The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin, H. W. Brands, c. 2000

Consider this as an ChatGPT prompt:

With his ten years of diplomacy in London before the Revolutionary War, might it have been possible that Benjamin Franklin delayed the onset of the Revolutionary War) or might even have prevented the war entirely had the Boston militia not over-reacted at Lexington and Concord, catching everyone off guard including Benjamin Franklin?

The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin, H. W. Brands, c. 2000. I've had this book for quite some time; I've "read" it once, but now, after reading The Lunar Men, I'm interested in reading this again. 

Benjamin Franklin, scaffolding

• born in the US to a craftsman (candles and soap)
• no formal education after age 12; voracious reader
• learned a craftsman trade, a printer
• moved from NYC to Philadelphia
• retired at age 42 as a printer
• rose to prominence in the Pennsylvania assembly
• for five years in his 50s he represented Pennsylvania colonialists vs the Penn family, during the French and Indian War; returned home for two years
• his entire 60s spent in London representing four "states" to include Pennsylvania, Georgia, vs King George III; returns just before war breaks out;
• his entire 70s spent in France as ambassador for America; ensured French support for the Americans against King George III

From my notes on The Lunar Men:

Name: Benjamin Franklin

• Vocation: printer, and so much more
• 1757, age 51: arrives in London as agent for the Pennsylvania Assembly
• as a printer, eager to meet Baskerville; Franklin had subscribed to Baskerville's Virgil;
• Location: London, then Birmingham, then Europe
• Age, 1760:
• Disposition
• Wives
• Children
• Comments
• spent a total of 18 years in England as agent representing Pennsylvania
• first stay: 1757 - 1762, 5 years -- to handle a dispute with the Penn family, the proprietors of Pennsylvania, over taxation and governance; learned a lot about diplomacy
• second stay: 1764 - 1775, 11 years -- again, as the colonial agent, specifically for Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Georgia, to oppose the Stamp Act and advocate for colonial rights; became prominent critic of British taxation policies; testified before Parliament; in London when tensions grew; left London when war became imminent
• later European service: 1776 - 1785: 9 years in France as US ambassador, securing critical French support during the American Revolution (again, the Scots and France against England)

 *****************************
The Book: H. W. Brands -- Benjamin Franklin, The First American

Franklin's life:

  *****************************
The Book: H. W. Brands -- Benjamin Franklin, The First American

Early life:
parents, Josiah and Abiah, dissenters; arrive in Boston, 1683
ten children; Benjamin, #8 -- born, 1705

Early life: father was a printer in London; London as a teenager; emigrated, 1683, at age of 26  -- Puritan, not a Quaker

• Benjamin Franklin's grandfather, Thomas, was a blacksmith, Ecton, Northamptonshire, England; the family had been established in Ecton for about 300 years, according to Benjamin's autobiography;
• his dad made candles and soap; his father wanted his son to learn a trade, to be self-supporting and not run out to sea
• began as apprentice to his brother, a printer, 1717, Benjamin, age 12;  his brother James nine years older
• nine-year apprenticeship
• began to look for location where printer needed
• New York City did not need a printer
• thought Philadelphia might need a printer
• huge Quaker influence -- first day in Philadelphia, page 45
• 1724: first trip to London to raise money for his personal vocation, printing; 19 years old
• found work in London as a printer
• The Enlightenment, mentioned, page 71
• returned to America, 1726, age 21
• begins work as a merchant in Philadelphia; incredibly energetic

Early adult life

Poor Richard's Almanac: 1730- 1735

Retired at age 42

Fast forward: 

1751: clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly -- 46 years of age 

• need to explore the time when Franklin was spending time with the Assembly and the going to London as agent for the Assembly
  

Chapter 12: 52 years old -- A Larger Stage, 1757 - 1758 -- back to England -- 

• first stay: 1757 - 1762 and then second stay: 1764 - 1775,
• overseas from 1757 - 1775 except for two years, 1762 - 1764 
• his 50s, 60s, and 70s
  

Franklin's time overseas:

• first long spell, 1757 - 1762;  52 years of age - 57 years of age -- most of his 50s -- for Pennsylvania, fighting the Penn family;
• first industrial revolution
• 1760
• Lunar Society: official, 1775
• second long spell, 1764 - 1775; 59 years of age - 70 years of age -- so his entire 60s -- for several colonial states, fighting government taxes and regulations; probably his second time in England when he mentored the Lunar Men
• third long spell, 1776 - 1785, 71 years of age - 80 years of age -- so his entire 70s -- representing the colonials in France;

Chapters on his stays overseas

Chapter 12: 52 years old -- A Larger Stage, 1757 - 1758 -- back to England --

Chapter 13: Imperialist, 1759 - 1760

Chapter 14: 55 years old -- Briton, 1760 - 1762 -- first industrial revolution, 1760; returns to the states, 1762; so he spends about two years in America;

Chapter 15:  57 years old -- Rising in the West, 1762 - 64 -- a two-year interlude, back to the states

Chapter 16: 59 years old -- Stamps and Statesmanship, 1764 - 1766 -- return to England at age 59

Chapter 17: Duties and Pleasures, 1766 - 1767

Chapter 18: Reason and Riot, 1768 - 1769

Chapter 19: The Rift Widens, 1770 - 1771

Chapter 20: To Kick a Little, 1772 - 1773

Chapter 21: The Cockpit, 1774 - 1775 -- last couple of years in England; tensions with colonists growing;

Chapter 22: -- returns to states at age 70 -- Rebel, 1775 - 1776 -- first year back to the colonies; my notes in the margins: KEY CHAPTER

Chapter 23: -- 71 years old -- Salvation in Paris, 1776 - 1778 -- to Paris as American emissary

Chapter 24: Bonhomme Richard, 1778 - 1779

Chapter 25: Minister Plenipotentiary, 1779 - 1781

Chapter 26: Blessed Work, 1781 - 1782

Chapter 27: Savant, 1783 - 1785

Chapter 28: -- 80 years old -- Home, 1785 - 1786 -- Back home, at last, until his death

Chapter 29: Sunrise at dusk, 1786 - 1787

Chapter 30: To Sleep, 1787 - 1790

Epilogue, April 17,1990

*************************
Miscellaneous

Passing The Baton -- July 2, 2025

 
For me, Tim O'Brien took the baton from Hunter S. Thompson, who in turn took it from Graham Green, who took it from Ernest Hemingway, who grabbed it from Joseph Conrad, and with a big reach, grabbed it from Daniel Defoe, who took it from Miguel de Cervantes. It seems like I'm missing someone between Defoe and Cervantes but you get the idea.

From Shakespeare To The Modern World -- July 1, 2025

See also this page.

My words, asking ChatGPT:

Could one say: There was a huge change in western civilization between the death of Shakespeare (somewhat medieval) and the death of King George III, 1820, entering the "modern world."

ChatGPT:

Yes — that’s actually a very insightful and reasonable way to frame a major historical shift. 

You could absolutely say: 

“There was a profound transformation in Western civilization between the death of Shakespeare (1616), who stood at the edge of the medieval worldview, and the death of King George III in 1820, which marked the threshold of the modern world.”

Then, ChatGPT breaks it down:

Shakespeare's death, 1616: the edge of the Old World

• Shakespeare’s world was still deeply connected to medieval structures: monarchy, the divine right of kings, feudal remnants, religious conflicts, and a cosmos where the supernatural, astrology, and religion deeply permeated daily life.
• His works wrestled with monarchy, fate, religion, and order — themes heavily tied to pre-modern thinking. 

Between 1616 and 1820: A Gateway Period

• Key Shifts
• Scientific Revolution (Galileo, Newton, Hooke): The medieval cosmos gave way to a rational, mathematical, heliocentric universe.
• Enlightenment (Locke, Hume, Voltaire, Kant): Reason, individual rights, and secular government rose to prominence.
• Political Revolutions: The Glorious Revolution (1688), American Revolution (1776), and French Revolution (1789) redefined political legitimacy and individual freedom.
• Industrial Revolution (began ~1760): Society transitioned from agrarian to industrial, which radically changed economies, cities, and labor.
• Decline of Absolute Monarchies: Feudal and absolute systems steadily eroded in favor of constitutional models and republican ideas.

Death of King George III (1820): Stepping Into Modernity

• His reign saw the loss of the American colonies, the rise of British industrial power, and the Napoleonic Wars, setting the stage for Britain’s imperial peak. 
• By 1820, the modern world had arrived: 
• Constitutional governments 
• Capitalist economies
• The beginnings of mass literacy and public opinion
• Urbanization and modern science
• Romanticism and skepticism of Enlightenment rationality

In plain terms:

• The world of Shakespeare still had one foot in the medieval order—monarch-centered, religiously saturated, tradition-bound. 
• By the death of George III, Europe had crossed into the industrial, constitutional, and secular modern world, with science and reason (and later, industrial capitalism) setting the cultural and political tone.

Who Preceded The Lunar Men -- British Figures Born 1600 - 1740 -- July 1, 2025

This page (and question) was the result of reading The Lunar Men by Jenny Uglow. 

There's a huge change in western civilization between death of Shakespeare (somewhat medieval) and the death of King George III, 1820, entering the "modern world.

Shakespeare died in 1616.

James I reigned: 1603 - 1625.  

Smack dab in the middle of the reign of James 1, Shakespeare died. He had retired some years later, and perhaps his best works were upwards of ten years old when he died.

1616: Elizabethan  period--> James 1 (the King James version, Bible).

Essentially moving from the Elizabethan Age (somewhat medieval age) to the more modern age.

James 1 died in 1625, still somewhat medieval. There followed a succession of kings and queens (several) until we reach King George I, taking the throne in 1714; then George II, 1727, and ending with King George III, reigning 1760 - 1820. King George reigned during the American revolution.

The first industrial revolution is said to have begun in 1760, the exact year King George III became king.

There's a huge change in western civilization between death of Shakespeare (somewhat medieval) and the death of King George III, 1820, entering the "modern world.

The obvious question to ask ChatGPT:

In Britain, 1600 - 1740, who were the major figures born during that time period who would eventually effect the mid- to late-18th century: philosophers, scientists, statesmen, writers, etc. Mid- to late-18th century, let''s say 1760, the beginning of the first industrial revoution.

The answer:

Excellent question. The period from 1600 to 1740 would have set in motion the ideas that affected the movers and shakers in the period from 1760 to 1820, i.e., the first industrial revolution.

The period from 1600 to 1740 in Britain was an extraordinarily fertile time for the birth of individuals who would shape the mid- to late-18th century intellectually, politically, and culturally. Here’s a list of some of the most influential figures born within that window whose work or legacy profoundly affected Britain and, often, the world in the decades that followed.

The 1600–1740 birth cohort produced the foundational thinkers, scientists, and writers whose work set the intellectual stage for the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the rise of modern parliamentary government, and the eventual colonial and economic expansions of Britain. It's interesting that none of the "Lunar men" are mentioned below even though they would have been active by 1760, and thus born by 1740.

Philosophers and thinkers:

• Thomas Hobbes, 1588 - 1679
  
• John Locke, 1632 - 1704
• George Berkeley, 1685 - 1753
• David Hume, 1711 - 1776
  

Scientists and mathematicians:

• Isaac Newton, 1643 - 1727
• Edmond Halley, 1656 - 1742
• Robert Hooke,1636 - 1703

Writers and poets:

• John Milton, 1608 - 1674
• Daniel Defoe, 660 - 1731
• Jonathan Swift, 1667- 1745
• Alexander Pope, 1688-1744

Statesmen and political figures:

• Robert Walpole, 1676 - 1745
  
• William Pitt the Elder, 1708 - 1778

Other influential figures:

• Samuel Johnson, 1709 - 1784
• Adam Smith, 1723 - 1790  

*******************************
A Reminder: The Lunar Men

Erasmus Darwin
Matthew Boulton
Josiah Wedgwood
James Watt

John Baskerville
Samuel Garbett
John Roebuck
Joseph Priestley
Small

Others
John Whitehurst
William Murdoch
Joseph Black
John Hutton

Benjamin Franklin

Minor:
Benjamin Huntsman

The Lunar Men

See this link: The Lunar Men, Jenny Uglow.

Date marker: 1760. It pops up often in the book.

Chapter 2: read what Birmingham was all about, page 21 - 23. A very dynamic city. London, Edinburgh, and Birmingham?

Of interest, large proportion of movers and shakers during this period:

• Dissenters in England (specifically, Quakers); and,
• Scots

Geographic: large arc, Leeds to the north, very center of England, and then the arc swings south to the west, down to Manchester, and then southeast to Birmingham, via Stoke-on-Trent.

Darwin, Boulton, and Wedgwood: all born in the heart of England, all descended from "yeomen," small landowners and farmers. They came from different sides of the Midlands, where the counties curve around the Derbyshire Peak. 

• at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire.

On the road to Birmingham, one would meet Manchester manufacturers, Sheffield cutlers, Staffordshire potters, traveling together to protect themselves against highwaymen.

• glassworks, salt-pans, and potteries: clustered along the Firth of Forth
  

The Lunar Society of Birmingham:

• genesis: 1760 - 1775
• formally recognized by one of the original members: 1775
• ceased to exist: 1791
• others say it lasted until: 1813

Global dates/important events -- during the period of the Lunar Society:

• Seven Years War, 1756 - 1763: war between France and England for global domination; Britain, the big winner
• French and Indian War: colonists name for Brits fighting the French and their Indian allies in North America; Britain, the big winner
• American Revolution: first shots, April 19, 1775; declaration, 1776 -- 1783 (Treaty of Paris)
  
• King George III: 1760 - 1820
• 1789: recovers from his period of madness
• Fall of Bastille, 1789
  

Dates:

• 1757, last paragraph chapter 4, "The Doctor's Bag," for the first bond forged in the Lunar Society
• Erasmus Darwin and Matthew Boulton
• initially: overlapped almost exactly with war with France
  
• 1760 - 1830: first industrial revolution
• 1870 - 1914: second industrial revolution
• 1767: CO2 discovered
• 1774: oxygen discovered
• deaths
• Ben Franklin: 1790
• Erasmus Darwin: 1802
  
• William Small: 1734 - 1775 (devastating to lose this man); at College of William and Mary, mentored Thomas Jefferson); of malaria, 1775, contacted when visiting Virginia
  

Map of England

• the Midlands
• Peak District

Organization of the Book:

• Chapters 1 - 6: early days; introductions, bios of Darwin, Boulton, James Watt, Darwin as a physician, Boulton heading for Soho Mill,
• Chapters 7 - 8: the Lunar Society begins. The philosophers; Darwin "reaching out" to expand the circle.
• Chapters 9 - 14: interests; electricity, steam, canals, painting, magic and mechanics, fossils (Derbyshire, Derby Peak), chemical reactions;
• Chapter 15: instability; Seven Years' War (French and Indian War); Revolutionary War
• Chapter 16: romance; Darwin meets Rousseau
• Chapter 17: "vase mania," ormolu;
• Chapter 18: importance of machines
• Chapter 19: two deaths -- 1772, James Brindley dies; 1775, John Baskerville dies
• Chapters 20 - 21: Priestly studies air; James Watt moves to Soho Mill!
• Chapter 22: 1775 -- Revolutionary War; members find them on opposite sides politically; Small dies -- devastating to the group.
• Chapter 23: biology, plants, classifying, Carl Linnaeus first classifies plants; first of Cook's three voyages;, 1768 - 1771; searching for rumored continent at southern pole; first European to visit, map New Zealand; eastern coast of Australia
• Chapter 24: mining, Cornwall; for Boulton, 1779, arrival of William Murdoch;
• Chapter 25: more geology, Boulton, Joseph Black, John Hutton
• Chapters 26 - 28: home stretch; dotting i's, crossing t's; families, sons and daughters; the artists
• Chapter 29: England despondent; had lost war to the colonists;
• Chapters 30 - 33: protecting their interests; squabbles;
• Chapter 34: the various Lunar friendships had now stretched over many years;
• Chapter 35: still talking, corresponding, collaborating endlessly; many grand projects; never a single unit
• Chapter 36: friends are starting to face the onslaught of time; John Whitehurst, 1788, dies first, age 74. In 1789, the country cheers George III's recovery from madness.
• Chapter 37: July 1789, Fall of the Bastille, July, 1789 -- a bit more than a decade after the Revolutionary War
• Chapters 38 - 40: coming to an end; breaking up; many at peak of their individual achievements
• Epilogue: will place these notes at the very end (later)

Name: Erasmus Darwin

• Vocation: physician
• Location: near Newark-on-Trent, NE of Nottingham, northeast of Birmingham;
• born, 1731, Old Hall, Elston, ten miles NE of Nottingham
• nearest town, Newark-on-the-Trent; river to Hull!
• elementary school: Chesterfield, twenty miles north; on the edge of the Pennines, close to the Yorkshire border
• Derby: northeast of Nottingham, near Newark -- known for its clock-making trade.
• medical training: Cambridge --> London --> Edinburgh (reminder: James Watt in Glasgow)
  
• Age, 1760:
• Disposition: polymath, gregarious, extrovert, hyperactive, athletic
• Wives
• Children
• Comments

Name:  John Whitehurst

• Vocation: clock-maker;
• Darwin and Boulton learn much about instrumentation and invention from Whitehurst
• Location: moved to Derby in 1736
• 1735: John Harrison perfected his famous chronometer
• the next big interest was electricity in the 1740s, and discovery followed discovery
• 1746: Leydon jar
• 1758: Benjamin Franklin shows up in Birmingham ,p. 59.
• Age, 1760:
• Disposition
• Wives
• Children
• Comments

 

Name:  Matthew Boulton (think Birmingham metal worker)

• Vocation: toy-maker; metal-worker
• Location: Birmingham, but married in Lichfield
• born 1728, Whitehall Lane, now Steelhouse Lane, northern fringes of Birmingham
• three years older than Darwin
• when Darwin was at Cambridge, Boulton setting up his "study"
• Boulton senior was a "toy-maker" -- Matthew followed in his footsteps; metal-trades;
• Birmingham: city where fortunes were made; a city of makers and traders
• Boulton senior had come from cathedral town of Lichfield, eighteen miles to the north of Birmingham
• iron workers and coal in immediate area
• friends/three mentors: the influential button-and hardware-maker Samuel Garbett, his partner John Roebuck, a pioneering industrial chemist, and the great printer John Baskerville
• Garbett: how to finance expensive projects
• Roebuck: science could pay
• Baskerville: art could be combined with experiment
• japanning, p. 23
• tall, dark, handsome; on the make
• married his distant cousin May, the daughter of Luke Robinson, a wealthy mercer with a farm at Whittington, three miles outside the city
• scooped a great deal of money and married into an influential family
• initially lived in Lichfield (home of Mary) but the moved back to Birmingham
• comes into contact with clockmaker John Whitehurst
• Age, 1760:
• Disposition
• Wives
• Children
• Comments

 

 

Name:  James Watt, seven years younger than Boulton
Vocation:
Location: Scotland; Greenock; west central lowlands of Scotland, northwest of Glasgow; truly far away;
Greenock: fishing village and then triangular trade with Glasgow
Age, 1760:
Disposition
Wives
Children
Comments

 

 

Name:  Josiah Wedgwood
Vocation: potter
Location: Burslem (becomes a metonym for the six pottery villages in the Midlands; around Stoke-on-Trent, almost midway between Birmingham and Manchester
Age, 1760:
Disposition
Wives
Children
Comments

 

 

Name: Benjamin Franklin

• Vocation: printer, and so much more
• 1757, age 51: arrives in London as agent for the Pennsylvania Assembly
• as a printer, eager to meet Baskerville; Franklin had subscribed to Baskerville's Virgil;
• Location: London, then Birmingham, then Europe
• Age, 1760:
• Disposition
• Wives
• Children
• Comments
• spent a total of 18 years in England as agent representing Pennsylvania
• first stay: 1757 - 1762, 5 years -- to handle a dispute with the Penn family, the proprietors of Pennsylvania, over taxation and governance; learned a lot about diplomacy
• second stay: 1764 - 1775, 11 years -- again, as the colonial agent, specifically for Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Georgia, to oppose the Stamp Act and advocate for colonial rights; became prominent critic of British taxation policies; testified before Parliament; in London when tensions grew; left London when war became imminent
• later European service: 1776 - 1785: 9 years in France as US ambassador, securing critical French support during the American Revolution (again, the Scots and France against England)

 

 

Name:  William Small -- mentor to Thomas Jefferson
Vocation: Physician
Location: Scotland --> Birmingham --> William And Mary College (Thomas Jefferson) --> Birmingham (dies of malaria after return to Birmingham; contracted in Virginia)
Age, 1760:
Disposition: the glue that often held the society together; seems like he was a "fun" guy with whom to be
Wives
Children
Comments

 

 

Name: 
Vocation
Location
Age, 1760:
Disposition
Wives
Children
Comments

 

Name: Joseph Wright
Vocation: painter
pp. 6, 12, 18

Name: John Baskerville
Vocation: printer
one of Boulton's circle of friends
Baskerville's companion: Sarah Eaves, p. 57

Name: Samuel Garbett, highly influential
Vocation: button- and hardware-maker
big factory east of Edinburgh on Firth of Forth
one of Boulton's circle of friends
partnership culminated in 1760 in Scotland's first major ironworks by the river Carron in Stirlingshire

 

Name: John Roebuck
Vocation: partner of Samuel Garbett
big factory east of Edinburgh on Firth of Forth
partnership culminated in 1760 in Scotland's first major ironworks by the river Carron in Stirlingshire
one of Boulton's circle of friends

Name: Benjamin Huntsman, p. 57
Vocation: investor of fine crucible steel; fine steel needed by clockmakers and Boulton for his toys
Location: Sheffield
Age, 1760:
Disposition
Wives
Children
Comments

The first Lunar Society bond.

• 1757, last paragraph chapter 4, "The Doctor's Bag," for the first bond forged in the Lunar Society
• Erasmus Darwin and Matthew Boulton
• example of the author's ability to synthesize so many diverse facts:

Darwin had just published his first scientific paper which was published in the Royal Society's Transactions in early 1757, intrigued by discussions of electricity.

And around this time, 1775, Darwin did meet someone who shared his interests: Matthew Boulton.

The Robinsons, Mary Boulton's family, were among Darwin's patients and the two men were also admirers of John Baskerville, by now an innovative printer, to whose beautiful edition of Virgil they both subscribed, and friends of John Michell, an inspired natural philosopher and astronomer, whom Darwin had known in Cambridge and Boulton entertained in Birmingham.

But the chief bond between them was the love of invention and experiment. Very quickly they realized how they could complement each other: Darwin the university-educated theorist, Boulton the man with the technical know-how.

Equally outspoken, energetic and ebullient, they were two sides of a coin.

The first Lunar link had been forged.

 

***********************
By Chapter

Benjamin Franklin

From AI:

In 1760, Benjamin Franklin was in London as the agent for the Pennsylvania Assembly, a role he had taken on in 1757. 

His primary goal was to address a tax dispute between the colony and the Penn family, who were the proprietors of Pennsylvania. He also spent time pursuing his interests in science and literature. 

Franklin's presence in London in 1760 was part of a longer stay, as he remained in the city, with a brief return to Philadelphia, until 1775. During this period, he represented not only Pennsylvania but also other colonies like Georgia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, as they appointed him as their agent. 

Franklin's work in London was multifaceted. 

He engaged in diplomatic efforts, including discussions with British officials and politicians about colonial affairs. He also continued his scientific pursuits, developing his glass armonica in 1761. Furthermore, he maintained his literary activities, contributing to public discussions on various topics, including the future of Canada.

Probably the definitive book: Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, Walter Isaacson, c. 2004.

The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed The World, Jenny Uglow, c. 2003.

The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed The World, Jenny Uglow, c. 2003. 

The Lunar Society of Birmingham, link here. Other terms: Midlands Enlightenment. Lunar Circle. That name, or alternative names, were ever formally adopted by members; not known if anyone was specifically credited with coming up with the phrase, but there are "nominees."  

See link.

Time period:

The Lunar Men caught were up in the industrial revolution that began in 1760 in England.

The Industrial Revolution was a period of major technological advancements, starting in the late 1700s, that transformed agrarian and handicraft-based economies into industrial and machine-manufacturing based ones. This transformation began in Britain and spread to other parts of the world, significantly impacting society, economics, and daily life. 

Beginning in Great Britain around 1760, the Industrial Revolution had spread to continental Europe and the United States by about 1840. This transition included going from hand production methods to machines; new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes; the increasing use of water power and steam power; the development of machine tools; and rise of the mechanised factory system.

Perhaps ending with the recession in the 1830s but then the Second Industrial Revolution 1870 - 1914.

The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed The World, Jenny Uglow, c. 2003.

The Lunar Society of Birmingham:

• genesis: 1760 - 1775
• formally recognized by one of the original members: 1775
• ceased to exist: 1791
• others say it lasted until: 1813

Global dates/important events:

• Seven Years War: war between France and England for global domination; Britain, the big winner
• French and Indian War: colonists name for Brits fighting the French and their Indian allies in North America; Britain, the big winner
• American Revolution: first shots, April 19, 1775; declaration, 1776
• King George III: 1760 - 1820

I probably picked up this gem for a couple of bucks at a discount book store many years ago. In hardcover it's not longer available at Amazon. Paperback? $35.

I first read this book years ago; did not enjoy it; thought it poorly written. But now, after reading Christopher Benfey's newest book on "pottery," I wanted to re-read this book. I finished the first two chapters today, poolside, and not a bit disappointed. Really, really enjoyed it.

First bit of trivia? Those belt buckles and shoe buckles that the Pilgrims made iconic? Now I know who, how, and why. LOL. That alone is almost worth the price of the book, but not quite. Again, it's the history of the Quakers and the potters that caught my interest. 

See also Jenny Uglow's review of Silk: A World History, by Aarathi Prasad, Williams Morrow, 293 pp.; $32.50. The NY Review mentions that Jenny has a new book coming out in 2025: A Year with Gilbert White: The First Great Nature Writer will be published in the UK this year. (June 2025).

Gilbert White, see wiki. 

Nichanachatory: letter from Erasmus Darwin.

Map: central England, centered around Lichfield (Birmingham), about 16 miles north of Birmingham.

Overview 

Some points:

• a group of highly successful men located away from the "scientific centers" of the UK and the continent
• centered in the Midlands of England but interestingly, a key figure was Benjamin Franklin -- see here.
  
• Birmingham in the center, though that's not where they met
• Manchester to the far north of the Midlands and not of interest for this group
• if a single point is needed, it's the cathedral city and civil parish of Lichfield, Staffordshire, sixteen miles northeast of Birmingham
• enjoyed each others company; simply got together when they happened "to be in town" and then gradually formalized their meeting places and times
• in addition to being leaders in their own areas of expertise and financially independent, they enjoyed science, arts, industrialization -- all the things that were making England great
• high point, mid- to late 1700
• three major rivers drain this area: River Trent, perhaps most important to this particular group; River Severn to the west, hard to say how important to this group; then, River Mersey, Hull to Liverpool -- very, very important for European emigration to the New World.

******************************
Notes

Chapter 1:

Erasmus, early years -- electricity interest and then on to Cambridge University

Chapter 2: 

Boulton -- Birmingham; toys, buckles, buttons

Chapter 3: 

James Watt -- Scotland -- first hints of steam

Chapter 4:

Erasmus: physician, married, Lichfield, first Lunar bond -- Boulton and Erasmus.

Lichfield: cathedral city; Staffordshire, 16 miles north of Birmingham, almost dead-center, England; midway between Manchester to the north and London in the south in long arc. and then Manchester, a third of the way from Birmingham up to Edinburgh.

Chapter 5: Pots

Staffordshire.

Staffordshire, county directly north of Birmingham; encompasses Stoke-on-Trent in the north; Stafford ear the south, and Lichfield, far south, just north of Birmingham. Stoke-on-Trent to the far west of Neward-on_Trent.

Red Brick Black Mountain White Clay, Christopher Benfey, c. 2012 / Penguin, 2013

Red Brick Black Mountain White Clay, Christopher Benfey, c. 2012 / Penguin, 2013.

Quaker potters of North Carolina, link to YouTube. A must-watch video.

So much in this book. Huge amount on Quakers. 

William Penn --> Pennsylvania, 1640s --> diaspora, 1760s --> North Carolina.

Around Greensboro, Guilford County. 

1770s / 1780s: Gates County -- Quakers were the first to free their slaves.

Gates County is a county located in the northeastern portion of the U.S. state of North Carolina, on the border with Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 10,478, making it the fifth-least populous county in North Carolina. Its county seat is Gatesville. Gates County is included in the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake, VA-NC Combined Statistical Area. It is part of the Albemarle Sound area of the Inner Banks.

Seagrove, North Carolina, is known as the "Pottery Capital of the United States". It boasts over 100 potters and numerous shops and studios within a 20-mile radius, offering a wide variety of pottery styles. The town is also home to the North Carolina Pottery Center, a state-of-the-art facility dedicated to preserving and showcasing the state's pottery heritage.

 

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Whistler's Mother -- Quaker-Like

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Hallucinatory

On at least two occasions the author uses the word "hallucinatory" in association with Williams Bartram, on page 234 and page 248.