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'Iron Stone & Steam: Brunel's Railway Kingdom' by Tim Bryan
2024-01-18 19:30 - 21:00 (Europe/London) | 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.

'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

'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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'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.

'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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'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.

'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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'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.

'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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'Rochester Bridge in the 19th century: from medieval stone to modern steel' by Sue Threader
2023-11-08 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
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 Years of Jodrell Bank' by Mark Edwards
2023-11-01 19:00 - 21:00 | 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
Mark Edwards relates how a leading radio observatory developed by chance at Manchester University's Jodrell Bank site.
About the Speaker
Mark Edwards is a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and studied radio astronomy at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in the 1970s before working as a software engineer at Marconi in Coventry where he helped to develop the System X local telephone exchanges for BT.
Now retired, Mark continues to follow his interest in astronomy by making daily observations of the ionosphere and presenting monthly skynotes at the Coventry and Warwickshire Astronomical Society.
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'RAF Planes that won the Battle of Britain were built on German Machinery' by Dr Jonathan Aylen
2023-10-30 18:30 - 20:15 | SHEFFIELD Kelham Island Museum, Alma Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S3 8RG
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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. But the light alloys used to build them were manufactured on German machinery. Dr Jonathan 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 is a familiar name in Sheffield as the mill builder Davy-United changed their name to Davy-Loewy following merger with Loewy's company based in Poole, Dorset. Less well known is the huge contribution of Ludwig Loewy to the development of the Chesterfield Tube Company, particularly their Heavy Tube Department which made boiler and condenser tubes for naval warships during the Second World War.
About the Speaker
Dr Jonathan Aylen is immediate Past-President of the Newcomen Society and Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research within Manchester Business School at the University of Manchester. A former economist, he now specialises in innovation management and environmental management. For the past decade he has also undertaken historical research.
Dr Aylen has contributed papers to the Newcomen Society’s International Journal of the History of Engineering and Technology on the transfer of steel technology from the USA to Wales, on early process control computers and on weapons design and development, including the Bloodhound Guided missile and the Blue Danube bomb.
Dr Aylen has travelled widely throughout the world steel industry, given advice to international bodies and governments on steel issues and commented frequently on television and radio. He recently published a book with Ruggero Ranieri, Ribbon of Fire, on how the wide strip mill for steel came to Europe from the USA.
Jonathan’s current research focuses on Cold War technology and, in particular, the use of American TOPS computer software by British Rail in the 1970’s.

'The Challenge of Bringing Quarry Bank’s History to Life' by Professor Hannah Barker
2023-10-24 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.
Built in the late eighteenth century, the Quarry Bank is an important heritage site: an industrial community comprising of a cotton mill, owner’s house and purpose-built housing for mill workers. In 2015, the National Trust began a £9.4 million project to reinterpret Quarry Bank for future generations of visitors. Amongst other things, this talk will describe why stockings were an important part of this story, and why the past was not brown.
About the Lecturer
Hannah Barker was Historical Advisor for the project, using insights from her research to guide a large-scale reinterpretation to bring the experiences of residents and workers to life in new ways.

'History of Diamond Core Drilling' by Professor Roger Burt
2023-10-19 19:30 - 21:00 | BRISTOL BAWA, 589 Southmead Rd, Filton, Bristol, BS34 7RG
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
Diamond drilling was one of the most important, yet under-researched mechanical technologies to be introduced during the late nineteenth century. A relatively simple arrangement, it was designed on a principle first explored by the ancient Greeks using a round, hollow drill-bit, tipped with rough diamonds, working by rotation rather than impact, to cut through rock and extract an intact 'core' of the ground through which it passed.
It provided the first opportunity for exploration geologists and miners to 'see' into the underlying geological strata, without the costly and time-consuming process of sinking man-sized shafts and tunnels. It proved critical to the discovery and development of the world's non-surface exposing mineral deposits – such as the great Minnesota iron range – and thus facilitated the great outpouring of metalliferous minerals that has supplied world industrialization.
Later it became the principal method for discovering and producing oil, and today it provides the base technology for fracking. As we begin the exploration of the moon, mars and the planets and asteroids around us, it continues to provide the main means of examining the surface and the rocks below.
About the Speaker
Professor Roger Burt is the Emeritus Professor of Mining History at the University of Exeter and past President of the American Mining History Association and the International Mining History Congress.
Professor Burt has published numerous books and articles on mining history in the UK and overseas and his forthcoming book on Cornish mining during the early twentieth century, to be published later this year, discusses many of the issues raised in this lecture.
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'Failure of marine medium speed diesel engines' by Peter Filcek
2023-10-11 18:00 - 20:00 | LONDON Alan Baxter Gallery, 75 Cowcross St, Clerkenwell, London, EC1M 6EL
This event replaces the originally planned lecture The Craftsman Engineer and the Industrial Revolution which was cancelled due to health problems and is both an in-person and on-line event. To reserve a spot for either option, please visit the lecture’s Eventbrite page.
The Technical Investigation Department (TID) was founded in 1947 with the purpose of giving “Lloyd’s Register of Shipping a capability to explore marine failures … with a view to improving the Rules”. The basic tenet was “when you can measure what you are speaking about and can express it in numbers, you know something about it” (Lord Kelvin).
TID investigated a wide range of failures in the marine industry and some statistics on relative failure occurrences are given. Medium speed diesel engines are the most common power source and failures are therefore perhaps of the widest interest, especially to the Chief Engineers responsible for operating the machinery, the Engineer Superintendents and the Underwriters.
Eight failure cases are presented with a wide range of origins: mechanical overload, fatigue, crack initiation by rubbing, bearing failures, human error and operational problems. The use of metallurgical examination, fatigue theory and fracture mechanics is described.
About the Lecturer
Peter Filcek worked for the Technical Investigation Department (TID) of the ship Classification Society, Lloyd’s Register of Shipping.
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'John Snow And The Fight Against Cholera' by David Moore
2023-10-04 19:00 - 21:00 | 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
David Moore describes how John Snow identified the source of a cholera outbreak in London and showed it to be a water-borne disease.
About the Speaker
David Moore has given several talks to Newcomen Midlands in the last few years. He has been heavily involved with the trust that has rescued and preserved the Sandfields steam pumping engine at Lichfield, Staffordshire.
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'Built In Britain: The Independent Locomotive Manufacturing Industry in the 19th Century' by Dr. Michael Bailey
2023-09-26 18:30 - 20:00 | MANCHESTER International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Engine House, Chorlton Mill, 3 Cambridge Street,, Manchester, M1 5BY
This is a joint meeting with the Stephenson Locomotive Society
The remarkable growth of the railway network in the nineteenth century was made possible by the rapid development of locomotive manufacturing firms in several towns and cities in Britain. Overseas railways soon followed, widening the market for the locomotive industry in Europe, the British Empire and the rest of the world. The talk will highlight how the industry got underway and developed to meet the ever-changing market for locomotives in the 75 year period from 1825 to 1900. It will focus on marketing and sales, both for British and overseas markets, technical design progress with thermodynamic, material and manufacturing developments, organisational arrangements and employment/ industrial relations through the century.
About the Lecturer
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.

'The River Don Engine' by Greg Harris
2023-09-25 18:30 - 20:30 | SHEFFIELD Kelham Island Museum, Alma Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S3 8RG
This event is both an in-person and on-line event. Sign up link coming soon.
Built by Davy Brothers in 1904 to drive the armour plate rolling mill at Charles Cammell's Grimesthorpe works, the River Don engine is the last surviving example of four 12,000 hp (8.9 MW) rapid reversing engines constructed to the same design.
The talk will explore the history of the engine through stories and facts, including photographs, working drawings, and a 3D computer model. These show the engine and rolling mill at work at Cammell Lairds from 1913 and subsequently at River Don in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. The engine's move to and restoration at Kelham Island in 1978 and again after the 2018 flood will be described and the development of the 3D virtual model of the engine created for the museum by the speaker will be outlined.
About the Speaker
In 1989 Greg attended Parkwood Art College in Sheffield to study Art and Design. He obtained an NVQ in Auto Cad and then achieved his H.N.D at Norton College. Out of the blue he received a phone call from a small games company in Sheffield offering him a job. He really enjoyed the work and found like-minded people to work with. He also got the chance to work with game pioneers and learnt to use 3Ds Max which helped him to produce the virtual model for Kelham Island Museum of the River Don Engine which he will discuss.
After finishing off working with games in 2012, Greg became a self-employed artist and went on to produce a large range of illustrations depicting Sheffield past and present which is on sale in local galleries & museums throughout Sheffield. He also designed the mural for the Special Olympics held in Sheffield 2017 which was displayed on Pond Street and was invited onto Radio Sheffield to talk about creating the mural. Greg also sculpts, as well as volunteering at Kelham and the Lowedges Community Centre, supporting the craft group.
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'Warships to Spaceships - The Life & Work of Sir Barnes Wallis' by Chris Henderson
2023-05-22 18:30 - 20:30 | SHEFFIELD Kelham Island Museum, Alma Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S3 8RG
Joining us IN PERSON – just turn up, there is no need to register
Joining us ONLINE- please use this Zoom Link which will be live from 6:00 pm and you may need the details below to log in:
Meeting ID: 834 8913 6970
Passcode: [REDACTED]
Leaving school without any qualifications, Barnes Wallis pursued his ambition to be an engineer and went on to become one of Britain’s greatest inventors. Known best for his invention and development of the ‘bouncing bomb‘ used by 617 Squadron to attack the Ruhr dams, Barnes Wallis’ career spanned over six decades working on warships, airships, aircraft, weapons and even a connection with the first manned spaceflight to the Moon.

'Medieval Windmills to Turbines' by Dr Bryan Lawton
2023-05-18 19:30 - 21:30 | BRISTOL BAWA, 589 Southmead Rd, Filton, Bristol, BS34 7RG
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.
The talk describes the experimental and theoretical work on windmills from Bacon‘s early experiments using paper sails and a bellows, through Smeaton‘s rotating arm device, Perry‘s more sophisticated rotating arm, and into the present day use of wind tunnels. The developments in scientific understanding are outlined.
About The Lecturer
Dr Bryan Lawton was a Western Region committee member for more than 20 years and recently stood down as Chairman. He has published five papers in the TNS/ IJHET and was one of the organisers of the “Piston Engine Revolution” and “Swords into Ploughshares” conferences. His two-volume work on the early history of mechanical engineering was given the American Society of Mechanical Engineers “Engineering Historian” award.

'Refugees from Nazism in the British Clothing Industry' by Anna Nyburg PhD
2023-05-10 18:00 - 20:00 | LONDON Alan Baxter Gallery, 75 Cowcross St, Clerkenwell, London, EC1M 6EL
This is a repeat of a highly popular presentation put on at Manchester’s Anthony Burgess Foundation in February
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.
The Lecture will describe the influence of European Immigration, under the rise of Nazism, on the Clothing Industry.
Based on her book The Clothes on our Backs: How Refugees from Nazism revitalised the British Fashion Industry, in which she considers the trade in pre-war Germany and in particular, the more modern approach there compared to Britain. The expulsion of Jews and pathways into Britain follows, and then the wartime production changes. Individual case studies then show the refugees’ wide range of experiences in this country, but also their contribution to all aspects of the industry from manufacture to display.
About the Presenter
Anna Nyburg’s PhD in 2009 was in Exile Studies and focused on the refugees from Nazism who transformed art publishing. The doctorate formed the basis of her book Emigres: The Transformation of Art Publishing in Britain. Since then she has published further books on design and related areas, as well as co-making a film called Refuge Britain: Stories émigré Designers to be shown at the Victoria & Albert Museum. The Clothes on our Backs is her third book.
Now a trustee of Insiders/Outsiders, she works on events for their festival. As a committee member of the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies, she is organising a conference on the Refugees in Trade and Industry in 2023.
Dr. Nyburg is an Honorary Lecturer in the Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication at Imperial College London where she taught languages for some 3 decades.

'Lady Charlotte Guest and Dowlais Ironworks' by Victoria Owens
2023-04-24 18:30 - 20:30 | SHEFFIELD Kelham Island Museum, Alma Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S3 8RG
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Dr Victoria Owens examines how a pioneering businesswoman came to head the world’s largest ironworks.
When impoverished aristocrat Lady Charlotte Bertie married wealthy Welsh ironmaster John Guest of Dowlais in 1833, her relatives looked on with dismay. Yet despite their vast difference of background and age, over their nineteen-year long marriage, husband and wife enjoyed great happiness and much adventure. There would be ten children and while John built up an immense commercial empire, Charlotte championed Welsh culture.
Crucially, she taught herself John’s business from the inside. Over the years, she made the keenest observation of iron production, the fluctuations of the trade and the engineering innovations that touched upon its developments. When John died in 1852, she was therefore uniquely well-placed to succeed him as head of the works – a remarkable position for a Victorian woman. Not only did she endeavour to introduce reforms, but also – rather to her dismay – had to weather a potentially destructive strike. But success came at a price and with her star in the ascendant, Lady Charlotte suddenly chose to abandon all, leave Wales and marry her sons’ tutor!
This presentation (& Victoria’s book on the subject) traces the ardent, creative years of her first marriage, explores her determination – widowed – to preserve John’s legacy, and observes her growing devotion to her second husband, the scholarly Charles Schreiber.
We would like to congratulate Victoria on winning the 2021 Wales Book of the Year Non-fiction Award for her book Lady Charlotte Guest – the exceptional life of a female industrialist and copies will be available at the meeting.
About The Lecturer
A member of the Newcomen Society, Dr Victoria Owens has worked in local government and the book trade. Now an independent scholar, her book Lady Charlotte Guest – the exceptional life of a female industrialist was shortlisted for the 2021 Wales Book of the Year and won the non-fiction award. Her other publications include James Brindley and the Duke of Bridgewater: Canal Visionaries (Amberley Publishing 2015) and Aqueducts and Viaducts of Britain (Amberley Publishing 2019). She is currently working on a life of L.T.C Tom Rolt, to be published in 2024.

'Newcomen Engine Buildings in 18thC Europe' by David Hardwick
2023-04-20 18:00 - 20:00 | BRISTOL BAWA, 589 Southmead Rd, Filton, Bristol, BS34 7RG
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 Comparative Architectural History – This talk is adapted from one that the lecturer David Hardwick was asked to present to the conference on Early Steam Engines in Central European Mining on 8th October 2022, held in Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia. It builds on his previous research into the engine houses in Brislington (nr Bristol, England), Auchenharvie (Ayrshire, Scotland) and Dannemora (Sweden), to consider the evidence available, both physical and documentary, regarding what buildings elsewhere in Europe may have looked like.
About The Lecturer
David is a self employed chartered building specialist in historic buildings and particularly industrial archaeology. For more than a decade, he has been researching the nature of the construction of the buildings that housed the first engines following the invention of the atmospheric engine by Thomas Newcomen.

'On Metrology' by Terry Quinn (CANCELLED - please read)
2023-04-12 18:00 - 20:00 | LONDON Alan Baxter Gallery, 75 Cowcross St, Clerkenwell, London, EC1M 6EL
Unfortunately, due to the uncertain nature of events in France and particularly in Paris, our lecturer is unable to travel to give his lecture. This event has therefore been cancelled & will be rescheduled at a later date.
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.
Terry Quinn graduated in physics just one year before 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. In this lecture, Quinn will explain how practical measurement standards can be obtained from such definitions.
The above image shows “Toise du Perou” (the official unit of length in France just before the metric system). This is one of two Toises that were used to decide between two theories for the shape of the Earth – one by Newton in which the earth was flattened at the Poles and one supported in France by Cassini, who maintained that it is pointed like an upright rugby football. One Toise was taken to Lapland (the Toise du Nord) and one (this one) to Perou where the length on the ground of one degree of latitude was measured. The expeditions lasted some years in the 1740s and, of course, the results supported Newton’s theory. (Photo TJQ at the Paris Observatory 2017).
About The Lecturer
Terry Quinn graduated in Physics from Southampton University in 1959, moving to Oxford for his D. Phil in what was then the Metallurgy Department. The thesis supervisor was Professor William Hume-Rothery FRS.
In 1962, Quinn joined the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington where he worked on high-temperature measurement and standards. In 1967/68, Quinn spent a year at the then National Bureau of Standards in Washington, moving to the BIPM, 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 and retired from the BIPM in 2003. Quinn was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2002.

‘The UK’s first Industrial Gas Turbine’ by Geoff Horseman
2023-04-11 18:00 - 20:00 | NEWCASTLE Discovery Museum, Blandford Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, NE1 4HZ
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 ie 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.
About The Lecturer
Geoff Horseman worked at Parsons for 39 years from 1980 until 2019. He joined the Steam Turbine Design Dept in 1982 rising to Head of Turbine Design in 1991 and Head of Turbine-Generator Engineering in 1994.
Parsons became part of Siemens in 1997 and was joined by Westinghouse in 1998. Reorganisation led to the majority of new generator work moving to the Westinghouse sites while the majority of steam turbine work moved to the Mülheim-an-der-Ruhr and Newcastle sites.
In 1997, Geoff was appointed Chief Turbine Engineer, Siemens Power Generation.
On retirement in 2019, with Siemens permission he began to document the Parsons history so that it can be preserved in the Tyne & Wear Archive and other institutions.

‘Women in Engineering’ by Dr. Emily Rees Koerner & Prof. Graeme Gooday
2023-04-05 19:00 - 21:00 | 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.
A co-authored paper presented by Dr. Emily Rees Koerner and Professor Graeme Gooday.
In 2019 the Women’s Engineering Society celebrated its centenary (founded in 1919 when they held their first conference in Birmingham). The two speakers will present evidence of women’s roles in engineering during the 19th and 20th centuries, uncovered whilst they researched historical tales of women engineers in Birmingham and the Midlands.
They are now working on a broader history along with the International Network of Women Engineers and Scientists.

'Scottish Agricultural Implements' by Dr Heather Holmes
2023-03-28 18:30 - 20:30 | This is an Online Event
Due to unforseen circumstances this lecture is now
Online only for Mailing List Members.
We apologise for the change of plan.
In Scotland, the making of agricultural implements and machines developed into an important business during the second half of the nineteenth century with some firms becoming nationally and even internationally known. Their businesses ranged from small family run ones to large enterprises with branches throughout the Empire and activities were also wide ranging, comprising a variety of trades, including engineering, ironfounding, steam engine making and millwrighting.
This paper looks at challenges and opportunities arising from developing a directory of Scottish agricultural implement and machine makers between 1843 and 1914. This includes consideration of the sources of evidence recording the makers; the nature and character of the makers and their activity; the documentation of their activities; relations between makers; and application of the methodology of the directory other parts of Britain.
About The Lecturer
Dr Heather Holmes is an independent researcher. She received her doctorate from the University of Edinburgh in 1997. From a farming background at Balerno, Midlothian, she has an interest in the material culture of Scottish agriculture including agricultural implements, machines, newspapers and books. Her books include “As good as a holiday”: Potato harvesting in the Lothians from 1870 to the present (2000), Tattie howkers: Irish potato workers in Ayrshire (2005) and Scottish agricultural implement and machine makers 1843 to 1914: a directory (Scottish Record Society, 2020).
She runs the associated website and facebook pages of Scottish agricultural implement makers and has been published in a range of journals including The Agricultural History Review, Folk Life: Journal of Ethnological Studies and Journal of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society.

Ken Barraclough Memorial Lecture : 'How Alloy Steel came to serve the Engineer' by Dr David Dulieu
2023-03-21 18:00 - 20:00 | SHEFFIELD Crowne Plaza Royal Victoria, Victoria Station Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S4 7YE
The Ken Barraclough Memorial Lecture & Dinner
Presented by Dr. David Dulieu, this is a joint talk with the Sheffield Metallurgical & Engineering Association – SMEA and the South Yorkshire Industrial History Society – ( SYIHS )
Please arrive at 5.30pm to be ready and settled for the start of the lecture.

'Edmund Beckett Denison, the father of Big Ben' by Chris McKay
2023-03-08 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.
When the Old Houses of Parliament burned down in 1844, the plan was for a magnificent new replacement complete with clock tower.
From the very beginning the clock procurement was fraught with difficulties. A change happened when George Biddle Airy, the Astronomer Royal, was appointed referee for the Great Clock. He specified that the first blow on the hour bell should be accurate to a second. London clockmakers said the specification was impossible but Edward John Dent wanted to tender for the clock. Airy co-opted the help of Edmund Beckett Denison, a successful lawyer who had been educated in mechanics by a village carpenter.
Denison wrote a book in 1850 ‘A Rudimentary Treatise on Clocks Watches and Bells’. It was the first easy-reading on clocks. Denison was a crusty character – if it was not for his determination and faith in himself, then the Great Clock might still be under construction!
About The Lecturer
After graduating from Sussex University, Chris McKay spent 23 years in the electronics industry. Following redundancy, he fell into teaching technology in schools, ending up as the head of department in a top prep school. Following this, he spent some years restoring turret clocks.
McKay has always been interested in turret clocks and his book ‘The Turret Clock Keeper’s Handbook’ explains how to look after the church clock. ‘The Repair, Restoration, Conservation and Preservation of Turret Clocks’ followed to fill a big gap in horological education.
When 13 years old, McKay found Edmund Beckett Denison’s book on Clocks Watches and Bells and was fascinated by the description of Big Ben. After many years and much research, in 2010 Oxford University Press published Chris’s book ‘Big Ben: The Great Clock and Bells at the Palace of Westminster’.

'BSA: A Birmingham Company in World War II' by Dr. Jim Andrew
2023-03-01 19:00 - 21:00 | BIRMINGHAM Think Tank, Birmingham Science Museum,, Curzon Street, Birmingham, West Midlands, B4 7XG
Dr. Jim Andrew shares new insights on wartime organisation and operations
In the Second World War, BSA supplied about half the total UK production of small arms up to 20 mm cannon. They were heavily targeted by German bombers and in 1940 very serious damage was done to their main works in Small Heath. This talk details the firm’s efforts to recover or relocate some of its production to other factories and any other firms which could help. Little more than a month’s production was lost but there was also serious loss of life among staff, male and female.
About The Lecturer
The speaker, Dr. Jim Andrew, spent part of his early career at BSA, before moving to Birmingham City Council. He was, for many years, responsible for the exhibits in Birmingham Science Museum, and, although retired, still provides technical advice to the present Thinktank Museum. He spent a long time as Honorary Secretary of the Midlands Branch of the Newcomen Society, and is currently Chairman of Newcomen Midlands.
