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'Rochester Bridge in the 19th century: from medieval stone to modern steel' by Sue Threader
2023-11-08 18:00 - 20:00 (Europe/London) | 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
As the 18th century came to a close and the Industrial Revolution was well-established, the only river crossing at Rochester was still a narrow stone medieval bridge which had been built in 1393 through charitable donations. In 1792, the Wardens of the Bridge appointed their first salaried engineer and began a process of modernisation and innovation under the guidance of some of the most important and impressive civil engineers of the day, including Rennie, Telford and Sir William Cubitt. By the turn of the 20th century the medieval bridge had been replaced by the substantial and highly-decorated Old Bridge that is still in use as the only road crossing on the A2 from Rochester to Strood today.
This lecture will explore the evolution of Rochester Bridge, a story which reflected much of the wider change going on in the 19th century bridge engineering profession. It will also explain the political and social background to the changes and how the ancient charity which owns and maintains the bridge was also forced to evolve as the demands for efficient road and river traffic grew.
About the Lecturer
Sue Threader is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers with senior-level experience in the public, private and charity sectors. She is the first woman chief executive of the medieval trust that owns Rochester Bridge, which is managed with Net Zero Carbon emissions. Sue writes on historic bridge engineering and has appeared on Channel 5 with Rob Bell sharing her expertise. She is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Engineers, member of the ICE Archives Panel and is the lead editor of a new website celebrating the work of John Rennie.
Sue holds an Honorary Doctorate and an ICE award for outstanding career contribution to civil engineering. She has been a finalist for Charity Chief Executive of the Year three times.
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'The Early Development of the Manufacture of Iron Armour Plate: 1853-1865' by David Boursnell
2023-11-14 18:00 - 20:00 | NEWCASTLE Discovery Museum, Blandford Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, NE1 4HZ
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The development & manufacture of Naval Armour plating in the mid-19th century
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
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'The Development of Parsons Gas Turbines' by Geoff Horseman
2023-11-20 14:00 - 20:15 | SHEFFIELD Kelham Island Museum, Alma Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S3 8RG
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2:30pm – 16:15pm – The UK’s first industrial gas turbine
The UK’s first industrial gas turbine was developed by CA Parsons & Co beginning in the 1930s. The machine ran for the first time in 1945. All of the key elements: compressor, turbine, combustion chamber, exhaust heat exchanger and control technology were developed by CA Parsons & Co Ltd independently. The unit had to use the fuel available in WWII i.e. pool oil, and was used to investigate the viability of operation on residual fuel oil and pulverised coal. Geoff Horseman, formerly Chief Turbine Engineer at Siemens CA Parsons Works, will tell the story of this machine using information and photos from the original development files.
6:30pm – 20:15pm – Parsons first gas turbine-generator: the Dunston ‘A’ unit of 1948
In 1945, CA Parsons & Co constructed the UK’s first industrial gas turbine in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. It was an immediate success. It was followed by an order in 1948 for one of the first gas turbine-generators for use at a British power station. This was a 15 MW unit for Dunston ‘A’ power station in Gateshead.
This machine had to achieve an efficiency comparable with the best steam power plants then entering service, it had to operate for a life of at least 100,000 running hours and yet still had to provide all of the benefits of gas turbines eg fast starting. The available materials allowed a firing temperature of just 650oC if this service life was to be achieved and the stresses in the major parts had to be just 25% of those permitted in jet engines of the day. This resulted in an arrangement with three compressors with intercooling between each stage driven by one HP and two LP turbines with reheat at entry to both LP turbines and exhaust heat recovery.
The low firing temperature resulted in a complex arrangement but it achieved a satisfactory efficiency and proved to be a key step towards the simpler, more efficient, more capable high temperature gas turbine-generators of today.
About the Speaker
Geoff Horseman was formerly Chief Turbine Engineer at Siemens CA Parsons Works.

'Simon Goodrich's Tour in 1799' by John Kanefsky
2023-11-23 19:30 - 21:00 | BRISTOL BAWA, 589 Southmead Rd, Filton, Bristol, BS34 7RG
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Simon Goodrich was the Mechanist (Chief Engineer) of the Portsmouth Dockyard. In November and December 1799 he made fact-finding visits to a number of industrial cities and sites, and his detailed notes, preserved in the Science Museum, contain many observations on the industrialists he met, factories he visited and other aspects of his travels.
They are an important window on a critical period in the Industrial Revolution, when new technologies and materials were being innovated, and entrepreneurs were changing the economy of England.
About the Speaker
John Kanefsky studied and taught at the University of Exeter in the 1970s, and was awarded his PhD "The Diffusion of Power Technology in British Industry 1760-1870" in 1979.
He joined the National Coal Board, first as one of the authors of their history of coal mining then in management until privatisation. He was subsequently at the Coal Authority and thereafter had a varied career in the NHS and educational research before retirement.
He is now an Honorary Fellow of the University of Exeter. His research focuses on 18th century steam power and on Devon in the 18th and 19th centuries.
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'Computing Diagrams' by Dr. Guy Marshall
2023-11-28 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 Computer Conservation Society
Diagrams have been used to design and communicate about mathematics and computation since ancient times, through mechanical “adding machines” to electronic computing. Since the advent of modern computing, not only have computing systems developed from the Manchester Baby towards generative artificial intelligence, but so too have the accompanying diagramming techniques evolved. The talk focuses on 20th and 21st century computer software diagrams, and the development of diagramming as a way of reasoning, collaborating and communicating about computer systems.
About the Lecturer
Dr Guy Marshall is Simon Industrial Fellow at University of Manchester and fractional Chief Technology Officer at Porthouse Dean Structural Engineers. He is also a freelance agile coach and technology strategist, sits on Council for Manchester Statistical Society, and is a regular speaker at international technology conferences.

'Where On Earth Am I?' by Jim Andrew
2023-12-06 18:30 - 20:30 | BIRMINGHAM Think Tank, Birmingham Science Museum,, Curzon Street, Birmingham, West Midlands, B4 7XG
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This Newcomen Midlands Public Lecture is held in conjunction with Think Tank: Birmingham Science Museum
At:
The Lecture Theatre, Level Two,
Thinktank: Birmingham Science Museum,
Millennium Point,
Birmingham B4 7XG
[for Sat Nav use B4 7AP]
Jim Andrew gives an explanation of how marine navigation techniques, and the necessary technology, developed through the centuries.
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'RAF Finningley in the Cold War' by Roger Thomas
2023-12-11 18:30 - 20:15 | SHEFFIELD Kelham Island Museum, Alma Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S3 8RG
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This is a joint meeting with the South Yorkshire Industrial History Society
RAF Finningley occupies an area of some 864 acres and was built in several phases from 1916, then in 1936 and finally in 1994. Most of the older airfield buildings are built to ‘standard’ Air Ministry Works and Buildings Department designs, constructed in a well-proportioned Neo-Georgian style, typical of the RAF Expansion Schemes of the 1930s. During the Second World War, a variety of structures were added to the site to improve its operational efficiency; these included three asphalt surfaced concrete runways, a perimeter track, frying-pan aircraft dispersals, emergency water supply (EWS) fire pools, air raid shelters, blast shelters, dual-purpose gun posts, a two-bay turret trainer, and additional bomb storage capacity.
During the mid to late 1950s, substantial work was carried out to up-grade the airfield to operate the Avro Vulcan ‘V’ Bombers. This work included the construction of a new 3,000-yard-long runway (02/20), a Type B1 Unit Store (nuclear weapons store), a new Vertical Split air traffic control building (control tower), four aircraft dispersals, a flight simulator building and an operations & briefing block. Once the Quick Reaction Alert nuclear role was transferred to the Royal Navy, the airfield gained a primary training role with the construction of an Air Electronics, Engineer and Loadmaster School (AEE&LS), and an Air Navigation School. The RAF finally severed its association with Finningley in 1995, because of the ending of the Cold War.
Following the closure of Doncaster City Airport, Finningley was re-opened as Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield Airport and the first commercial flight took off on the 28th April 2005. The airport closed in November 2022, since when Doncaster Council has continued to pursue ways of re-opening the airport. During its period as a commercial airport, many of the original ‘technical site’ buildings have been removed and new ones built, making it much harder to understand the site. This presentation aims to discuss the buildings and the associated technologies that they were designed to house, with an emphasis placed upon the Second World War and the Cold War.
About the Speaker
Roger Thomas is the former Military Support Officer of English Heritage (EH). His interest in military architecture grew during the 1970s when he assisted Henry Wills in gathering data on pillboxes, and in 1979, he became a member of the Fortress Study Group (FSG). He joined the staff of the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME) in 1987, working as an architectural photographer and buildings surveyor based at York, working alongside the Threatened Buildings team. Seven years later he became RCHME’s Military Recording Officer, also working closely with the Defence Estates Organisation; providing advice on military architecture, equipment, weaponry, and history.
In 1992, Roger was part of the FSG’s Holderness Pilot Study, which in turn led to his involvement in the establishment of the Council for British Archaeology’s ‘Defence of Britain Project’. Following the merger of RCHME and English Heritage in 2000 he became the Military Support Officer, a role that was abolished twelve years later, as a result of re-structuring. Since then he has worked as an Assistant Listing Adviser (North) in Historic England’s North-east and Yorkshire listing team, based at York.
Roger is a member of Cadw’s Welsh Conflict Archaeology Advisory Panel (WelCAAP), a trustee of the Dyfed Archaeological Trust, and of the Chapel Bay Fort and Museum Trust, and is a member of the Cambrian Archaeological Association. He has authored, co-authored, and illustrated several books, including: Cold War, Building for Nuclear Confrontation 1946-1989; War Art – Murals and Graffiti – Military Life, Power and Subversion; 20th Century Defences in Britain; and The Home Front in Britain 1914-18. He has also written numerous reports, articles, and guidebooks on military subjects, including York Cold War Bunker; Survey of 19th and 20th Century Military Buildings of Pembrokeshire; and Historic Buildings Report – RAF Finningley.

'RAF Planes that won the Battle of Britain were built on German Machinery' by Dr. Jonathan Aylen
2023-12-13 18:00 - 20:00 | LONDON Alan Baxter Gallery, 75 Cowcross St, Clerkenwell, London, EC1M 6EL
Why the Jewish Refugee Engineer, Ludwig Loewy was crucial to Britain
RAF planes for the Battle of Britain used new technology for aircraft construction and more powerful engines. Stressed skin monoplanes, like the Spitfire, replaced biplanes made of wood, fabric and wire. But the light alloys used to build the new designs were manufactured on German machinery. Dr Aylen tells the compelling story of Ludwig Loewy, a refugee Jewish engineer who fled from the Nazis and brought the crucial light-metals technology needed for rearmament from Germany to Britain in 1936.

Loewy Engineering was set up in London in April 1936 and soon won a wide range of orders from the rapidly growing aluminium alloy sector, as well as for heavy machinery for making tubes for naval warships. This new firm played a key role in Britain's rearmament programme and Second World War production. Ludwig Loewy himself was celebrated as an engineer. The research sheds new light into the careers of refugee engineers who fled from persecution and found new roles in Britain's manufacturing sector.

About the Lecturer
Dr Jonathan Aylen has researched aerospace technologies including missile guidance systems and Britain's early atomic bombs. He has also written on innovation in rolling mill technology and on revolutionary computer use at British Rail. This lively presentation draws on his current work on refugee engineers.
Dr Aylen is a visiting researcher at the University of Manchester and a past President of the Newcomen Society.
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'The Birmingham Brass Industry: Origins, Growth & Politics' by Dr Duncan Frankis
2024-01-03 19:00 - 22:00 | BIRMINGHAM Think Tank, Birmingham Science Museum,, Curzon Street, Birmingham, West Midlands, B4 7XG
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
This is a joint meeting with Thinktank: Birmingham Science Museum
Dr Duncan Frankis places this key industry in its economic and political context
About the Speaker
Dr Duncan Frankis is a lecturer at Newman University, Birmingham

'Iron Stone & Steam: Brunel's Railway Kingdom' by Tim Bryan
2024-01-18 19:30 - 21:00 | BRISTOL BAWA, 589 Southmead Rd, Filton, Bristol, BS34 7RG
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Isambard Kingdom Brunel: Victorian icon, engineer, artist, architect, designer and visionary, entrepreneur and celebrity. His astounding feats changed the British landscape, and this talk tells the story of his achievements and innovations as a railway engineer.
New to the developing world of railways in the early 1830s, Brunel soon came to rival George and Robert Stephenson, as he embarked on what he called ‘the finest work in England’. The construction of the Great Western Railway, arguably the most revolutionary of British railways, opened in 1841. The talk chronicles how, in almost thirty tumultuous years, Brunel created a rail network covering much of the South and West of England, the Midlands and Wales.
The talk will also describe how Brunel’s successes were matched by ‘monumental failures’ – the ill-fated atmospheric system used on the South Devon Railway, and the far-reaching implications of the broad gauge for his railways, which ultimately cost millions of pounds when abolished. Iron, Stone and Steam is also the story of the great engineer’s complex character and the roles of the people who helped the creative, and sometimes dictatorial, genius create his railway.
About the Speaker
Tim Bryan was born in Bristol and since graduating from the University College of Wales Aberystwyth, has worked extensively with industrial maritime and transport collections, leading the curatorial team during the development of the STEAM Museum at Swindon, before moving to the British Motor Museum as Head of Collections & Interpretation in 2004. He joined the SS Great Britain Trust as Director of the Brunel Institute in 2019, and leads the collections, conservation, education and research teams there.
A Fellow of the Museums Association and Chair of the Association of British Transport & Engineering Museums, Tim has presented at conferences and seminars in the UK, Italy, Germany and the USA on a variety of railway, museum and heritage subjects. and has written more than twenty books on railway history. His most recent title ‘Iron Stone & Steam: Brunel’s Railway Kingdom‘ was published in November 2023.

'Inspired By British Inventions: Joseph von Baader's Innovations' by Michael Eckert
2024-01-22 18:30 - 20:15 | SHEFFIELD Kelham Island Museum, Alma Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S3 8RG
ON LINE event only – please visit this Zoom link: 82824786912 shortly before the meeting
Joseph von Baader’s (1763-1835) Technological Innovations in Bavaria From Hydraulic Machinery to Gas Light
The speaker will be joining us on-line from Munich.
Bavaria offered little incentives for the new industrial age around 1800. Yet – due to the activities of the entrepreneurial scientist Joseph von Baader – the Industrial Revolution became manifest in Bavaria at least marginally in the form of hydraulic machinery, steam engines, gas light and other novel technologies. Baader’s innovations were inspired by extended sojourns in Great Britain where he had visited James Watt‘s steam engines, John Wilkinson‘s iron works and other industrial sites.
Unlike the breeding grounds of the Industrial Revolution in England and Scotland, however, the Bavarian sites and circumstances for the realization of new technological inventions were unusual. Baader used the transformation of the Nymphenburg castle park in Munich from the Baroque into the then fashionable English landscape garden as an opportunity to install new pumps for powerful fountain jets. The castle park also served him as a proving ground for the demonstration of other new technologies (transportation systems, steam engines and gas light).
This presentation will illustrate Baader’s activities by authentic documents, drawings, photographs and videos. The fountains at Nymphenburg are still driven by Baader’s hydraulic machinery which can be observed in operation at the original site.
About the Speaker
Michael Eckert currently works at the Forschungsinstitut Deutsches Museum where he undertakes research into Quantum Physics, Theoretical Physics and Fluid Dynamics. His current project is on the history of turbulence.

'Building Connections: The Architecture of Telephone Exchange Buildings' by Lisa Kinch
2024-01-23 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 talk is about the architectural history of telephone exchange buildings in Britain and the changing relationships between architecture, technology and the state. It traces the architectural, technological and historical developments from the opening of Europe’s first telephone exchange in 1879 and the creation of Britain’s first nationalised industry, through war-time constraints, iconic buildings and standard types, network expansion, automation and the ‘waving goodbye to the hello girls’, to present day and the fast approaching end of the private switched telephone network (PSTN), which will make the majority of the UK’s 5,600 telephone exchange buildings redundant.
About the Lecturer
Lisa Kinch is an architect and PhD Student at Lancaster University, where she is researching the history of post-war telephone exchange buildings and the relationships between ‘official’ architecture, technology and the state. She completed a Masters in Architecture and Urbanism followed by a Masters in Architecture at the Manchester School of Architecture, where she now tutors part-time.

'The RAF Aircraft that won the Battle of Britain were made on German Machinery - in Birmingham' by Dr Jonathan Aylen
2024-02-07 19:00 - 21:00 | BIRMINGHAM Think Tank, Birmingham Science Museum,, Curzon Street, Birmingham, West Midlands, B4 7XG
An in-person event only. No need to sign up, just come along – all are welcome.
This is a joint meeting with Thinktank: Birmingham Science Museum
Dr Jonathan Aylen tells the story of how British aircraft were built on German machinery, including complete factories built in the West Midlands just before WW2.
RAF planes for the Battle of Britain used new technology for aircraft construction and more powerful engines. Stressed skin monoplanes, like the Spitfire, replaced biplanes made of wood, fabric and wire. But the light alloys used to build the new designs were manufactured on German machinery. Dr Aylen tells the compelling story of Ludwig Loewy, a refugee Jewish engineer who fled from the Nazis and brought the crucial light-metals technology needed for rearmament from Germany to Britain in 1936.
About the Speaker
Dr Jonathan Aylen has researched aerospace technologies including missile guidance systems and Britain's early atomic bombs. He has also written on innovation in rolling mill technology and on revolutionary computer use at British Rail. This lively presentation draws on his current work on refugee engineers.
Dr Aylen is a visiting researcher at the University of Manchester and a past President of the Newcomen Society.

'The Dickinson Lecture - Animal, Vegetable & Mineral | a survey of materials used for balloon, airship & aircraft coverings' by Dr Nina Baker
2024-02-14 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
A survey of some materials used for balloon, airship and aircraft coverings
The gas envelopes and outer coverings for early hot air and gas balloons, airships and aircraft were made from a wide variety of natural fabrics with or without a similarly wide variety of coatings. Later on, the march of progress produced artificial fibres and coatings. This paper will examine the origins and properties of the different animal and plant sources of the materials that made such flight possible.
The lecture will also delve into what is known of the women who did most of the actual work. From the earliest days of balloons and airships, women's expertise was central to their construction, starting with the Weinling family who, in the 19th century, were the first women employed by the UK government in technical work. The Weinlings introduced the use of cows' guts for the internal gas envelopes for military balloons and airships. These are stories almost unknown even to aviation enthusiasts more familiar with the famous male designers or even the famous female aviators, but without these women's work none of the lighter-than-air aviation and much of the later heavier-than-air aviation would have happened.

About the Lecturer
Dr Nina Baker has had a varied career, having become a merchant navy deck officer on leaving school and later receiving an engineering design degree in her 30s, from the University of Warwick. She then gained a PhD in concrete durability from the University of Liverpool. She has lived with her family in Glasgow since 1989, working variously as a materials lecturer in further education and as a university research administrator and, until 2017, as an elected city councillor.
Now retired, her interest in promoting STEM careers for girls has led her to become an independent researcher, mainly specialising in the history of women in engineering. She is Deacon of the Incorporation of Hammermen of Glasgow for 2022-2023. She has been a Deputy Lieutenant in the Glasgow Lieutenancy since 2017 and was appointed an OBE in the 2023 New Year's Honours' list, for services to the history of women in engineering.
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'Drifting into Digital Dependence - Control Systems in Merchant Shipping' by Vaughan Pomeroy
2024-02-15 19:30 - 21:00 | 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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Joining us ON LINE – to book an online place, please visit: Book A Ticket. Zoom link will be sent out to those who have booked on weekend of 17/18th February
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
Joining us IN PERSON – just turn up, there’s no need to register.
Joining us ON LINE – please email meetings.syorks@newcomen.com for zoom link.
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!
