Uglow, Jenny (2002), The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed the World, London: Faber & Faber, ISBN 0-374-19440-8 William Murdoch (1731 – 1802), worked for Boulton and Watt and was the inventor of the gas light. He ended his days living at the court of the Shah of Persia, where he was believed to be an incarnation of Marduk, the ancient god of light. James Keir (1735 – 1820), the chemist responsible for making soap affordable to the great unwashed. Among memorials to the Society and its members are the Moonstones; two statues of Watt and a statue of Boulton, Watt and Murdoch by William Bloye; and the museum at Soho House – all in Birmingham.

The Lunar Society Heritage Trail Leaflet provides visitors and local residents with an introduction to the Lunar Society and 18th Century Birmingham by following in its members’ footsteps Engines of our Ingenuity – http://home/creative13/domains/lunarsociety.org.uk/public_html.uh.edu/engines/ It comes as a jolt to see these dedicated capitalists as part of a revolutionary cabal. But in 1785 capitalism was revolution. When these late-18th-century intellectuals and industrialists consciously joined forces, it was because they wanted to shape a decent life -- for everyone. The nature of the group was to change significantly with the move to Birmingham in 1765 of the Scottish physician William Small, who had been Professor of Natural Philosophy at The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. There he had taught and been a major influence over Thomas Jefferson, and had formed the focus of a local group of intellectuals. His arrival with a letter of introduction to Matthew Boulton from Benjamin Franklin was to have a galvanising effect on the existing circle, which began to explicitly identify itself as a group and actively started to attract new members. [29] Schofield, R. E., The Lunar Society at Birmingham: a social history of provincial science and industry in eighteenth-century England, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963.

Benefits of being a member of the Lunar Society

By 1768 the core group of nine individuals who would form the nucleus of the Lunar Society had come together with Small at their heart. [16] The group at this time is sometimes referred to as the "Lunar circle", though this is a later description used by historians, [33] and the group themselves used a variety of less specific descriptions, including "Birmingham Philosophers" or simply "fellow-schemers". [34] The Lunar Society 1775–1780 [ edit ] William Withering Musson, Albert Edward; Robinson, Eric (1969), Science and Technology in the Industrial Revolution, Manchester: Manchester University Press, ISBN 0-7190-0370-9 , retrieved 26 January 2009 This has been partly replaced by the very successful James Watt bicentenary 2019 trail due to major works developing the city centre. But who were these men that would meet every month to discuss how science and technology could be made to serve society for the good of all? The pioneers that together would bring about the ultimate fusion of science and social change that would fuel the fires and ignite the Industrial Revolution: Cornish chemist and inventor, Sir Humphry Davy, said of Watt, “Those who consider James Watt only as a great practical mechanic form a very erroneous idea of his character; he was equally distinguished as a natural philosopher and a chemist, and his inventions demonstrate his profound knowledge of those sciences, and that peculiar characteristic of genius, the union of them for practical application”.

Before the French Revolution, intellectuals (both men and women) gathered in salons to talk about scientific and social issues. Now the English Industrial Revolution was about to become the ultimate fusion of science, social change, and revolution. And the Lunar Society formed a primary focus for such change.The Lunar Society, or Lunar Circle as it was first called, was one such club. It met in and around Birmingham, England between 1765 and 1813. It was the members of this club however, that would set it apart from any other. They cheerfully referred to themselves as the ‘lunatics’, but this could not have been much further from the truth, as the revolutionaries involved would change the face of the world forever. Today, let's drop in on a remarkable gathering. The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.