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How the Victorians Took Us to the Moon: The Story of the 19th-Century Innovators Who Forged Our Future

How the Victorians Took Us to the Moon: The Story of the 19th-Century Innovators Who Forged Our Future

  • Downloads：7054
  • Type：Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
  • Create Date：2022-12-10 03:19:31
  • Update Date：2025-09-07
  • Status：finish
  • Author：Iwan Rhys Morus
  • ISBN：1639362606
  • Environment：PC/Android/iPhone/iPad/Kindle

Reviews

Brian Clegg ，

Despite beginning and ending his book with a tale of a Victorian moonshot， Iwan Rhys Morus is not writing steam punk fiction here， but rather exploring the nature of the Victorian scientific and engineering mentality， particularly in the UK， and how that made a huge transformation possible and has continued to influence the way we do some things， up to and including the Apollo programme。Rhys Morus goes on give us stories of the development of everything from steam railways to the telegraph， from Despite beginning and ending his book with a tale of a Victorian moonshot， Iwan Rhys Morus is not writing steam punk fiction here， but rather exploring the nature of the Victorian scientific and engineering mentality， particularly in the UK， and how that made a huge transformation possible and has continued to influence the way we do some things， up to and including the Apollo programme。Rhys Morus goes on give us stories of the development of everything from steam railways to the telegraph， from the transformation of electricity into the power source of the world to powered flight。 Many of the characters we meet will be familiar - names such as Brunel， Stephenson， Faraday （anything but typical in personality of the kind of inventor Rhys Morus is focussing on）， Babbage， Edison （less than I'd perhaps expect）， the Wright brothers and many more。 But there are also the less familiar， for example those involved in developing and laying the transatlantic cable， an epic boys-own story of failure transformed into eventual success。We also get a useful contrast between the often wealthy inventors and the working people who made their inventions come to life。 Stories of hardship and skill in， for example， digging Victorian tunnels have often been heard before， but we also see， for example， a dispute between Babbage and the craftsman who built the constructed part of the Difference Engine， who claimed ownership of the specialist tools he developed， where Babbage believed， as it was his idea， they should be his。 And another very strong thread is the connection between Victorian invention and technology and empire。 Rhys Morus makes it clear that he does not approve the imperial links - though it would have been interesting to explore whether we would have the science and technology we enjoy today without this being the case。Sometimes， Rhys Morus does suffer from the enthusiast's habit of giving too much detail about things that don't really carry the story forward - naming too many bit part players， for example - while the underlying theme of these being practical men （almost all men）， with focus and discipline is perhaps repeated a bit too often。 We also see too much attention given to Nikola Tesla （who Rhys Morus has written a biography of）: Tesla was arguably not a typical Victorian inventor in the sense we see here， being far too flamboyant and given to fantasies。 As a result， for example， Rhys Morus claims that Tesla's dream of wireless power 'came to nothing， in part at least， because Tesla refused to learn the most important lesson of Victorian invention - that invention could never be a one-man show。' In reality those dreams came to nothing because Telsa was an excellent electrical engineer but had very little understanding of physics and his scheme could never have worked。However， the span of the exploration of Victorian achievements （always with that underlying doubt about the tie-in to empire） is excellently handled and this was an interesting book to read。 。。。more

Annarella ，

The XIX century is an age of discoveries and this is an informative， well researched， and entertaining book about the people and the organisations。Well told and interesting。 Recommended。Many thanks to the publisher for this arc， all opinions are mine

CPE ，

In How the Victorians Took Us to the Moon， Iwan Rhys Morus makes the illuminating point that one of the most important things that happened in Victorian times was a change in thinking。 “Just fifty years earlier， most people assumed that the future would simply be an extension of the past。” This realisation that men could shape the future by imagining how it could be different and then inventing stuff to make that future happen。A cornerstone of the scientific establishment during the early 1800s In How the Victorians Took Us to the Moon， Iwan Rhys Morus makes the illuminating point that one of the most important things that happened in Victorian times was a change in thinking。 “Just fifty years earlier， most people assumed that the future would simply be an extension of the past。” This realisation that men could shape the future by imagining how it could be different and then inventing stuff to make that future happen。A cornerstone of the scientific establishment during the early 1800s was the Royal Society。 Sir Joseph Banks was president for more than forty years and he had used his position and the power it gave him to ensure that only people like him were acknowledged as scientists and only their inventions had merit。 This really constrained progress: Charles Babbage， for example， designed the first computer in the 1840s。 If a more enthusiastic Royal Society had championed his cause and ensured he had the funding to build his ‘Analytical Engine’， the world might have seen the benefits of computers seventy years earlier。A significant part of the book covers the politics of the Victorian scientific world: the jockeying for positions of power within the Royal Society; the formation of various other societies; the rivalry between inventors working in the same field。 I’m afraid that this part is not terribly exciting and my attention did wander。 Whether any or all of the Geological Society， the Astronomical Society and the Society for Animal Chemistry succeeded or failed is not information that I retained beyond reading Chapter One – sorry！However， the book is good in many other respects， especially at showing us how scientists needed to be commercial and to have practical skills。 Henry Wilde improved magneto-electric machines in the 1860s – yawn。 Henry Wilde showed how his improved machine could melt an iron bar – wow！ Another great scientist， Nikola Tesla， didn’t fulfil his full promise because he “refused to learn the most important lesson of Victorian invention – that invention could never be a one-man show。” I can recommend this book to anyone who wants to study science beyond GCSE-level， as it emphasises the need to keep one foot in the real world and to think about what that science means to the layperson and how to explain it to them。#HowtheVictoriansTookUstotheMoon #NetGalley 。。。more