Second City

In the late 18th century, with the ascendant British Empire centred on London, a small group of friends met at a house on the crossroads outside Birmingham and applied their minds to the problems of the age. Between them they managed to launch the Industrial Revolution, discover oxygen, harness the power of steam and pioneer the theory of evolution. They were the Lunar Society, a gathering of free and fertile minds centred on the remarkable quartet of Matthew Boulton, James Watt, Joseph Priestly and Erasmus Darwin. The potter Josiah Wedgwood, another member, summed up the ethos of this group when he said that they were ‘living in an age of miracles in which anything could be achieved’.

But how did the Lunar Society operate? What was the blend of religious dissent, entrepreneurial spirit and intellectual adventure that proved so fertile and how did their discoveries permanently change the shape and character of this country?
- Melvin Bragg

Readers will I hope, forgive my posting on the single subject of the Lunar Society because of its profound effect not only on the development of Birmingham or even The United Kingdom but the entire world.
The society was a loose and informal group of entrepreneurs, scientists, doctors, philosophers and thinkers who would meet and discuss scientific issues of the day at one of the founding member’s houses in the Birmingham area from the mid 18th century up until the beginning of the 19th century.
They were variously described as the Birmingham Philosophers, The Lunar Circle, The Lunar Society, fellow schemers, the beginning of provincial enlightenment, both challenging and undermining the (often corrupt) establishment in London and in a paper read at the science museum in London “of all the provincial philosophical societies it was the most important, perhaps because it was not merely provincial. All the world came to Soho (an area in Birmingham) to meet Boulton, Watt or Small, who were acquainted with the leading men of Science throughout Europe and America. Its essential sociability meant that any might be invited to attend its meetings”

Historians disagree on the definitive list of founding members but it’s generally agreed that they included Matthew Boulton (founder, with James Watt of the Soho manufactory) Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles Darwin), Thomas Day(ardent abolitionist), Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Samuel Galton Jr. James Keir, Joseph Priestley, William Small, Jonathan Stokes, James Watt, Josiah Wedgwood, John Whitehurst and William Withering.

Their sphere of influence was wide reaching across the whole of Europe and America and included two US founding fathers; Benjamin Franklin, who attended meetings of the Lunar Society and Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of The United States who was tutored by William Small, one of the founders of the Lunar Society.
Joseph Priestley’s accomplishments included the discovery of Oxygen, the discovery of Photosynthesis and the discovery of Nitrogen.

The group’s range of interests included Chemistry, Physics, Geology – establishing that the world was indeed millions of years old rather than six thousand as the bible suggests. Education and child-raising, pioneering modern learning methods including learning by play, one member even wrote a best-selling children’s book.

Today, the Lunar Society is still going strong, in Birmingham and on the 12th December they held their annual dinner at Birmingham's Council House, hosted by the Lord Mayor. The after dinner speech was given by Ed Miliband MP, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.

Links:
In Our Time
Revolutionary Players
The Lunar Society