Cavendish probed the secrets of Nature with brilliant insights and meticulous experiments. ibid.
His [Cavendish] discovery in 1766 of one of the most important elements in the universe ... Cavendish had discovered hydrogen. ibid.
[Joseph] Priestley was his direct opposite ... He made huge contributions to electricity and optics, but also to theology and philosophy. ibid.
He had discovered soda water. ibid.
Priestley discovered ... oxygen, the secret of life. ibid.
Joseph Priestley is credited with identifying ten different gasses. ibid.
‘Banks was also president of the Royal Society.’ ibid. David Attenborough
‘It was curiosity which drove them.’ ibid. Stephen Hawking
‘The world is full of wonders. But they become more wonderful not less wonderful when science looks at them.’ ibid. David Attenborough
The railways – they were made possible by Richard Trevithick. Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man 8/13: The Drive For Power, BBC 1973
The theory of evolution by natural selection was put forward in the 1850s independently by two men: one was Charles Darwin who lived in this house in the village of Down in Kent, the other was Alfred Russel Wallace. Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man 9/13: Evolution: The Ladder of Creation
In the 18th century, James Hargreaves invented the Spinning Jenny, and Richard Arkwright pioneered the water-propelled spinning frame which led to the mass production of cotton. This was truly revolutionary. The cotton manufacturers created a whole new class of people – the urban proletariat. The structure of society itself would never be the same. A N Wilson
In the 150 years from the beginning of the eighteenth century a revolution transformed the way we think, work and play for ever. This was the industrial revolution. And it started here in Britain. Professor Jeremy Black, Why the Industrial Revolution Happened Here, BBC 2013
Roads, railways and canals were built. Great cities appeared, and scores of factories and mills sprang up. Our landscape would never be the same again. ibid.
Coal kick-started a revolution in eighteenth-century Britain. ibid.
A wave of free-thinking and creativity. ibid.
Watt was determined to make the most efficient steam engine yet produced. ibid.
The Perrier brothers didn’t want to just copy the design of the Watt/Boulton steam engine, they wanted to improve on it … They failed. ibid.
Britain was the naval superpower with the largest fleet in the world. ibid.
The Royal Navy played a vital role in expanding the trade of the empire. ibid.
All this wealth was created at a terrible human cost with the exploitation and suffering of millions of slaves. ibid.
Just under two and a half million slaves were transported by the British across the Atlantic. ibid.
New institutions like banks and the stock exchange were established. ibid.
Josiah Wedgwood – he was brought up in a family of potters in north Staffordshire. ibid.
The canals – the motorways of the eighteenth century. ibid.
Two-thirds of the world’s coal and half its iron. ibid.
From his earliest years Fred Dibnah, the Bolton steeplejack, hero-worshipped the men who worked up factory chimneys. He loved the cotton industry, the mills and the steam engines, the noise, the smoke and the pride. Fred Dibnah, A Year With Fred s1e1: Monuments of the Dark Ages, BBC 1987
‘Everybody’s like trying to rip everybody else off.’ ibid. Fred
Fred has spent much of his life with steam-engines. The restoration of this roller from a wreck took 14 years of resolute work in which he pressed on through domestic upheavals and public outcry. ibid.
These characters down here you know they’ll like live in the romantic world of long ago. This steam-engine business is really a form of escapism. And it’s like little lads who never grew up. I can’t complain. ’Cause I’m one meself. It’s like an excuse to dress yourself up with a red neckerchief on and a flat cap. Really they’re like romantics trying to escape from modern life in a way. You know. But I think if you really could go back to Victorian times it weren’t that romantic. Fred Dibnah, Life With Fred e1: Part of the Dales on Film, BBC 1994
Nice and tranquil I suppose ... [laughs and glances at punts on river] ... I much prefer a steamboat meself. It’s very nice here in Cambridge. I like it very much. It strikes me as it’s a quite a laid-back existence here being an academic or a student. I can’t say that the life would have suited me, you know. I prefer more of a practical approach to life. ibid. Fred
Men like Brunel. Who built the first steam-ships. ibid.
By 1813 William Cockerill’s manufacturing empire employed fifty blacksmiths and fifteen hundred wool workers. The Fred Dibnah Story e1: Beginnings, BBC 1996
By 1830 Cockerill was the largest integrated company in Europe. Maybe even the world. ibid.
Why I’ve created all this lot here in me back garden – It’s part of a vain attempt to hang on to childhood memories I suppose. Fred Dibnah’s Industrial Age e1: Wind, Water and Steam, BBC 1999
Engines in steam – there used to be loads of engines like this where I come from. Every coal mine and every spinning wheel had one. But alas they’ve all gone now. ibid.
Up until the 18th century all we had were these things – watermills and windmills. And then this came along … this beautiful little steam train. ibid.
The very first steam-engines weren’t very smooth either. ibid.
The beam-engine became the work-horse of the industrial revolution. ibid.
When we’ve finished with the boiler we always have to blow it down: this is to get rid of the sediment which forms in the bottom. Fred Dibnah’s Industrial Age e2: Mills & Factories
Arkwright built himself a factory in Derbyshire powered by water to house these machines. And he is really regarded as the father of the factory system. ibid.
It were really coal and iron that started the industrial revolution. Iron to make the boilers similar to this one, and coal of course to burn on them to make the steam to drive all the machinery. Fred Dibnah’s Industrial Age e3: Iron & Steel
There are still some coal mines around where you can see what it was like to be a miner. Fred Dibnah’s Industrial Age e4: Mining, BBC 1999
The cage would go down as much as 3,000 feet. ibid.
A strong sense of comradeship developed. ibid.
In 1947 there were nearly three quarters of a million miners in this country. ibid.
National Railway Museum in York: the world’s greatest collection of locomotives … Stephenson’s Rocket: that’s the original inside the museum. Fred Dibnah’s Industrial Age s5: Railways
It was Robert Stephenson’s father George who is credited as being the father of the railways. ibid.
At the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign they were already building some fairly large and substantial steam engines, and it were about this period when they built the first iron ships. Fred Dibnah’s Industrial Age s6: Ship & Engineering
The first steam-powered iron ship was the SS Great Britain. ibid.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel: My hero. ibid.
The Victorian age was an age when Britain led the world in making and inventing things; an age when engineering achievement was seen as a symbol of national greatness. Everything was getting bigger and faster. Everything was on a grand scale. Fred Dibnah’s Victorian Heroes s1e1, BBC 2001
These were the men who transformed the face of the country and the world, and turned the Victorian age into the great age of the engineer. ibid.
George Stephenson had a great interest in mechanics and he was involved in the early development of the railways. He is known as the Father of the Railways. ibid.
Robert Stephenson was in the forefront of creating a railway network which was to transform the lives of millions. It was the age of iron. ibid.