The Lunar Society

The Lunar Society was the original Mastermind Group. Started by Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles) in the 18th Century, its members included Matthew Boulton, Josiah Wedgwood, Joseph Priestly and James Watt, to name but a few.

They called their club The Lunar Society because they met when the moon was full as it made travelling easier.

These men changed not only the face of Britain but much of the developing world.

Matthew Boulton told James Boswell in 1774 “I sell here sir, what all the world desires to have – Power”

Experiments with electricity had been going on since 1706 and caused many philosophical debates about the nature of this power. Political and religious arguments centred around whether it was a natural or divine emanation and whether it was right to hold public demonstrations.

Matthew Boulton had no interest in the debates. He was a very practical man but also had a desire to learn and find out about things purely for the joy of it. Unlike Darwin he did not have a gentleman’s education and had worked in his father’s business since he was 17. However he read Swift, Pope, Shakespeare and John Locke and took great delight in discussing new ideas.

Birmingham at that time was a place where fortunes were made, its population rising rapildy from 15,000 in 1730 to 70,000 by 1800. The Boultons bought steel on credit and made buckles, originaly for the aristocracy but then increasingly for the newly rich who were benefiting from the rise in manufacturing.

Part of the reason for this rapid expansion was that the city had no charter and no craft guilds to block progress with their ancient trading rules. Nonconformists had settled there and so the strong work ethic of the Quakers, Presbysterians and Baptists helped to build the growing number of small independent businesses.

Matthew Boulton’s mentors were Samuel Garbett who taught him how to finance his projects, John Roebuck, one of the first industrial chemists and John Baskerville, a noted atheist who lived openly with his partner and who, among other things, pioneered changes in printing, paper and ink manufacturing.

At the same time, James Watt in Glasgow and Josiah Wedgewood in Liverpool were making their own discoveries and forging strong links through friendship and when these men eventually met and starting sharing ideas the world changed.

More to come ………..