on small items in metal. The word originated in the 17th century. American work, with ...
metal plates by use of weights, rollers and pickling, which Baskerville uses over the more traditional method of employing screws. This is the first patent for making metal mouldings by passing them through rolls of a certain profile.
![Restored carding machine at Quarry Bank Mill](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Restored_carding_machine_at_Quarry_Bank_Mill.jpg)
1743: A factory opens in
Northampton
Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England ...
, fifty spindles turned on five of Paul and Wyatt's machines proving more successful than their first mill. This operates until 1764.
1746: The Colmore family release land on what is later to be known as the
Jewellery Quarter to help satisfy the demands of an increasing population.
1746: A
sulphuric acid
Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid ( Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen and hydrogen, with the molecular for ...
factory is set up at
Steelhouse Lane to use the
lead chamber process invented by its co-founder
John Roebuck. Roebuck and local businessman
Samuel Garbett later relocate to
Prestonpans
Prestonpans ( gd, Baile an t-Sagairt, Scots language, Scots: ''The Pans'') is a small mining town, situated approximately eight miles east of Edinburgh, Scotland, in the Council area of East Lothian. The population as of is. It is near the si ...
in Scotland, taking with them several skilled men from the Birmingham factory. It is here in 1762 where Roebuck takes out a patent for making
malleable iron
Malleable iron is cast as white iron, the structure being a metastable carbide in a pearlitic matrix. Through an annealing heat treatment, the brittle structure as first cast is transformed into the malleable form. Carbon agglomerates into sma ...
.
1748: Lewis Paul invents the hand driven
carding
Carding is a mechanical process that disentangles, cleans and intermixes fibres to produce a continuous web or sliver suitable for subsequent processing. This is achieved by passing the fibres between differentially moving surfaces covered with ...
machine. A coat of wire slips are placed around a card, which is then wrapped around a cylinder. Lewis's invention is later developed and improved by Richard Arkwright and
Samuel Crompton
Samuel Crompton (3 December 1753 – 26 June 1827) was an English inventor and pioneer of the spinning industry. Building on the work of James Hargreaves and Richard Arkwright he invented the spinning mule, a machine that revolutionised th ...
, although this comes about under great suspicion after a fire at
Daniel Bourn's factory in
Leominster
Leominster ( ) is a market town in Herefordshire, England, at the confluence of the River Lugg and its tributary the River Kenwater. The town is north of Hereford and south of Ludlow in Shropshire. With a population of 11,700, Leominster i ...
that specifically uses Paul and Wyatt's spindles. Bourn produces a similar patent in the same year.
1757: Rev John Dyer of Northampton recognises the importance of the Paul and Wyatt cotton spinning machine in poem:
![Westley---East-Prospect-of-Birmingham-1732](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Westley---East-Prospect-of-Birmingham-1732.jpg)
:A circular machine, of new design
:In conic shape: it draws and spins a thread
:Without the tedious toil of needless hands.
:A wheel, invisible, beneath the floor,
:To ev'ry member of th' harmonius frame,
:Gives necessary motion. One, intent,
:O'erlooks the work; the carded wool, he says,
:Is smoothly lapp'd around those cylinders,
:Which, gently turning, yield it to yon' cirque
:Of upright spindles, which with rapid whirl
:Spin out, in long extent, an even twine.
![Baskerville - Industry and Genius](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Baskerville_-_Industry_and_Genius.jpg)
1757:
Baskerville serif typeface is designed by
John Baskerville
John Baskerville (baptised 28 January 1707 – 8 January 1775) was an English businessman, in areas including japanning and papier-mâché, but he is best remembered as a printer and type designer. He was also responsible for inventing "w ...
(1706–1775) in Birmingham, England. Baskerville is classified as a transitional typeface, positioned between the old style typefaces of William
Caslon
Caslon is the name given to serif typefaces designed by William Caslon I (c. 1692–1766) in London, or inspired by his work.
Caslon worked as an engraver of punches, the masters used to stamp the moulds or matrices used to cast metal ty ...
, and the modern styles of Giambattista
Bodoni
Bodoni is the name given to the serif typefaces first designed by Giambattista Bodoni (1740–1813) in the late eighteenth century and frequently revived since. Bodoni's typefaces are classified as Didone or modern. Bodoni followed the ideas o ...
and Firmin
Didot Didot may refer to:
* Didot family, family of French printers, punch-cutters and publishers that flourished mainly in the 18th century
* Didot (typeface), a group of serif typefaces
* the Didot Point (typography)
In typography, the point is the ...
.
1758: Paul and Wyatt improve their Roller Spinning machine and take out a second patent. Richard Arkwright later uses this as the model for his
water frame
The water frame is a spinning frame that is powered by a water-wheel. Water frames in general have existed since Ancient Egypt times. Richard Arkwright, who patented the technology in 1769, designed a model for the production of cotton thread; ...
.
1758:
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading int ...
first travels to Birmingham "to improve and increase Acquaintance among Persons of Influence", and later returns in 1760 to conduct experiments with Boulton on
electricity
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describe ...
and
sound
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by ...
. Franklin remains a common link among many of the early
Lunar Society
The Lunar Society of Birmingham was a British dinner club and informal learned society of prominent figures in the Midlands Enlightenment, including industrialists, natural philosophers and intellectuals, who met regularly between 1765 and 1813 ...
members.
1759: A patent is granted to Thomas Blockley (
locksmith), for rolling
iron
Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in ...
into different forms and making (metal) wheel tyres.
1762:
Matthew Boulton
Matthew Boulton (; 3 September 172817 August 1809) was an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engin ...
opens the
Soho Foundry
Soho Foundry is a factory created in 1775 by Matthew Boulton and James Watt and their sons Matthew Robinson Boulton and James Watt Jr. at Smethwick, West Midlands, England (), for the manufacture of steam engines. Now owned by Avery Weigh-Tr ...
engineering works, Handsworth; his partnership with Scottish engineer
James Watt
James Watt (; 30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was ...
makes the
steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be ...
into the power plant for the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
. The term "
horsepower
Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are t ...
" is coined by Watt.
![Sohohouse1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Sohohouse1.JPG)
1765:
The Lunar Society begins life as a dinner club and informal learned society of prominent figures in the
Midlands Enlightenment
The Midlands Enlightenment, also known as the West Midlands Enlightenment or the Birmingham Enlightenment, was a scientific, economic, political, cultural and legal manifestation of the Age of Enlightenment that developed in Birmingham and the wide ...
, including industrialists, natural philosophers and intellectuals, who meet regularly until 1813 in Birmingham. A paper read at the Science Museum in London in 1963 claims that "of all the provincial philosophical societies it was the most important, perhaps because it was not merely provincial. All the world came to Soho to meet Boulton, Watt or Small, who were acquainted with the leading men of Science throughout Europe and America." The Midlands Enlightenment dominates the
experience of the Enlightenment within England and its leading thinkers have international influence. In particular, it forms a pivotal link between the earlier
Scientific Revolution
The Scientific Revolution was a series of events that marked the emergence of modern science during the early modern period, when developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology (including human anatomy) and chemistry transforme ...
and the later
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
, facilitating the exchange of ideas between experimental science, polite culture and practical technology that enables the technological preconditions for rapid economic growth to be attained.
![Old bess steam engine 1777](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Old_bess_steam_engine_1777.jpg)
1767: A number of prominent Birmingham businessmen, including Matthew Boulton and others from the Lunar Society,
hold a public meeting in the White Swan, High Street,
[''Smethwick and the BCN'', Malcolm D. Freeman, 2003, Sandwell MBC and Smethwick Heritage Centre Trust] to consider the possibility of building a canal from Birmingham to the
Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal
The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal is a navigable narrow canal in Staffordshire and Worcestershire in the English Midlands. It is long, linking the River Severn at Stourport in Worcestershire with the Trent and Mersey Canal at Haywood ...
near
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunians ...
, taking in the coalfields of the
Black Country
The Black Country is an area of the West Midlands county, England covering most of the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall. Dudley and Tipton are generally considered to be the centre. It became industrialised during its ...
. They commission the
canal engineer James Brindley
James Brindley (1716 – 27 September 1772) was an English engineer. He was born in Tunstead, Derbyshire, and lived much of his life in Leek, Staffordshire, becoming one of the most notable engineers of the 18th century.
Early life
Born i ...
to propose a route. Brindley comes back with a largely level route via
Smethwick
Smethwick () is an industrial town in Sandwell, West Midlands, England. It lies west of Birmingham city centre. Historically it was in Staffordshire.
In 2019, the ward of Smethwick had an estimated population of 15,246, while the wider b ...
,
Oldbury,
Tipton
Tipton is an industrial town in the West Midlands in England with a population of around 38,777 at the 2011 UK Census. It is located northwest of Birmingham.
Tipton was once one of the most heavily industrialised towns in the Black Country, w ...
,
Bilston
Bilston is a market town, ward, and civil parish located in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. It is close to the borders of Sandwell and Walsall. The nearest towns are Darlaston, Wednesbury, and Willenhall. Historically in Staffordshi ...
and Wolverhampton to Aldersley.
This kick-starts what is to become the Birmingham Canal Navigations
Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) is a network of canals connecting Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and the eastern part of the Black Country. The BCN is connected to the rest of the English canal system at several junctions. It was owned and opera ...
.
1770: James Watt applies the first screw propeller
A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upo ...
to an early steam engine at his Birmingham works, thus beginning the use of a hydrodynamic screw for propulsion.
1775: Ketley's Building Society
Ketley's Building Society, founded in Birmingham, England, in 1775, was the world's first building society.
The society was formed by Richard Ketley, the landlord at the Golden Cross inn at 60 Snow Hill. Taverns and coffeehouses were important me ...
is founded and becomes the world's first building society
A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization. Building societies offer banking and related financial services, especially savings and mortgage lending. Building societies exist in the United Ki ...
. Midland Bank
Midland Bank Plc was one of the Big Four banking groups in the United Kingdom for most of the 20th century. It is now part of HSBC. The bank was founded as the Birmingham and Midland Bank in Union Street, Birmingham, England in August 1836. It ...
(now owned by HSBC
HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tr ...
) and Lloyds Bank
Lloyds Bank plc is a British retail and commercial bank with branches across England and Wales. It has traditionally been considered one of the " Big Four" clearing banks. Lloyds Bank is the largest retail bank in Britain, and has an exte ...
are also founded in Birmingham.
1777: Boulton and Watt build ' Old Bess', as described by the London science museums 'an engine that stands at a crossroads in history'.
1779: James Keir takes out a patent for a compound metal that is capable of being forged when hot or cold more fit for the making of bolts, nails, and sheathing for ships prior to anything before. This metal uses the same compounds and similar quantities of metals as the patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...
of Muntz metal, which appears at the same time.
1779: Matthew Wasbrough designs and builds the Pickard Engine (first crank engine) for James Pickard of Snow Hill, this is defined as 'the first atmospheric engine in the world to directly achieve rotary motion by the use of a crank and flywheel
A flywheel is a mechanical device which uses the conservation of angular momentum to store rotational energy; a form of kinetic energy proportional to the product of its moment of inertia and the square of its rotational speed. In particular, as ...
.'
1779: James Watt patents a copying press or 'letter copying machine' to deal with the mass of paper work at his business; he also invents an ink to work with it. This is the first widely used copy machine for offices and is a commercial success, being used for over a century. This letter copying press is considered to be the original photocopier
A photocopier (also called copier or copy machine, and formerly Xerox machine, the generic trademark) is a machine that makes copies of documents and other visual images onto paper or plastic film quickly and cheaply. Most modern photocopier ...
.
1781: James Watt markets his rotary-motion steam engine. The earlier steam engine's vertical movement was ideal for operating water pump
A pump is a device that moves fluids (liquids or gases), or sometimes slurries, by mechanical action, typically converted from electrical energy into hydraulic energy. Pumps can be classified into three major groups according to the method they ...
s but the new engine
An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy.
Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...
can be adapted to drive all sorts of machinery. Richard Arkwright
Sir Richard Arkwright (23 December 1732 – 3 August 1792) was an English inventor and a leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial Revolution. He is credited as the driving force behind the development of the spinning frame, known as ...
pioneers its use in his cotton mills and within 15 years there are 500+ Boulton & Watt steam engines in British factories and mines. Boulton also arranges, in 1775, an Act of Parliament
Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of parliame ...
extending the term of Watt's 1769 patent to 1799.
1784: James Watt
James Watt (; 30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was ...
refers to a two-speed transmission in patent No. 1432, which relates to steam carriage
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...
s: The concept of changing speed (or a variable velocity) in gearing, which could arguably be the seed of thought for all subsequent gearing systems.
"Motion rom a steam engineis communicated to the axle-tree of one or more wheels of the carriage by means of the "circulating rotative to machinery" formerly patented by the inventor. Two or more loose wheels of different diameters are placed to be locked on the axle and impart extra power for bad roads or steep ascents."
1785: William Withering
William Withering FRS (17 March 1741 – 6 October 1799) was an English botanist, geologist, chemist, physician and first systematic investigator of the bioactivity of digitalis.
Withering was born in Wellington, Shropshire, the son of a surg ...
publishes ''An Account of the Foxglove and some of its Medical Uses'', pioneering its use as a cardiac
The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide to t ...
drug, Digitalis
''Digitalis'' ( or ) is a genus of about 20 species of herbaceous perennial plants, shrubs, and biennials, commonly called foxgloves.
''Digitalis'' is native to Europe, western Asia, and northwestern Africa. The flowers are tubular in shap ...
.
1785: James Watt and William Murdoch
William Murdoch (sometimes spelled Murdock) (21 August 1754 – 15 November 1839) was a Scottish engineer and inventor.
Murdoch was employed by the firm of Boulton & Watt and worked for them in Cornwall, as a steam engine erector for ten yea ...
invent the oscillating cylinder
An oscillating cylinder steam engine (also known as a wobbler in the US) is a simple steam-engine design (proposed by William Murdoch at the end of 18th century) that requires no valve gear. Instead the cylinder rocks, or oscillates, as the cra ...
and double action engine. Around this time James Watt creates a governor and throttle
A throttle is the mechanism by which fluid flow is managed by constriction or obstruction.
An engine's power can be increased or decreased by the restriction of inlet gases (by the use of a throttle), but usually decreased. The term ''throttle' ...
valve
A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fitting ...
for automatically regulating the supply of steam
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizatio ...
to an engine
An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy.
Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...
although no patents for this are taken out by Watt.
1788: Boulton and Watt build the rotative steam engine also known as a piston engine
A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common feat ...
, an improved steam engine whose smooth reciprocating action enable it to drive a variety of rotary machinery.
1790: W. Richardson publishes ''The Chemical Principles of the Metallic Arts: designed chiefly for the use of Manufacturers'', which is used to help with diseases associated with the metal working industry.
1794: Ralph Heaton patents a steam powered machine for mass-producing button
A button is a fastener that joins two pieces of fabric together by slipping through a loop or by sliding through a buttonhole.
In modern clothing and fashion design, buttons are commonly made of plastic but also may be made of metal, wood, o ...
shanks. This is one of the earliest forms of mechanical mass production and steam powered machine tool operation.
Around this time William Futrell (a well known Birmingham pugilist
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...
) becomes publisher of possibly the first British boxing
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...
paper.
1797: Matthew Boulton
Matthew Boulton (; 3 September 172817 August 1809) was an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engin ...
erects at Soho a complete coining plant with which he strikes coins for the Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...
and East India
East India is a region of India consisting of the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha
and West Bengal and also the union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The region roughly corresponds to the historical region of Magad ...
companies and for Russia, and produces a new copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...
coin
A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order ...
age for Britain. Also in 1797, he takes out a British patent in connection with raising water on the principle of the hydraulic ram
A hydraulic ram, or hydram, is a cyclic water pump powered by hydropower. It takes in water at one "hydraulic head" (pressure) and flow rate, and outputs water at a higher hydraulic head and lower flow rate. The device uses the water hammer ef ...
although one of a similar nature appears in France at around the same time.
1799: The first bellcrank
A bellcrank is a type of crank that changes motion through an angle. The angle can be any angle from 0 to 360 degrees, but 90 degrees and 180 degrees are most common. The name comes from its first use, changing the vertical pull on a rope to a ho ...
engine is patented by William Murdoch
William Murdoch (sometimes spelled Murdock) (21 August 1754 – 15 November 1839) was a Scottish engineer and inventor.
Murdoch was employed by the firm of Boulton & Watt and worked for them in Cornwall, as a steam engine erector for ten yea ...
while working for Boulton and Watt. It is the first compact, self-contained engine.
Among the products Matthew Boulton
Matthew Boulton (; 3 September 172817 August 1809) was an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engin ...
seeks to make in his new facility are sterling silver plate
Plating is a surface covering in which a metal is deposited on a conductive surface. Plating has been done for hundreds of years; it is also critical for modern technology. Plating is used to decorate objects, for corrosion inhibition, to impro ...
for those able to afford it, and Sheffield plate
Sheffield plate is a layered combination of silver and copper that was used for many years to produce a wide range of household articles. Almost every article made in sterling silver was also crafted by Sheffield makers, who used this manufactu ...
, silver-plated copper, for those less well off. Boulton and his father make small silver items throughout the 18th century, and there is no record of large items in either silver
Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...
or Sheffield plate being made in Birmingham before Boulton does so. To make items such as candlestick
A candlestick is a device used to hold a candle in place. Candlesticks have a cup or a spike ("pricket") or both to keep the candle in place. Candlesticks are less frequently called "candleholders".
Before the proliferation of electricity, candl ...
s more cheaply than the London competition, the firm makes many items out of thin, die-stamped sections, which are shaped and joined together.
One impediment to Boulton's work is the lack of an assay office Assay offices are institutions set up to assay (test the purity of) precious metals. This is often done to protect consumers from buying fake items. Upon successful completion of an assay (i.e. if the metallurgical content is found be equal or bett ...
in Birmingham. The silver toys long made by the family firm are generally too light to require assaying, but silver plate has to be sent over 70 miles (110 km) to the nearest assay office, at Chester
Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...
, to be assayed and hallmark
A hallmark is an official mark or series of marks struck on items made of metal, mostly to certify the content of noble metals—such as platinum, gold, silver and in some nations, palladium. In a more general sense, the term '' hallmark'' can a ...
ed, with the attendant risks of damage and loss. Alternatively they can be sent to London, but this exposes them to the risk of being copied by competitors.
Boulton writes in 1771, "I am very desirous of becoming a great silversmith
A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exactly synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product may vary grea ...
, yet I am determined not to take up that branch in the large way I intended, unless powers can be obtained to have a marking hall ssay officeat Birmingham."
Boulton petitions Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
for the establishment of an assay office in Birmingham. Though the petition is bitterly opposed by London goldsmith
A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Nowadays they mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, goldsmiths have also made silverware, platters, goblets, decorative and servicea ...
s, he is successful in getting Parliament to pass an act establishing assay offices in Birmingham and Sheffield, whose silversmiths face similar difficulties in transporting their wares. The act is passed in March 1773, to grant Birmingham and Sheffield the right to assay silver.
1773: The Birmingham Assay Office
The Birmingham Assay Office, one of the four assay offices in the United Kingdom, is located in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham. The development of a silver industry in 18th century Birmingham was hampered by the legal requirement that item ...
opens on 31 August and the town becomes a leading manufacturer of all types of silver ware spanning three centuries. The Assay office can still be visited today by appointment and is situated near to the city's well renowned Jewellery Quarter.
1793: "A gentleman of the name of Hand" in Birmingham obtains a patent for preparing flexible leather
Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffalo, pigs and hog ...
having a glaze and polish that renders it impervious to water and needing only be wiped with a sponge to restore it to its original lustre. This is later recognised as patent leather and is further improved by other inventors.
At some time around the late 18th or early 19th century a stand-alone cooking range or stove
A stove or range is a device that burns fuel or uses electricity to generate heat inside or on top of the apparatus, to be used for general warming or cooking. It has evolved highly over time, with cast-iron and induction versions being develope ...
is invented by John Heard (joiner), capable of roasting, boiling, baking and of course heating a room. The products of combustion are carried off by means of a flue leading to the chimney, the inventor mentions it is particularly suitable for use on board ships. This is possibly the first of its kind, as earlier stoves such as the Franklin stove do not appear to have flues attached and require a hearth and chimney to function, also it is not until the turn of the 19th century that other stoves begin appearing for cooking as well as heating a room.
19th century
1802: The exterior of the Soho Foundry
Soho Foundry is a factory created in 1775 by Matthew Boulton and James Watt and their sons Matthew Robinson Boulton and James Watt Jr. at Smethwick, West Midlands, England (), for the manufacture of steam engines. Now owned by Avery Weigh-Tr ...
is lit with gas lighting
Gas lighting is the production of artificial light from combustion of a gaseous fuel, such as hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, coal gas (town gas) or natural gas. The light is produced either directly ...
by William Murdoch
William Murdoch (sometimes spelled Murdock) (21 August 1754 – 15 November 1839) was a Scottish engineer and inventor.
Murdoch was employed by the firm of Boulton & Watt and worked for them in Cornwall, as a steam engine erector for ten yea ...
. Murdoch, its developer, worked for Matthew Boulton
Matthew Boulton (; 3 September 172817 August 1809) was an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engin ...
and James Watt
James Watt (; 30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was ...
at Soho. This becomes the basis for Birmingham's immense gas industry, which incorporates many products and trades that rely on gas to work.
1811: Henry James
Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...
takes out a patent for propelling vessels by steam, via a paddle wheel
A paddle wheel is a form of waterwheel or impeller in which a number of paddles are set around the periphery of the wheel. It has several uses, of which some are:
* Very low-lift water pumping, such as flooding paddy fields at no more than a ...
fixed in the middle of the stern and steered by two fins to relieve leggers from the arduous duty of pushing boats through canal tunnels.
1814: Thomas Dobbs (actor) invents a reaping machine
A reaper is a farm implement or person that reaps (cuts and often also gathers) crops at harvest when they are ripe. Usually the crop involved is a cereal grass. The first documented reaping machines were Gallic reapers that were used in Roma ...
, which consists of a circular saw or sickle; the grain is drawn or fed up to the saw by means of a pair of rollers. This predates William Bell's straw cutting machine.
1821: Emanuel Heaton, gun finisher, takes out a patent for a watertight pan for gun lock
Gun safety is the study and practice of using, transporting, storing and disposing of firearms and ammunition, including the training of gun users, the design of weapons, and formal and informal regulation of gun production, distribution, and u ...
s.
1823: Francis Deakin improves a method of stringing the piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
by employing the screw and nut as opposed to the previously used wooden peg, thus allowing a greater tension and strength of wire.
1824: American inventor William Church patents a printing machine in his Birmingham works, which positions the paper sheets more accurately. He is a prolific inventor, taking out numerous patents for methods of button making, nail making, metal working, smelting iron, spinning and other branches of engineering.
1824: John Cadbury begins selling tea, coffee
Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world.
Seeds of ...
, and drinking chocolate, which he produces himself, at Bull Street. He later moves into the production of a variety of cocoa
Cocoa may refer to:
Chocolate
* Chocolate
* ''Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree
* Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao''
* Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter an ...
and drinking chocolates, made in a factory in Bridge Street and sold mainly to the wealthy because of the high cost of production. John Cadbury becomes a partner with his brother Benjamin and the company they form is called 'Cadbury Brothers of Birmingham'.
The brothers open an office in London and in 1854 they receive the Royal Warrant as manufacturers of chocolate and cocoa to Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...
. In the 1850s the industry receives a much needed boost, with the reduction in the high import taxes on cocoa, allowing chocolate to be more affordable to everybody. Cadbury's later becomes one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the world and is still in production across the world today with a major production plant in Bournville
Bournville () is a model village on the southwest side of Birmingham, England, founded by the Quaker Cadbury family for employees at its Cadbury's factory, and designed to be a "garden" (or "model") village where the sale of alcohol was forb ...
.
1828: Josiah Mason
Sir Josiah Mason (23 February 1795 – 16 June 1881) was an English industrialist, engaged in pen manufacture and other trades, and a philanthropist. He founded Mason Science College in 1875, which later became the University of Birmingham.
Bi ...
improves a cheap, efficient slip-in nib that can be added to a fountain pen
A fountain pen is a writing instrument which uses a metal nib (pen), nib to apply a Fountain pen ink, water-based ink to paper. It is distinguished from earlier dip pens by using an internal reservoir to hold ink, eliminating the need to repeat ...
.
1830: With the invention of a new machine, William Joseph Gillott, John Mitchell and James Stephen Perry devise a way to mass-produce robust, cheap steel pen nibs. This boosts the Birmingham pen trade
The Birmingham pen trade evolved in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter and its surrounding area in the 19th century; for many years, the city was the centre of the world's pen trade, with most dip pens being produced there. At the height of the Jew ...
and by the 1850s, Birmingham exists as a world centre for steel pen and steel nib manufacture; more than half the steel-nib pens manufactured in the world are made in Birmingham. Thousands of skilled craftsmen and -women are employed in the industry. Many new manufacturing techniques are perfected, enabling the city's factories to mass-produce their pens cheaply and efficiently. These are sold worldwide to many who previously cannot afford to write, thus encouraging the development of education and literacy.
1830s: Thomas Ridgway
{{for, the Illinois politician and banker, Thomas S. Ridgway
Thomas Ridgway was an English trader who specialised in the import and sale of tea during the early 19th century.
Tea business
His first shop was in the Bull Ring area of Birmingham; ...
begins trading in the Bull Ring, selling tea. Ridgway later goes bankrupt. Setting up business in London, he pays back all of his creditors and continues his tea trade, becoming one of the first English tea companies to hygienically prepack tea so as to avoid adulteration. In 1876, Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...
commands House of Ridgways to create a blend for her own personal use.
1832: Muntz metal is patented, an alpha-beta brass with about 40% zinc and 60% copper. Its original use is as a replacement for the copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...
lining placed on the bottom of boats as it maintains the anti-fouling abilities of the pure form.
It costs around two-thirds that of pure copper and has identical properties for this application, it becomes the material of choice and Muntz makes his fortune. A notable use of Muntz Metal is in the hull of the Cutty Sark
''Cutty Sark'' is a British clipper ship. Built on the River Leven, Dumbarton, Scotland in 1869 for the Jock Willis Shipping Line, she was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest, coming at the end of a long period ...
.
1832: William Chance, owner of a Birmingham iron merchants, invests in his brothers failing glass works in nearby Smethwick
Smethwick () is an industrial town in Sandwell, West Midlands, England. It lies west of Birmingham city centre. Historically it was in Staffordshire.
In 2019, the ward of Smethwick had an estimated population of 15,246, while the wider b ...
. After saving the company, this partnership later becomes the Chance Brothers
Chance Brothers and Company was a glassworks originally based in Spon Lane, Smethwick, West Midlands (formerly in Staffordshire), in England. It was a leading glass manufacturer and a pioneer of British glassmaking technology.
The Chance fam ...
. The company relies on local workers, and at one stage is known as "... the greatest glass manufacturer in Britain", taking advantage of the Birmingham Canal Navigations and the Industrial Revolution in the region. Great advances in glass manufacture take place such as perfection of the earliest optical lens
A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements ...
es to block the harmful ultraviolet
Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation ...
rays of the sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
and improvements in lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.
Lighthouses m ...
illumination. The company is responsible for glazing the original Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace may refer to:
Places Canada
* Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick
* Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario
* Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...
to house the Great Exhibition
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held), was an international exhibition which took pl ...
of 1851, and the Houses of Parliament
The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north ban ...
(built 1840–1860). At that time it is the only firm that is able to make the opal glass for the four faces of the Westminster Clock Tower that houses the famous bell, Big Ben
Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster, at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, England, and the name is frequently extended to refer also to the clock and the clock tower. The officia ...
. The ornamental windows for the White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
in America are also made at Chances.
1832: A form of German silver is invented by Charles Askins, this is used to make spoons and cutlery
Cutlery (also referred to as silverware, flatware, or tableware), includes any hand implement used in preparing, serving, and especially eating food in Western culture. A person who makes or sells cutlery is called a cutler. The city of Sheffie ...
specifically in the Birmingham area.
1837: Bird's Custard is first formulated and cooked by Alfred Bird, because his wife is allergic
Allergies, also known as allergic diseases, refer a number of conditions caused by the hypersensitivity of the immune system to typically harmless substances in the environment. These diseases include hay fever, food allergies, atopic der ...
to eggs
Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...
, the key ingredient used to thicken traditional custard. Bird's custard powder later becomes famous around the world.
1838: Charles Green patents an original and unique method of producing solid, seamless brass
Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wi ...
and copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...
tubes, around this time much development takes place in Birmingham and Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...
with regard to copper tubing and printing plates.
1839: After many years of research, innovation and campaigning, Rowland Hill
Sir Rowland Hill, KCB, FRS (3 December 1795 – 27 August 1879) was an English teacher, inventor and social reformer. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of Uniform Penny Post and his solut ...
(of Kidderminster and later Birmingham) is given a two-year contract to run his new postal system. Hill is an English teacher, inventor and social reformer
A reform movement or reformism is a type of social movement that aims to bring a social or also a political system closer to the community's ideal. A reform movement is distinguished from more radical social movements such as revolutionary move ...
. He campaigns for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of penny postage The Penny Post is any one of several postal systems in which normal letters could be sent for one penny. Five such schemes existed in the United Kingdom while the United States initiated at least three such simple fixed rate postal arrangements.
U ...
and his solution of prepayment facilitates the safe, speedy and cheap transfer of letters. Hill later serves as a government postal official, and he is usually credited with originating the basic concepts of the modern postal service
The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal syst ...
, including the invention of the postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the f ...
(his brother Edwin Hill helps the service with further innovations).
1839: Sir Edward Thomason improves the gun lock by making the cock detachable by the thumb and finger as well as making improvements to prevent misfires.
George Elkington
George Richards Elkington (17 October 1801 – 22 September 1865) was a manufacturer from Birmingham, England. He patented the first commercial electroplating process.
Biography
Elkington was born in Birmingham, the son of a spectacle manuf ...
and Henry Elkington found the English electroplating
Electroplating, also known as electrochemical deposition or electrodeposition, is a process for producing a metal coating on a solid substrate through the reduction of cations of that metal by means of a direct electric current. The part to be ...
industry in the early 19th century. In 1840, they aid John Wright, who discovers that potassium cyanide
Potassium cyanide is a compound with the formula KCN. This colorless crystalline salt, similar in appearance to sugar, is highly soluble in water. Most KCN is used in gold mining, organic synthesis, and electroplating. Smaller applications inc ...
is a suitable electrolyte
An electrolyte is a medium containing ions that is electrically conducting through the movement of those ions, but not conducting electrons. This includes most soluble salts, acids, and bases dissolved in a polar solvent, such as water. Upon ...
for gold and silver electroplating.
Carl Wilhelm Siemens has several meetings with George Elkington, and makes speeches on 'Science and Industry,' to the Birmingham and Midland Institute
The Birmingham and Midland Institute (popularly known as the Midland Institute) (), is an institution concerned with the promotion of education and learning in Birmingham, England. It is now based on Margaret Street in Birmingham city centre. It ...
, he later sets up a works in Birmingham and carries out experiments on metals and telegraphy
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...
.
1845: During the late 1830s, canal steam boats begin operating with limited success but in 1845, Birmingham engineer John Inshaw
John Inshaw (1807–1893) was a mechanic and inventor who lived in Aston, now a district of Birmingham, England. Inshaw designed and built machinery for the railway and shipping industries and constructed a steam carriage. He was consulted by Geo ...
builds the first twin-screw canal steamers. Inshaw finds great success through his engineering and in 1859 the owners of the Ashby Canal
The Ashby-de-la-Zouch Canal is a long canal in England which connected the mining district around Moira, just outside the town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, with the Coventry Canal at Bedworth in Warwickshire. It was opened in 1804, ...
ban his steamer "Pioneer", claiming it erodes the canal banks. It is later allowed to run no faster than 4 mph, thus begin speed limits on British waterways
British Waterways, often shortened to BW, was a statutory corporation wholly owned by the government of the United Kingdom. It served as the navigation authority for the majority of canals and a number of rivers and docks in England, Scotlan ...
. Inshaw's "Pioneer" is successful and later inspires other steam boats such as those built for the Grand Junction Canal
The Grand Junction Canal is a canal in England from Braunston in Northamptonshire to the River Thames at Brentford, with a number of branches. The mainline was built between 1793 and 1805, to improve the route from the Midlands to London, b ...
. Inshaw is also consulted by George Stephenson
George Stephenson (9 June 1781 – 12 August 1848) was a British civil engineer and mechanical engineer. Renowned as the "Father of Railways", Stephenson was considered by the Victorians
In the history of the United Kingdom and the ...
on the design of wheels for steam locomotives.
1847: William Stroudley
William Stroudley (6 March 1833 – 20 December 1889) was an English railway engineer, and was one of the most famous steam locomotive engineers of the nineteenth century, working principally for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (L ...
joins Birmingham engineer John Inshaw
John Inshaw (1807–1893) was a mechanic and inventor who lived in Aston, now a district of Birmingham, England. Inshaw designed and built machinery for the railway and shipping industries and constructed a steam carriage. He was consulted by Geo ...
as one of his most successful pupils. Stroudley later becomes one of Britain's most famous steam locomotive engineers of the 19th century, working principally for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR; known also as the Brighton line, the Brighton Railway or the Brighton) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at its ...
(LB&SCR). He designs some of the most famous and longest-lived steam locomotives of his era.
Birmingham glass
Glass is a non- crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenchin ...
works are among the early mass-producers of uranium glass
Uranium glass is glass which has had uranium, usually in oxide diuranate form, added to a glass mix before melting for colouration. The proportion usually varies from trace levels to about 2% uranium by weight, although some 20th-century piec ...
. Manufacturers include Bacchus, Green & Green (later George Bacchus & Sons), Union Glassworks, in the 1840s, and Lloyd & Summerfield in the 1850s, who are the first to use uranium in glass commercially.
1849: William Tranter takes out the first of many patents for his improvements in manufacture of the firearm
A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions).
The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes ...
.
The use of weather charts in a modern sense begins in the middle portion of the 19th century. Weather map pioneers include William Charles Redfield, William Reid, Elias Loomis, and Birmingham's Sir Francis Galton
Sir Francis Galton, FRS FRAI (; 16 February 1822 – 17 January 1911), was an English Victorian era polymath: a statistician, sociologist, psychologist, anthropologist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, prot ...
, who creates the first weather maps in order to devise a theory on storm systems.
Galton formulates (and later coins the term for) eugenics
Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior o ...
as well as questionnaire
A questionnaire is a research instrument that consists of a set of questions (or other types of prompts) for the purpose of gathering information from respondents through survey or statistical study. A research questionnaire is typically a mix ...
s and many important tools in statistics
Statistics (from German: '' Statistik'', "description of a state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, indust ...
. Galton avidly supports the theories of his cousin Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...
, and also furthers the most important advances in fingerprinting
A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. The recovery of partial fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of forensic science. Moisture and grease on a finger result in fingerprints on surfac ...
.
1851: John Nettlefold, screw manufacturer, attends the Paris exhibition. He later buys exclusive rights to use Thomas Sloan
Thomas Henry Sloan (1870–1941) was an Irish and British politician and founder of the Independent Orange Order. He represented the Belfast South constituency as an Independent Unionist at the Westminster parliament from 1902 to 1910.
Caree ...
's machine for making screws, which is in the show. With adaptation of the machine for their Birmingham premises and inspiration of Birmingham mass production methods, Nettlefold & Chamberlain become Britain's leading screw-making firm.
1854: Birmingham chemist
A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...
Thomas Allcock invents the porous plaster
Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...
for the relief of pain in New York after fighting as a General
A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". O ...
for the New York Heavy Artillery during the American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
after emigrating in 1845 aged 20.
1857: Joseph Sturge buys the Elberton Sugar Estate and converts it into a lime production plant. The Montserrat
Montserrat ( ) is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, with roughly of coastline. It is n ...
Co. Ltd. is formed in Edgbaston by J.& E. Sturge. Lime juice is produced in the city and then exported for use in the manufacture of citric acid
Citric acid is an organic compound with the chemical formula HOC(CO2H)(CH2CO2H)2. It is a colorless weak organic acid. It occurs naturally in citrus fruits. In biochemistry, it is an intermediate in the citric acid cycle, which occurs in ...
. The failure of Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
's lemon crop at this time results in an opening in the market, which Sturge takes great advantage of utilizing their extensive chemical
A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., w ...
works based in Edgbaston. He also tries to prove that Free labour can be made profitable (the Sturge family are instrumental in the anti-slavery movement). A company is set up by the Sturge and Albright families who fund the development of Montserrat estates in 1867.
1858: After several failed attempts of launching the steam ship
A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...
, Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel (; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history," "one of the 19th-century engineering giants," and "on ...
turns to Richard Tangye's more powerful hydraulic rams
A hydraulic ram, or hydram, is a cyclic water pump powered by hydropower. It takes in water at one "hydraulic head" (pressure) and flow rate, and outputs water at a higher hydraulic head and lower flow rate. The device uses the water hammer ef ...
, which are successfully employed in the launch.
/ref>
Richard Tangye's company then acquires the patent of the differential pulley-block in 1859, and in 1862 he invents the Tangye Patent hydraulic jack
A jack is a mechanical lifting device used to apply great forces or lift heavy loads. A mechanical jack employs a screw thread for lifting heavy equipment. A hydraulic jack uses hydraulic power. The most common form is a car jack, floor jack o ...
. This results in the 1862 purchase and demolition of Soho-located Smethwick Hall, on the site of which is built the Cornwall Works.
1867: The patent for a new type of direct-acting steam pump is acquired, in 1869 Tangye Ltd is commissioned to design the hydraulic systems for the UK's first funicular
A funicular (, , ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to opposite ...
cliff railway in Scarborough, North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by national parks, including most of the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. It is one of four co ...
and in 1870 the company commences the manufacture of steam engines
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be tra ...
. Richard Tangye and his brother George found the Birmingham Art Gallery
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BM&AG) is a museum and art gallery in Birmingham, England. It has a collection of international importance covering fine art, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery, natural history, archaeology, ethnography, l ...
in 1885, which today has a collection of international importance covering fine art, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery, archaeology, ethnography, local history and industrial history. They also found the Birmingham School of Art
The Birmingham School of Art was a municipal art school based in the centre of Birmingham, England. Although the organisation was absorbed by Birmingham Polytechnic in 1971 and is now part of Birmingham City University's Faculty of Arts, Design ...
.
1859: The first ever game of lawn tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cove ...
is played in Edgbaston
Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre.
In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family ...
, international tennis is still played at Edgbaston's Priory Club.
The first celluloid
Celluloids are a class of materials produced by mixing nitrocellulose and camphor, often with added dyes and other agents. Once much more common for its use as photographic film before the advent of safer methods, celluloid's common contemporary ...
as a bulk material for forming objects is invented in 1856 by Alexander Parkes
Alexander Parkes (29 December 1813 29 June 1890) was a metallurgist and inventor from Birmingham, England. He created Parkesine, the first man-made plastic.
Biography
The son of a manufacturer of brass locks, Parkes was apprenticed to Messenge ...
. Many years later, and with the recognition of celluloid as a format for making photographic film, an American court declares Parkes as the true inventor of celluloid.
1862: the thermoplastic
A thermoplastic, or thermosoft plastic, is any plastic polymer material that becomes pliable or moldable at a certain elevated temperature and solidifies upon cooling.
Most thermoplastics have a high molecular weight. The polymer chains associate ...
Parkesine
Celluloids are a class of materials produced by mixing nitrocellulose and camphor, often with added dyes and other agents. Once much more common for its use as photographic film before the advent of safer methods, celluloid's common contemporary ...
is showcased at the Great International Exhibition in London. Invented by Alexander Parkes, this celluloid is credited by the London Science Museum to be "generally accepted as the first plastic". (This presumably refers to synthetic plastic formed into objects: it is predated by the 1848 collodion
Collodion is a flammable, syrupy solution of nitrocellulose in ether and alcohol. There are two basic types: flexible and non-flexible. The flexible type is often used as a surgical dressing or to hold dressings in place. When painted on the skin, ...
, a nitrocellulose
Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton, pyroxylin and flash string, depending on form) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitric acid and ...
-based solution that dries to a celluloid-like film but is useless for industrial purposes, (as well as several natural plastics).
1862: James Moore Clements of Livery Street, who has already invented an improved machine for making buttonhole
Buttonholes are reinforced holes in fabric that buttons pass through, allowing one piece of fabric to be secured to another. The raw edges of a buttonhole are usually finished with stitching. This may be done either by hand or by a sewing machin ...
s, is granted a patent for a new arrangement of 'stitching the hole'.
1863: William Sumner (founder of Typhoo
Typhoo (sometimes stylized as Ty•Phoo) is a brand of tea in the United Kingdom. It was launched in 1903 by John Sumner Jr. of Birmingham, England.
History
In 1863, William Sumner published ''A Popular Treatise on Tea'' as a by-product ...
) publishes "A Popular Treatise on Tea". In 1870, Sumner starts a pharmacy/grocery business on the High Street, Birmingham. This grows and forces Sumner to move to new premises on Castle Street and then on to Bordesley Street at the canalside. Typhoo tea later becomes one of the largest teabag makers in Britain. The brand is now based in Wirral.
1865: The steel wire, some 16,000 miles long, for sheathing the first successful Transatlantic telegraph cable
Transatlantic telegraph cables were undersea cables running under the Atlantic Ocean for telegraph communications. Telegraphy is now an obsolete form of communication, and the cables have long since been decommissioned, but telephone and data a ...
is made by Webster and Horsfall, Birmingham.
1865: Joseph Hinks
Joseph Hinks (1840 – 24 April 1931) was a British manufacturer, working in Birmingham. With his father, James Hinks, he patented improvements to oil lamps, marketing the resultant Duplex lamp.
Joseph was born in 1840 in Birmingham, the son of ...
sets up James Hinks & Son, of 91-96 Great Hampton Street and 66 Hockley Street. He patents improvements to oil lamps, marketing the resultant Duplex Lamp, which is later used across the world and becomes a popular choice for railway workers.
1868: C.H. Gould patents a British stapler
A stapler is a mechanical device that joins pages of paper or similar material by driving a thin metal staple through the sheets and folding the ends. Staplers are widely used in government, business, offices, work places, homes and schools.
...
, although it remains unclear as to how different this is from U.S. patents of the same age.
1868: John Barnes Linnett patents the world's first flip book
A flip book, flipbook, flicker book, or kineograph is a booklet with a series of images that very gradually change from one page to the next, so that when the pages are viewed in quick succession, the images appear to animate by simulating moti ...
.
1873: William Westley Richards, gunmakers, takes out the first of many patents relating to the firearm, for which gold medal
A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture.
Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have be ...
s and royal warrants were awarded.
1875: Joseph Lucas
Joseph Lucas (12 April 1834 – 27 December 1902) was a lamp manufacturer and the founder of electrical equipment manufacturer Lucas Industries.
Career
Born in Carver Street, Hockley, Birmingham, England in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter and ...
begins making lamps for ships, concentrating on the new types of lamp burning paraffin and petroleum
Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...
for which there is considerable demand. The business becomes Lucas Industries
Lucas Industries plc was a Birmingham-based British manufacturer of motor industry and aerospace industry components. Once prominent, it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was formerly a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In August 1996 ...
.
1876: William Bown patents a design for the wheels of roller skates
Roller skates, are shoes or bindings that fit onto shoes that are worn to enable the wearer to roll along on wheels. The first roller skate was an inline skate design, effectively an ice skate with wheels replacing the blade. Later the "quad s ...
that embodies his effort to keep the two bearing surfaces of an axle
An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, beari ...
, fixed and moving, apart. Bown works closely with Joseph Henry Hughes, who draws up the patent for a ball or roller bearing
In mechanical engineering, a rolling-element bearing, also known as a rolling bearing, is a bearing which carries a load by placing rolling elements (such as balls or rollers) between two concentric, grooved rings called races. The relative m ...
race for bicycle and carriage
A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping ...
wheels that includes all the elements of an adjustable system in 1877.
1878: Joseph Hudson makes the first whistle
A whistle is an instrument which produces sound from a stream of gas, most commonly air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a small slide whistle or nose flute type to a lar ...
ever to be used by a football referee. It is used for the first time at a game held at Nottingham Forest, this replaces the referee's use of the handkerchief to attract footballers attention. Later, in 1883 Hudson invents and manufactures the first police whistle for the Metropolitan police force, prior to this police use hand rattles, whistles are usually used as musical instruments or toys. His whistle is still used by the force and many others today. In 1884 Hudson invents the world's most successful whistle to date, the 'Acme Thunderer' (the first ever pea whistle). The whistle is used as an alarm or attention instrument by all manner of industries, sports and revelers. It continues to sell in great quantities throughout the world.
1880: Gamgee Tissue, a surgical dressing with a thick layer of absorbent cotton wool between two layers of absorbent gauze, is invented by Joseph Sampson Gamgee. It represents the first use of cotton wool in a medical context, and is a major advancement in the prevention of infection of surgical wounds. It is still the basis for many modern surgical dressings. Gamgee also invents the aseptic technique
Asepsis is the state of being free from disease-causing micro-organisms (such as pathogenic bacteria, viruses, pathogenic fungi, and parasites). There are two categories of asepsis: medical and surgical. The modern day notion of asepsis is deri ...
, a procedure that is performed under sterile conditions. This includes medical and laboratory techniques, such as with microbiological cultures. It includes techniques like flame sterilization. The largest example of aseptic techniques is in hospital operating theatres. J. R. R. Tolkien later bases The Lord of the Rings
''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's bo ...
character 'Sam Gamgee
Sam, SAM or variants may refer to:
Places
* Sam, Benin
* Sam, Boulkiemdé, Burkina Faso
* Sam, Bourzanga, Burkina Faso
* Sam, Kongoussi, Burkina Faso
* Sam, Iran
* Sam, Teton County, Idaho, United States, a populated place
People and fictiona ...
' on this character as they live near to Mr Gamgee.
During the late 19th century, Birmingham companies such as Joseph Lucas & Sons and Powell & Hammer pioneered the production of bicycle lamps and lantern
A lantern is an often portable source of lighting, typically featuring a protective enclosure for the light sourcehistorically usually a candle or a oil lamp, wick in oil, and often a battery-powered light in modern timesto make it easier to ca ...
s for ships, capitalising on the advances in using acetylene gas. The Birmingham lamps were exported around the world, with the Lucas company later becoming famous for manufacturing components related to the motor industry
The automotive industry comprises a wide range of companies and organizations involved in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing, and selling of motor vehicles. It is one of the world's largest industries by revenue (from 16 % such ...
and aerospace
Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and ast ...
industry. Richard Bissell Prosser(1838–1918) writes 58 lives for the ''Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
'', and supplies much material for the ''New English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a ...
''. Prosser also writes Birmingham Inventors and Inventions, 1881 and is a pioneer of the study of technical history, his published biographies and manuscript records are an incomparable source for present-day researchers. His father Richard Prosser (1804–1854), engineer and inventor, was heavily involved with the introduction of the Patent Law Amendment Act of 1852, and his 700-volume library, combined with that of Bennet Woodcroft
Bennet Woodcroft FRS (20 December 1803 – 7 February 1879) was an English textile manufacturer, industrial archaeologist, pioneer of marine propulsion, a leading figure in patent reform and the first clerk to the commissioners of patents.
B ...
forms the basis of the Patent Office Library.
1879: Harry Lucas designs a hub lamp for use in a high bicycle and names the oil lamp "King of the Road".
1881: Birmingham businessman John Skirrow Wright
John Skirrow Wright (2 February 1822 – ) was one of the distinguished pioneers and social improvers of the 19th century in Birmingham, England; and inventor of the postal order. He was involved in many aspects of Birmingham's mid-Victorian l ...
invents the postal order
A postal order or postal note is a type of money order usually intended for sending money through the mail. It is purchased at a post office and is payable at another post office to the named recipient. A fee for the service, known as poundage, ...
and its use subsequently spreads across the world. Skirrow becomes one of the prominent pioneers and social improvers of the 19th century.
John Richard Dedicoat invents a bicycle bell, his patents for bicycle bells appear as early as 1877. Apprenticed to James Watt, Dedicoat goes on to become a bicycle manufacturer and makes and sells the "Pegasus" bicycle.
1883: Surgeon
In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...
and gynaecologist
Gynaecology or gynecology (see spelling differences) is the area of medicine that involves the treatment of women's diseases, especially those of the reproductive organs. It is often paired with the field of obstetrics, forming the combined ar ...
Lawson Tait, pioneer of several surgical procedures, carries out the world's first successful operation on a ruptured ectopic pregnancy
Ectopic pregnancy is a complication of pregnancy in which the embryo attaches outside the uterus. Signs and symptoms classically include abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding, but fewer than 50 percent of affected women have both of these symptom ...
.
1884: John Berry Haycraft
John Berry Haycraft FRSE (bapt. 15 March 1857 – 30 December 1922) was a British physician and professor in physiology who carried out important medical research.
Biography
Haycraft was born in Lewes, East Sussex, England, in 1857, the son o ...
has been actively engaged in research and published papers on the coagulation
Coagulation, also known as clotting, is the process by which blood changes from a liquid to a gel, forming a blood clot. It potentially results in hemostasis, the cessation of blood loss from a damaged vessel, followed by repair. The mechanism ...
of blood
Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the cir ...
and in 1884, he discovers that the leech
Leeches are segmented parasitism, parasitic or Predation, predatory worms that comprise the Class (biology), subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida. They are closely related to the Oligochaeta, oligochaetes, which include the earthwor ...
secretes a powerful anticoagulant
Anticoagulants, commonly known as blood thinners, are chemical substances that prevent or reduce coagulation of blood, prolonging the clotting time. Some of them occur naturally in blood-eating animals such as leeches and mosquitoes, where t ...
, which he names hirudin
Hirudin is a naturally occurring peptide in the salivary glands of blood-sucking leeches (such as '' Hirudo medicinalis'') that has a blood anticoagulant property. This is fundamental for the leeches’ habit of feeding on blood, since it keeps ...
.
1885: Birmingham School of Art
The Birmingham School of Art was a municipal art school based in the centre of Birmingham, England. Although the organisation was absorbed by Birmingham Polytechnic in 1971 and is now part of Birmingham City University's Faculty of Arts, Design ...
becomes the first Municipal
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...
School of Art. It later becomes the leading centre for the Arts and Crafts movement.
1885: The world's first professional football league
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...
is founded at a meeting in Aston
Aston is an area of inner Birmingham, England. Located immediately to the north-east of Central Birmingham, Aston constitutes a ward within the metropolitan authority. It is approximately 1.5 miles from Birmingham City Centre.
History
Aston wa ...
under the auspices of William McGregor, a director of Aston Villa
Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park, ...
.
1889: Charles Pinkney of Tangyes perfects a gas engine
A gas engine is an internal combustion engine that runs on a gaseous fuel, such as coal gas, producer gas, biogas, landfill gas or natural gas. In the United Kingdom, the term is unambiguous. In the United States, due to the widespread use of ...
, this comes about through his experimentation with a hydrocarbon
In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons are generally colourless and hydrophobic, and their odors are usually weak or ...
gas producer and a bituminous
Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term ...
coal gas
Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous ...
generator. The engine proves to be more economical that an earlier Four-stroke Otto cycle engine.
1891: The Dunlop Rubber Company
Dunlop Ltd. (formerly Dunlop Rubber) was a British multinational company involved in the manufacture of various natural rubber goods. Its business was founded in 1889 by Harvey du Cros and he involved John Boyd Dunlop who had re-invented and ...
co-founded by John Boyd Dunlop
John Boyd Dunlop (5 February 1840 – 23 October 1921) was a Scottish-born inventor and veterinary surgeon who spent most of his career in Ireland. Familiar with making rubber devices, he invented the first practical pneumatic tyres for his c ...
established its Birmingham factory Fort Dunlop
Fort Dunlop (), is the common name of the original tyre factory and main office of Dunlop Rubber in the Erdington district of Birmingham, England. It was established in 1917, and by 1954 the entire factory area employed 10,000 workers. At one ...
, later to become the focus of Dunlop as one of the largest multinational manufacturers of automotive and aeronautical tyres.
1894: Richard Norris, a doctor of medicine and professor of physiology at Queen's College, Birmingham, brings out a new patent of dry plate used in photography and is generally credited with the first development of the collodion
Collodion is a flammable, syrupy solution of nitrocellulose in ether and alcohol. There are two basic types: flexible and non-flexible. The flexible type is often used as a surgical dressing or to hold dressings in place. When painted on the skin, ...
dry plate in the 1860s.
1895: Frederick William Lanchester
Frederick William Lanchester LLD, Hon FRAeS, FRS (23 October 1868 – 8 March 1946), was an English polymath and engineer who made important contributions to automotive engineering and to aerodynamics, and co-invented the topic of operations ...
and his brother build the first petrol driven four-wheeled car in Britain. Lanchester also experiments with the wick carburetor
A carburetor (also spelled carburettor) is a device used by an internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the venturi tube in the main meteri ...
, fuel injection
Fuel injection is the introduction of fuel in an internal combustion engine, most commonly automotive engines, by the means of an injector. This article focuses on fuel injection in reciprocating piston and Wankel rotary engines.
All com ...
, turbochargers
In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (often called a turbo) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to p ...
and invents the accelerator pedal
Car controls are the components in automobiles and other powered road vehicles, such as trucks and buses, used for driving and parking.
While controls like steering wheels and pedals have existed since the invention of cars, other controls have ...
and first uses the pendulum governor for controlling the speed of a car engine. In 1893 he designs and builds his first engine (a vertical single cylinder) that is fitted to the first British motorboat
A motorboat, speedboat or powerboat is a boat that is exclusively powered by an engine.
Some motorboats are fitted with inboard engines, others have an outboard motor installed on the rear, containing the internal combustion engine, the gea ...
.
1895: Herbert Austin
Herbert Austin, 1st Baron Austin (8 November 186623 May 1941) was an English automobile designer and builder who founded the Austin Motor Company. For the majority of his career he was known as Sir Herbert Austin, and the Northfield bypass ...
, an employee at Wolseley Sheep Shearing Company, becomes interested in engines and automobiles. During the winter of 1895–96 he makes his own version of a design by Léon Bollée
Léon Bollée (1 April 1870 – 16 December 1913) was a French automobile manufacturer and inventor.
Life
Bollée's family were well known bellfounders and his father, Amédée Bollée (1844–1917), was the major pioneer in the automobile i ...
that he has seen in Paris. Later he finds that another British group have bought the rights, therefore Austin has to come up with a design of his own.
Two years later, the second Wolseley car is revealed. It is a three-wheeled design featuring independent rear suspension, mid-engine and back-to-back seating for two adults. Four years later the Wolseley Gasoline Carriage is built featuring a steering wheel instead of a tiller. Austin manages the new Wolseley company for a short time before resigning to form his own concern, the Austin Motor Company
The Austin Motor Company Limited was an English manufacturer of motor vehicles, founded in 1905 by Herbert Austin in Longbridge. In 1952 it was merged with Morris Motors Limited in the new holding company British Motor Corporation (BMC) Li ...
, in 1905.
Wolseley later becomes a successful car and engine maker selling upmarket cars, and even opens a lavish showroom, Wolseley House, in Piccadilly
Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earl's Cour ...
London (next to the Ritz Hotel, now housing a restaurant called The Wolseley). The company is later merged in other motor car companies.
1896: The first radiograph
Radiography is an imaging technique using X-rays, gamma rays, or similar ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation to view the internal form of an object. Applications of radiography include medical radiography ("diagnostic" and "therapeut ...
used to assist in surgery
Surgery ''cheirourgikē'' (composed of χείρ, "hand", and ἔργον, "work"), via la, chirurgiae, meaning "hand work". is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pa ...
is taken in Birmingham by the British pioneer of medical X-ray
An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...
s, Major John Hall-Edwards thus kick-starting a whole new field of medical science.
1896: A new building is built in Corporation Street to house James Henry Cook's vegetarian
Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter.
Vegetariani ...
restaurant
A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...
, one of the first in England. In 1898, ' The Pitman Vegetarian Hotel', named after the famous vegetarian Sir Isaac Pitman
Sir Isaac Pitman (4 January 1813 – 22 January 1897) was a teacher of the :English language who developed the most widely used system of shorthand, known now as Pitman shorthand. He first proposed this in ''Stenographic Soundhand'' in 18 ...
, opens on the same site, and the proprietors subsequently open a long-running health food store
A health food store (or health food shop) is a type of grocery store that primarily sells health foods, organic foods, local produce, and often nutritional supplements. Health food stores typically offer a wider or more specialized selection of ...
.
1896: The first 'public' trial in Birmingham of a "horseless carriage" or motor car takes place at Cannon Hill Park.
1897: John Benjamin Stone
Sir John Benjamin Stone (9 February 1838 – 2 July 1914) was a British Conservative politician and photographer.
Life and career
Stone was born in Duddeston, Birmingham the son of a manager at a local glass works. The business passed into th ...
founds the National Photographic Record Association, of which he becomes president. The National Portrait Gallery holds 62 of his portraits and many photographs of people and places in and around Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...
. His career culminates in 1911 with his appointment as official photographer to the coronation of King George V
The coronation of George V and his wife Mary as King and Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and as Emperor and Empress of India, took place at Westminster Abbey, London, on Thursday 22 June 1911. This was the second of ...
. Stone travels widely in pursuit of his hobby, taking 26,000 photographs, and writing books as he travels. He publishes works and invaluable records of the folk customs and traditions of the British Isles, which later influence photographers of note, such as Tony Ray-Jones
Tony Ray-Jones (7 June 1941 – 13 March 1972) was an English photographer.
Life
Born Holroyd Anthony Ray-Jones in Wells, Somerset, he was the youngest son of Raymond Ray-Jones (1886–1942), a painter and etcher who died when Tony was on ...
.
1897: The Reynolds Tube Company patents the process for making butted bicycle tubes, which are thicker at the ends than in the middle, this allows frame builders to create frames that are both strong and lightweight. Reynolds continues to develop lightweight bicycle frames into the 20th century picking up many awards for wins in races such as the Tour de France
The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...
, the company still makes lightweight frames in the city today.
20th century
Bicycles have been manufactured in the Midlands (mainly Birmingham and Coventry
Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...
) since the mid 19th century. By 1900 Birmingham has the largest number of bicycle makers and component manufacturers in Britain. Several advances in the development of the bicycle take place, one of the longer established high quality manufacturers being the Quadrant Cycle Company
The Quadrant Cycle Company was a company in Birmingham, England that was established in 1890 as a bicycle manufacturer. They advanced to make motorcycles from 1899 until their demise in 1928. They also made a tricar called Carette in 1899 and a s ...
of Sheepcote Street, which later manufactures motorbikes (as do many cycle makers).
Other notable firms are Reynolds (still manufacturing in the city), New Hudson, Rudge-Whitworth
Rudge Whitworth Cycles was a British bicycle, bicycle saddle, motorcycle and sports car wheel manufacturer that resulted from the merger of two bicycle manufacturers in 1894, Whitworth Cycle Co. of Birmingham, founded by Charles Henry Pug ...
(also of Coventry), BSA, CWS, Dawes, Grundle, James Cycle Co
The James Cycle Co Ltd., Greet, Birmingham, England, was one of many British cycle and motorcycle makers based in the English Midlands, particularly Birmingham. Most of their light motorcycles, often with the characteristic maroon finish, used ...
, Ariel, Armstrong Cycles, Phillips Cycles, Excelsior
Excelsior, a Latin comparative word often translated as "ever upward" or "even higher", may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry
* "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
* ''Excelsior'' (Macedo ...
(originally of Coventry), Sun Cycle & Fittings Co, Pashley Cycles
Pashley Cycles is a British bicycle, tricycle and workbike manufacturer based in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England. The company was started in 1926 and still manufactures bikes in the UK.
Formation and early years
In 1926, Will ...
(now manufactured in Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...
) and Hercules Cycle and Motor Company.
Through the 20th century, many of Birmingham's bicycle manufacturers evolve into automobile and motorcycle brands, creating one of the busiest and most productive engineering hubs in the world.
Motor engineering brands such as Wolseley, Lanchester, Metro-Cammell
Metro-Cammell, formally the Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon Company (MCCW), was an English manufacturer of railway carriages, locomotives and railway wagons, based in Saltley, and subsequently Washwood Heath, in Birmingham. Purchased ...
, Austin
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
, Morris, Vickers-Armstrongs
Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, w ...
, New Hudson, Revere, Beardmore Beardmore can refer to:
*Andrew Beardmore, better known as Andy Moor, English trance DJ, producer and remixer
* Bob Beardmore, British rugby league footballer
* Bud Beardmore (1939–2016), American lacrosse coach
* Jim Beardmore, Former All-Ameri ...
, Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
, Ariel, Norton, Rex-Acme
Rex, Rex Motorcycles, Rex-Acme, (not to be confused with the German manufacturer of similar name) was a car and motorcycle company which began in Birmingham, England in 1900. Rex soon merged with a Coventry
Coventry ( or ) is a city in ...
, Alldays & Onions, Velocette, and BSA either originate or have substantial factories in Birmingham, manufacturing motorbikes, buses, tractors, cars, tanks and aeroplanes.
Other diverse engineering companies develop to feed the supply chain of the motoring industry such as Webster and Horsfall (pioneering wire for aircraft and cars), Dunlop Rubber
Dunlop Ltd. (formerly Dunlop Rubber) was a British multinational company involved in the manufacture of various natural rubber goods. Its business was founded in 1889 by Harvey du Cros and he involved John Boyd Dunlop who had re-invented an ...
(supplying rubber and tyres), Lucas Industries
Lucas Industries plc was a Birmingham-based British manufacturer of motor industry and aerospace industry components. Once prominent, it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was formerly a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In August 1996 ...
(pioneering electric and lighting), Accles & Pollock
Accles & Pollock is a British tube manipulation company based in Oldbury, West Midlands.
History
The company was started in 1896 by James George Accles as Accles Ltd, based at Holford Mill in Perry Barr in Birmingham as a producer of cold-drawn ...
(producing tubular sections for aircraft) and Pockley Electric (manufacturing car lights).
1900: Bournville Village Trust is founded by George Cadbury
George Cadbury (19 September 1839 – 24 October 1922) was the third son of John Cadbury, a Quaker who founded Cadbury's cocoa and chocolate company in Britain. He was the husband of Dame Elizabeth Cadbury.
Background
He worked at the sch ...
, this is to make many improvements and set high standards of living and leisure pastimes for factory workers across Britain. Cadbury's
Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company fully owned by Mondelez International (originally Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second largest confectionery brand in the world after M ...
still makes chocolate in the city today and Bournville remains a sought after area to live in.
1900: John Wright invents a much-improved gas fire, which uses fretted columns of fireclay, rather than tufted asbestos
Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...
, to radiate the heat. The Wright design of gas fire heating endures throughout the century, however, electric fires improve at a similar pace.
1902: The first caliper-type automobile disc brake
A disc brake is a type of brake that uses the calipers to squeeze pairs of pads against a disc or a "rotor" to create friction. This action slows the rotation of a shaft, such as a vehicle axle, either to reduce its rotational speed or to h ...
is patented by Frederick William Lanchester
Frederick William Lanchester LLD, Hon FRAeS, FRS (23 October 1868 – 8 March 1946), was an English polymath and engineer who made important contributions to automotive engineering and to aerodynamics, and co-invented the topic of operations ...
in his Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...
factory and used successfully on Lanchester cars. However, the limited choice of metals in this period means that he has to use copper as the braking medium acting on the disc. The poor state of the roads at this time — no more than dusty, rough tracks — means that the copper wears quickly, making the disc brake system non-viable. It is not until 1929, in the same city that manufacturers Girling and New Hudson further develop disc brakes, which are very successful on racing cars from the early 1950s to the 1970s. Girling brakes have the quirk of using natural rubber
Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...
(later nitrile
In organic chemistry, a nitrile is any organic compound that has a functional group. The prefix '' cyano-'' is used interchangeably with the term ''nitrile'' in industrial literature. Nitriles are found in many useful compounds, including me ...
) seals. Girling still manufacture disc brakes in Birmingham today.
1902: George Andrew Darby patents the first electrical heat detector and smoke detector
A smoke detector is a device that senses smoke, typically as an indicator of fire. Smoke detectors are usually housed in plastic enclosures, typically shaped like a disk about in diameter and thick, but shape and size vary. Smoke can be detecte ...
.
1903: Birmingham-born patent lawyer Bertram Hopkinson
Bertram Hopkinson (11 January 1874 – 26 August 1918) was a British patent lawyer and Professor of Mechanism and Applied Mechanics at Cambridge University. In this position he researched flames, explosions and metallurgy and became a pionee ...
is elected to the Cambridge chair in mechanism and applied mechanics, where he carries out early research on tank armour plating.
Hopkinson builds a team of researchers, one of whom is Harry Ricardo
Sir Harry Ralph Ricardo (26 January 1885 – 18 May 1974) was an English engineer who was one of the foremost engine designers and researchers in the early years of the development of the internal combustion engine.
Among his many other works ...
, the engineer who makes his name for his pioneering work on internal combustion engines
An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal combust ...
. Hopkinson encourages Ricardo to work on engines.
1903: Brummie Francis William Aston
Francis William Aston FRS (1 September 1877 – 20 November 1945) was a British chemist and physicist who won the 1922 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery, by means of his mass spectrograph, of isotopes in many non-radioactive elements a ...
wins a scholarship
A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need.
Scholars ...
to the University of Birmingham
, mottoeng = Through efforts to heights
, established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...
and in his studies of electronic discharge tubes he discovers the phenomenon now known as the Aston Dark Space. He later moves to the Cavendish Laboratory
The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the School of Physical Sciences. The laboratory was opened in 1874 on the New Museums Site as a laboratory for experimental physics and is named ...
in Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
, where he uses a method of electromagnetic focusing to invent the mass spectrograph
Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are presented as a '' mass spectrum'', a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Mass spectrometry is us ...
, which rapidly allows him to identify no fewer than 212 of the 287 naturally occurring isotope
Isotopes are two or more types of atoms that have the same atomic number (number of protons in their nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemical element), and that differ in nucleon numbers ( mass num ...
s. His work on isotopes also leads to his formulation of the Whole Number Rule, which is later used extensively in the development of nuclear energy. In 1922 he wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...
for the invention of the mass spectrometer.
1905: A manually powered domestic vacuum cleaner
A vacuum cleaner, also known simply as a vacuum or a hoover, is a device that causes suction in order to remove dirt from floors, upholstery, draperies, and other surfaces. It is generally electrically driven.
The dirt is collected by either a ...
is invented by manufacturer Walter Griffiths of 72, Conybere Street, Highgate. It is originally patented as 'Griffiths' Improved Vacuum Apparatus for Removing Dust from Carpets'. Although an electric cleaner is patented in 1901 by H. Cecil Booth, Griffiths' design is more similar to modern portable cleaners than Booth's cart-mounted device.
1905: Herbert Austin
Herbert Austin, 1st Baron Austin (8 November 186623 May 1941) was an English automobile designer and builder who founded the Austin Motor Company. For the majority of his career he was known as Sir Herbert Austin, and the Northfield bypass ...
begins making cars at Longbridge
Longbridge is an area of Northfield in the south-west of Birmingham, England, located near the border with Worcestershire.
Public Transport
Longbridge is described as a hub for public transport with a number of bus services run by Kev's Co ...
, many improvements in mass car manufacture and production later arise from these car works. Seventeen years later the Austin 7
The Austin 7 is an economy car that was produced from 1923 until 1939 in the United Kingdom by Austin. It was nicknamed the "Baby Austin" and was at that time one of the most popular cars produced for the British market and sold well abroad. ...
goes into production, it becomes one of the most popular cars ever produced for the British market, its effect on the British market is similar to that of the Model T Ford
The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans. The relat ...
in the USA. Austin's designs and production help set up other car brands around the world that later become famous in their own right, such as BMW, Nissan
, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the Nissan, Infiniti, and Datsun bra ...
and Lotus.
1905: Accles & Pollock
Accles & Pollock is a British tube manipulation company based in Oldbury, West Midlands.
History
The company was started in 1896 by James George Accles as Accles Ltd, based at Holford Mill in Perry Barr in Birmingham as a producer of cold-drawn ...
Produces the first tubular box spanners.
1906: The earliest work on the parkerizing processes is developed by British inventors William Alexander Ross, in 1869, and by Thomas Watts Coslett, in 1906. Coslett, of Birmingham, subsequently files a patent based on this same process in America in 1907. It essentially provides an iron phosphating process, using phosphoric acid
Phosphoric acid (orthophosphoric acid, monophosphoric acid or phosphoric(V) acid) is a colorless, odorless phosphorus-containing solid, and inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is commonly encountered as an 85% aqueous solution, w ...
. Parkerizing (also called phosphating and phosphatizing) is a method of protecting a steel surface from corrosion and increasing its resistance to wear. Parkerizing is commonly used on firearms.
1907: Accles & Pollock
Accles & Pollock is a British tube manipulation company based in Oldbury, West Midlands.
History
The company was started in 1896 by James George Accles as Accles Ltd, based at Holford Mill in Perry Barr in Birmingham as a producer of cold-drawn ...
produce the first tubular sections for aircraft and the first tubular furniture.
1908: Pockley Automobile Electric Lighting Syndicate markets the world's first electric car lights to be sold as a set, which consist of headlights, sidelights and tail lights and are powered by an 8 volt battery.
Birmingham's ingenuity and expertise in metal working aids the early production of lightweight tubing used in the construction of successful airplanes. Engineering firms pioneer advances in aircraft engines also such as Austin
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
and Wolseley Motors
Wolseley Motors Limited was a British motor vehicle manufacturer founded in early 1901 by the Vickers Armaments in conjunction with Herbert Austin. It initially made a full range, topped by large luxury cars, and dominated the market in the E ...
, who later build hundreds of early aircraft for the British Air force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) a ...
, such as the S.E.5 biplane fighter. Wolseley help to set Vickers
Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public i ...
on their path to motor and engine development for aircraft at Adderly Park, with a new engine ready for production by 1909. The Wolseley Viper
The Wolseley Viper is a British-built, high-compression derivative of the Hispano Suiza HS-8 liquid-cooled V-8 engine, built under licence by Wolseley Motors during World War I.
It powered later models of the S.E.5a, SPAD VII and other Brit ...
engine is applied to many aircraft around this time and is developed out of the Hispano-Suiza 8
The Hispano-Suiza 8 was a water-cooled V8 SOHC aero engine introduced by Hispano-Suiza in 1914, and was the most commonly used liquid-cooled engine in the aircraft of the Entente Powers during the First World War. The original Hispano-Suiza ...
. Several other small engineering firms design and build early aircraft engines such as Maxfield & Co, who test an early monoplane in 1909 at Castle Bromwich, the Butterfield Brothers also make an experimental aircraft engine in 1911. Birmingham engineering works later diversify with all manner of industries relating to the development and manufacture of aircraft components including assembly of whole planes during war years such as Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Griff ...
s, Hawker Hurricane
The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...
s, Fairey Battle
The Fairey Battle is a British single-engine light bomber that was designed and manufactured by the Fairey Aviation Company. It was developed during the mid-1930s for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a monoplane successor to the Hawker Hart and Hi ...
light bombers, Mercury and Pegasus aero engines, Short Stirling four-engined heavy bombers and Avro Lancaster
The Avro Lancaster is a British Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to the same specification, as well as the Short Stirlin ...
s (towards the end of World War II).
1910: J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philology, philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''.
From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was ...
begins to construct his first Elfin tongue whilst a pupil at King Edward's School, Birmingham
King Edward's School (KES) is an independent school (UK), independent day school for boys in the British Public school (UK), public school tradition, located in Edgbaston, Birmingham. Founded by Edward VI of England, King Edward VI in 1552, it ...
. He later calls it Qenya (c. 1915). Tolkien is already familiar with Latin, Greek, Spanish, and several ancient Germanic languages, Gothic, Old Norse and Old English. Tolkien's parents are from Birmingham and he himself grows up, and studies in and around Birmingham (Tolkien also meets his wife in the town and considers himself a 'West Midlander'). The enduring popularity of ''The Lord of the Rings
''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's bo ...
'' later leads to numerous references in popular culture, the founding of many societies by fans of Tolkien's works, and the publication of many books about Tolkien and his works. ''The Lord of the Rings'' continues to inspire artwork, music, films and television, video games
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...
and subsequent literature, including reference in the Oxford English Dictionary. Award-winning adaptations of ''The Lord of the Rings'' are later made for radio, theatre and film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
.
1910: Lucas Industries, Oliver Lucas's company design and make an electric car vehicle horn, which becomes industry standard; an electric motorcycle horn is manufactured the following year.
1913: Accles & Pollock
Accles & Pollock is a British tube manipulation company based in Oldbury, West Midlands.
History
The company was started in 1896 by James George Accles as Accles Ltd, based at Holford Mill in Perry Barr in Birmingham as a producer of cold-drawn ...
is granted a patent for seamless tapered steel golf club, golf shafts.
1914: Oliver Lucas and Charles Breeden carry out pioneering work on the design of the dynamo and electric equipment for motorcycles and by 1914 they are already manufacturing these items.
1914 Birmingham, by now, is supplying the world with 28 million mass-produced pen nibs per week.
1915: William Mills (inventor), William Mills develops the first "safe grenade" meaning it is safe for the soldier throwing it rather than his opponent. It is named the Mills bomb, and is adopted by the British Army as its standard hand grenade in 1915. 75,000,000 grenades are supplied during World War I, The Great War.
1918: Much work is carried out by Oliver Lucas's company on the design and improvement of the military search light, he also designs a signalling lamp after experiences at the Somme (department), Somme and the design is later used by the British Army.
1919: The airbag "for the covering of aeroplane and other vehicle parts" traces its origins to a United States patent submitted in 1919 by two Birmingham dentists, Harold Round & Arthur Parrott, and approved in 1920.
1920: Charles Henry Foyle invents the folding carton and is founder of Boxfoldia. However, an American process is developed by accident prior to this.
1921: A British patent for windscreen wipers is registered by Mills Munitions. Several other patents take place for windscreen wipers around the world.
1922: Birmingham rubber manufacturer Dunlop Rubber, Dunlop invents a tire, tyre with steel rods and a canvas casing that lasts three times longer than any other tyre, this is a milestone in tyre manufacture. The following year their tyres help Henry Segrave win a Grand Prix motor racing, Grand Prix title in a Sunbeam Motor Car Company, Sunbeam racing car, and are then used on a Bentley to help win the 24 Hours of Le Mans race.
By 1927 Dunlop tyres have already helped Malcolm Campbell reach a British land speed record and in this year, they help Henry Segrave achieve the world land speed record in a Sunbeam 1000 hp at Daytona Beach Road Course, USA.
In 1931 Dunlop tyres help Malcolm Campbell achieve a new land speed record in a Campbell-Napier-Railton Blue Bird, Blue Bird at Daytona Beach Road Course, USA. In 1935 Dunlop helps Malcolm Campbell achieve yet another new land speed record in the USA. Foam rubber is also invented at the Dunlop Latex Development Laboratories, Fort Dunlop
Fort Dunlop (), is the common name of the original tyre factory and main office of Dunlop Rubber in the Erdington district of Birmingham, England. It was established in 1917, and by 1954 the entire factory area employed 10,000 workers. At one ...
in 1929. Dunlop continues to pioneer advances in tyre manufacture and becomes industry standard for many prestigious car makers and its tyres have been used, and continue to be used, on cars achieving victory in motor rallies and racing championships such as Formula 1 and touring.
1923: Arthur L. Large invents the immersed heating resistor, a major advancement in the electric kettle. A safety valve is introduced by kettle maker Walter H. Bullpitt, also from Birmingham, in 1931.
These two advances in electrical water heating are to have profound effects on water heating and become the basis of the modern day electric kettle.
1926: Cameras have been made in Birmingham since 1880, by companies such as J. Lancaster & Son and in 1926 Coronet Camera Company, Coronet begin manufacturing cameras in the city. Coronet eventually mass-produce cheap, but affordable cameras. Coronet have close links with other Birmingham camera makers such as Standard Cameras Ltd (featured in the National Media Museum) and E Elliott Ltd, who manufacture the unique and now collectible V. P. Twin (featured in the Museum of early consumer electronics and 1st achievements).
1928: Brummie, Oscar Deutsch opens his first Odeon Cinemas, Odeon Cinema in nearby Brierley Hill. By 1930, "Odeon" is a household name and the cinemas are known for their maritime-inspired Art Deco architecture. This style is first used in 1930 on the cinema at Perry Barr in Birmingham, which is bought by Deutsch to expand the chain. He likes the style so much that he commissions the architect, Harry Weedon, to design his future buildings. The Odeon cinema chain later becomes one of the largest cinema chains in Europe.
1928: The George Tucker Eyelet company, of Birmingham, England, produced a type of "cup" rivet. This is later developed as the "POP rivet".
1929: Brylcreem (made famous by the Teddy Boy) is invented in the city and later gives rise to other hair styling products.
First production run of Midland Red, Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company (Midland Red) buses takes place during the 1920s—one of the first British buses to have pneumatic tyres. BMMO later develop petrol and diesel engines during the 1930s, with experimental rear-engined buses being built. By the 1940s experiments with, and production of under-floor engined single-deck buses take place. Experiments and developments of independent front suspension, air suspension, rubber suspension, glass fibre construction and disc brakes take place during the 1950s. 1959 sees the introduction of a turbocharged coach capable of almost 100 mph, for non-stop motorway services. High speed (motorway) buses are developed with passenger toilets. During the 1960s BMMO becomes the first British bus company to make wide-scale use of computers in compiling bus schedules and staff rosters.
1932: The Birmingham Sound Reproducers company is set up in the West Midlands. In the early 1950s, Samuel Margolin begins buying auto-changing phonograph, turntables from BSR, using them as the basis of his Dansette record player. Over the next twenty years, "Dansette" becomes a household word in Britain. By 1957, BSR has grown to employ 2,600 workers. In addition to manufacturing their own brand of player—the Monarch Automatic Record Changer that could select and play 7", 10" and 12" records at 33, 45 or 78 rpm, changing between the various settings automatically—BSR McDonald supplied turntables and autochangers to most of the world's record player manufacturers, eventually gaining 87% of the market. By 1977, BSR's various factories produced over 250,000 units a week.
1932: Leonard Parsons is the first to use Chemical synthesis, synthetic vitamin C as treatment for scurvy in children.
1933: Credenda Conduit Co. Ltd of Birmingham patent a Credastat automatic oven thermostat, which is fitted to Creda electric cookers. This is an early advancement in electric cookers and a feature that eventually becomes standard on all electric cookers. An example of this cooker is on display at the London Science Museum.
1934: The Reynolds Tube Company introduces the Reynolds 531, double-butted tube-set 531 for high strength but lightweight bicycle frames. Reynolds 531 remains for many years at the forefront of alloy steel tubing technology and is used to form the front subframes on the Jaguar E-Type during the 1960s. Before the introduction of more exotic materials such as aluminium, titanium or Composite material, composites, Reynolds is considered the dominant maker of high end materials for bicycle frames. According to the company, 27 winners of the Tour de France
The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...
have won riding on Reynolds tubing.
1935: Birmingham has a long history of toy and trinket manufacture and in 1935 the biggest toy makers in England, Chad Valley (toy brand), Chad Valley, are appointed Toy Makers to the Queen of the United Kingdom. During their existence Chad Valley carry out several improvements and practices in the manufacture of toys during their production between the late 19th and mid-20th centuries, constantly striving to develop new board games, jigsaw puzzle, jigsaws and toys.
1937: Professor Norman Haworth is awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his pioneering work on carbohydrates and synthetic vitamin C.
1939: Dr Mary Evans (chemist), Mary Evans and Dr Wilfred Gaisford begin trials of the world's first antibiotic May & Baker, M&B (sulfapyridine) as treatment for lobar pneumonia.
Birmingham becomes the major British manufacturer of the phenolic resin, phenolic plastic Bakelite.
The magnetron, the core component in the development of radar, and the first microwave power oscillators are developed at the University of Birmingham
, mottoeng = Through efforts to heights
, established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...
during World War II (the microwave oven owes its existence to these developments).
1940: After initial teething problems with management, Castle Bromwich Assembly, Castle Bromwich Aircraft Factory started production of the Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Griff ...
fighter plane. By the time production ended at Castle Bromwich in June 1945, a total of 12,129 Spitfires (921 Mk IIs, 4489 Mk Vs, 5665 Mk IXs and 1054 Mk XVIs) had been built. CBAF became the largest and most successful plant of its type during the 1939–45 conflict. As the largest Spitfire factory in the UK, by producing up to 320 aircraft per month, it built over half of the approximately 20,000 aircraft of this type.
1940: The Frisch–Peierls memorandum is finalised by Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls while both working at Birmingham University—this is the first document to set out a process by which an atomic explosion could be generated.
1944: Anthony E. Pratt, Anthony Ernest Pratt takes out his first patent for a board game named 'Murder', this is later to become the world-renowned murder mystery game 'Cluedo'.
1946: Chance Brothers produce the first all-glass syringe with interchangeable barrel and plunger, thereby allowing mass sterilisation of components without the need for matching them.
1947: Dunlop tyres help John Cobb (racing driver), John Cobb raise the world land speed record to 630 km/h in the Railton Special, which is now displayed in Birmingham's Thinktank museum.
Between 1947 and 1951 Professor Peter Medawar pioneers research on skin graft rejection at Birmingham University, this leads to the discovery of a substance that aids nerves to reunite and the discovery of acquired immunological tolerance, Medawar is awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1960 for his work during this time.
1950: In February, the first operation in England for 'hole-in-the-heart' (congenital atrial septal defect) is performed at Birmingham Children's Hospital.
Conway Berners-Lee, a mathematician and computer scientist from Birmingham, works in the team that develops the Ferranti Mark 1, the world's first commercial stored program electronic computer. Berners-Lee is demobilized from the British Army in 1947 with the rank of Major. By the late 1960s Berners-Lee leads the Medical Development Team of ICT and then ICL and is involved in some of the earliest developments in the applications of computers in medicine, and his text compression ideas are taken up by an early electronic patient record system. Berners-Lee later marries Mary Lee Woods (also from Birmingham). Woods studies at Birmingham University and later works in the team that develop programs for the Manchester Mark 1, Ferranti Mark 1 and Mark 1 Star computers. In 1955 the Berners-Lees become parents to Tim Berners-Lee, who invents the World Wide Web, making the first proposal for it in March 1989.
1952: Professor Charlotte Anderson (Leonard Parsons Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health) is one of the team who prove that the glutens in wheat cause coeliac disease, from this gluten-free diets are introduced.
1954: The Stewart platform (a parallel robot) first comes into use. Stewart platforms have applications in machine tool technology, crane technology, underwater research, air-to-sea rescue, satellite dish positioning, telescopes and orthopedic surgery but are better known for flight simulation.
1950–1959: Essential research and development on heart pacemakers and plastic heart valves is carried out by Leon Abrams at Birmingham University.
1959: The Mini car begins production at Birmingham's Longbridge plant. The original is considered a British icon of the 1960s, and its space-saving front-wheel-drive layout (which allowed 80% of the area of the car's floorpan to be used for passengers and luggage) influenced a generation of car makers. In 1999 the Mini was voted the second most influential Car of the Century, car of the 20th century, behind the Ford Model T.["This Just In: Model T Gets Award"](_blank)
James G. Cobb, ''The New York Times'', 24 December 1999
1962: Maurice Wilkins, New Zealand born and Birmingham raised, receives the Nobel Prize for his work on DNA structure, he is one of three who become known as the Code Breakers. Wilkins is educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, King Edward's School (and St John's College, Cambridge), he receives a PhD for the study of phosphors at the University of Birmingham
, mottoeng = Through efforts to heights
, established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...
, where he works on radar display screens and uranium isotope
Isotopes are two or more types of atoms that have the same atomic number (number of protons in their nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemical element), and that differ in nucleon numbers ( mass num ...
separation before moving to the Manhattan Project.
1962: Bill Fransen of American company Chamberlins brings two of their musical instruments to England to search for someone who could manufacture 70 matching tape heads for future Chamberlin keyboards. Fransen approaches a UK company that is skilled enough to develop the idea further and a deal is struck with Bradmatic Ltd. The first Mellotron sample keyboards are manufactured in Aston and are to enjoy great longevity in the music industry. Alongside the Hammond organ, the Mellotron later becomes a seminal musical instrument for music genres such as rock music, rock and psychedelia, it is also crucial to shaping the sound of the progressive rock and hard rock groups of the 1970s as well as inspiring further development of the sample keyboard, most notably the Fairlight (company), Fairlight, which, in turn, inspired sample modules such as the Akai Sampler range; synonymous with hip hop and dance music.
Some of the more notable songs that make use of the signature Mellotron sound include Nights In White Satin by The Moody Blues, Tomorrow Never Knows and Strawberry Fields Forever by The Beatles, 2000 Light Years from Home and We Love You by The Rolling Stones, Hole In My Shoe by Traffic (band), Traffic, Mercy Mercy Me by Marvin Gaye, Days (The Kinks song), Days by The Kinks, Space Oddity by David Bowie, Stairway to Heaven, The Rain Song and Kashmir (song), Kashmir by Led Zeppelin.
1965: ''The Birmingham Press and Mail'' installs the GEC PABX 4 ACD, the earliest example of a call centre in the UK. Already the hallmarks of the call centre can be seen in the rows of agents with individual phone terminals, taking and making calls.
1969–1970: Heavy metal music begins to take shape in Britain and America. Of the earliest influential bands that are later to be described as Heavy Metal, several of the most notable artists arise from the mid to late 1960s Brum Beat music scene, such as: Robert Plant and John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward of Black Sabbath and Rob Halford and Glenn Tipton of Judas Priest.
During the later half of the 20th century the first trials of the combined oral contraceptive pill outside the USA take place at Birmingham University and extensive research into advanced allergy vaccines and the synthesis of artificial blood take place.
1975: Birmingham inventor Michael Gerzon co-invents the Soundfield microphone. Gerzon studies at the University of Oxford, and is inspired by Alan Blumlein's landmark 1933 development of stereophonic recording and reproduction. The Soundfield range of microphones are now considered the ultimate microphones for recording both stereophonic and Surround sound, multichannel surround formats.
Gerzon later plays a large role in the invention of Ambisonics, which is a series of recording and replay techniques using multichannel mixing technology that can be used live or in the studio. 5
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Balti (food), Balti cuisine becomes nationally renowned, after initial growth in the city during the late 1980s. Today Balti restaurants are extremely popular throughout Britain and abroad.
Sir John Robert Vane, winner of a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1982 for his work on aspirin, is educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, King Edward's School and studies Chemistry at the ]University of Birmingham
, mottoeng = Through efforts to heights
, established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...
.
1991: Derek McMinn begins the first successful modern metal-on-metal hip resurfacing operations and the instrumentation and surgical technique to implant it.
21st century
The University of Birmingham
, mottoeng = Through efforts to heights
, established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...
has become one of the significant UK research centres for nanotechnology.
As of 2013, Aston University was also carrying out research, including a micro-robotic drill for use in surgery
Surgery ''cheirourgikē'' (composed of χείρ, "hand", and ἔργον, "work"), via la, chirurgiae, meaning "hand work". is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pa ...
, and the use of fibre optics instead of electric sensors in aircraft fuel tanks.
See also
* Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
* Scientific revolution
* Chemical revolution
* Jewellery Quarter
* Gun Quarter
* Birmingham pen trade
The Birmingham pen trade evolved in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter and its surrounding area in the 19th century; for many years, the city was the centre of the world's pen trade, with most dip pens being produced there. At the height of the Jew ...
* Textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution
* History of Birmingham
* History of trade and industry in Birmingham
Notes
References
* ''Edwardian Inventions'';, Rodney Dale & Joan Gray, Star Books, 1979,
* ''Victorian and Edwardian Birmingham'', B. T. Batsford Ltd, 1973,
* ''Workshop Of The World'', Ray Shill, Sutton Publishing LTD, 2006,
* ''Birmingham's Industrial Heritage 1900–2000'', Ray Shill, Sutton Publishing LTD,
* ''Birmingham Inventors And Inventions'', Richard B. Prosser, H.M. Patent Office (originally 1881) later published by S.R. Publishers 1970,
* ''Watch & Clockmakers Of The British Isles'', Birmingham,
* ''A Pictorial History Of Boxing'', Sam Andre and Nat Fleischer, Hamlyn, 1988,
External links
Inventions from Aston University
Innovators and inventors from the University of Birmingham
{{DEFAULTSORT:Science And Invention In Birmingham
Economy of Birmingham, West Midlands
History of science and technology in England, Birmingham, Science And Invention
Science and technology in the West Midlands (county), Birmingham
History of Birmingham, West Midlands
Industry in Birmingham, West Midlands
English inventions
Lists of inventions or discoveries