In a new documentary, Steam: 200 Years on the Tracks, Dan Snow climbs aboard a working replica of the very first passenger-carrying locomotive. He investigates its inaugural journey, a short trip in the north of England that would set in motion an extraordinary chain of events, from the bustling tracks of today to the interconnected, globalised world we now inhabit.

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A revolution on the tracks

The Industrial Revolution, the very beginning of our modern world, was in desperate need of a transport solution. While canals had provided an essential, if slow, network for moving goods, by the 1820s, a new kind of speed was needed. The answer came in the form of Locomotion No. 1, the brainchild of legendary father-and-son engineers, George and Robert Stephenson. George Stephenson, known as “the Father of the Railways,” had no formal education but possessed an unparalleled mechanical genius that would change everything.

The original purpose of the Stockton and Darlington line was simple: to transport coal from the mines of Shildon to the port of Stockton-on-Tees. But the Stephensons had a different vision. On its first journey on 27 September 1825, Locomotion No. 1 towed a passenger carriage named Experiment. This was the first time in history that a steam locomotive carried paying passengers on a public railway.

Dan gets exclusive access to a modern test run of a meticulously rebuilt replica of the locomotive, a machine that is the ancestor of every train that has ever run. On 27 September 2025, Locomotion No. 1’s inaugural journey will be recreated, 200 years on to the day, to mark its anniversary. As he rides the train, he marvels at the engineering on display, seeing firsthand how the simple mechanics laid the groundwork for a global network.

History Hit on location, filming the replica of Locomotion No. 1’s test-run ahead of the 200th anniversary recreation of its inaugural journey.

Image Credit: History Hit

The vision of a new world

Riding aboard this historic replica, Dan is struck by the profound significance of the journey. “This is not just a train,” he explains. “It’s the birth of an entirely new world.”

Locomotion No. 1 ushered in a new vision for society, one in which people could travel reliably over vast distances at unimaginable speeds, democratising travel. It was the invention that opened up the interiors of continents, expanded the volume of world trade, and made people more mobile than ever before. This one machine represents the birth of our connected, modern planet.

This momentous first journey was a global event, even at the time. Engineers from France, Germany, and beyond travelled to witness the spectacle, watching with bated breath as the locomotive embarked on its 26-mile test run. Its success spurred a rapid exchange of ideas among engineers, a pace of development that has only been rivalled by the internet.

In the documentary, Dan speaks to Niccy Halifax who is in charge of the 200th birthday celebrations. She notes how Locomotion No. 1 was the first machine designed to pull both goods and people on a public railway system – a singular achievement that deserves to be remembered, and one which also kickstarted the second half of the Industrial Revolution that soared in Victorian times. 

Locomotion No. 1’s inaugural journey on 27 September 1825.

The lasting legacy

The Stockton and Darlington Railway sparked phenomenal growth in northeast Britain, leading to the expansion of towns and cities. But its impact was felt far beyond.

The documentary highlights the remarkable longevity of the Stephensons’ vision. The track gauge of 4 feet 8 ½ inches, designed by Stephenson, is still used on British railways and in most of North America and Europe today. Even China’s high-speed trains adhere to this same standard, a direct link to the tiny locomotive that started it all. Dan visits the Skerne Bridge in Darlington, the oldest working railway bridge in the world, which Locomotion No. 1 crossed on its first trip.

Within just 25 years of that inaugural journey, Europe was crisscrossed with railways. By 1855, over 13,000 miles of track covered Britain, and thousands more were laid across Germany and the United States. Travel time was reduced to a mere fraction of its former self, and people could now travel from the countryside to the city with unprecedented ease. The 19th century became the age of the railway.

Though the original Locomotion No. 1 was soon surpassed by newer, faster, and more powerful engines, it was rightfully preserved as a historic artefact, a trailblazer that heralded a fast-changing world, and the very foundation of our interconnected, mobile society.

Join Dan Snow as he takes you on board the very first train to change everything. Watch Steam: 200 Years on the Tracks to discover the birth of our modern world.

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The answer lay not on the roads, which were little more than rutted tracks, but on the water.

In Industrial Revolution: Canal Mania, Dan Snow embarks on a journey across England and Wales to explore the extraordinary story of Britain’s canals, revealing how a small fleet of barges and a network of man-made rivers changed the world. He’ll stop at several of the incredible engineering projects managed by the Canal & River Trust, the organisation keeping these historic routes alive today. From staircases of locks to waterways in the sky, and even a marvel of Victorian engineering that lifted boats from one river to another, this is the big history of how little boats put a nation on the move.

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The problem of The Potteries

In the 1760s, British industry was thriving. No one exemplified this better than Josiah Wedgwood, the entrepreneurial pioneer who revolutionised the ceramics industry in the West Midlands, a region known as ‘The Potteries’. Wedgwood wasn’t just a brilliant potter; he was a marketing genius, embracing new chemistry to create beautiful glazes and colours while pioneering innovative sales techniques like catalogues and money-back guarantees. He grew enormously wealthy, but his success exposed a critical weakness in his operations: transport.

Wedgwood’s factories needed a steady supply of heavy raw materials like clay and coal. More importantly, he needed a reliable way to get his finished pottery to market without it being smashed to pieces on the backs of slow, jolting pack-horses. When he heard that the Duke of Bridgewater had just built a canal that slashed the price of coal in Manchester by 50%, he knew he had to act. He was not about to lose the capitalist arms race.

Wedgwood envisioned a canal that would connect his Stoke-on-Trent factories to the world, linking the River Trent to the River Mersey and the bustling Port of Liverpool. He knew he could reach the local market, but a canal would allow him to reach consumers across Britain and even export his goods to the world. On 26 July 1766, his vision began to take shape outside his famous Etruria factory, igniting a national obsession that would become known as ‘Canal-Mania.’

Canal boat near the site of Josiah Wedgwood’s Etruria factory.

Image Credit: History Hit

The human cost of a revolution

The construction of these waterways (known as ‘navigations’) was a monumental feat, requiring armies of labourers (‘navvies’) who moved across the country, living in temporary tented cities as they dug out thousands of miles of canal by hand. Dan learns from Canal & River Trust Heritage Adviser Mark Somerfield how the towpath itself was simply a pile of all the earth and rock that had been manually excavated from the waterway. The work was brutal and backbreaking, and many navvies died in their thirties and forties, worn out by their tireless efforts.

Yet, nothing could stand in their way. Not even a massive hill. Instead of going around, they dug right through it, creating vast tunnels with gunpowder. Dan ventures through one of these 19th-century tunnels, a testament to the sheer determination of the men who built them.

From land to water: a living legacy

With the canals, industry was no longer confined to the cities where it was born. Clay from the south coast of England, a vital ingredient for the popular white pottery, could now be shipped around the country by sea and then up the canal network to Stoke-on-Trent. The industry grew exponentially, exporting goods all over the globe, with companies like Burley Pottery sending their wares to America.

The programme highlights the incredible engineering that made this possible, from the Stoke Bruerne locks in Northamptonshire, which acted like a flight of stairs for boats, to the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in Wales, an iron-clad river in the sky and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Completed in 1805, this graceful aqueduct was a dramatic solution to getting a canal across a deep river valley, and it’s still in use today.

The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, an iron-clad stream in the sky over the River Dee in Wales, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Image Credit: History Hit

Dan explores the aqueduct’s ancient iron trough, built by master engineers like Thomas Telford and William Jessop, and learns how the Canal & River Trust is working to preserve these unique waterways for future generations. As Mark Abraham, one of the Trust’s heritage advisers, poignantly states, “Don’t let them crumble, because once they’re gone, they’re gone.”

Mark Abraham, one of the Canal & River Trust’s Heritage Advisers and Dan Snow explore the temporarily de-watered Pontcysyllte Aqueduct to check for any problems for a future renovation.

Image Credit: Canal & River Trust / History Hit

The final challenge

By 1830, Britain’s canal system had expanded to over 4,000 miles, creating a network of ‘super-highways’ that shortened journey times and fuelled the nation’s economic engine. But in the mid-19th century, a new technology arrived that would change everything: the steam locomotive. Railways began to criss-cross Britain, offering a faster alternative to water transport.

However, while trains were quicker, they couldn’t carry anything close to the weights of a canal barge. Waterways remained the most efficient route for heavy freight, putting pressure on them to find even shorter routes.

Dan ends his journey at the northern end of the Trent & Mersey, where the canals met their final great challenge. The solution was a monumental feat of Victorian engineering: the Anderton Boat Lift. Nicknamed the ‘cathedral of the canals’, this vast piece of iron architecture was designed to raise and lower barges 50 feet, saving a full day of travel time. Dan gets a first-hand experience of the lift in action, a magnificent sight that proves the ingenuity of the people who made these waterways.

As Dan observes, these waterways are a “working slice of history,” a tangible reminder of the people who made them. They were the very arteries of a new world, igniting change that would spread across the globe.

The Anderton Boat Lift, known as the ‘cathedral of the canals’.

Image Credit: History Hit

Watch Industrial Revolution: Canal Mania and discover how Britain’s canals truly changed the world.

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At the heart of this interconnected web of rail lines, lies the humble train station. Far from being just a place to catch a ride, train stations are hubs of activity and energy, where people from all walks of life come together to embark on new journeys and explore new possibilities

Many of the world’s oldest train stations have withstood the test of time and remain in operation today, reflecting the history and character of the places they serve.

Here we take a look at 5 of the oldest train stations in the world:

1. Liverpool Road Station, Manchester, UK

Opened in 1830, Liverpool Road Station in Manchester is the oldest surviving railway terminus in the world. 

The station was originally built to serve as the terminus for the Manchester and Liverpool Railway, the world’s first inter-city passenger railway, in which all services were hauled by timetabled steam locomotives.

It was in operation for nearly 160 years before being closed in 1975, and today serves as part of the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, showcasing the history of the railway industry in the UK and highlighting Manchester’s key role in the industrial revolution.

2. Leipzig Bayerischer Bahnhof, Leipzig, Germany

Opened in 1842, Leipzig Bayerischer Bahnhof served as the terminus of the first long-distance railway line in Germany, connecting Leipzig with the city of Altenburg. It was designed by the German architect, Ernst Gotthilf, and features a distinctive blend of classical and industrial architectural elements.

Today, Leipzig Bayerischer Bahnhof serves as a hub for regional and local trains, and is known for its historic connections to the brewing industry. The Bayerischer Bahnhof restaurant located inside the station, is famous for its Gose beer, a type of beer that originated in Leipzig which is brewed on site using a traditional recipe.

3. Gare de l’Est, Paris, France

One of the six major railway stations in France’s capital, Gare de l’Est was opened in 1849 and connects Paris to destinations in northeastern France, Germany, Luxembourg, and beyond.

The station is known for its distinctive architecture, with a large clock tower and an ornate facade featuring sculptures and reliefs, making it a notable landmark in the city.

During World War One, the station was an important departure point for French soldiers heading to the front lines, and a statue of a soldier was placed in the station’s main hall to honour their service.

Gare de l’Est in Paris.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

4. Stralsund Hauptbahnhof, Stralsund, Germany

Opened in 1863, Stralsund Hauptbahnhof is the main railway station in the Hanseatic city of Stralsund, in the northeastern part of Germany.

An impressive example of 19th century railway architecture, the station was built in the neoclassical style and features a large central hall with a high ceiling and large windows that let in plenty of natural light.

Today, the station is a major transportation hub for the city with passengers able to travel to destinations throughout Germany and beyond, including Berlin, Hamburg, Rostock, and Copenhagen, Denmark. The station is also connected to local bus and tram lines, making it easy to access other parts of the city and the surrounding region.

5. St. Pancras International Station, London, UK

Designed in the Victorian Gothic style and opened in 1868, St. Pancras International was originally built to serve as the London terminus for the Midland Railway. 

It is a magnificent example of Victorian architecture, and its famous train shed spans 243 feet, making it one of the largest single-span structures in the world.

Today, it serves as a major transportation hub for the city, connecting London to other parts of the UK and continental Europe. It also holds the magnificent St Pancras Renaissance London Hotel, once the Midland Grand Hotel, and the world’s longest champagne bar!

Though its popularity exploded during the Industrial Revolution, asbestos has been used by civilisations such as the Ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans for everything from clothing to death shrouds. Indeed, the word ‘asbestos’ is thought to come from the Greek sasbestos (ἄσβεστος), meaning ‘unquenchable’ or ‘inextinguishable’, since it was recognised as highly heat and fire-resistant when used for candle wicks and fire cooking pits.

Though widely banned today, asbestos is still mined and used in certain places around the world. Here’s a rundown of the history of asbestos.

Ancient Egyptian pharaohs were wrapped in asbestos

The use of asbestos throughout history is well-documented. Between 2,000 – 3,000BC, embalmed bodies of Egyptian pharaohs were wrapped in asbestos cloth as a means of protecting them from deteriorating. In Finland, clay pots have been discovered which date to 2,500 BC and contain asbestos fibres, probably to strengthen the pots and make them fire-resistant.

The classical Greek historian Herodotus wrote about the dead being wrapped in asbestos before being put on a funeral pyre as a means of preventing their ashes from mixing with the ashes from the fire.

It has also been suggested that the word ‘asbestos’ can be traced to the Latin idiom ‘aminatus‘, meaning unsoiled or unpolluted, since ancient Romans were said to have woven asbestos fibres into a cloth-like material that they then sewed into tablecloths and napkins. The cloths were said to be cleaned by being thrown into a fire, after which they came out undamaged and clean.

Its harmful effects were known early on

Certain Ancient Greeks and Romans were aware of asbestos’ unique properties as well as its harmful effects. For instance, Greek geographer Strabo documented the ‘sickness of the lungs’ in enslaved people who wove asbestos into cloth, while naturalist, philosopher and historian Pliny the Elder wrote about the ‘disease of slaves’. He also described the use of a thin membrane from the bladder of goat or lamb that was used by the miners as an early respirator to try and protect them from the harmful fibres.

Charlemagne and Marco Polo both used asbestos

In 755, King Charlemagne of France had a tablecloth made of asbestos as a protection against the burning from accidental fires that happened frequently during feasts and celebrations. He also wrapped his dead generals’ bodies in asbestos shrouds. By the end of the first millennium, mats, lamp wicks and cremation cloths were all made from chrysolite asbestos from Cyprus and tremolite asbestos from northern Italy.

Charlemagne at dinner, detail of a 15th century miniature

Image Credit: Talbot Master, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1095, the French, Italian and German knights who fought in the First Crusade used a trebuchet to throw flaming bags of pitch and tar wrapped in asbestos bags over city walls. In 1280, Marco Polo wrote about clothing made by the Mongolians from a fabric that wouldn’t burn, and later visited an asbestos mine in China to dispel the myth that it came from the hair of a woolly lizard.

It was later used by Peter the Great during his period as Russia’s tsar from 1682 to 1725. In the early 1700s, Italy began using asbestos in paper, and by the 1800s, the Italian government used asbestos fibres in bank notes.

Demand boomed during the Industrial Revolution

The manufacture of asbestos didn’t flourish until the late 1800s, when the start of the Industrial Revolution motivated strong and steady demand. The practical and commercial use of asbestos broadened as its resistance to chemicals, heat, water and electricity made it an excellent insulator for the turbines, steam engines, boilers, electrical generators and ovens that increasingly powered Britain.

By the early 1870s, there were large asbestos industries founded in Scotland, England and Germany, and by the end of the century, its manufacture became mechanised by using steam-drive machinery and new mining methods.

By the early 1900s, asbestos production had grown to more than 30,000 tons annually around the world. Children and women were added to the industry workforce, preparing, carding and spinning raw asbestos fibre while men mined for it. At this time, the ill-effects of asbestos exposure became more widespread and pronounced.

Asbestos demand peaked in the 70s

After the First and Second World Wars, global demand for asbestos increased as countries struggled to revitalise themselves. The US were key consumers due to a huge expansion of the economy along with sustained construction of military hardware during the Cold War. In 1973, US consumption peaked at 804,000 tons, and peak world demand for the product was realised in about 1977.

In total, around 25 companies produced about 4.8 million metric tons per year, and 85 countries produced thousands of asbestos products.

Nurses arrange asbestos blankets over an electrically heated frame to create a hood over patients to help warm them quickly, 1941

Image Credit: Ministry of Information Photo Division Photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Its harm was finally more widely recognised towards the end of the 20th century

In the 1930s, formal medical studies documented the link between asbestos exposure and mesothelioma, and by the late 1970s, public demand began to decline as a link between asbestos and lung-related diseases was more widely recognised. Labour and trade unions demanded safer and healthier working conditions, and liability claims against major manufacturers caused many to create market alternatives.

By 2003, new environmental regulations and consumer demand helped push for at least partial bans on the use of asbestos in 17 countries, and in 2005, it was banned entirely throughout the European Union. Though its usage has significantly declined, asbestos is still not banned in the US.

Today, at least 100,000 people are thought to die every year from diseases related to asbestos exposure.

It is still made today

Though asbestos is known to be medically harmful, it is still mined in certain areas around the world, particularly by emerging economies in developing countries. Russia is the top producer, making 790,000 tonnes of asbestos in 2020.

The answer was a spinning machine. Devised by Richard Arkwright in Lancashire in 1767, this simple invention revolutionised the textile industry by exchanging the work of human hands for a water frame, making it possible to spin cotton yarn faster and in greater quantities than ever before.

Arkwright modelled this industrial ingenuity at his mill at Cromford, Derbyshire; his factory system soon spread across northern England and beyond to create a mass-producing cotton empire.

From cotton ‘rags’ to riches, here’s the story of Richard Arkwright.

Who was Richard Arkwright?

Richard Arkwright was born on 23 December 1731 in Preston, Lancashire – the heartland of England’s textile industry. Arkwright was the youngest of 7 surviving children and his parents, Sarah and Thomas, were not wealthy. Thomas Arkwright was a tailor and could not afford to send his children to school. Instead, they were taught at home by their cousin Ellen.

Susannah Arkwright and her daughter Mary Anne (cropped)

Image Credit: Joseph Wright of Derby, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

However, young Richard gained an apprenticeship under a barber. By the early 1760s set up his own shop in Bolton as a barber and wig-maker, serving the popular trend for men and women alike during the 18th century.

At the same time, Arkwright was married to Patience Holt. The couple had a son, Richard, in 1756 yet Patience died later the same year. Arkwright married again in 1761 to Margaret Biggins, and they had one surviving daughter, Susannah.

It was also at this time that Arkwright began inventing. He devised a commercially successful waterproof dye for wigs, the income from which would provide the foundations for his later inventions.

Why cotton?

Brought to Britain from India some 500 years ago, cotton has been made into cloth for thousands of years. Before cotton’s arrival, most Britons’ wardrobes were made primarily of wool. While warm, wool was heavy and not as brightly coloured or intricately decorated as cotton. Cotton cloth was therefore a luxury, and British businessmen scrabbled for a way to mass produce the cloth on home soil.

As a raw material, cotton fibres are weak and soft, so these fibres need to be spun (twisted) together to create stronger strands called yarn. Hand spinners could create high quality thread, but it was a slow process that could not meet the growing demand. Attempts had been made at overcoming this problem. The roller spinning machine invented by Lewis Paul and John Wyatt in 1738 was close but not reliable and efficient enough to spin yarn of a high quality.

Winslow Homer ‘The Cotton Pickers’

Meanwhile, Arkwright was watching these efforts. When he met John Kay, a skilled clockmaker, in 1767, he seized the opportunity to apply Kay’s technical know-how with his own first prototype for a spinning machine.

The Spinning Machine

Arkwright’s machine, initially powered by horses, significantly reduced the cost of cotton-spinning. Imitating a spinner’s fingers, the machine drew out the cotton as its rotating spindles twisted the fibres into yarn and onto a bobbin. The invention was first patented by Arkwright in 1769, but he would continue making improvements.

Of course, Arkwright recognised the money-making potential of the spinning machine. Alongside the fast-flowing River Derwent, in Cromford, Derbyshire, he built a gargantuan factory. The river would act as a more efficient source of power than horses, with huge water wheels driving the machines, giving them the name ‘water wheels’.

The simplicity of the water wheels also meant they could be used by ‘unskilled’ workers, who needed basic training to keep feeding the wheels hungry for cotton.

Father of the Industrial Revolution

The success of Cromford mill grew quickly, so Arkwright built other mills across Lancashire, some of which were powered by steam. He made business connections north of the border in Scotland allowing him to expand his spinning enterprise even further. Along the way, Arkwright accrued a huge fortune both selling the yarn from his mills and leasing his machinery to other manufacturers.

An old water mill wheel near Scarthin Pond, Cromford, Derbyshire. 02 May 2019

Image Credit: Scott Cobb UK / Shutterstock.com

Arkwright was undoubtedly an ingenious businessman; he was also relentless. In 1781, he took legal action again 9 Manchester spinning firms who used his wheels without permission. The legal battle went on for years as Arkwright’s patents were challenged. Eventually, the courts ruled against him and his patents were taken back.

Nonetheless, business continued as normal at Arkwright’s mills. By 1800, almost 1,000 men, women and children were employed by Arkwright. People worked exhausting days in huge, dusty factories and on some occasions, as attested to by Sir Robert Peel, the machines roared for full 24-hour shifts. There were no moves to enshrine worker rights in law until the early 19th century.

The ‘Father of the Industrial Revolution’, Arkwright had certainly transformed the cotton industry but perhaps more significantly, modern working conditions, the ripple effects of which many of us still feel today.

His pioneering experiments over the course of the early to mid-19th century greatly contributed to the understanding of electromagnetism, and he ultimately became the first and foremost Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution, a position which he held for his whole life. He was so celebrated that the unit of electrical capacitance is called the farad in his honour, and Albert Einstein kept a picture of him above his desk.

His achievements are yet more remarkable when placed within the context of his life. Born into an impoverished family, he received little education and was largely self-taught, until a fortunate encounter started his journey towards discovery and success.

So who was Michael Faraday?

He grew up in poverty

Born in Newington, now part of South London, Michael Faraday was one of four children born to a blacksmith and a country woman. His father was often ill and unable to work, meaning that the children were frequently hungry; Faraday later recalled once being given one loaf of bread to last him a week.

Faraday learned the basics such as reading, writing and ciphering in Sunday school. At an early age he worked as a newspaper deliverer and bookbinder, and from 14 was the bookbinder’s apprentice. While there, he read many of the books that were brought in for rebinding. He found an article about electricity in the Encyclopaedia Britannica particularly fascinating.

He used his meagre pay to buy chemicals and apparatus. For instance, he made a crude electrostatic generator using old bottles and lumber.

Portrait of Michael Faraday (1791-1867)

Image Credit: Henry William Pickersgill, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

He got a job as a chemical assistant

In 1812, Faraday was offered a ticket to hear well-known scientists John Tatum and Humphry Davy speak on natural philosophy (physics). The fee for the lecture was one shilling; however, his older brother, a blacksmith, was impressed by his brother’s devotion to science so paid for him. Faraday went and was spellbound.

Faraday recorded the lectures, and eventually made additions to his notes which totalled some 300 pages, which he then sent to Davy as tribute. Davy responded immediately and favourably, and Faraday did some work for him as a writer after Davy’s eyesight was damaged in a chemical explosion. In 1813, when a formal opportunity to work in Davy’s laboratory opened, Davy offered the then 21-year-old Faraday the job as a chemical assistant at the Royal Institution. It has been said that Faraday was Davy’s greatest discovery.

He was subjected to snobbery because of his class

A year into his work, Faraday was invited to accompany Davy and his wife on an 18-month tour across Europe that included France, Switzerland, Italy and Belgium. During this time, Faraday met many significant scientists such as André-Marie Ampère in Paris and Alessandro Volta in Milan, which worked as a kind of university education.

However, in addition to his scientific and secretarial work, Faraday was required to be a personal secretary to Davy and his wife, which he did not enjoy: Davy’s wife refused to treat him as an equal, because of his working class background.

He was extremely religious

Faraday’s family belonged to a small Christian sect called Sandemanians (an offshoot of the Church of Scotland), that provided spiritual guidance to Faraday throughout his life.

In 1821, 29-year-old Faraday married Sarah Barnard, who he met through the Sandemanian church. The couple then lived in rooms in the Royal Institution for the next 46 years, including in the suite that Humphry Davy himself had once lived in.

In later life, Faraday served two terms as an elder in the meeting house of his youth. It was repeatedly noted Faraday’s religion was the single most important influence upon him and significantly affected the way he approached and interpreted nature.

He made significant scientific discoveries

Faraday’s research on the magnetic field around a conductor carrying a direct current established the fundamental concept of the electromagnetic field in physics. Faraday recorded that magnetism was able to affect rays of light, and that there was an underlying relationship between the two phenomena. He also developed electromagnetic rotary devices that formed the basis for electric motor technology, which allowed electricity to become practical for use in technology.

Faraday delivering a Christmas Lecture at the Royal Institution in 1856

Image Credit: After Alexander Blaikley, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Amongst Faraday’s other achievements were the discovery of benzene, the invention of an early form of the Bunsen burner and the system of oxidation numbers and the popularisation of terms such as ‘anode’, ‘cathode’, ‘electrode’ and ‘ion’.

He was twice offered the presidency of the Royal Society

Faraday’s esteemed career saw him involved with the Royal Institution for a total of 54 years. He held his first lecture aged 24, was made Superintendent of House and Laboratory aged 29, and was elected to the Royal Society aged 32. A year later, he became Director of the Royal Institution’s Laboratory.

Faraday ultimately became the first and most eminent Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution, a position he held for his whole life. In 1848, aged 54, and again 1858 he was offered the Presidency of the Royal Society, but he turned down the role both times.

When we think of inventors dating from the Industrial Revolution, names such as Brunel, Arkwright, Darby, Morse, Edison and Watt come to mind. Lesser spoken about, however, are the women who also contributed to the technological, social and cultural advancements of the age through their spectacular inventions. Often overlooked in favour of their male contemporaries, female inventors’ contributions have similarly shaped our world today and deserve to be celebrated.

From creations such as paper bags to the first computer program, here’s our pick of 5 women inventors from the Industrial Revolution.

1. Anna Maria Garthwaite (1688–1763)

Though the Industrial Revolution is most commonly associated with mechanical processes, it also yielded significant advances in design. Lincolnshire-born Anna Maria Garthwaite moved to the silk-weaving district of Spitalfields in London in 1728, and stayed there for the next three decades, creating over 1,000 designs for woven silks.

Meandering floral vines design attributed to Garthwaite, ca 1740

Image Credit: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

She was renowned for her floral designs that were technically complex, since they needed to be used by weavers. Her silks were widely exported to Northern Europe and Colonial America, and then even further afield. However, written reports often forgot to mention her by name, so she often missed out on the recognition she deserved. However, many of her original designs and watercolours have survived, and today she is recognised as one of the most significant silk designers of the Industrial Revolution.

2. Eleanor Coade (1733-1821)

Born into a family of wool merchants and weavers, Eleanor Coade was exposed to the workings of business from a young age. An astute businesswoman, in around 1770, Eleanor Coade developed ‘coade stone’ (or, as she called it, Lithodipyra), a type of artificial stone that is both versatile and able to withstand the elements.

Some of the most famous sculptures made of coade stone include the Southbank Lion near Westminster Bridge, Nelson’s Pediment at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, sculptures that decorate Buckingham Palace, Brighton Pavilion and the building that now houses the Imperial War Museum. All look just as detailed as the day they were made.

Coade kept the formula for coade stone a closely guarded secret, to the extent that it was only in 1985 that a British Museum analysis discovered that it was made of ceramic stoneware. However, she was a talented publicist, in 1784 publishing a catalogue that featured some 746 designs. In 1780, she obtained the Royal Appointment to George III, and worked with many of the most celebrated architects of the age.

An allegory of agriculture: Ceres reclining amidst a collection of farm implements, she holds a sheaf of wheat and a scythe. Engraving by W. Bromley, 1789, after a sculptural panel by Mrs E. Coade

Image Credit: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

3. Sarah Guppy (1770–1852)

Birmingham-born Sarah Guppy is the epitome of a polymath. In 1811, she patented her first invention, which was a method of making safe piling for bridges. She was later asked by Scottish civil engineer Thomas Telford for permission to use her patented design for suspension bridge foundations, which she granted to him free of charge. Her design went on to be used in Telford’s magnificent Menai Bridge. A friend to Isambard Kingdom Brunel, she also became involved in the construction of the Great Western Railway, suggesting her ideas to the directors, such as planting willows and poplars to stabilise embankments.

She also patented a bed with a reclining feature that doubled as an exercise machine, an attachment to tea and coffee urns that could poach eggs and warm toast, a method of caulking wooden ships, a means of repurposing roadside manure as farm fertiliser, various safety procedures for railways and a tobacco-based treatment for foot rot in sheep. Also a philanthropist, she was situated at the centre of Bristol’s intellectual life.

4. Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)

Perhaps one of the best known female inventors in history, Ada Lovelace was born to the infamous and unfaithful poet Lord Byron, who she never properly met. As a result, her mother became obsessed with eliminating any tendencies Ada had that resembled her father. Nonetheless, she was recognised as having a brilliant mind.

Portrait of Ada by British painter Margaret Sarah Carpenter (1836)

Image Credit: Margaret Sarah Carpenter, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1842, Ada was commissioned to translate a French transcript of one of mathematician Charles Babbage’s lectures into English. Adding her own section simply titled ‘Notes’, Ada went on to write a detailed collection of her own ideas on Babbage’s computing machines that ended up being more extensive than the transcript itself. Within these pages of notes, Lovelace made history. In note G, she wrote an algorithm for the Analytical Engine to compute Bernoulli numbers, the first published algorithm ever specifically tailored for implementation on a computer, or in simple terms – the first computer program.

Lovelace’s early notes were pivotal, and even influenced the thinking of Alan Turing, who famously went on to crack the Enigma code at Bletchley Park during World War Two.

5. Margaret Knight (1838-1914)

Sometimes nicknamed ‘the lady Edison’, Margaret Knight was an exceptionally prolific inventor in the late 19th century. Born in York, she started working in a textile mill as a young girl. After seeing a worker stabbed by a steel-tipped shuttle that shot out of a mechanical loom, the 12-year-old invented a safety device which was later adopted by other mills.

Her first patent, dating to 1870, was for an improved paper feeding machine that cut, folded and glued flat-bottomed paper shopping bags, which meant workers didn’t need to do it by hand. Though many female inventors and writers concealed their gender by using an initial instead of their given name, Margaret E. Knight is clearly identified in the patent. Over the course of her life, she received 27 patents, and, in 1913, reportedly worked ‘twenty hours a day on her eighty-ninth invention.’

But who were the people driving this revolution? From famous inventors to unsung heroes, here are 10 important figures in the British Industrial Revolution.

1. James Watt (1736-1819)

One of the first major catalysts of the Industrial Revolution was James Watt’s ingenious steam engine, which would power the many mines, mills and canals of Britain.

Potrait of Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer James Watt (cropped)

Image Credit: Carl Frederik von Breda, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Though Thomas Newcomen had invented the first steam engine, Watt improved upon Newcomen’s design to create the Watt steam engine in 1763. His design greatly broadened the capabilities of the steam engine, so that it could be used not only for pumping water, but also in a host of other industries.

Watt also invented the first copying machine and coined the term ‘horsepower’. The unit of power ‘watt’ was named in his honour.

2. James Hargreaves (1720-1778)

Born near Blackburn in the northwest of England, James Hargreaves is credited with inventing the spinning jenny. Growing up in poverty, Hargreaves never received a formal education and worked as a hard loom weaver for most of his life. In 1764, he developed a new loom design using 8 spindles, allowing the weaver to spin 8 threads at once.

Rapidly improving the productivity of the loom, the spinning jenny helped to start the factory system of cotton manufacturing, particularly when Hargreaves’ design was improved by Richard Arkwright’s water-powered water frame and later by Samuel Crompton’s spinning mule.

3. Richard Arkwright (1732-1792)

Alongside his water-powered water frame, Richard Arkwright is best known for pioneering the modern industrial factory system in Britain.

Portrait of Sir Richard Arkwright (cropped)

Image Credit: Mather Brown, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Located in the village of Cromford in Derbyshire, Arkwright built the first water-powered mill in the world in 1771 with an initial 200 workers, running day and night in two 12-hour shifts. As many of the mill’s workers were migrant labourers, Arkwright built housing for them nearby, becoming one of the first manufacturers to do so.

The “dark, satanic mills” of William Blake’s poetry would alter the landscape of Britain and soon the world, inspiring both awe and horror.

4. Josiah Wedgewood (1730-1795)

Known as the ‘Father of English Potters’, Josiah Wedgwood transformed the English pottery trade into an impressive international business. Created in a custom-built estate in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, Wedgewood’s pottery became highly prized by royals and aristocrats across the globe.

Wedgewood is also often credited as the inventor of modern marketing, using a host of savvy sales techniques to capitalise on the growing consumer market. Buy one get one free, money back guarantees and free delivery were all used in his sales.

5. Michael Faraday (1791-1867)

At the turn of the 19th century, electricity was considered a mysterious force by most. Before Michael Faraday, no one had found a way to harness its incredible power for practical use.

Portrait of Faraday in his late thirties, ca. 1826 (cropped)

Image Credit: Henry William Pickersgill, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1822 he invented the first electric motor, and in 1831 discovered electromagnetic induction, building the first electric generator known as the Faraday disk. The ability of man to harness electricity would usher in a new mechanical age, and by the 1880s his electric motors were powering everything from industry to domestic lighting.

6. George Stephenson (1781-1848)

Renowned as the ‘Father of Railways’, George Stephenson was a pioneer of rail transport in Britain. In 1821, he instigated the use of steam locomotives on the Stockton and Darlington railway, on which he acted as chief engineer. When it opened in 1825 was the first public railway in the world.

Alongside his equally brilliant son Robert, he went on to design the most advanced locomotive of its day: ‘Stephenson’s Rocket’. The Rocket’s success gave rise to the construction of railway lines across the country, and its design became the template for steam locomotives for the next 150 years.

7. Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859)

Perhaps one of the most well-known faces of the Industrial Revolution, Isambard Kingdom Brunel sought to connect the world through his masterpieces in iron.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel Standing Before the Launching Chains of the Great Eastern, photograph by Robert Howlett (cropped)

Image Credit: Robert Howlett (British, 1831–1858) Restored by Bammesk, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

At just 20 years old, he helped his father to design and construct the 1,300-foot Thames Tunnel, and at 24 he designed the magnificent Clifton Suspension Bridge over the River Avon in Bristol. When completed, it had the longest span of any bridge in the world at 700ft.

In 1833, Brunel became chief engineer of an ambitious project to link London to Bristol via a 124-mile railway route: the Great Western Railway. Seeking to extend this route all the way to New York, in 1838 he launched SS Great Western, the first steamship purpose-built for crossing the Atlantic, and in 1843 he launched the largest ship of her day: SS Great Britain.

8 and 9. William Fothergill Cooke (1806-1879) and Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875)

Working alongside with these incredible innovations in travel, advancements in communication were also underway. In 1837, inventor William Fothergill Cooke and scientist Charles Wheatstone installed their new invention, the first electrical telegraph, along a rail line between Euston and Camden Town in London.

The next year they achieved commercial success when they installed the telegraph system along 13 miles of the Great Western Railway, and soon many other rail lines in Britain followed suit.

10. Sarah Chapman (1862-1945)

The great innovators of the Industrial Revolution are often hailed as its most important players, yet the workers who fuelled the factories themselves hold a vital place in history.

Born into a working-class family in London’s East End, Sarah Chapman was employed at the Bryant & May matchstick factory from the age of 19. At just 26, she played a leading role in the Matchgirls’ Strike of 1888, in which approximately 1,400 girls and women walked out of the factory to protest poor conditions and worker mistreatment.

Eventually, the Matchgirls’ demands were met, and they went on to establish the largest female union in the country, with Chapman elected to their committee of 12. A pioneering move towards gender equality and fairness at work, the Matchgirls’ Strike was part of a long line of working class protests for improved workers’ rights, including that of the Tolpuddle Martyrs and the Chartists.

Yet Watt’s contribution to the efficiency of industry was not limited to Britain’s great steam-powered beasts. His best-known work on steam engines inspired a host of contributions to the world of science.

From a young boy making models in his father’s workshop to a man who engineered an industrial revolution, here’s the fascinating life and legacy of James Watt.

From Greenock to Glasgow

On 19 January 1736, in the Scottish town of Greenock, Agnes Muirhead and James Watt’s first child was born. They named their newborn son James after his father, a shipwright who acquired most of his wealth from the Atlantic slave trade.

Because he was often ill, Watt’s early childhood was spent at home being taught by his mother. But it was in his father’s workshop, sat at his own bench making models and repairing nautical instruments, that Watt’s education in engineering began.

In 1755, aged just 18, he left for London to train as a journeyman instrument-maker. Yet it wasn’t long before Watt was drawn back to his homeland. A year after leaving Scotland he returned to settle in Glasgow, a city bursting with trade and opportunity.

Portrait of Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer James Watt

Image Credit: Carl Frederik von Breda, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Despite not having finished his apprenticeship, Watt’s arrival in the bustling port coincided with a delivery of astronomical instruments given by the physicist Alexander MacFarlane to the University of Glasgow. The instruments were in terrible condition and needed repairing; Watt was just the man for the job.

Now with some experience and money in his pocket, Watt was offered the chance to set up a workshop at the university. Among a myriad of other objects, his time was spent making and repairing parts for telescopes, rulers, scales and barometers.

Did James Watt invent the steam engine?

Although often dismissed as a myth and told in many forms, popular stories claim Watt was inspired to invent the steam engine after seeing a kettle boil, lifting the lid and showing him the power of steam.

Watt did not invent the first steam engine. Thomas Newcomen’s engine had been in use pumping water from mines for almost 50 years by the time Watt began experimenting in 1759. Even Newcomen was inspired by Thomas Savey’s 1698 invention.

However, the stories of Watt and the kettle are based in fact. In his diaries, Watt describes that in trying to understand the thermodynamics of heat and steam, he used a kettle to generate steam.

Powering the revolution

In 1763, Watt was asked to repair a model Newcomen engine belonging to Glasgow University. After considerable experimentation, he discovered most of the energy was wasted on repeatedly heating and cooling the engine cylinders.

The solution came to Watt 2 years later whilst strolling through Glasgow’s Green Park: by creating a separate cylinder to cool the steam, you could maintain the rest of the engine piston’s temperature.

Matthew Boulton, an engineer and owner of the Soho Manufactory works near Birmingham, saw the genius in Watt’s design and bought a share of his patent in 1776. Boulton’s support gave Watt access to some of the world’s finest ironworks to perfect his engine. Watt then spent long periods in Cornwall installing pumping engines for copper and tin mines, whose managers wanted to reduce fuel costs. But he was no businessman.

Engraving of a 1784 steam engine designed by Boulton and Watt (left) / James Watt. Stipple engraving by H. Adlard after H. Corbould after Sir F. Chantrey (right)

Image Credit: Robert Henry Thurston (1839–1903), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (left) / H. Adlard, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Instead, it was Boulton who raised the capital for their company and foresaw a new market in corn and cotton mills. He urged Watt to improve his earlier engine to suit the different industries. The result was Watt’s ‘double-acting engine’, which let steam condense on both sides of the piston, effectively doubling an engine’s power.

Boulton and Watt’s partnership was hugely successful and lasted some 25 years, only to be continued by their sons Matthew Robinson Boulton and James Watt Jr.

What was James Watt’s legacy?

Watt needed a way of describing and accurately measuring the output of his steam engines. Comparing the power output of steam engines to the power output of draft horses, the living engines of the pre-industrial world, Watt coined the term ‘horsepower’ which is still used today to describe pulling power.

Modern workplaces are also indebted to Watt’s creativity. In the 1780s he developed a way of making precise copies of drawings without having to trace them by hand, inventing the first copying machine.

Carl Frederik von Breda, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image Credit: Andrew Gray, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

James Watt died on 25 August 1819 at his home in Staffordshire, near Birmingham. By the time of his death, he was a wealthy man, his engines in use at paper, flour, cotton and iron mills, as well as distilleries, waterworks and canals.

In 1960, at the 11th General Conference on Weights and Measures, the ‘watt’ was made a universally recognised unit of power. Today, most of the electrical devices in our homes are measured in watts, named for the ingenious Scottish engineer.

But his inventiveness wasn’t limited to computing: as a teenager, Babbage experimented with shoes that helped with walking on water, and he was also responsible for an array of interventions that helped change public life.

Here are 10 facts about Charles Babbage.

1. Charles Babbage was a poorly child

Charles Babbage was born in 1791 and baptised at St Mary’s, Newington in London on 6 January 1792. A serious fever led to him being despatched to a school near Exeter at the age of eight, and he would later have private tuition on account of his poor health. It was at the Holmwood Academy in Enfield where Babbage’s love of mathematics was first nurtured.

2. He was a top mathematician as a student

Babbage taught himself aspects of contemporary mathematics ahead of his entry to Cambridge University. Though he did not graduate with honours and a thesis of his was considered blasphemous, he was nevertheless elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1816.

Portrait of Charles Babbage, c. 1820

Image Credit: National Trust, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

He struggled to establish the career in teaching that he sought, and as a result often leaned on his father for financial support. However, when his father died in 1827, he inherited an estate estimated to value, in today’s terms, around £8.85 million.

3. He was instrumental in setting up the Royal Astronomical Society

Babbage helped to found the Royal Astronomical Society in 1820, which aimed to circulate data and standardise astronomical calculations. As a member of the society, Babbage made mathematical tables which might be depended upon by astronomers, surveyors and navigators.

This was difficult work: it constituted repetitive tasks, yet required exquisite care. It was in this role that Babbage developed an idea for a labour-saving machine that could spit out the tables like clockwork.

4. His ‘Difference Engine’ could perform mathematical calculations

Babbage started designing a calculating machine in 1819, and by 1822 he had developed his ‘Difference Engine’.This was intended to use the differences between terms in a mathematical series to generate the contents of a navigational table, and he lobbied the British government for financial support to build a complete device.

The machine represented digits by positions on toothed wheels. When one wheel advanced from nine to zero, the next wheel in the series would advance by one digit. In this sense, it was able to carry a number in temporary storage, like a modern computer.

Babbage constructed a demonstration model of this Difference Engine in 1832, which he showed to audiences. He never finished the device to the intended room-sized proportions, although a functioning difference engine was constructed from Babbage’s original plans in 1991, proving the success of his design. Instead, Babbage looked to innovations across the Channel to inspire a yet more sophisticated mechanism.

5. Babbage created the more complex ‘Analytical Machine’

Babbage recognised in a new industrial weaving technology the potential for “a totally new engine possessing much more extensive powers”. First patented by French weaver and merchant Joseph-Marie Jacquard in 1804, the Jacquard machine automated pattern weaving by using a series of punched cards to give instructions to a loom.

Charles Babbage, c. 1850 (left) / A portion of the difference engine (right)

Image Credit: National Portrait Gallery, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (left) / Woodcut after a drawing by Benjamin Herschel Babbage, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (right)

Jacquard’s invention transformed textile production, but it was also a predecessor for modern computing. It directly inspired the Analytical Machine with which Babbage cemented his legacy.

The Analytical Machine was more complex than the Difference Engine and it could undertake much more advanced operations. It did this by employing punched cards similar to the Jacquard machine as well as a memory unit able to hold 1,000 50-digit numbers. This was all supposed to be steam-powered, though Babbage didn’t complete his Analytical Machine.

6. He worked with Ada Lovelace

The mathematician Ada Lovelace was mentored by Charles Babbage, who arranged her tuition at the University of London. She went on to write an algorithm for the Analytical Machine which, had the machine been completed, would have enabled it to calculate a sequence of Bernoulli numbers.

She wrote of Babbage’s invention, “we may say most aptly that the Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves.”

7. His inventions weren’t limited to computing

Babbage was active in many fields as an inventor. As a teenager, he came up with an idea for shoes intended to help walking on water. Later on, while working for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, he conceived of the cowcatcher.

Had he actually constructed one, it might have been the first of the plough-like devices that were mounted on the front of locomotives to push cows, and other obstructions, from the rails.

8. He campaigned to reform British science

Babbage firmly believed in the practical value of science to society but was disturbed by the conservatism of the British establishment which he was convinced held 18th-century British science back. To this end, he published Reflections of the Decline of Science in England in 1830, which painted a dismal picture of what society would look like if it failed to support scientific endeavour.

Charles Babbage in the Illustrated London News (4 November 1871)

Image Credit: Thomas Dewell Scott, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

9. He helped establish the modern postal system in England

As part of his membership of the Royal Astronomical Society, Babbage explored the demands of a modern postal system with Thomas Frederick Colby. One of the first interventions in the reform of the Royal Mail, the introduction of the Uniform fourpenny post in 1839, followed their conclusion that there should be a uniform rate.

10. Babbage’s brain is on display in London

On 18 October 1871, Charles Babbage died at home in London. His legacy is as a lifelong inventor prominent in the history of computers. It also takes material form in the halves of his brain which are preserved in two locations in London. One half of Babbage’s brain is located at the Hunterian Museum in the Royal College of Surgeons, while the other is on display at the Science Museum, London.