page_title: Science and invention in Birmingham
section_title: 18th century
hierarchical_section_title: Science and invention in Birmingham / 18th century
caption_attribution_description: Old Mill and Decker Mill. Part of the complex in Manchester
context_page_description: Birmingham is one of England's principal industrial centres and has a history of industrial and scientific innovation. It was once known as 'city of a thousand trades' and in 1791, Arthur Young described Birmingham as "the first manufacturing town in the world". Right up until the mid-19th century Birmingham was regarded as the prime industrial urban town in Britain and perhaps the world, the town's rivals were more specific in their trade bases. Mills and foundries across the world were helped along by the advances in steam power and engineering that were taking place in the city. The town offered a vast array of industries and was the world's leading manufacturer of metal ware, although this was by no means the only trade flourishing in the town.
  By the year 2000, of the 4,000 inventions copyrighted annually in the UK, 2,800 came from within a 35-mile radius of Birmingham. Peter Colegate of the Patent Office stated that "Every year, Birmingham amazes us by coming up with thousands of inventions. It is impossible to explain but people in the area seem to have a remarkable ability to come up with, and have the dedication to produce, ideas."
context_section_description: 1722: Richard Baddeley, ironmonger, patents a method for "casting wheel streaks and box irons".
  1727: Birmingham is becoming a hot-bed of creative activity and local businessman and bookseller Thomas Warren opens a bookshop in the Birmingham's High Street. Warren is an influential figure in Birmingham at this time.
  1732: The Birmingham Journal is founded and published from Thomas Warren's book store. This is possibly Birmingham's first weekly newspaper; one of its contributors is the very notable Samuel Johnson of nearby Lichfield.
  1733: Thomas Warren edits and publishes Samuel Johnson's first original writing—a translation of Jerónimo Lobo's Voyage to Abyssinia. Johnson works for the Journal while he lodges with Warren. Johnson later moves on to greater things and James Boswell writes of Johnson's life: "After nine years of work, Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1755; it had a far-reaching effect on Modern English and has been described as "one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship". The dictionary brings Johnson popularity and success. Until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary 150 years later, Johnson's dictionary is among the most influential dictionaries in the history of the English language.
  1738: Lewis Paul and John Wyatt, of Birmingham, patent the roller spinning machine and the flyer-and-bobbin system, for drawing cotton to a more even thickness, using two sets of rollers that travel at different speeds. This principle later becomes the basis of Richard Arkwright's water frame.
  1741: John Wyatt, mechanic and inventor, designs and constructs a cart-weighing machine, later referred to as a compound lever weighing machine; the design works by way of levers that hold in place a platform, no matter where the weight is placed the load is transferred to a central lever. Weights attached to that lever then help in obtaining a reading of accurate weight. The simplicity, efficiency and accuracy of the weighing machine prove extremely popular across England, subsequently weighing errors are reduced to approximately one pound per ton, this remains a high standard of measurement into the mid-19th century.
  1741: The Upper Priory Cotton Mill opens as the world's first mechanised cotton-spinning factory. It is financed by local businessman Thomas Warren, and opened by John Wyatt and Lewis Paul.
  1742: John Baskerville takes out a patent for making metal mouldings, rolling, grinding and japanning metal plates by use of weights, rollers and pickling, which Baskerville uses over the more traditional method of employing screws. This is the first patent for making metal mouldings by passing them through rolls of a certain profile.
  1743: A factory opens in Northampton, fifty spindles turned on five of Paul and Wyatt's machines proving more successful than their first mill. This operates until 1764.
  1746: The Colmore family release land on what is later to be known as the Jewellery Quarter to help satisfy the demands of an increasing population.
  1746: A sulphuric acid factory is set up at Steelhouse Lane to use the lead chamber process invented by its co-founder John Roebuck. Roebuck and local businessman Samuel Garbett later relocate to Prestonpans in Scotland, taking with them several skilled men from the Birmingham factory. It is here in 1762 where Roebuck takes out a patent for making malleable iron.
  1748: Lewis Paul invents the hand driven carding machine. A coat of wire slips are placed around a card, which is then wrapped around a cylinder. Lewis's invention is later developed and improved by Richard Arkwright and Samuel Crompton, although this comes about under great suspicion after a fire at Daniel Bourn's factory in Leominster that specifically uses Paul and Wyatt's spindles. Bourn produces a similar patent in the same year.
  1757: Rev John Dyer of Northampton recognises the importance of the Paul and Wyatt cotton spinning machine in poem:
  A circular machine, of new design
  In conic shape: it draws and spins a thread
  Without the tedious toil of needless hands.
  A wheel, inv
caption: The first steam powered Cotton Mills such as this Murrays' Mill in Greater Manchester were powered by 40 hp Boulton and Watt beam engines. Richard Arkwright pioneered Watt's rotary-motion steam engine in his cotton mills and within 15 years there were 500+ Boulton & Watt steam engines in British factories and mines.
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