About ten months ago the night sky was impressively dark for this part of New Jersey. On the first night after Sandy's clouds parted and the Milky Way was visible - even with a nearly full moon. It was the first time I've seen our galaxy from this place. The moon gave just enough light so you could make your way around without a flashlight. I remember walking that night and thinking about what it must have been like before electric and gas lights. A full moon would make a traveler's life a bit easier.
Your mind wanders and you think about history.1
In about 1765 a group of industrialists and natural philosophy types began to meet once a month by the light of the full moon at Soho House. For fifty years these lunarticks formed a learned society know as the Lunar Society of Birmingham. Its membership included Josiah Wedgwood, Matthew Boulton, James Watt, Joseph Priestly, James Kier and Erasmus Darwin and at least a dozen others who made a dent in the universe. They were there to talk about the intersection of industry, science, engineering and math. Some were intellectuals, some had no formal education, most were at the core of the revolution. The food was good and the ideas even better
Information was shared, new ideas ignited and relationships and partnerships developed. James Watt may have been an impressive inventor, but happened to be someone who didn't cross the t's and dot the i's when it came to turning invention into innovation. He was full of ideas and always on to the next curious thing. There was a period when he focused on the steam engine, but his interests turned out to be much wider. Without Boulton, a driven industrialist, it is likely we wouldn't know him for the steam engine and power wouldn't be measured in watts.2
James Kier was one of the central figures of the society. A chemist when chemistry was becoming central to the notion of manufacture at an industrial scale; perhaps it is only natural he would be the glue of the group. Information sharing was critical and he concerned with translating French publications for himself and others in the society. Josiah Wedgwood swore by Kier's translation of a chemical dictionary as he did his experiments methodically sorting out how to make fine china on an industrial scale for the emerging middle class.
Kier was concerned with alkalis - important for many products, but he was concerned with soap. He managed to perfect the large scale manufacture of soap using some of the process control techniques pioneered by Wedgwood. Regular use of soap led to improved hygiene and some of the greatest gains in average human lifespan we've seen.
Wedgwood was a methodical soul inventing and perfecting many of the concepts used in process control leading to more efficient mass production. He also invented and promoted numerous marketing techniques in use today - "buy one, get one free", illustrated catalogs, direct mail, traveling salesmen, self-service and free delivery.
About the time the Lunar Society faded from view - also roughly the time of Davy's death - the word "scientist" came into regular use. A new field that had been in the works for a few hundred years became recognized.
It began to fade as London became more of a center of innovation, but there were connections with people from the Royal Society. Humphrey Davy was one of the connections. A cross between a world class experimental scientist and a showman, he and others would fill a lecture hall with paying customers to learn about the latest discoveries. He and a few others were the Carl Sagans and Neil deGrasse Tysons of the day. But I mention Davy for another connection that is relevant today.
People in the arts were important to the science. You had to be someone of an artist to illustrate observations and there was a notion that scientific and artistic thinking were one and the same. Samuel Coleridge was a friend of Davy and both had something of a romantic sensibility. It was felt that poetry, art and chemistry all required imaginative analogy and that progress in science would be impossible without an artistic sensibility. Art and science were the same thing to these people and had not separated. With time the symmetry would break, but it is impossible to ignore the creative connection. Coleridge and Wordsworth planned to have Davy come with them when they set up creative shop in the Lake District.
Perhaps this was STEAM 1.0 - science, technology, engineering, art and math. STEM education is seen as critical these days and many of us believe STEM+the arts - STEAM (as popularized by RISD) is even more important. At the dawn of revolutions you need many types of minds to make sure the field of dots you are connecting is large. It happened at the dawn of the industrial revolution and once again we are witness to its hopeful flashes.
the connections led to unexpected revolutions
Wedgwood and Erasmus Darwin were friends and the families of friends often link. His daughter married Darwin's son and he became the grandfather of the Darwin you have heard about...3
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1 It is likely most of you know more about history than me. One of the holes in many technical education paths is an avoidance of the historical development. Since science builds on itself this may seem natural and it is certainly best to learn current science, but there is also great meaning in the story of where we've been. Some schools have excellent history of math, science and technology courses which should be taken with the core work. The historical context makes the current results - as well as those that will come - even more beautiful.
2 Or horsepower for that matter. Horsepower was a marketing concept Watt and Bolton used to give people a feeling for what their product was capable of...
3 There have been a few revolutionary minds in science. Their discoveries would ultimately be made because Nature is the reference, but the timing could be very different. Perhaps the discoveries would be made much later and perhaps the timing would have been inappropriate to ignite fields - or not. Our lifespans might be much shorter now if the discovery of evolution had been delayed fifty years.
The arts are different as something fundamental is not being uncovered. Without Bach we would have never had the Six Suites ....
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Recipe Corner
I was in Arizona last week staying with my sister Corinne and her husband Jeff. Breakfast involved some of the best muesli I've had. This is a good starting point for a superior homemade blend.
Jeff's Muesli Recipe
Ingredients
° 5 scoops rolled oats
° 5 scoops any type granola
° half scoop raw unsalted sunflower seeds
° half scoop sesame seeds
° half scoop raisins (obviously you could go with any dried fruit)
° half scoop hazelnuts (I toast them for 12 minutes at 325)
Technique
° I sprinkle on golden flaxseed
° serve with milk, almond milk, greek yogurt (I like Fage 2% plain) or plain skyr
° if necessary sweeten with a bit of maple syrup
° top with sliced banana, fresh or frozen raspberries, blueberries or blackberries. Some crushed pecans are also great
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