Science in Enlightenment Manchester, 1780–1840
Introduction
The Enlightenment in Manchester was partly a local response to intellectual developments in London and Scotland. However, Manchester created a distinct culture of intellectual activity and sociability, which advocated a leading role in the town for those experienced in science and medicine.
The key institution in Enlightenment Manchester was the Literary and Philosophical Society, founded in 1781. It dominated the intellectual life for the next seventy years and membership was essential for anyone hoping to have influence in the sciences. The main activity of the Society was the discussion and subsequent publication of learned papers.
Membership was deliberately restricted to maintain its elite status; dissenters were prominent in the Society as were medical doctors, probably the most scientifically informed group in Manchester at the time. However, the Society’s best-known member, John Dalton, was not a doctor and his rise to prominence marked a change in how the work of science was done in Manchester.
John Dalton
John Dalton has become the epitome of the Manchester scientist. A Quaker, he came from a humble background, and had originally been a schoolmaster. Dalton later taught at the dissenting academy, Manchester College. When the College left Manchester in 1803, Dalton was able to earn an independent living as a teacher and lecturer.
He is now best known for his theory of atomic weights, set out in “A New System of Chemical Philosophy” (1808), which changed the nature of the subject. As was usual at the time, Dalton’s interests and expertise were broad including not only chemistry, but optics, meteorology and natural philosophy (physics). Dalton was a key member of Lit and Phil: he wrote 117 papers for the Society, and served as its president.
Dalton was feted by his scientific peers across Europe; the first Manchester scientist to achieve this reputation. When he died in 1844, his funeral in Manchester became a spectacular public event, and his life was offered an example of the opportunities that an industrial city could offer a talented scientist.
The Learned Societies
The Lit and Phil had promoted an ideal of scientific discourse which could unite individuals otherwise divided by politics and religion. This encouraged other societies to be created.
The Royal Manchester Institution, founded in 1823, drew its membership from the business and professional elites; it sponsored lectures in the arts as well as sciences. Societies were established for more specialised groups. These included the Manchester Natural History Society (1819) which acquired an impressive museum collection (the forerunner of the Manchester Museum), and Manchester Botanical and Horticultural Society (1827) which maintained gardens in the Old Trafford area. The Geological Society (1838) shared the Natural History Society’s museum and sponsored local commercial geology. The Statistical Society (1833) was an innovator in the investigation of social and medical problems (doctors were particularly prominent in its original membership).
These societies were important not only in sustaining the intellectual culture of Manchester, but contributed to a provincial network of similar societies which found a national voice in the British Association for the Advancement of Science, created in 1831.
Popular Science
There was also a popular audience for science in Manchester. It was more nebulous in nature, but it was nevertheless evidence of the spread of scientific ideas to different social groups.
There was an established tradition of popular science lecturing in northern England, which had influenced Dalton. It was continued at Manchester Mechanics Institution (MMI), and later by Owens College, with its Lectures for the People. A more radical variant was offered by the Owenite educator, Rowland Detrosier (1800–1834) who set up an alternative mechanics’ institute in Manchester, which linked science to religious and political topics, something the MMI did not allow .
Working men also set up their own groups — there were artisan botanists and geologists’ groups, which combined recreation and with dissemination of scientific knowledge. Lacking the facilities of the elite groups, artisan scientists often met in public houses.
Popular science was often linked to spectacle: the demonstration of dramatic experiments or displays of impressive natural phenomena or industrial machinery. Science exhibitions at the Mechanics’ Institution were very popular. William Sturgeon (1783–1850) was invited to direct the short-lived Manchester Royal Victoria Gallery in 1840, which was meant to bring science to the general public. Known for his work on electromagnetism, Sturgeon popularised interest in electrical machines, and influenced James Prescott Joule.
Some feared that these initiatives would lead to sensationalism and credulity. There were brief enthusiasms for phrenology and mesmerism, which provoked reactions. The Manchester doctor James Braid (1795–1860) was a critic of mesmerism, with its belief in animal magnetism. He promoted instead the idea of ‘Neurypnology’ or hypnotism as it became known, which he saw as a special type of ‘ nervous sleep’ with no connection to external magnetic forces.
Discussion Points
Why were so many learned scientific societies established in Manchester in this period?
How did elite and popular science in Manchester differ?
Why did science feature so prominently in Manchester’s intellectual life in this period?
Additional Resources
D S L Cardwell (ed.), Artisan to Graduate: essays to commemorate the foundation in 1824 of the Manchester Mechanics’ Institution (Manchester 1974)
Robert Kargon, Science in Victorian Manchester: enterprise and expertise (Manchester 1977)
Arnold Thackray, “Natural knowledge in cultural context: the Manchester mode” American Historical Review 79.3 (1974)
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