'Drifting into Digital Dependence - Control Systems in Merchant Shipping' by Vaughan Pomeroy
2024-02-15 19:30 - 21:00 (Europe/London) | BRISTOL BAWA, 589 Southmead Rd, Filton, Bristol, BS34 7RG
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Digital systems can be found in all sorts of unlikely, and arguably sometimes unnecessary, places that we increasingly depend on in modern life. Unlike most changes in technology where take-up follows a similar pathway from early adoption to market dominance, the digital revolution is more subtle. The distance between the operator or user and the 'machine' she controls becomes invaded by digital systems which have the seductive power to lull a sense of security whilst being an incomprehensible black box.
Using the modern merchant ship as the basis, the talk will consider the pathway towards adoption of new technology, the development of automation and the resulting impact on usability. When did we become dependent on digital systems without a manual work around? How should this sort of development be recorded for historical purposes to inform future generations? The speed of change is extraordinary, and the drivers for adoption are not always clear.
About the Speaker
Vaughan Pomeroy joined the British Aircraft Corporation at Weybridge from school in 1970 as an undergraduate apprentice. His daughter points out that it is now a museum! After graduating, Vaughan returned to Weybridge working on aircraft systems, particularly avionics. He joined the consulting engineers Mott, Hay and Anderson in 1974 working on a variety of infrastructure projects, before joining Lloyd's Register of Shipping in 1980.
Vaughan retired in 2010 as Technical Director, since when he has worked with Southampton University and with universities in Singapore.

'Progress in Design and Manufacture: The Steam Locomotive 1825-1830' by Dr Michael Bailey
2024-02-19 18:30 - 20:15 | SHEFFIELD Kelham Island Museum, Alma Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S3 8RG
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Robert Stephenson & Co. of Newcastle on Tyne was set up to manufacture equipment for the emerging railway industry, particularly locomotives, in 1823. The company developed the locomotive, already successfully operated at Killingworth and Hetton Collieries, for ever-more demanding duties on the earliest steam operated public railways.
Giant strides were made in improving design, materials and manufacturing techniques before the ‘Stephenson’ form of locomotive was developed, suitable for main line operation on the Liverpool & Manchester and other early main line railways in Britain, Europe and the United States.

About the Speaker
Dr. Michael Bailey is the President of the Stephenson Locomotive Society and a Past-President of the Newcomen Society. He has undertaken considerable work on the archaeology of early steam locomotives and has written extensively about early locomotive design and manufacturing progress during the 19th century.

'Going Underground: Tunnelling on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway' by Anthony Dawson & Eric Shenton
2024-02-27 18:30 - 20:00 | MANCHESTER International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Engine House, Chorlton Mill, 3 Cambridge Street,, Manchester, M1 5BY
An in-person event only. No need to sign up, just come along – all are welcome.
This is a joint meeting with the Stephenson Locomotive Society
The Liverpool & Manchester Railway was probably unique in being a mainline passenger railway with rope-worked inclines at either terminal. The first part of the talk will examine the stationary engines, and the operation of the Wapping, Crown Street, and Lime Street tunnels of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway 1830-1845 and briefly consider those at Manchester Victoria.
The second part will describe the 1977-79 excavations at the site of the Edge Hill Engine Station and discuss the findings and implications for the future exploration of this archaeology and how the site may be made available for the public to visit once again.
About the Lecturers
Anthony Dawson B.Sc Hons Dip. PT, M.Res is a graduate of the University of Bradford and the University of Leeds. He is a professional historian, writer and field archaeologist and also a museum professional. He has written over twenty books on early railways and the Crimean War, including The Liverpool & Manchester Railway: An Operating History, Locomotives of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway and The Railway Which Helped Win a War. He is a member of the Railway & Canal Historical Society; the Heritage Railway Association Museum’s Committee; the 1722 Waggonway Project; the 8th Early Railways Conference organising committee and is preparing to start his PhD – on railways.
Eric Shenton Cert Ed. BA. trained as a teacher at Chester College and later gained a BA degree at the Open University. Taking part in some of the “digs” at the Edge Hill Engine Station site, he became a director of the Edge Hill Railway Trust (1980-82). Currently he is Chair of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Trust.

'How Chaddesley Corbett Changed the World' by David Hardwick
2024-03-06 18:00 - 20:00 | LONDON Alan Baxter Gallery, 75 Cowcross St, Clerkenwell, London, EC1M 6EL
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The Role of the Potter family in the Industrial Revolution
The beginning of the Industrial Revolution is often traced back to 1712 when Thomas Newcomen built a mechanical pump that was not powered by wind, water, or human/animal power in Dudley. There are, however, many myths and mistakes in this traditional narrative, particularly regarding the role played by a small boy called Humphrey Potter in creating the first truly self-acting machine. The Potter family were from Chaddesley Corbett.
This talk looks at the facts around the earliest Newcomen Engines and what role the family played in changing the world.
About the Speaker
David Hardwick is a Chartered Building Surveyor specialising in historic properties and particularly in industrial archaeology. He is an experienced lecturer at colleges and universities in all aspects of construction and heritage, as well as giving talks to a wide range of local and national history organisations. It is his passion for industrial archaeology and, in particular, mining history and the development of the early Newcomen Engines that results in his latest research. He is the current chairman of the Western Region of the Newcomen Society.
This paper is partly based on one delivered at the Early Steam Engines in Central European Mining Conference in Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia on 7-8th October 2022.
David will also be delivering a paper based on the early engine houses in Scotland at the Third International Early Engine House Conference to be hosted at the Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life at Coatbridge near Glasgow on 22nd to the 24th of March 2024. More details here.

'John Cooke Bourne and the first London to Birmingham Railway' by Felix Schmid
2024-03-06 19:00 - 21:00 | BIRMINGHAM Think Tank, Birmingham Science Museum,, Curzon Street, Birmingham, West Midlands, B4 7XG
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This is a joint meeting with Thinktank: Birmingham Science Museum
Felix Schmid, Professor emeritus of Railway Systems Engineering at the University of Birmingham, will talk about the construction and early years of the London and Birmingham Railway. He will trace the history of this huge undertaking through the eyes of John Cooke Bourne, using his watercolours and lithographs. Cooke Bourne lived from 1 September 1814 to February 1896 and also illustrated Brunel's construction of the Great Western Railway. Cooke Bourne's pictures illustrate the huge scale of this enterprise.
Felix will discuss some of the technologies used in the construction of this first railway to reach London, notably the equipment needed for the vast movements of earth required to build the railway.
About the Speaker
Felix Schmid is Professor emeritus of Railway Systems Engineering at the University of Birmingham. Felix is neither a historian nor an archaeologist but a railway systems engineer who enjoys discussing the history of railways and its pioneers. He is a member of Newcomen Council, and has recently been elected as the next President of the Newcomen Society.

'Brunel's Swivel Bridge & Severn Tunnel’s Other Pumping Station' by Geoff Wallis & David Hardwick
2024-03-14 19:30 - 21:00 | BRISTOL BAWA, 589 Southmead Rd, Filton, Bristol, BS34 7RG
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This is a joint meeting with the Bristol Industrial Archaeology Society
Two short talks:
UPDATE on Brunel's Swivel Bridge (AKA BOB- Brunel's Other Bridge)
Speaker – Geoff Wallis
In 2022, The Newcomen Society's published volume 92 of " The International Journal for the History of Engineering & Technology" which was an edition focusing on this bridge regarding its history, technical significance and the work that was being undertaken to preserve it. BIAS Newsletters have have also contained updates and information on progress on this important project. This talk will pull together recent developments and the latest regarding works undertaken and the options for preservation.
The Severn Tunnel's Other Pumping Station
Speaker – David Hardwick
The Severn Rail Tunnel and the pumping engines at Sudbrook have been the subject of various articles, talks and publications. As well as a general overview, this talk considers the lesser known pumping station on the opposite bank of the river. Very little has been written about this. The speaker recently obtained a number of historic images and this talk is intended as a discussion starter regarding what else might be available.
About the Speakers
David Hardwick is a Chartered Building Surveyor with over 35 years' experience, mostly relating to historic properties. His Master's degree, in Historical Archaeology of the Modern World from Bristol University, reflects his passion for industrial heritage. He is a founder member of the South Gloucestershire Mines Research Group and a member of several other mining and industrial heritage organisations, including the Newcomen Society for which he is currently both a trustee and the Western Region Chairman. David runs his own design and surveying consultancy, specialising in building recording and analysis, with an emphasis on historic buildings. He also provides trainings and lectures both locally and nationally at both Undergraduate and Postgraduate levels on heritage topics as well as building defects and construction technology, both modern and historic. He is currently actively researching early engine house construction and the Celestine mining industry.
Geoff Wallis is one of the founders and past managing directors of Dorothea Restoration Engineers Ltd, the UK's foremost conservators of architectural & structural metalwork, traditional mills and historic machinery. He is a Past President of the Newcomen Society and the Bristol Industrial Archaeological Society, Course Leader of the Architectural & Structural Metalwork Conservation course at West Dean College, and Council member of the National Heritage Ironwork Group, The Avon Industrial Buildings Trust and the Museum of Bath at Work. Geoff has contributed to a number of books on practical conservation, and lectures widely on the subject.

'The Side-Lever Steam Engine: An Engineering Story' by Ian Hoose
2024-03-19 18:30 - 20:30 | MANCHESTER International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Engine House, Chorlton Mill, 3 Cambridge Street,, Manchester, M1 5BY
An in-person event only. No need to sign up, just come along – all are welcome.
When the steam engine became a marine power unit in the early 19th century, designs followed the concepts of the land-based engines developed by Boulton and Watt. Although a number of designs of marine steam engine emerged, the side-lever design proved to be both significant and long lasting in commercial and naval applications. An original detailed drawing of the side-lever engine supplied to the Admiralty in 1833 by Maudslay, Sons and Field has been used to produce animated 3D CAD models, which will allow us to examine the challenges presented and solutions developed in manufacturing an engine of this type.
About the Lecturer
Following Ian Hoose‘s graduation from the University of Leeds, a career in energy-intensive industries followed, with time spent in steel industry research, energy consultancy, refractory manufacture and as the Marketing Director of a thermal process engineering company. Since retirement, the impact of steam engine engineering on naval capability is being actively researched.

'The Ken Barraclough Memorial Lecture - The Beauty of Steel Project' by Viktor Mácha
2024-03-26 18:30 - 19:15 | SHEFFIELD Crowne Plaza Royal Victoria, Victoria Station Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S4 7YE
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This is a joint meeting with the Sheffield Metallurgical and Engineering Association
We are very fortunate this year to have Viktor Mácha of Viktor Mácha Industrial Photography, to deliver the Barraclough lecture which he has intriguingly entitled: The Beauty of Steel Project.
The Members Dinner will take place after the lecture. Details will be available in the New Year.
About the Speaker
Viktor Mácha (1984) comes from Prague where he attended Theology and Religious Studies at Charles University. Since 2006, he has been travelling around the world at his own expense, documenting the heavy industrial sites such as iron works, steel works, rolling mills, forges, foundries and coke plants. Currently his archive comprises of several hundred mills stretching from the American Midwest to the Asian part of Russian Urals.
The only aim of these photographs is to objectively document the technological processes connected with steel making and shaping.
It is possible that our generation will be one of the last to experience the fascinating world of dark, rumbling factories.

'Coal Conquers Cholera: The Development & Technology of Sewage Treatment' by Nigel Jopson
2024-04-03 19:00 - 21:00 | BIRMINGHAM Think Tank, Birmingham Science Museum,, Curzon Street, Birmingham, West Midlands, B4 7XG
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This is a joint meeting with Thinktank: Birmingham Science Museum
Nigel Jopson's presentation will start with a brief introduction and then will consider the recognition of water-born pathogens as the harbingers of disease and the need to build efficient sewerage systems for the removal of effluent from Victorian cities. The legal and administrative frameworks developed in step with the rise of local government in the 19th century will also be evaluated.
Next, we discuss the motive power for the pumping operations, the rise of the rotative beam engine and the later developments illustrated with examples of surviving engines. We will consider the historical development of sewage treatment systems, including the nature and characterisation of effluents both domestic and industrial – both physical and biological treatments will be featured.
Finally, the conclusions that may be drawn will be illustrated.
About the Speaker
Nigel Jopson was a Consultant industrial chemist who retired from the Pulp and Paper industry in 2013. Early in his career, he was involved in studies on problems with industrial wastewater treatments.
He is also a devout worshipper at the Shrine of Steam!

'BBC – 100 years of public broadcasting. Disruptive technology in action 1922-2022' by Dr. Mark Pegg
2024-04-10 18:00 - 20:00 | LONDON Alan Baxter Gallery, 75 Cowcross St, Clerkenwell, London, EC1M 6EL
This event is both an in-person and on-line event. To reserve a spot for either option, please visit the lecture’s Eventbrite page
In 2022, the BBC celebrated 100 years of broadcasting, having radically transformed Britain. The BBC entered our homes and made radical changes to our society and culture. With its mission to inform and educate as well as entertain, the BBC soon had a leading role in all the key events of British life – war, peace, politics and even the relationship with the monarchy – all changed forever.
What were the technologies that enabled this to happen: the scientific and technological inventions and innovations that defined the rise and rise of radio and television? This is a timeline of disruptive technologies that created the most powerful force in communications the world had ever seen. As technology continued to progress, so broadcasting went on re-inventing itself until today it is a convergence of different strands as a digital, integrated multi-media platform. It is a story of successful technological diffusion, a series of rapid and transformational impacts on our lives. The focus is on science and technology, but no account would be complete without the human factor. Broadcasting gave birth to a new breed of personalities: famous speakers, entertainers and news presenters, but it also created a cadre of engineers and technicians who made it happen.
About the Lecturer
Mark Pegg read history at Oxford University where his published doctoral thesis was British Broadcasting and Society 1918-1939. He 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, he became a Director of a Business School and CEO of the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.
Mark 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. He is a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
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'The Closed Cycle Gas Turbine' by Dr Fred Starr
2024-04-18 19:30 - 21:00 | BRISTOL BAWA, 589 Southmead Rd, Filton, Bristol, BS34 7RG
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This talk is about the Closed Cycle Gas Turbine but Dr Fred Starr will also discuss the CCGT or Combined Cycle Gas Turbine, which supplies up to 65% of Britain's electrical power when the wind isn't blowing or the sun isn't shining. In actual fact, in the section of British R&D, in which he worked, the Closed Cycle Gas Turbine project was deliberately set up to compete with early forms of the CCGT. The Closed Cycle Gas Turbine uses pressurised air, helium or argon, in a sort of continuous closed loop. It uses a complex and efficient thermodynamic cycle, giving a potential advantage over aero-derived and industrial gas turbines.
The closed cycle was invented in Switzerland in the 1930s, at Escher Whyss AG. But another Swiss company, Brown Boveri AG, had twenty years experience in the development of the gas turbine for industrial use. Its efforts culminated in the world's first industrial gas turbine at Neuchatel in 1939. There was obviously a flow of information between the two companies, even though they were in competition.
The principal advantage of the Closed Cycle Gas Turbine is that it can use coal or heavy oil, an impossibility with normal gas turbines. In the post war era, a number of units were built in countries that had good coal supplies but were short of oil, and where district heating was common. There was sporadic interest in Britain using peat as a fuel and waste heat from a gas works and some blue skies thinking with the closed cycle in nuclear powered aircraft. The big shortcoming of the closed cycle was that improvements in efficiency demanded a "heater" with tubing that had more high temperature strength and better resistance to corrosion from coal and heavy oil ash. In consequence, interest died, apart from a German led programme using a pebble bed high temperature nuclear reactor.
The British Gas effort, around 1990, was built around the realisation that a new range of "mechanically alloyed" high temperature steels had been developed, and that natural gas, when burnt, does not produce a corrosive ash. Dr Fred Starr "sold" the idea of a high temperature closed cycle to his Assistant Director, GH Gibson and was told to get on and build a "demonstrator". This was to test out this new high temperature heater, and incorporate all the salient features of a Combined Cycle Gas Turbine. There will be a brief run through of pictures of the installation.
Real advances in the nuclear field will come from concepts like the Molten Salt and Molten Lead Reactors. If these were to come about, the Closed Cycle Gas Turbine fits in very well with these sources of high temperature heat.
About the Speaker
Dr Fred Starr graduated as Metallurgist from Battersea College (now the University of Surrey) in 1966. After a short period, training to be a shift engineer on a steam reforming plant at Hitchin, he joined British Gas, London Research Station, in Fulham where he remained for 30 years. Initially he did failure investigation on steam reforming plants, some of which included visits to the sites at Breakwater, Plymouth, and Seabank, Bristol. In this respect, a big regret was not knowing that the Newcomen Society used to meet at the Science Museum, just up the road from where he worked in Fulham.
Much of Fred’s time at London Research was spent on materials for high temperature gasifiers. When this work terminated, he came up with novel ideas for generating electricity using natural gas. This included the concept of incorporating a Stirling Engine within a gas boiler, and the Closed Cycle Gas Turbine project. His deep interest in aircraft and aircraft engines and background in steam reforming were key to the success of the Closed Cycle Gas Turbine “demonstrator”. Privatisation killed real R&D, and he left British Gas in 1996. Fred’s most important job after leaving British Gas was with the EU’s Joint Research Centre in the Netherlands, where he did the basic design for a HYPOGEN plant making hydrogen from coal. Despite this, he is extremely cynical about the hydrogen economy.
Formally “retiring” in 2007, Fred became an active member of the Newcomen Society. With the help of Bryan Lawton, John Anning and Ed Marshall he got the Society to put on a conference on The Piston Engine Revolution (the development of the IC engine). Later on, he came up with the Swords into Ploughshares conference (how WWI transformed British Engineering).

'You’ll Believe a Man can Fly' by Dr Phil Judkins
2024-04-22 18:30 - 20:15 | SHEFFIELD Kelham Island Museum, Alma Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S3 8RG
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Sherburn-in-Elmet airfield, 1942-4, and the Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment are trialling unpowered rotary wings on jeeps and trucks, transatlantic glider tows, and similar remarkably inventive ways of taking warriors to battle.
Dr Phil Judkins describes their experiments from the sane and sensible through the weird and wonderful to the downright dangerous, to Allied troops rather than the enemy!
About the Speaker
Dr Phil Judkins’ love of industrial archaeology stems from his childhood playground being an abandoned Victorian waterworks, with no Health and Safety to concern him! Cambridge’s Classical Archaeology course led to several years in ‘dirt archaeology’, followed by a management career which ranged from the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment to the City of London. Phil then gave structure to his abiding interest of historic defence electronics through a Cranfield PhD in the history of radar, and successive Fellowships at the UK’s Defence Academy and at Buckingham University’s Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies.
He currently chairs the Defence Electronics History Society and the Purbeck Radar Museum Trust, in addition to serving on the Committee of the South Yorkshire Newcomen Society, and lectures on defence topics throughout the UK, Phil’s particular perspective is to present the role of electronics in conflict as seen by all the contending parties, rather than from a single national perspective, so that he welcomes collaboration with colleagues internationally.

'Images of Steam Engines – 1712 to ca.1870 and later' by Professor David Perrett
2024-05-08 18:00 - 20:00 | LONDON Alan Baxter Gallery, 75 Cowcross St, Clerkenwell, London, EC1M 6EL
An in-person only event – just turn up, there’s no need to register
Throughout the 18th century Newcomen engines and especially their engine house appeared frequently in prints and occasionally paintings. However, the earliest illustrations are a mix of artistic impressions and rather odd technical explanations. By the Victorian era such landscape images had started to fade. Technical drawings that aided manufacture, however, became much better. Later the illustrated newspapers quickly commissioned images of disasters.
This talk will draw together many of the surviving images that have been discovered in books and galleries.
About the Lecturer
David Perrett is Emeritus Professor of Bioanalytical Science at Barts Medical School, QMUL, London with over 250 research publications. He is a Past President of the Newcomen Society, President of the Greater London Industrial Archaeology (GLIAS) and Chair of the Association for Industrial Archaeology. His interests include early steam engines and IA both at home and abroad.

'Reflected Glory - From Coal Fires to Parabolic Reflectors' by Julia Elton
2024-05-16 19:30 - 21:00 | BRISTOL BAWA, 589 Southmead Rd, Filton, Bristol, BS34 7RG
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The development of an effective lighting system by the British Lighthouse Service in the 18th and early 19th centuries
Lighthouses were built to contain lights to guide mariners past dangerous rocks and currents. This being so, it is all the more surprising that almost none of the dozens of books on lighthouses pay any attention to the lights.
Although there have been some studies on the Fresnel refracting lens, including one by the present speaker, the earlier system of catoptric lights has been almost entirely overlooked. The catoptric system combined parabolic reflectors, which project a powerful parallel beam, with the smokeless Argand lamp. This technology represented the first application of science to lighthouse illumination and was introduced in the mid-1750s.
This lecture will look at the steps taken to develop an effective system, which was easy to maintain and continued in use long after the introduction of the Fresnel lens. The subject forms the subject of Julia’s PhD thesis and she will reveal new facts and insights about this previously unstudied period.
About the Speaker
Julia Elton read Music and Icelandic at Leeds University before training as an antiquarian book dealer at B. Weinreb Architectural Books Ltd. She went on to run her own business, Elton Engineering Books, the only firm to specialize exclusively in the history of engineering.
Julia has written and lectured widely on historic engineers and engineering and is now reading for a PhD at UCL on the history of lighthouses. She is a long-standing member of the Institution of Structural Engineers History Study Group and a past president of the Newcomen Society.

'The Steel Bakers of Rotherham' by David Eaton & John Anning
2024-05-20 18:30 - 20:15 | SHEFFIELD Kelham Island Museum, Alma Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S3 8RG
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John Anning, a great-grandson of John Baker (1843-1904), will outline the history of the Baker family and will describe “Tiny Tim”, the large Glasgow-made hybrid steam/drop hammer, purchased from the Darlington Forge in 1906. Saved from demolition in 1965, it now forms the entry arch to Beamish Industrial Museum.
David Eaton will give an overview of the company’s history: its railway products, technical achievements and its steelmaking and processing facilities including the innovative axle – forging plant. He will also briefly describe the armaments work undertaken during WW1 and WW2.
About the Speakers
David Eaton is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Freeman of the City of London. He is a Council Member of the Newcomen Society, a Trustee of the Ken Hawley Collection Trust and the South Yorkshire Trades Historical Trust Limited and is the current chairman of the South Yorkshire Centre of the Newcomen Society. David retired in 2006 from Sheffield Hallam University as Director of the School of Engineering, a post he held for 12 years.
John Anning is a great grandson of John Baker of Rotherham. After a successful business career in engineering, he now enjoys his lifelong interest in engineering history, particularly railways, machine tools and internal combustion engines.

'Thomas Cooke of York' by Darlah Thomas
2024-09-24 18:30 - 20:00 | MANCHESTER International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Engine House, Chorlton Mill, 3 Cambridge Street,, Manchester, M1 5BY
An in-person event only. No need to sign up, just come along – all are welcome.
A Victorian instrument maker with a worldwide following (even today)
Thomas Cooke (1807 – 1868) had a humble start to life in a small village south-east of York. His father was the village shoemaker who could afford little education for his children. How then could such a child progress to a career where he was respected by the most eminent in his field and whose customers, both amateur and professional, would span the globe?
In the spirit of Samuel Smiles’ Self Help, Thomas was mostly self-educated and with the assistance of three mentors, was able to rise to the top of the astronomical, meteorological, horological and mathematical instrument making hierarchy. He relished a challenge and was known for solving manufacturing problems thought impossible by his peers.
His reputation has endured and his products are still widely collected not just as beautiful objects but also for their continued utility.

About the Speaker
Darlah Thomas and her husband Steve are amateur horologists. Their passion for this subject has resulted in several articles, books and a series of talks all intent on widening knowledge of individual clockmakers and their craft. Researching clockmaking has taken them to most parts of the country, to tiny hamlets and the large cities, to church towers, mansions, town halls, private houses and even prisons in search of clocks.
It was the clocks made by Thomas Cooke which first attracted their attention but the volume and range of other products he made soon filled a very large book!

'The history of Vierendeel railway bridges in Belgium and the Congo' by Professor Bernard Espion
2024-10-02 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 is a joint meeting with the Institution of Structural Engineers History Study Group
The “Vierendeel” type bridge takes its name from the Belgian professor Arthur Vierendeel, who patented the principle in 1895 and intensively promoted it as a replacement for the truss bridge. From the outset, Vierendeel envisaged this type of bridge being used for railway bridges. That said, the very first railway bridge of this type was not built in Belgium until 1922. Then, on the initiative of one of Vierendeel’s former students, it was used for some forty spans on the BCK railway line in the Congo in the 1920s. Finally, in the 1930s, the national railway company adopted the Vierendeel type for the construction of a number of long-span bridges in Belgium. The Mechelen bridge mentioned above is part of this series.
At the same time, the Vierendeel bridge type was also adopted en masse for the construction of around forty road bridges over the future Albert Canal, currently under construction. But unlike the rail bridges, which were always riveted, the road bridges were built using the new and little-experienced technique of arc welding. This led to the famous accident in March 1938, when the Hasselt welded bridge collapsed into the Albert Canal.
Professor Bernard Espion has studied the history of these welded Vierendeel road bridges and their importance in the history of brittle fracture in various publications. However, he has never reported on the history of the Vierendeel rail bridges which, to his knowledge, were only used in Congo and Belgium. There are a large number of them in the Congo that are almost 100 years old, and a few more in Belgium.
The history of these Vierendeel rail bridges will be the subject of Professor Bernard Espion‘s presentation, along with a few lessons drawn from the very recent expert examination of this bridge in Mechelen concerning the properties of the steel used at the time in Belgium.
About the Speaker
Professor Bernard Espion graduated in Civil Engineering from the Polytechnical School of the University of Brussels (Université Libre de Bruxelles, ULB) in 1979. He earned his doctoral degree in 1986 with a dissertation on the Numerical modelling and analysis of the nonlinear and time-dependent behaviour of concrete structures.
Between 2000 and 2021, Professor Espion was the Director of the Laboratory for testing Materials and Structures, a laboratory with origins in 1924. He taught courses on Structural Analysis and Design of Steel and Concrete Structures. Since 2021, he has been Professor Emeritus from the University of Brussels (ULB) where he has spent his whole scientific and academic career in the Department of Civil Engineering.
Professor Espion’s themes of research from 1980 to 2006 were mainly in structural concrete and concrete technology. He acquired an extensive experience of testing of materials and structures and in situ stress analysis of bridges.
Since 2002, his research interests have mostly been in Construction History and Conservation of heritage engineering structures, specializing in the history of Construction in Belgium (19th-20th Centuries), with emphasis on concrete and steel structures, construction materials, biographies of engineers, bridges, thin concrete shells and lightweight cable roof structures.

'The Nice Parts of Technical Curatorship' by Dr Jim Andrew
2024-10-02 19:00 - 21:00 | BIRMINGHAM Think Tank, Birmingham Science Museum,, Curzon Street, Birmingham, West Midlands, B4 7XG
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This is a joint meeting with Thinktank: Birmingham Science Museum
Most of a senor curator’s time is spent on typical management activities as in any other job, but from time to time the curator can do some research or hand on aspects of exhibits’ history or use.
This talk will look at a few of these sagas and even blocking attempts to “poach” the exhibits for display elsewhere, or dare one say it, to sell!
About the Speaker
Dr Jim Andrew was Honorary Secretary of the Midlands Branch of the Newcomen Society, and is currently Chairman.
After starting his working life in environmental protection for local government, he joined the Birmingham Museum Service at the Birmingham Museum of Science and Industry, where he remained, as curator responsible for the Science Museum’s technical collection.
Although now retired, Dr Jim Andrew remains as a volunteer technical adviser at the Thinktank Museum.

'Measuring the Metre' by Dr Terry Quinn FRS
2024-10-09 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 great revolution in metrology began with the redefinition of the Metre in terms of the wavelength of light. From antiquity, practical dimensional measurement standards had all been based upon material artifacts and measurement of time on the rotation of the Earth.
All of that changed in 2018 when the base units of the SI were redefined in terms of fixed values of a set of fundamental and atomic constants.
The lecture will explain how practical measurement standards can be obtained from such definitions.
About the Speaker
Dr Terry Quinn graduated from Southampton University in physics in 1959 and then moved to Oxford for his D. Phil in what was then the Metallurgy Department. His thesis supervisor was Professor William Hume-Rothery FRS.
In 1962, Dr Quinn joined the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington where he worked on high-temperature measurement and standards. In 1967/68 he spent a year at the then National Bureau of Standards in Washington.
Dr Quinn moved to the BIPM in Paris in 1977 as Deputy Director becoming Director in 1988. He was Lady Margaret Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Cavendish Laboratory Cambridge in 1984/84.
Dr Quinn retired from the BIPM in 2003. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2002.

'Engineering of roads & airfields for military victory with bituminous geomembranes' by Eugene Gallagher & William Craig
2024-10-22 18:30 - 20:00 | MANCHESTER International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Engine House, Chorlton Mill, 3 Cambridge Street,, Manchester, M1 5BY
An in-person event only. No need to sign up, just come along – all are welcome.
The presentation will explore the history of bituminous geomembranes from its origins in the 1930s and subsequent development during World War II for the rapid construction of military roads and runways right up to the current day.
These materials were manufactured in large quantities in support of the Allied air and land forces and were to play a significant role in battles of the Burma campaign and in the immediate aftermath of the Normandy landings. In Asia they were used to create airfields and all-weather roads, keeping supply lines open and enabling fast movement of troops, particularly during the monsoon season. In northern France and Belgium in 1944/45 they allowed rapid surfacing of temporary or expedient airfields by sealing the ground and maintaining the existing soil’s bearing capacity, thereby enabling close tactical air support to be maintained with rapidly advancing ground forces.

About the Speakers
Eugene Gallagher is an associate geotechnical engineer with Coffey Geotechnics based in Manchester, where he acts as a focus for geosynthetics and containment engineering and consults internationally.
William Craig is now a visiting academic, formerly Reader in geotechnical engineering, at Manchester University and past chair of the British Geotechnical Society.
Bill and Eugene will discuss the historical aspects of the development and deployment of bituminous geomembranes based on their research into its wartime use.

'Technology and health: the history of the science behind the cure' by Dr Jenny Stephenson
2024-10-28 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 – Meeting ID – 840 6763 5852
Dr Jenny Stephenson will be covering the medical history of some of the common treatments and procedures we know today, asking which represent groundbreaking changes and which have remained much the same over decades, and why.
About the Speaker
Dr Jenny Stephenson was a GP until recently when she left the Practice after 40 years service. Her interest in history has led to a Diploma in Medical History and quite a few talks delivered locally, to raise money for charity.
Jenny has written two relevant books for this talk. One is about the history of General Practice and the other is about the evolving relationship through the history of pharmacists and doctors. All proceeds go towards local charities.

'The Telegraph to India in the Victorian Era' by Dr John Moyle
2024-11-06 19:00 - 21:00 | BIRMINGHAM Think Tank, Birmingham Science Museum,, Curzon Street, Birmingham, West Midlands, B4 7XG
Joining us IN PERSON – just turn up, there’s no need to register
Joining us ON LINE – click on this zoom link before the event to join in
Much has been heard about laying the under-sea telegraph cables across the Atlantic and other oceans, particularly around the 150th anniversary of the first transatlantic cable laid in 1866. However, the need to extend the telegraph lines, mainly over land routes to, and across, India was also vital to British colonial and military interests.
With strained relations between Britain and several other European countries in the mid-18th century, there was also a need to route the lines to avoid crossing unfriendly countries. Before the technology for underwater cables had been perfected, there were sometimes gaps in the route, requiring messages to be forwarded by steamer before re-entering the telegraph system.
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 Liberation Line' by Christian Wolmar
2024-11-20 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.
In the run up to D Day, June 6 1944, a combination of Allied bombing and sabotage by the French Resistance reduced the railway to a set of disconnected lines. This was to prevent the Germans from using the railways to reinforce their defence of the beaches.
The Liberation Line tells the story of how around 50,000 UK and US troops were sent over the Channel to rebuild and operate the lines, often in perilous situations. At the heart of the book is the story of how 10,000 men were deployed to rebuild a 135 mile long line in Normandy in just 3 days in order to allow General Patton to reach Paris.
About the Speaker
Christian Wolmar is a writer and broadcaster specialising in Transport. He spent many years on national newspapers such as The Observer and The Independent and still writes for a variety of publications including a regular column in Rail magazine.
Christian frequently appears on TV and radio programmes most notably the recent Panorama on HS2. He has written 20 books including Railways and the Raj and British Rail a new history. The Liberation Line is his most recent book, published in the summer.

'Sir Frank Whittle and Jet Propulsion: some oft repeated myths' by Dr Fred Starr
2024-11-25 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
please email meetings.syorks@newcomen.com for zoom link.
Repeated statements that the development of the jet engine was held up by the shortcomings of high temperature alloys for turbine blades are without foundation. Frank Whittle, given the funding, could have had a jet engine prototype running by 1932-33 and the RAF could have been equipped with jet fighters by 1939.
It was unfortunate that Griffith (of Griffith Crack Fame) was so opposed to the jet engine principle, probably because he saw this as a rival to his own weird turboprop ideas. Accordingly, funding was withheld, the Germans taking the lead.
About the Speaker
Dr Fred Starr graduated as Metallurgist from Battersea College (now the University of Surrey) in 1966. After a short period, training to be a shift engineer on a steam reforming plant at Hitchin, he joined British Gas, London Research Station, in Fulham where he remained for 30 years. Initially he did failure investigation on steam reforming plants, some of which included visits to the sites at Breakwater, Plymouth, and Seabank, Bristol. In this respect, a big regret was not knowing that the Newcomen Society used to meet at the Science Museum, just up the road from where he worked in Fulham.
Much of Fred’s time at London Research was spent on materials for high temperature gasifiers. When this work terminated, he came up with novel ideas for generating electricity using natural gas. This included the concept of incorporating a Stirling Engine within a gas boiler, and the Closed Cycle Gas Turbine project. His deep interest in aircraft and aircraft engines and background in steam reforming were key to the success of the Closed Cycle Gas Turbine “demonstrator”. Privatisation killed real R&D, and he left British Gas in 1996. Fred’s most important job after leaving British Gas was with the EU’s Joint Research Centre in the Netherlands, where he did the basic design for a HYPOGEN plant making hydrogen from coal. Despite this, he is extremely cynical about the hydrogen economy.
Formally “retiring” in 2007, Fred became an active member of the Newcomen Society. With the help of Bryan Lawton, John Anning and Ed Marshall he got the Society to put on a conference on The Piston Engine Revolution (the development of the IC engine). Later on, he came up with the Swords into Ploughshares conference (how WWI transformed British Engineering).

'Marketing the Manchester Ship Canal' by Martin Dodge
2024-11-26 18:30 - 20:00 | MANCHESTER International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Engine House, Chorlton Mill, 3 Cambridge Street,, Manchester, M1 5BY
An in-person event only. No need to sign up, just come along – all are welcome.
The Manchester Ship Canal is one of the great engineering projects in late Victorian Britain and widely regarded as transforming the economic landscape of Manchester and the wider region during the first half of the twentieth century. It remains a strategic infrastructure and has been promoted as an asset for the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ in recent years.
This talk examines the types of publicity material and market strategies deployed by the Manchester Ship Canal Company (MSCC) between the 1920s and the early 1950s in their efforts to promote the ship canal to local firms and international business and to encourage industrial growth around the docks. The talk draws upon archival research conducted in 2021, the results of which were presented in a public exhibition in Manchester Central Library during summer/autumn 2023. Much of the marketing material and original artwork exhibited was unearthed in the extensive but uncatalogued archives of the Ship Canal Company held by the Greater Manchester Record Office in Manchester Central Library.

In particular, the talk will focus empirically on the imaginative visual design and branding developed by Kenneth Brady, MSCC’s publicity chief from 1926-1939, and of skilled commercial artists, including Horace Taylor, Bert Wilson and Paxton Chadwick, who he commissioned.

The catalogue for the exhibition is available here.
About the Speaker
Martin Dodge is a Senior Lecturer in the Geography Department at the University of Manchester. He has worked at Cardiff University and University College London.
Much of Martin’s research is currently focused on the historical geography of Manchester’s transport and town planning. In 2018 he co-wrote Manchester: Mapping the City (Birlinn, 2018) and in 2022 he co-curated a public exhibition, Who Built Wythenshawe?
Martin is currently co-writing a book for the University of Manchester’s bicentenary on growth and change of the campus.

'How Chaddesley Corbett changed the world' by David Hardwick
2024-12-04 19:00 - 21:00 | BIRMINGHAM Think Tank, Birmingham Science Museum,, Curzon Street, Birmingham, West Midlands, B4 7XG
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.
The Role of the Potter family in the Industrial Revolution
The beginning of the Industrial Revolution is often traced back to 1712 when Thomas Newcomen built a mechanical pump that was not powered by wind, water, or human/animal power in Dudley. There are, however, many myths and mistakes in this traditional narrative, particularly regarding the role played by a small boy called Humphrey Potter in creating the first truly self-acting machine. The Potter family were from Chaddesley Corbett.
This talk looks at the facts around the earliest Newcomen Engines and what role the family played in changing the world.
About the Speaker
David Hardwick is a Chartered Building Surveyor specialising in historic properties and particularly in industrial archaeology. He is an experienced lecturer at colleges and universities in all aspects of construction and heritage, as well as giving talks to a wide range of local and national history organisations. It is his passion for industrial archaeology and, in particular, mining history and the development of the early Newcomen Engines, that results in his latest research.

'The Natural Gas Conversion Programme' by Russell Thomas
2024-12-16 19:00 - 21:00 | SHEFFIELD Kelham Island Museum, Alma Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S3 8RG
Joining us IN PERSON – just turn up, there’s no need to register
please email meetings.syorks@newcomen.com for zoom link.
This is a joint meeting with the South Yorkshire Industrial History Society
The natural gas conversion program was a government-led initiative in the UK to transition the gas industry from town gas to natural gas between 1966 and 1977.
Gas users were faced with an ultimatum; switch to natural gas and accept the inconvenience of the changeover or choose another fuel source and absorb the resulting cost and disruption. It was regarded as one of the UK’s biggest post-war engineering projects.
About the Speaker
Russell Thomas is Technical Director of WSP in the UK and his wide ranging career has had a strong environmental and historical focus on the energy sector and gas in particular. Russell’s early career had a strong focus on addressing environmental legacy issues associated with the gas manufacturing industry, through developing remediation systems. This work had an extensive research element which has been maintained throughout his career working with universities and academic institutions (e.g. the University of Strathclyde, University of Manchester and the BGS) generating extensive journal publications.
More recent work has focused on heritage aspects of the industry including the understanding, interpreting and reuse of former gasworks structures. Russell is media trained having featured in several TV programmes and has also been asked as an international expert to speak at overseas conferences. Another main area of interest is the energy transition, trying to learn from the extensive history of the energy industry and gas in particular.
Russell is currently managing a very interesting collaboration with the British Geological Survey. His main areas of research focus over the years have been the application of environmental forensics to tars, bioaccessability of hydrocarbons, remediation of heavy metals and furthering the understanding of microbial communities in gas production wastes and unconventional gases.

'Mushroom Clouds: The Hidden Enemy Within Britain's Wooden Walls' by Laurence Scales
2025-01-08 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.
A wine bottle labelled in Michael Faraday’s hand, preserved in his laboratory at the Royal Institution, and a startling letter in the archive of the Royal Society of Arts, hinted at a centuries long naval battle, rarely heard about.
The Royal Navy struggled just to keep its vessels afloat. The enemy was fungal timber rot. Many lives were lost and various solutions were tried. Some of the experiments in search of a cure were dramatic and even caused their own fatalities.

About the Speaker
Laurence Scales has a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering, and subsequently worked for Lloyds Register of Shipping, offshore engineering contractor Brown & Root and defence electronics manufacturer Thales.
Latterly, Laurence has been an archive volunteer at both the Royal Institution of Great Britain and the Royal Society of Arts. He devises and leads London tours themed around the history of science, technology and medicine. Customers have included Imperial College, King’s College London, Purdue University, Ove Arup & Associates, and the FBI.

'The Background to the 1925 Stockton & Darlington Centenary Celebrations' by Les Turnbull
2025-01-27 18:30 - 20:00 | NEWCASTLE Neville Hall, Westgate Rd, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, NE1 1SE
This is an in-person and on-line event – please sign up to this eventbrite link to register your attendance for either option
This is a joint meeting with the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers
When the North Eastern Railway organised the 50th anniversary Jubilee celebration of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) in 1875, it elevated a largely colliery focussed railway to international status and created a fictitious narrative of history.
Using recently discovered archival and archaeological evidence, the author argues for a different interpretation, which gives more weight to the railways which had existed for more than 200 years before the opening of the S&DR.
It considers the ideas of William Thomas, voiced in 1800, for a novel railway system to transport not only minerals but also merchandise and people. Thomas’ ideas reached fruition at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830, which provided the model for other railways across the world.
About the Speaker
Les Turnbull graduated in history at Durham University and worked as a schoolmaster, university lecturer and senior education adviser. Upon retirement he became a volunteer at NEIMME where now serves as a member of Council.
Les has written several books on the history of mining and his particular interest, the early railways of the Great Northern Coalfield. He is frequently called upon to lecture both within the region and beyond.

CANCELLED | 'Stephen Carter and the Micrarium in Buxton' by Viviane Quirke
2025-01-28 18:30 - 20:00 | MANCHESTER International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Engine House, Chorlton Mill, 3 Cambridge Street,, Manchester, M1 5BY
THIS EVENT IS CANCELLED
An in-person event only. No need to sign up, just come along – all are welcome.
From pharmaceutical innovation to public engagement in the North West
In 1981, a new kind of museum opened in Buxton’s old Pump room. It was the ‘Micrarium’, created by Stephen Carter, who had previously been involved in cancer research at ICI’s Pharmaceutical Research Centre at Alderley Park in Cheshire. The Micrarium’s ambition was to make the microscopic world, which Carter had explored in his work for ICI, more readily accessible to the wider public. Unfortunately, Carter’s premature death in 1987, and the eventual displacement of the apparatus used in the Micrarium by digital technology, led to the ultimate demise, not only of the Micrarium itself, but of its idea as a museum.
This talk will illustrate the short-lived ‘World First’ use of microscopes in a dedicated museum setting which, through Carter, bridged the gap between scientific innovation and public engagement. It will touch on the importance of place – Carter’s home, where he did much of the work for the Micrarium, was situated between Alderley Park, with which he retained useful contacts even after he had retired, and Buxton in the Peak District. However, considering the resistance and sometimes outright opposition directed against the museum by some of the local inhabitants, my paper will also ask whether this was the right place to set up such a museum, at a time when the microscopic world was attracting public interest, but which perhaps clashed with the image of a traditional spa town.
About the Speaker
Viviane Quirke is a historian of science, technology and medicine. She has worked on the history of drugs and the pharmaceutical industry in Britain, France and the USA, and has published several articles, chapters and books on the subject.
Viviane retired from Oxford Brookes University in 2023, and is currently Research Associate at the University of Oxford and at University College London.
