The Birmingham Lunar Society
Creating a new world on nights of the full moon
Britain in the age of King George III was fortunate in numbering among its citizens a group of practical men who grasped that science could be set to work. These men were among the creators of the modem world.
Their inquiring minds, practical gifts and business acumen turned the pure speculation of the age of Newton into the force which was to transform Britain. They did not know the word, but they were changing science into technology.
Among the men who were to achieve this feat were the members of the Birmingham Lunar Society — so called because its monthly meetings were timed to coincide with the full moon, so that members could travel home safely by moonlight. It was an informal group, with a membership never higher than 14, and its leading light was the Birmingham engineer and factory owner Matthew Boulton.
Men of vision
Around 1760, Boulton struck up a fruitful friendship with Erasmus Darwin, an ambitious young doctor with wide-ranging interests. Boulton and Darwin were joined by John Whitehurst, a clockmaker who was also interested in mechanics, hydraulics and geology. The three of them established the Lunar Society as a forum for the discussion of scientific ideas and inventions.
