Grace's Guide to British Industrial History
February 29, 2016 2:06 AM Subscribe
Grace's Guide to British Industrial History ‘is a free-content not-for-profit project dedicated to publishing the history of industry in the UK and elsewhere. Its aim is to provide a brief history of the companies, products and people who were instrumental in industry, commencing with the birth of the Industrial Revolution and continuing up to recent times.’ It ‘contains 115,164 pages of information and 163,140 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.’ Browse by Archived Publications, Biographies (‘over 35,000 pages of biographical notes on individuals’), Industries, Locations or Timelines. There is also a blog.
This will be interesting to read, starting at one of my heros, Henry Maudslay, who created the first screw cutting lathe, a bench micrometer capable of measuring a millionth of an inch, and many other things.
posted by MikeWarot at 4:34 AM on February 29, 2016
posted by MikeWarot at 4:34 AM on February 29, 2016
Random click turned up something of interest: a scan of the Nov 1895 Autocar journal ("A Journal published in the interests of the mechanically propelled road carriage") which describes An Electric Autocar:
It takes the form of a self-propelled mail phaeton in which electricity is the motive force ... The. wheels and all working parts run upon ball bearings, and the electro-motive force is contained in a series of twenty-four accumulator cells, which are fitted quite out of sight in boxes arranged beneath the seats.
The machine is calculated to run at speeds varying from three and a half to thirteen and a half miles per hour, according to the gradient over which it is running, or the wish of the occupants. As planned, it will carry four persons, and we may say that so confident were the inventors of the correctness of the design, that all the parts were plated and enamelled -- in fact , perfectly finished, before being put together.
We may add that the amount of electricity carried in the accumulators is calculated to be sufficient for a run of from seventy to eighty miles, and it is estimated that the cost of recharging will not exceed three shillings. Here we have a carriage and horses in one, some two horse power being developable, the first experiment appears to us to be perfectly successful, and we have little doubt that there is a large and prosperous future before this class of carriage, in which we hope cycle manufacturers will participate. We append a photographic illustration of the strange beastie.
posted by ancillary at 6:33 AM on February 29, 2016
It takes the form of a self-propelled mail phaeton in which electricity is the motive force ... The. wheels and all working parts run upon ball bearings, and the electro-motive force is contained in a series of twenty-four accumulator cells, which are fitted quite out of sight in boxes arranged beneath the seats.
The machine is calculated to run at speeds varying from three and a half to thirteen and a half miles per hour, according to the gradient over which it is running, or the wish of the occupants. As planned, it will carry four persons, and we may say that so confident were the inventors of the correctness of the design, that all the parts were plated and enamelled -- in fact , perfectly finished, before being put together.
We may add that the amount of electricity carried in the accumulators is calculated to be sufficient for a run of from seventy to eighty miles, and it is estimated that the cost of recharging will not exceed three shillings. Here we have a carriage and horses in one, some two horse power being developable, the first experiment appears to us to be perfectly successful, and we have little doubt that there is a large and prosperous future before this class of carriage, in which we hope cycle manufacturers will participate. We append a photographic illustration of the strange beastie.
posted by ancillary at 6:33 AM on February 29, 2016
Having recently finished reading Stephenson's "Baroque Cycle" I searched for The Proprietors of the Invention for Raising Water by Fire
It's there!
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 12:56 PM on February 29, 2016
It's there!
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 12:56 PM on February 29, 2016
This is great, thank you for posting it!
posted by LobsterMitten at 4:08 PM on March 1, 2016
posted by LobsterMitten at 4:08 PM on March 1, 2016
« Older Judge a Book by Its Title | “They just added an extra five days of festivals... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Hogshead at 3:56 AM on February 29, 2016 [3 favorites]