The Age of Machinery

Engineering the Industrial Revolution, 1770-1850
Erscheinungsjahr 2018
ISBN: 978-1-78327-276-1
Verlag: Boydell & Brewer

Buch, Englisch, Band 12, 337 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 158 mm x 231 mm, Gewicht: 493 g

Reihe: People, Markets, Goods: Economies and Societies in History

An engagingly written account of textile engineering in its key northern centres, rich with historical narrative and analysis.

The engineers who built the first generations of modern textile machines, between 1770 and 1850, pushed at the boundaries of possibility. This book investigates these pioneering machine-makers, almost all working within textile communities in northern England, and the industry they created. It probes their origins and skills, the sources of their inspiration and impetus, and how it was possible to develop a high-tech, factory-centred, world-leading marketin textile machinery virtually from scratch. The story of textile engineering defies classical assumptions about the driving forces behind the Industrial Revolution. The circumstances of its birth, and the personal affiliationsat work during periods of exceptional creativity, suggest that the potential to accelerate economic growth could be found within social assets and craft skills. Appreciating textile engineering within its own time and context challenges views inherited from Victorian thinkers, who tended to ascribe to it features of the fully fledged industry they saw before them. The Age of Machinery is an engagingly written account of the trade in its key northern centres, devoid of jargon and yet tightly argued, equally rich with historical narrative and analysis. It will be invaluable not only to students and scholars of British economic history and the Industrial Revolution but also tosocial scientists looking at human agency and its contribution to economic growth and innovation.

GILLIAN COOKSON holds a DPhil in economic history and has been employed since 1995 in academic research and consultancy,including as county editor, Victoria County History of Durham.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Cookson, Gillian

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftsgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction
The Coming of Machinery
The Age of Machinery
Shaping an Industry
The Machine-makers
Ingenious Mechanics
The Social Life of the Engineer
Innovating
Reaching Maturity
Appendix 1: Keighley textile engineers
Appendix 2: Leeds engineering businesses established before 1830
Appendix 3: Estimates of textile machinery at work in the United Kingdom, 1835-56
Bibliography

Über Autor(innen)

Cookson, Gillian
GILLIAN COOKSON is an industrial historian. She is the author of The Age of Machinery: Engineering the Industrial Revolution, 1770-1850, published by The Boydell Press in 2018.