BIRMINGHAM - THE CITY OF ENLIGHTENMENT WHERE THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION WAS CREATED BY THE MEN OF THE LUNAR SOCIETY: BOULTON, WATT, WEDGWOOD & DARWIN

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 to consider the possibility of building a canal from Birmingham to the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal near Wolverhampton, taking in the coalfields of the Black Country. 

They commission the canal engineer James Brindley to propose a route. 

Brindley comes back with a largely level route via Smethwick, Oldbury, Tipton, Bilston and Wolverhampton to Aldersley.This kick starts what is to become the Birmingham Canal Navigations.

1770: James Watt applies the first screw propeller to an early steam engine at his Birmingham works, thus beginning the use of an hydrodynamic screw for propulsion.

1775: Ketley's Building Society is founded and becomes the world's first building society. Midland Bank (now owned by HSBC) and Lloyds Bank 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 which 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 of Muntz metal which appear at the same time.

Birmingham became a town of commerce with two of the big four banks founded in the town.

Lloyds bank was founded in 1765, the world's first Building Society Ketley's was founded in 1775, and Midland Bank (now owned by HSBC) was founded in Birmingham in 1836.

1779: Matthew Wansbrough designs and builds the Pickard Engine (the 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.'

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.

1788: Boulton & Watt engine. The 'sun and planet gear' (also called the 'planet and sun gear') was a method of converting reciprocal motion to rotary motion and was utilised in a reciprocating steam engine.

1781: James Watt markets his rotary-motion steam engine. The earlier steam engine's vertical movement was ideal for operating water pumps but the new engine can be adapted to drive all sorts of machinery.

Richard Arkwright pioneers its use in his cotton mills and within 15 years there are 500+ Boulton & Watt steam engines in British factories and mines.

 1775: Boulton also arranges an Act of Parliament extending the term of Watt's 1769 patent to 1799.

1784: James Watt, refers to a two-speed transmission in patent No.1432, which relates to steam carriages: 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 [from a steam engine] is 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 publishes 'An Account of the Foxglove and some of its Medical Uses', pioneering its use as a cardiac drug, Digitalis.

1785: James Watt and William Murdoch invent the oscillating cylinder and double action engine. Around this time James Watt creates a governor and throttle valve for automatically regulating the supply of steam to an engine although no patents for this are taken out by Watt.

The first steam powered Cotton Mills such as this Murrays' Mill in Greater Manchester were powered by 40 hp Boulton and Watt beam engines. 

Richard Arkwright pioneered Watt's rotary-motion steam engine in his cotton mills and within 15 years there were 500+ Boulton & Watt steam engines in British factories and mines.

1788: Boulton and Watt build the rotative steam engine also known as a piston engine, 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.

Soho mint mark on a cartwheel twopence. The Soho Mint pioneered mass production methods of coin manufacture around the world, with eight machines, driven by a steam engine, each capable of striking 70 to 84 coins per minute and worked by children.

1794: Ralph Heaton patents a steam powered machine for mass-producing button 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) becomes publisher of possibly the first British boxing paper.

1797: Matthew Boulton erects at Soho a complete coining plant with which he strikes coins for the Sierra Leone and East India companies and for Russia, and produces a new copper coinage for Britain. 

Also in 1797, he takes out a British patent in connection with raising water on the principle of the hydraulic ram although one of a similar nature appears in France at around the same time.

1799: The first Bellcrank engine is patented by William Murdoch while working for Boulton and Watt. It is the first compact, self-contained engine.

Among the products Matthew Boulton seeks to make in his new facility 'The Soho Manufactory' are sterling silver plate for those able to afford it, and Sheffield plate, silver-plated copper, for those less well off. 

Boulton and his father make small silver items throughout the 18th century, and there are no record of large items in either silver or Sheffield plate being made in Birmingham before Boulton does so. 

To make items such as candlesticks more cheaply than the London competition, the firm makes many items out of thin, die-stamped sections, which are shaped and joined together.

Birmingham Assay Office was fought for by Boulton and it changed the fortunes of silver making in the town and can still be visited today.

One impediment to Boulton's work is the lack of an assay office 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, to be assayed and hallmarked, 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.

1766: Wedgwood button with Boulton cut steels, depicting a mermaid & family, England

1771: Boulton writes "I am very desirous of becoming a great silversmith, 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 [assay office] at Birmingham."

Boulton petitions Parliament for the establishment of an assay office in Birmingham. Though the petition is bitterly opposed by London goldsmiths, 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. 

1773: The act is passed in March to allow Birmingham and Sheffield the right to assay silver.

1773: The Birmingham Assay Office 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 having a glaze and polish that renders it impervious to water and need only be wiped with a sponge to restore it to its original luster. 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 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.

It is not until the turn of the 19th century that other stoves begin appearing to cook in as well as heat a room.

Gas lighting was pioneered in Birmingham, and subsequently spread around the world. 

Gas lamps were later replaced with electric fittings.

1802: the exterior of the Soho Foundry is lit with gas lighting by William Murdoch. 

Murdoch, its developer, worked for Matthew Boulton and James Watt at Soho. 

This becomes the basis for Birmingham's immense Gas Industry which incorporates many products and trades that rely on Gas to work.

The 'Gas Retort House' where Murdoch originally made coal gas to light his gas street lamps remains in Gas Street just off Broad Street behind the Hyatt Regency Birmingham.

I would have liked a 'Lunar Men Museum' to have been established at the Gas Retort House.

My idea won the runners up prize in the Birmingham Civic Society 'Re-Imagine' Competition for Birmingham citizens to suggest ideas to use Birmingham's 'At Risk' buildings.

The Gas Retort House is no longer a Birmingham 'at risk' building as it was bought by the Anglican church and is now a place of worship just off 'Bacchanalian Broad Street'!

Birmingham re-invents itself every 40 years or so.....I would have preferred Birmingham as a city to pay homage to its manufacturing legacy by saving the old Birmingham Central Library and creating a 'Made in Birmingham Museum' at this Brutalist Brummie building.

I would have had the Birmingham-made Spitfire swooping from the atrium of the old library side by side with its Battle of Britain compatriot the Hurricane fighter which saved Britain from the Nazi jackboot.

I would also have had the Birmingham steam loco steaming up and down the ground floor of the library, alongside Boulton and Watt's Smethwick engine, now housed at the lamentable, childish and expensive 'Thinktank' museum.

BIRMINGHAM - A BRUMMA GEM OF A CITY