BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Newcomen.com - ECPv6.17.5.1//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Newcomen.com X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.newcomen.com X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Newcomen.com REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20250330T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20251026T010000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20260329T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20261025T010000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20270328T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20271031T010000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20280326T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20281029T010000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261014T180000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261014T193000 DTSTAMP:20261007T084148Z CREATED:20260820T103257Z LAST-MODIFIED:20261007T084148Z UID:16933-1792000800-1792006200@www.newcomen.com SUMMARY:'An Extraordinary 250 Years of Waterpower at the Strutts’ Belper Mills' by Ian Jackson DESCRIPTION:Image Credit: Reproduced with permission of Jim Bell \nThis 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. \nFamed for its innovative ‘fire-proof’ iron-framed cotton mill\, the Belper Mill complex in Derbyshire also incorporated innovative developments in waterpower. \nWilliam Strutt’s improvements of the waterwheel\, waterpower control and management of the River Derwent\, enabled the mass manufacturing of textile thread at the complex\, which today sits at the heart of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site. Recent\, award-winning research has uncovered examples of responsible stewardship of the rivers by Georgian proprietors of the mills along Britain’s waterways\, including the management of floods and distribution of salmon.\n \nThe use of water to generate hydroelectric power\, c.1900\, encouraged the new owners of the Belper Mills\, the Lancashire based English Sewing Cotton Company\, to invest in their Derbyshire Derwent Valley businesses. Whilst most industrial sites on the Derwent stopped producing hydroelectric power in the mid-20th century\, choosing instead to connect to the coal-fired national grid\, the Belper site continued to invest in new hydro turbines. \nThe 18th century weir\, mill leats and wheel pits are still in use today (harnessing the power of the river\, almost continuously\, for 250 years)\, supplying the national grid with renewable energy.\n \nOther sites across Britain offer similar opportunities\, not only to generate renewable energy\, but with reinstatement of floodgates and sluices\, to improve our stewardship of our waterways. \nAbout the Speaker\nIan Jackson is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer who has worked in multinational manufacturing businesses for 35 years\, latterly as an independent ESOS Lead Assessor\, and now as a waterpower researcher.\n \nIn 2012\, he set up Amber and Derwent Valley Community Energy to try to reinstate Hydroelectric Power (HEP) at a former industrial site\, at the heart of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site. In 2014\, it was a feasible project but changes in government support and EA requirements halted the project in 2018.\n \nLiving in the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site and trying to identify HEP opportunities\, led to his research into the historic use of waterpower\, the primary energy source for the early industrial revolution. Seeing the untapped HEP resource in the valley\, and his role on the strategy board of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site\, led to an approach to the University of Nottingham. \nIan started a full time PhD in 2020\, titled ‘Climate Change mitigation: Learning from the past to unlock the hydropower potential of the Derbyshire Derwent catchment’\, graduating in July 2025. The award-winning thesis (Association for Industrial Archaeology dissertation award) is available for download on the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site URL:https://www.newcomen.com/activity/an-extraordinary-250-years-of-waterpower-at-the-strutts-belper-mills-by-ian-jackson/ LOCATION:LONDON Alan Baxter Gallery\, 75 Cowcross St\, Clerkenwell\, London\, EC1M 6EL CATEGORIES:Shed Talks (Newcomen Online),UK - London Branch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.newcomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/26-10-14_WaterPowerAtTheStruttsBelperMills_1920x1280.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Newcomen - London Branch":MAILTO:office@newcomen.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261118T180000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261118T193000 DTSTAMP:20260820T110605Z CREATED:20260820T110605Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260820T110605Z UID:16942-1795024800-1795030200@www.newcomen.com SUMMARY:'Better than Steam? Davy\, Faraday\, the Brunels & the Gaz Engine\, 1823-1833' by Professor Frank James DESCRIPTION:Image Credit: Crown copyright\, photograph by Frank James \nThis 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. \nIn early March 1823\, laboratory assistant Michael Faraday\, at the Royal Institution\, unintentionally subjected chlorine to a very high pressure and\, much to his surprise\, found that it turned into a liquid – the first time that a gas had been liquefied. \nAside from the scientific achievement\, very quickly this phenomenon came to be seen as having the potential to be a new source of power. Steam-power was not necessarily seen as inevitably replacing wind or water-power. This is illustrated by the large amount of effort devoted by savants\, including Faraday and Davy\, during the 1820s to exploit gas liquefaction practically in what was termed the ‘gaz engine’. Furthermore\, the engineers Marc Brunel and his son Isambard Brunel also devoted considerable effort to render gaz engines feasible. The Admiralty\, then beginning to use steam-powered vessels\, was also very interested in gaz engines and provided limited support for later stages of the research. \nFollowing repeated failures to develop a practical engine\, at the start of the 1830s work ceased on the project. In modern terms\, what was being attempted of course was to obtain more energy from a gaz engine than was required to liquefy the gas in the first place\, that is a form of perpetual motion. Once the laws of thermodynamics had been formulated during the 1840s\, the pursuit of such a source of power was seen as clearly impossible. Before then it was not clear\, even to leading savants and engineers\, that what they were doing was seeking to build a perpetual motion machine. \nThe story illustrates just how invisible perpetual motion could be. \nAbout the Speaker\nProfessor Frank James\, a former President of the Newcomen Society\, is Professor of the History of Science at University College London. His main research centres on the physical sciences in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and how they relate to other areas of society and culture\, for example art\, literature\, business\, media\, religion\, engineering and the military. \nFrank edited the Correspondence of Michael Faraday\, published in six volumes between 1991 and 2012\, served as an advisory editor for the four volume Collected Letters of Humphry Davy (2020) and was a Co-I on the AHRC funded Humphry Davy Notebooks Project. His Michael Faraday: A Very Short Introduction was published in 2010 by OUP who the following year also published his sesquicentenary edition of Faraday’s Chemical History of a Candle. \nHis current research concentrates on writing and researching a biographical study of Humphry Davy focussing on his practical work including nitrous oxide\, agricultural chemistry\, mineralogy\, the miners’ safety lamp\, analysis of ancient Roman pigments and his attempts to unroll chemically the papyri excavated from Herculaneum. URL:https://www.newcomen.com/activity/better-than-steam-davy-faraday-the-brunels-the-gaz-engine-1823-1833-by-professor-frank-james/ LOCATION:LONDON Alan Baxter Gallery\, 75 Cowcross St\, Clerkenwell\, London\, EC1M 6EL CATEGORIES:Shed Talks (Newcomen Online),UK - London Branch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.newcomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/26-11-18_BetterThanSteamDavyFaradayBrunelsGazEngine_1920x1280.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Newcomen - London Branch":MAILTO:office@newcomen.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261208T180000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261208T193000 DTSTAMP:20260820T112830Z CREATED:20260820T112830Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260820T112830Z UID:16946-1796752800-1796758200@www.newcomen.com SUMMARY:'Metroland - Engineering\, Economy & Social Change 1863-2026' by Dr Mark Pegg DESCRIPTION:Image Credit: Lecturer’s copyright \nThis 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. \nDr Mark Pegg discusses how one railway line changed London social and economic life by connecting city workers with the Chiltern Hills and beyond. The talk explores the civil\, mechanical and electrical engineering challenges of the steam powered and electric rolling stock\, that enabled trains to carry passengers and goods on steep gradients from London to Buckinghamshire while supplying the rapidly growing London market with coal\, fresh food and dry goods. \nMetroland was made more famous by Sir John Betjeman who wittily observed the change the railway brought to new London suburbs that grew up to provide homes in a rural environment with smoke-free air for London’s rapidly growing population\, particularly the workers who commuted daily into the heart of the City.\nThe phrase ‘Live in Metroland’ was coined by the Metropolitan Railway to promote the line in 1915 used until it became part of the London Transport Board in 1933. \nOpened in 1863\, the Metropolitan Line from Baker Street to Farringdon was the first underground railway in the world\, extending to Aldgate in 1876. At first\, it was strictly an inner-city line\, extension to Aylesbury in 1898 transformed the line into rural Buckinghamshire\, also sharing tracks with the Great Central’s ‘London Extension’ which ran into London Marylebone. Electrification went live to Rickmansworth in 1925 and later to Amersham and Chesham in 1961. Metroland is still changing today with more homes and the construction of HS2 and East-West the revival of the old Oxford to Cambridge ‘Varsity’ line. \nAbout the Speaker\nDr Mark Pegg read history at Oxford University where his published doctoral thesis was British Broadcasting and Society 1918-1939. \nHe worked in the UK coal mining industry in deep mines and headquarters where he was the Chairman’s personal assistant and also researched the modern coal mining history. After working as a management consultant\, Mark became a Director of a Business School and CEO of the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education. He has extensive experience in the UK\, Europe\, Middle East\, Far East and Africa with clients including central governments\, Rolls-Royce plc and the UK Senior Civil Service. \nMark is a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. URL:https://www.newcomen.com/activity/metroland-engineering-economy-social-change-1863-2026-by-dr-mark-pegg/ LOCATION:LONDON Alan Baxter Gallery\, 75 Cowcross St\, Clerkenwell\, London\, EC1M 6EL CATEGORIES:Shed Talks (Newcomen Online),UK - London Branch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.newcomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/26-12-08_MetrolandEngineeringEconomySocial-Change_1920x1280.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Newcomen - London Branch":MAILTO:office@newcomen.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270113T180000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270113T193000 DTSTAMP:20260911T140240Z CREATED:20260911T134906Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260911T140240Z UID:17016-1799863200-1799868600@www.newcomen.com SUMMARY:'Detroit on Thames – How William Morris built a car factory & changed Oxford forever' by Maurice East DESCRIPTION:Image Credit: By kind permission of Maurice East \nThis 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. \nBorn in 1877 at the height of the British Empire\, William Morris grew up in the villages of Cowley on the rural fringes of east Oxford. He left school at the age of 14 with no formal qualifications\, but it was soon evident that Morris was a natural mechanic and instinctive businessman. \nMorris became a teenage entrepreneur\, progressing from repairing bicycles in his parents front room\, to building his own motor garage and developing a prototype for the Morris Oxford and Morris Cowley cars. These vehicles which would earn him a vast personal fortune and result in the construction of a giant assembly plant at Cowley.\n \nWith collaborations with industries in the Midlands and America\, the new factory employed cutting edge technologies and offered higher wages to local people. The rapid growth of the business in the 1920s and 30s would attract tens of thousands of migrant workers from across the UK. The social and economic changes which followed transformed Oxford into a blue collar boom town with sprawling housing estates and a fierce reputation for union militancy.\n \nThis twentieth century industrialisation challenged the centuries old power balance between gown and town. For a few decades it appeared that the future of Oxford lay in chimney stacks not dreaming spires.\n \nAbout the Speaker\nMaurice East is a local historian who was born and raised in Oxford. He interprets the history of the city through the lens of growing up as a ‘townie’ and shines a spotlight on stories located off the usual tourist trail. His main area of research is the history of car making at Cowley and how the arrival of industry\, cars and blue collar workers changed Oxford in the early twentieth century. \nAlong with public speaking\, Maurice devises and leads unique walking tours around the city. He has worked on projects with the Museum of Oxford and the Oxford Preservation Trust. \nMaurice is also employed as a consultant at the History Faculty at Oxford University for the Making Cars project – The Cowley Car History Project | Community History. URL:https://www.newcomen.com/activity/detroit-on-thames-how-william-morris-built-a-car-factory-changed-oxford-forever-by-maurice-east/ LOCATION:LONDON Alan Baxter Gallery\, 75 Cowcross St\, Clerkenwell\, London\, EC1M 6EL CATEGORIES:Shed Talks (Newcomen Online),UK - London Branch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.newcomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/27-01-13_DetroitOnThames_William-Morris_Oxford_1920x1280.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Newcomen - London Branch":MAILTO:office@newcomen.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270210T180000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270210T193000 DTSTAMP:20260911T142126Z CREATED:20260911T142126Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260911T142126Z UID:17019-1802282400-1802287800@www.newcomen.com SUMMARY:'Power In Trust: A long view of Coal-Fired Power\, fm Thomas Newcomen to Christopher Hinton' by Ben Russell DESCRIPTION:Image Credit: The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum\, London \nThis 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. \nThe closure of the coal-fired power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar on September 30th 2024 quietly brought an end to the era of coal-fired power generation tracing back to Thomas Newcomen more than three centuries earlier. \nIn this paper\, Ben Russell will trace the history of the Central Electricity Board’s coal-fired power stations\, explore how they are being represented in the UK’s museum collections\, and place them within the context both of earlier developments and of what might replace them in future. \nAbout the Speaker\nBen Russell is Curator of Mechanical Engineering at the Science Museum\, London. He has curated nine permanent galleries and temporary exhibitions at the museum\, including Engineers (2023)\, Robots (2017) and James Watt’s Workshop (2011)\, as well as Cosmonauts (2015). \nBen is the author of James Watt: Making the World Anew\, (Reaktion Books\, 2014)\, and editor of Robots (Scala\, 2017)\, as well as a wide range of published and conference papers. URL:https://www.newcomen.com/activity/power-in-trust-a-long-view-of-coal-fired-power-fm-thomas-newcomen-to-christopher-hinton-by-ben-russell/ LOCATION:LONDON Alan Baxter Gallery\, 75 Cowcross St\, Clerkenwell\, London\, EC1M 6EL CATEGORIES:Shed Talks (Newcomen Online),UK - London Branch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.newcomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/27-02-10_PowerInTrust_CoalFiredPower_1920x1280.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Newcomen - London Branch":MAILTO:office@newcomen.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270310T180000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270310T193000 DTSTAMP:20260911T144839Z CREATED:20260911T144839Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260911T144839Z UID:17023-1804701600-1804707000@www.newcomen.com SUMMARY:'Exploring Victorian Railway Uniform: Garments\, Archives & Re-enactment' by Anthony Dawson DESCRIPTION:Image Credit: By kind permission of Andrew S Mason \nThis 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. \nThis talk will explore the clothing worn by Railway Workers 1830-1910: what the garments were\, how they were made\, how they were issued and how they performed. \nBased on archival study\, examination of surviving garments and experimental archaeology\, it will show that these garments were made as cheaply as possible with little thought for comfort of the wearer or their safety. \nThere will be a chance to handle original uniform and accoutrements as well dress up in replica garments. \nAbout the Speaker\nAnthony Dawson is a railway historian and archaeologist\, and increasingly experimental archaeologist involved in excavating and reconstructing early wooden railways. \nHis interest in recreating and wearing 19th century railway uniform stems from operating the replica Planet locomotive at the Science & Industry Museum in Manchester. \nA graduate of the University of Bradford and the University of Leeds\, Anthony is a freelance heritage consultant and writer. In his spare time he plays the organ. URL:https://www.newcomen.com/activity/exploring-victorian-railway-uniform-garments-archives-re-enactment-by-anthony-dawson/ LOCATION:LONDON Alan Baxter Gallery\, 75 Cowcross St\, Clerkenwell\, London\, EC1M 6EL CATEGORIES:Shed Talks (Newcomen Online),UK - London Branch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.newcomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/27-03-10_ExploringVictorianRailwayUniform_1920x1280.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Newcomen - London Branch":MAILTO:office@newcomen.com END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270414T180000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270414T193000 DTSTAMP:20260911T151410Z CREATED:20260911T151410Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260911T151410Z UID:17026-1807725600-1807731000@www.newcomen.com SUMMARY:'Governor-General Dalhousie & the early development of railways in India' by Diana Drummond DESCRIPTION:Image Credit: 1868 Postcard supplied by Dr D K Drummond \nThis 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. \nGovernor-General James Andrew Broun\, Marquess of Dalhousie\, is often referred to as the ‘Father of Railways in India.’ Through his Minutes of 1850 and 1853\, Dalhousie argued that ‘he alone’ was responsible for determining early railway development there. A further important idea\, that Dalhousie and his Minutes ‘established the basic blue print that was to guide the early decades of railway development in India’\, is also argued. (Ian J Kerr\, Building the Railways of the Raj\, OUP\, New Delhi\, p.26.)\n \nThis talk will ask if these claims are true. After first of all considering who Governor-General Dalhousie and his famous Minutes were\, it will turn to explore how the framing of these was influenced very significantly by railway promoters [e.g. Sir Rowland Macdonald Stephenson (1808-1895)]\, consulting civil engineers [E Baker\, the consulting engineer of the Government of India]\, resident engineers [George Turnbull\, Chief Engineer of the East Indian Railway Company]\, surveyors and contractors\, as they surveyed and constructed the earliest railways in India. Work on some of these rail lines commenced even before Dalhousie penned his Minutes. Dalhousie’s work therefore represents a synthesis of ideas drawn from his collaboration with many others. Even various groups in Indian society had some small influence on this future railway system. \nFinally\, how far the general plan of the trunk lines of India found in Dalhousie’s Minutes was redrawn in detail as pioneering engineers adapted this to the huge demands that the terrain and climate of the subcontinent placed upon them\, is examined.\n \nAbout the Speaker\nDi Drummond is best known for her book Crewe: Railway Town\, Company and People\, published by Scolar Press\, Aldershot\, 1995\, and for her contribution to The First Civic University: Birmingham 1880-1980: An Introductory History\, Eric Ives\, Diane Drummond and Leonard Schwarz\, The University of Birmingham Press\, 2000. \nDi researched\, gave international conference papers\, and published\, on railways of the British Empire while she was Senior Lecturer\, then Reader\, at the Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies\, Leeds Trinity University between 1995 and 2017. URL:https://www.newcomen.com/activity/governor-general-dalhousie-the-early-development-of-railways-in-india-by-diana-drummond/ LOCATION:LONDON Alan Baxter Gallery\, 75 Cowcross St\, Clerkenwell\, London\, EC1M 6EL CATEGORIES:Shed Talks (Newcomen Online),UK - London Branch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.newcomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/27-04-14_GovernorGeneralDalhousie_RailwaysOfIndia_1920x1280.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Newcomen - London Branch":MAILTO:office@newcomen.com END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR