Science & Technology

Britain’s Industrial Revolution is most closely associated with the Midlands and the North. But the capital was also a centre of innovation and enterprise, as David Waller explains.

E.R. Truitt revisits John Cohen’s 1963 article on the history of automata and the quest to recreate humanity.

A German scholar living in 17th-century London revolutionised the way scientists shared news of their latest advances.

The discoverer of oxygen - a man of ‘singular energy and varied abilities’ - was, writes A.D. Orange, also a bold progressive thinker.

Darwin’s cousin in the nineteenth century, writes C.H. Corning, was a daring explorer of the world and a pioneer in the scientific study of racial qualities.

‘A sort of giant’, with immensely long arms and legs and a mop of bristling red hair, Felix Nadar employed his creative gifts in several different arts and sciences.

Joanna Richardson describes the life and work of the French father of science fiction.

In 1785, writes Mary Beth Norton, a Loyalist physician from Boston made the first aerial flight across the English Channel.

Brunel's crossing opened on December 8th, 1864.

C. Northcote Parkinson traces the development of the tin mining and plating processes, from Chinese joss-sticks, to the modern tin can.