Victorian Technology

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The greatest invention of the nineteenth century was the invention of the method of invention. — Alfred North Whitehead

Man is a Tool-using Animal (Handthierendes Thier). Weak in himself, and of small stature, he stands on a basis, at most for the flattest-soled, of some half-square foot, insecurely enough; has to straddle out his legs, lest the very wind supplant him. Feeblest of bipeds! Three quintals [hundredweights] are a crushing load for him; the steer of the meadow tosses him aloft, like a waste rag. Nevertheless he can use Tools, can devise Tools: with these the granite mountain melts into light dust before him; he kneads glowing iron, as if it were soft paste; seas are his smooth highway, winds and fire his unwearying steeds. Nowhere do you find him without Tools: without Tools he is nothing, with Tools he is all. — Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus, Book I, Chapter 5.

General Ages of Technology Science and Technology Timeline Technology and Leisure in Britain after 1850 A Review of Joseph Bizup's Manufacturing Culture: Vindications of Early Victorian Industry Carlyle and the Institution as Technology Sublimity, Urbanization, and Technology Engineering Wonders of the Victorian Age Firefighting and Fire Prevention A Day at the City Sawmills — From Raw Material to Finished Products (1853) “Iron and Steel Making in South Wales” (1884) “China-Making at Stoke-on-Trent” (1884) The Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution: A Chronology The Steam Engine Steam Power, Horse Power, Man Power The Great Inventors, Creators of the Industrial Revolution Science, Technology, and the Industrial Revolution: Selected Readings Factories, Mining, and Other Heavy Industry Sawmills — from raw material to finished products (1853) “Iron and Steel Making in South Wales” (1884) The Slate Quarries of North Wales Dinorwic Quarry in Llanberis, North Wales, and the Quarrymen's Lives A Slate Wall and Slate Quarrying in Cornwall “China-Making at Stoke-on-Trent” (1884) Textile Manufacturing Review of Dale H. Porter's The Thames Embankment: Environment, Technology, and Society in Victorian London Civil Engineering in the Victorian Age The Clerk of the Works Cotton versus Silk: Sigfried Gideon on Social Class and Mechanization Water-Powered Drop Forge, Sheffield, South Yorkshire Lymington Iron Works, on the Tyne Victorian Locks and Locksmiths Technology in the Home Sitemap Rushlight: How the Rural Poor Lit Their Homes William Murdoch and Coal-Gas Lighting The Technologies of Victorian Dressmaking and Tailoring Transportation Sitemap Railways Victorian Railways (homepage) British Railways and American Railroads The First Locomotives The Personalities of Victorian Railways The Social Effects of Victorian Railways The Railroad Station — a New Building Type The Death of William Huskisson Carlyle and Punch on Victorian Railways The Tay Bridge Disaster Bridges, Piers, and Canals Canals in the U.K.(homepage) Victorian and Earlier Bridges and Aqueducts Seaside Piers London Canal Museum (UK) The Railway & Canal Historical Society (UK)

Ships and Shipping Ships, Boats, and Naval Architecture and Engineering (Overview/Sitemap) Thames Paddle-Wheel Ferries Clipper Ships at South-West India Dock Printing, Publishing, Letter Writing, and Early Telecommunication Joseph Gillott's Pen-Nibs, Sheet Steel, and the Writing Revolution Print Technology and Print Culture in the Victorian Age (homepage/sitemap) The Telegraph and Other Forms of Telecommunication The Revolution in Victorian Letter Writing The Victorian Book Industry: Political, Economic, and Technological Factors in the Rise of a Mass Audience Shorthand and Shorthand Systems Printing Techology and Publishing: A Selective Chronology The Technologies of Nineteenth-Century Illustration: Woodblock Engraving, Steel Engraving, and Other Processes Victorian Trade Bindings — Technology and Design High-Speed Printing Advertising and Distribution at Mid-Century Virtual Communities and Communications Networks: Postal Service, Telegraph, and Internet Guglielmo Marconi and the Beginning of Wireless Telegraphy Technology, Commerce, and Culture Nineteenth-Century Photography: A Timeline Adam Smith, Division of Labor, and Assembly-Line Technology Ada Lovelace: Pioneering Computer Programmer? Malthus's Failure to Anticipate the Growth of Technology Military Engineers Architecture Dilemmas Created by Technological Advances The Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851 Literature Victorian Technology, Literature, and Culture Miscellaneous Book reviews Victorian Biotech: Dr. George Merryweather's 1851 "Tempest Prognosticator"

Last modified 5 February 2024