Other books deal with the men under the spotlight of fame - the 'lead
singers' of the Industrial Revolution. What this book tries to do is to
focus on the 'other boys in the band' - the less famous inventors,
artists, engineers and industrialists who played their part in the
enormous changes that occurred in the eighteenth century.
You will not find James Watt, Josiah Wedgwood or Richard Arkwright -
they have hogged the limelight long enough. Instead, you will meet the
men who made their mark and then faded into obscurity - the man who came
up with Sheffield Plate (Boulsover) and helped bring silver decorative
ware into the reach of the general public; the man who heralded the
development of costume jewelry by using an alloy resembling gold
(Pinchbeck); the men who used papier-mache strong enough to make chairs,
and versatile enough to make lacquer-ware as fine as anything found in
China (Baskerville and Clay).
It is a book about scientists and engineers operating in areas which
were completely new - Smeaton in civil engineering, Maudslay in machine
tool manufacture, Repton in landscape gardening and Bakewell in the
selective breeding of animals. It is also about entertainers like
Astley, who introduced variety acts into circus performances - the
forerunner of modern mass entertainment. It features J.J. Merlin, a
clock maker who inspired the young Babbage to develop an interest in the
field of computing. These artists, scientists, inventors and
industrialists all feature because, by some quirk of fate, they have
never received the acclaim which they deserve.
