''Boulton, Watt and Murdoch'' is a

gilded Gilding is a decorative technique for applying a very thin coating of gold over solid surfaces such as metal (most common), wood, porcelain, or stone. A gilded object is also described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded, the metal below was tradi ...

bronze statue depicting

Matthew Boulton Matthew Boulton ( ; 3 September 172817 August 1809) was an English businessman, inventor, mechanical engineer, and silversmith. He was a business partner of the Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the par ...

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 f ...

, and

William Murdoch William Murdoch (sometimes spelled Murdock) (21 August 1754 – 15 November 1839) was a Scottish chemist, inventor, and mechanical engineer. Murdoch was employed by the firm of Boulton & Watt and worked for them in Cornwall, as a steam engin ...

William Bloye William James Bloye (8 July 1890 – 6 June 1975) was an English sculptor, active in Birmingham either side of World War II. After serving in World War I, Bloye studied and later taught at the Birmingham School of Art. Becoming a member of t ...

, assisted by

Raymond Forbes Kings Raymond is a male given name of Germanic origin. It was borrowed into English from French (older French spellings were Reimund and Raimund, whereas the modern English and French spellings are identical). It originated as the Germanic ᚱᚨᚷ� ...

. It stands on a

plinth A pedestal or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In civil engineering, it is also called ''basement''. The minimum height o ...

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone geological formation (formally named the Portland Stone Formation) dating to the Tithonian age of the Late Jurassic that is quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. The quarries are cut in beds of whi ...

in Centenary Square, Birmingham and marks the contribution these individuals made to the development of the

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), 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 (locomotive), cyl ...

and hence the start of the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

of the 18th century. It is also known as ''The Golden Boys'' after its colour, or ''The Carpet Salesmen'' after the partially rolled-up plan of a steam engine which they are examining (and an oblique nod to the often-aggressive marketing that emerged with the rise of industrialisation).

History

In 1939 an £8,000 bequest from Richard Wheatley, and £7,500 from the City Council, enabled the work to be created and it was unveiled in 1956, from preliminary designs drawn up in 1938. In 1956 the statue was erected "temporarily" outside the Birmingham Register Office, with the intention of placing it at a future date in front of a

planetarium A planetarium (: planetariums or planetaria) is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetariums is ...

to be built as part of the Civic Centre, but this never materalised. It therefore remained on the same site for over 60 years. It was restored and re-gilded in September 2006. In 2017 it was temporarily put into storage to allow construction of the

West Midlands Metro The West Midlands Metro is a light-rail/tram system in the county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The network has List of West Midlands Metro tram stops, 33 stops with a total of of track; it currently consists of a single r ...

. It was reinstalled on the plinth in

Centenary Square Centenary Square is a public square on the north side of Broad Street in Birmingham, England, named in 1989 to commemorate the centenary of Birmingham achieving city status. The square is used as a staging area for many of the city's main cul ...

outside Symphony Hall on 29 April 2022.

References

External links

Statue of Boulton, Watt and Murdoch
at Birmingham City Council official page {{Coord, 52.4786, -1.9084, display=title, region:GB-BIR_scale:1000 Lunar Society of Birmingham Outdoor sculptures in Birmingham, West Midlands 1956 sculptures Gold sculptures Bronze sculptures in England Statues in England 1956 establishments in England Science in art

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links