Newcomen.com

'Before Valves: The Amazing Ingenuity of the "Electricians" before the Thermionic Valve' by Dr John Moyle
2026-02-04 19:00 - 21:00 (Europe/London) | BIRMINGHAM Think Tank, Birmingham Science Museum,, Curzon Street, Birmingham, West Midlands, B4 7XG
Photo Credit: Wellcome Collection (1911 – Copyright free)

Joining us IN PERSON – just turn up, there’s no need to register
Joining us ONLINE – click on this zoom link before the event to join in

This is a joint event with Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum

Man’s ingenuity before the invention of the thermionic valve was amazing!
This lecture will summarize the early methods of wireless transmission and reception & amplification.
About the Speaker
Dr John Moyle is a Chartered Engineer, retired physician & anaesthetist plus historian with a particular interest in telegraphy and medical technology.

'The Mercenary River' by Nick Higham
2026-02-11 18:00 - 19:30 | LONDON Alan Baxter Gallery, 75 Cowcross St, Clerkenwell, London, EC1M 6EL
This event is both an in-person and on-line event. No need to register – just come along or click this zoom link to join on-line.
Today we take water for granted. Turn a tap and the stuff gushes out. But for centuries London struggled to supply its citizens with reliable, clean drinking water.
Nick Higham tells the story of London’s water from the Tudor era to the 20th century. It’s a tale of remarkable technological, scientific and organisational breakthroughs, but also one of greed and complacency, high finance and low politics. London’s 19th century water companies operated a cartel which worked in their interests, not their customers’. The water they supplied was overpriced, deficient in quantity and frequently filthy – described by one scientist as “diluted sewage”. It took the best part of a century of campaigning to bring the water companies to heel.
About the Speaker
Nick Higham is a writer and former journalist who is passionate about history. His first book, The Mercenary River, a history of London’s water supply, was published to excellent reviews in 2022: The Telegraph gave it five stars, The Mail called it “fascinating”, Andrew Marr found it “original and gripping”. The book has made a timely contribution to the current debate about Britain’s water industry and the scandal of untreated sewage discharges, and has been praised by figures as diverse as the campaigner Feargal Sharkey and the chairman of Thames Water.
His second book, Mavericks: Empire, Oil, Revolution and the Forgotten Battle of World War One, is published by Bloomsbury in October 2025.
Nick spent nearly 30 years as a BBC correspondent, whenever possible smuggling history onto the airwaves in the guise of news.

'Building the Shadow Factories' by Jonathan Aylen
2026-02-23 18:30 - 20:00 | SHEFFIELD Kelham Island Museum, Alma Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S3 8RG
Joining us IN PERSON – just turn up, there’s no need to register
Joining us ON-LINE – click this zoom link (Passcode [REDACTED])
Britain’s military effort during World War 2 required a massive investment in manufacturing. Government-funded “Shadow factories” and “Agency Factories” were a key part of this huge capacity expansion. The Government spent at least a quarter of a billion pounds at the time on new buildings, new machinery and training, often in locations far away from conventional manufacturing centres, on factories run by 175 private firms. These factories brought new technology and new production processes, thereby accelerating the pace of wartime innovation.
Yet these new factories are themselves in the shadows. Shadow factories are typically equated with new sites for building aircraft, such as Yeadon in Yorkshire. But shadow factory schemes spread much more widely across industry, covering hidden sectors such as chemical warfare, oil refining and ordnance manufacture, as well as more obvious sectors such as aircraft components and aeroengines.
There is very little research on the selection, design, procurement and operation of these factories. Here we look at the broad shadow factory scheme, using archive sources, and then examine a factory for forging aircraft parts built in 1940 on a remote greenfield site at Distington, Cumberland, employing 3,000 workers. This was developed by a private firm, High Duty Alloys, on behalf of the Government.
About the Speaker
Jonathan Aylen is an academic researcher who now specialises in the history of technology. He has written on the development of computer guidance systems for Cold War missiles, the development of the first British atomic bomb and on computer control in the steel industry. His approach is to integrate oral history with unorthodox archive sources. Jonathan’s first exposure to computing was writing FORTRAN programmes for an ICL mainframe to support his research in economics.
Jonathan is a recent past President of the Newcomen society for the History of Engineering and Technology and his research output across a range of disciplines can be found here.

'Newcomen Society Annual General Meeting'
2026-02-25 17:00 - 18:00 | South Yorkshire
This is an online meeting only open to all Newcomen members. Click on this zoom link to join.
Annual General Meeting for Newcomen Society members only.

'Housing the Great Exhibition in 1851' by Dr. Jim Andrew
2026-03-04 19:00 - 21:00 | BIRMINGHAM Think Tank, Birmingham Science Museum,, Curzon Street, Birmingham, West Midlands, B4 7XG
Image Credit: The Original Crystal Palace in Hyde Park – Painted for H. R. H. Prince Albert by Messrs Nash, Haghe & Roberts R.A.
Joining us IN PERSON – just turn up, there’s no need to register
Joining us ONLINE – click on this zoom link before the event to join in
This is a joint event with Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum
The Great Exhibition planned for the summer of 1851 was languishing in a committee until, in June 1850, Joseph Paxton was asked for a design of a building to go in Hyde Park, London.
The temporary building was possibly the largest single constructed building anywhere in the World, yet it was designed within a month and opened in ten months.
About the Speaker
Dr Jim Andrew is a former museum manager at Birmingham Science Museum, and is currently Chairman of Newcomen Midlands.

'Vernacular Practice: Joseph Whitworth’s papers on Flatness & Threads' by John Gardner
2026-03-11 18:00 - 19:30 | LONDON Alan Baxter Gallery, 75 Cowcross St, Clerkenwell, London, EC1M 6EL
This event is both an in-person and on-line event. No need to register – just come along or click this zoom link to join on-line.
This lecture examines the relationship between workshop practice and standards for threads and flatness by analysing two influential papers by Joseph Whitworth, which achieved a broad readership after being published in the 6d Mechanics’ Magazine in 1841. These papers are:
1. “Plane Metallic Surfaces and the Proper Mode of Preparing Them” (read at the British Association meeting in Glasgow in 1840, published in Mechanics’ Magazine, no. 910, 16 January 1841, pp. 39-42).
2. “A Uniform System of Screw Threads” (read to the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1841, published in Mechanics’ Magazine, no. 951, 30 October 1841, pp. 340-344).
The argument is that these papers remain relevant in modern engineering standards. Whitworth’s proposal for standard screw threads significantly contributed to the construction of the Crystal Palace in 1851, which was completed in just 190 days using approximately 30,000 nuts and bolts. This was achieved despite there being no standardized thread form until 1905. The contemporary engineer James Nasmyth highlighted the chaos and expense caused by the lack of a standardized thread form, where each bolt and nut was unique, leading to confusion and inefficiency:
‘No system was observed as to “pitch”, i.e., the number of threads to the inch, nor was any rule followed as to the form of these threads. Every bolt and nut was thus a specialty in itself […] all bolts and their corresponding nuts had to be marked as belonging to each other; and any mixing of them together led to endless trouble, hopeless confusion, and enormous expense.’ (James Nasmyth, Engineer: An Autobiography (1883), p.131.)
Whitworth’s proposal advocated for a practical, workshop-based method to promote his thread form, rather than relying solely on theoretical principles.
Research for this talk has involved working with the London Science Museum and the Crystal Palace Museum. Original bolts from the Crystal Palace and towers were examined, measured, and remanufactured establishing that Whitworth’s vernacular thread form was used to build the Palace. The plane metallic surfaces standard that Whitworth helped achieve, which relied on hand-scraping, initially annoyed his workers who thought hand work a retrograde step after using machines. Nevertheless, the method he published on stands to this day as process through which to achieve a high degree of flatness. In this talk, John Gardner will discuss Whitworth’s papers on flatness and threads, their origins in workshop practice, and their legacy in engineering standards.
About the Speaker
John Gardner is Dean of the Doctoral School at Anglia Ruskin University.
John’s recent publications include: ‘Thread form at the Crystal Palace’ (Journal for the History of Engineering and Technology, 2024); The 1830s, with David Stewart (CUP, 2024); ‘Waterloo to Peterloo‘ in The Oxford Handbook to Romantic Prose, ed. by Robert Morrison (OUP, 2024); ‘Liberalism’ in The 1820s, Innovation and Diffusion ed. by Matt Sangster and Jon Mee. (Edinburgh University Press, 2023); ‘Shelley’s Steamship’ Keats-Shelley Journal 71 (2022); and ‘A Dangerous Education; the Early Mechanics’ Institutes’ in Institutions as Networks (CUP, 2022).
John is currently working on a monograph entitled ‘Engineering Romanticism’.

'W. G. Fearnsides FRS: a geological model of vision and versatility' by Duncan Hawley
2026-03-23 18:30 - 20:00 | SHEFFIELD Kelham Island Museum, Alma Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S3 8RG
Joining us IN PERSON – just turn up, there’s no need to register
Joining us ON-Line – click this zoom link (Passcode [REDACTED])
W. G. Fearnsides (1879–1968) was born in West Yorkshire. He was a first-class scholar in geology at the University of Cambridge and following an interesting interlude in the USA, he returned to Cambridge, initially as a freelance geologist, then working in the Geology Department, contributing to their focus of research on the rocks of north and central Wales. In 1913, he was appointed the first occupant of the Sorby Chair of Geology at the University of Sheffield, establishing the Geology Department at Sheffield and deciding to follow similar veins of research to Sheffield geologist H.C. Sorby.
In his time, Fearnsides was an outstanding geologist of remarkable versatility, especially in the fields of applied science. One of his key legacies was a better understanding of how to apply geology and the importance of research on resources, especially coal, iron ore and local refractory materials. Another legacy is in highlighting the importance of ‘home geology’ for national resilience and security. Arguably, the raw-material-based industries of Sheffield and beyond would not have been so productive and resourceful in two world wars without the efforts of W. G. Fearnsides.
W. G. Fearnsides was honoured by many scientific and professional societies. He received the gold medal of the Surveyors’ Institution in 1913 and the Greenwell Medal from the North of England Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. He was an honorary member of the Institute of Mining Engineers.
About the Speaker
Duncan Hawley is a native of Sheffield, born and brought up in Wadsley on the northern edge of the city, overlooking the industry in the Don Valley. One of his abiding memories of his youth is the sound of regular thumps from drop forges that drifted up from the valley. As Ken Hawley’s son you might expect him to be well-versed on tools – but he readily admits he knows ‘nowt’ about tools, although he probably imbibed more about Sheffield tools and its industrial history than most. He always refers to a turnscrew, never a screwdriver (which is an American term).
Duncan attended High Storrs School, then studied geology at UCL, Aberystwyth and Oxford, then followed a varied career as a geography and geoscience educator in schools, field centres, universities, curriculum development and teacher education. He is known for his work on teaching physical geography. Throughout, he maintained an interest in the history of geology, and probably inherited something of his father’s collecting trait as he now holds a collection of early geological maps and other artefacts.
Duncan is a Fellow of the Geological Society of London and Chairperson of the History of Geology Group and regularly publishes on the history of geology. Additionally, he is active in geoheritage and geoconservation as Chairperson of the Sheffield Area Geology Trust and he keeps his hand in with local industrial heritage as a trustee of the Ken Hawley Collection Trust.

'A plain substantial piece of workmanship: the marine compound engine & the tramp ship in 19C Britain' by Dr Oliver Carpenter
2026-04-15 18:00 - 19:30 | LONDON Alan Baxter Gallery, 75 Cowcross St, Clerkenwell, London, EC1M 6EL
This event is both an in-person and on-line event. No need to register – just come along or click this zoom link to join on-line.
The ‘tramp’ ship was created and constructed as a distinct type of merchant vessel in the 1870s and 1880s by shipbuilders and shipowners operating predominantly out of ports and rivers in the North East of England.
To explain the construction of tramp shipping in this period, this lecture explores the key technology that really made ‘tramping’ across the oceans a viable, economical and profitable venture.
Dr Oliver Carpenter‘s argument is that the adoption and use of the marine compound engine by shipowners created the ‘tramp’ class of merchant steam ships for the first time in a new and rapidly-growing sector in British shipping.
About the Speaker
Dr Oliver Carpenter is Curator of Infrastructure & Built Environment at the Science Museum in London. He is responsible for the national collections of Building Construction; Civil Engineering; Docks & Diving; Electricity Supply; Firefighting; Gas Industry; Heating, Cooling & Ventilation; Lighting; Locks & Fastenings; Nuclear Energy and Sewerage & Sanitation.
Oliver was Lead Curator of Energy Revolution at The Adani Green Energy Gallery – a major new permanent gallery about the low-carbon energy transition, which opened at the Science Museum in 2024. Before joining the Science Museum in 2015, he was a Collections Research Volunteer at Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust and Associate Lecturer in History of Science, Technology and Medicine at University of Kent.
Oliver has a PhD in History of Technology and has published on the history of the British merchant shipping industry in the late-19th and early 20th centuries. He is a member of the Newcomen Society Council.

'The Anatomy of an Iron Works. A detailed exploration of the Park Gate Iron Works between 1847 & 1859' by David Boursnell
2026-04-27 18:30 - 20:00 | SHEFFIELD Kelham Island Museum, Alma Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S3 8RG
Photo Credit: Matt Buck | Creative Commons
Joining us IN PERSON – just turn up, there’s no need to register
Joining us ON-LINE – click this zoom link (Passcode [REDACTED])
The Park Gate Iron Works in Rotherham started in 1823 as a tin plate works. In 1833, a group of Birmingham businessmen took over and renamed it the Birmingham Tin Plate Company. In 1838, the company recruited new investors to expand the business and built a blast furnace to produce their own iron.
In 1844, Charles Geach and Samuel Beale bought the business, and the company was renamed Samuel Beale and Co. In order to manage the business from their head office in Birmingham, they collected detailed monthly information about the production process, including the amount and cost of the raw materials as well as all the operational costs. The figures were recorded in four small pocket books covering the years 1847 to 1859 and transferred to the head office.
At the peak, the notebooks record the figures from xx coal mines, xx ironstone mines, 5 blast furnaces on 4 sites, puddling furnaces, three rolling mills and various forges. These figures enable us to draw a detailed picture of the process of making iron at Park Gate.
Rails remained the company’s biggest product, but the company diversified into ship plates and supplied all the plates for Brunel’s SS Great Eastern, including the largest plates ever rolled at that time. Based on this experience, they made rolled armour plates for the Crimean War and were the first company to overcome the technical difficulties of this process.
About the Speaker
David Boursnell is a published author & researcher of Naval Armour – both manufacturers & manufacturing, and a consultant to Kelham Island Industrial Museum, Sheffield

'The Dickinson Memorial Lecture' by Bridget Eickhoff
2026-05-13 18:00 - 19:30 | LONDON Alan Baxter Gallery, 75 Cowcross St, Clerkenwell, London, EC1M 6EL
Photo Credit: Image courtesy of the Julia Elton Collection
This event is both an in-person and on-line event. No need to register – just come along or click this zoom link to join on-line.
The Historical & Current Challenges of Gauging & their Impact on the Operations of Railways & Canals
Bridget Eickhoff will start this presentation with some of the concerns regarding tunnels for the early railway builders and look at some of the magnificent structures that these engineers produced.
She will then consider the challenges that have emerged in more recent times, from 1970s to the present day, both in Great Britain and internationally, and how railway gauging engineers have been continually innovating to rise to these challenges.
Bridget will also look briefly at the different but related issues with gauging of canals.
About the Speaker
Bridget Eickhoff is Principal Infrastructure Engineer at Rail Safety and Standards Board and Honorary Professor of Railway Interface Engineering at the University of Birmingham (Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education) where she supports the MSc programmes.
She has extensive experience in railway vehicle-track interaction and wheel-rail contact, including the study of derailment mechanisms, track forces and deterioration, gauge clearance methods, related standards and approval processes.
Bridget has been involved in the development of GB and international standards in associated areas as well as supporting a number of research and innovation projects. She is also a past Chair of the IMechE Railway Division.
