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The image above is a letter from James Watt to Dr Darwin in 1781 informing Darwin of the proposed discussion topics for their next gathering. These were obviously men so wrapped up in their experimental exploits that even their letters betray their complete fascination with what they studied.
Today’s Lunar Society has several hundred members and includes leading practitioners from all walks of life in Birmingham and the wider region, people who are prepared to help shape the scientific, political and social agenda not just here in Birmingham and the West Midlands, but nationally and internationally.
Benefits of being a member of the Lunar Society
Uglow, Jenny (October 2008), "Lunar Society of Birmingham (act. c.1765–c.1800)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Onlineed.), Oxford University Press , retrieved 17 January 2009
The Lunar Society was very particular about who was allowed to become a member. An exclusive club, it never had more than fourteen core members, and each member was noted for their special area of expertise including the greatest engineers, scientists and thinkers of the day. Their preferred venue was Soho House in Handsworth, the home of Mathew Boulton who was the heart of the Lunar Society. The society gained its name as its monthly meetings were always scheduled for the Monday nearest to the full moon, the better light helping to ensure the members a safer journey home along the dangerous, unlit streets. What ran through it was a simple faith: the good life is more than material decency, but the good life must be based on material decency. 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 2009However, the project will go beyond these early, often negative, colonial relationships and show how a more positive history has been created by the contribution of people from all over the Commonwealth to the development of Birmingham as modern multi-cultural city. The present-day Lunar Society provides a dynamic forum for its membership to influence change through focusing and informing debate, linking social, economic, scientific and cultural thinking, and catalysing action on issues critical to the common good. In the 200-plus years since the original Society, Birmingham and the region have changed beyond recognition. It is now a lively, multicultural city, open to the world. Its industrial base has high technology, medicine and legal services as well as modern manufacturing. It is also notably a young city, with a high proportion of under-35s. Yet what is still the same is the need to adapt continuously, to connect across different agendas and perspectives, and the need to engage local energy and effort in making change succeed. We are at the forefront of this, contributing to an innovative agenda throughout this region and beyond. 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.
The ranks of the dozen or so regular members of the Lunar Society were often swelled by visits and correspondents from more peripheral members including the likes of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Sir Richard Arkwright, Thomas Bedoes, Anna Seward, John Smeaton, etc.
The list goes on: the astronomer William Herschel, who discovered the planet Uranus. He was a also a famous organist. John Smeaton, designer of the Eddystone lighthouse and the most advanced engine designer before Watt. Robinson, Eric (1962), "The Lunar Society: Its Membership and Organisation", Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 35: 153–178, doi: 10.1179/tns.1962.009, ISSN 0372-0187 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: of all the provincial philosophical societies it was the most important, perhaps because it was not merely provincial. All the world came to Soho 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." [23] Development [ edit ] Origins 1755–1765 [ edit ] Erasmus Darwin by Joseph Wright of Derby, 1770 ( Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery) 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.
Behold with surprise and with indignation the figure of an apparatus that has utterly ruined your beautiful hypothesis, and has rendered your works of labour in working, making, and writing, almost useless.” 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”.Ben Franklin set the pattern. The American Philosophical Society started out as his study group. Of course, Franklin's life was centered both on revolution and on tying scientific knowledge to practical social change. Researchers might also find useful information by visiting Birmingham City Archives https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/archives and the Centre for West Midlands History http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/cwmh/index.aspx and West Midlands History. https://historywm.com/
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