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

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

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

'Industry and Innovation in Oxford'
2026-07-11 10:30 - 15:30 | OXFORD Thom Building, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX1 3PJ, United Kingdom
An in-person only event – tickets available via Eventbrite
Lunch included: Members £25, Non-members £30, Students £15
This day of talks delves into some of the fascinating technical and engineering history of Oxford and its region:

Detroit-on-Thames: the origins of car making in Oxford and the rise of the Cowley factory (Maurice East)
Combe Mill: a workshop for the Blenheim Estate (Richard Stone)
Mechanicks in the universitie: how engineering came to Oxford (Richard Darton)
A brief history of printing in Oxfordshire (Richard Lawrence)
Allen’s of Oxford: from steam ploughs to motor mowers (Jonathan Brown)
Watermills of the Oxfordshire Thames (Brian Eade)
