History
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘History’
Josiah Wedgwood, a village potter whose disability meant he could not use a potter’s wheel, brought about a quiet revolution in English society.
The rich have always had nice things; what changed in the eighteenth century was that, because of private enterprise and the industrial revolution, the poor started to share them too. Josiah Wedgwood was one of the pioneers who changed the lives of the poor for the better.
Josiah Wedgwood’s promotional gift made Abolitionism fashionable.
The Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, founded in 1787 by Thomas Clarkson, distributed a tasteful cameo of its emblem done in jasperware by Josiah Wedgwood. Clarkson (who sent some to Benjamin Franklin, President of Pennsylvania) later expressed his warm appreciation.
Mrs Clements of Durham is not a household name, but the product she invented is.
Mrs Clement’s innovative process for making hot mustard powder sparked welcome fresh business for farmers and potters in northeast England, and is the secret behind the famous Colman’s of Norwich - and their “bull’s head” logo.
Arkwright invented the factory, without which modern life would be impossible.
Richard Arkwright (1732-1792), the son of a Lancashire tailor, was knighted in 1786 in recognition of his role as one of the architects of the Industrial Revolution - not for the inventions once credited to him, but for developing the idea of factories.
His alpaca-wool mills near Bradford proved the social benefits of private enterprise in the right hands.
Sir Titus Salt (1803-1876), Baronet, was a Victorian industrialist who made his fortune in the wool industry. His Christian principles and dislike of industrial slums led him to build a model village for his workforce by the River Aire.
The Duke of Argyll was pleasantly surprised to find one of his gardeners reading a learned book of mathematics - in Latin.
Edward Stone (1702-1768), mathematician, Fellow of the Royal Society, and the man who gave us aspirin, was self-taught. His story reminds us that the purpose of education is not to tell us what to think, but to give us the tools we need to think for ourselves.