Hope you enjoy it!
‘Everyone will tune in – she’s one of our own’: Jessie Buckley’s home town, Killarney, abuzz before Oscars. www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...
Ancient fort damage in County Donegal 'deeply concerning'. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
This Thursday.
Restoration of 1846 viaduct spanning Scotland-England border completed. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Burnden Park, Bolton, 1946: the deal that cost father and son's lives in 'forgotten disaster'. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Cumberland Streeet, Dublin, 1969, photo by Elinor Wiltshire.
I'll be talking about 'These Isles: A People's History of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales' in person and on Zoom at Wakefield Civic Society, Thurs March 19th, 7.30pm, Kingswood Suite, free. Book here for in-person or livestream tickets: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/these-isle...
Why do Glasgow’s historic buildings keep catching fire? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Evening Light, Snowdonia, c.1960, painting by Kyffin Williams, Welsh artist (1918-2006).
Arrived this morning
Hope you enjoy them!
I’m here until 2pm signing copies of ‘These Isles’ at the wonderful Waterstones Oldham. Three customers already.
Last day of this offer.
However, Watt was among businessmen tainted by the slave trade, having been personally involved in trafficking a black child for sale to a family in north-east Scotland. (Portrait by Carl Fredrik von Breda, 1792.) 9/9
Watt was a member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham alongside Boulton, chemist Joseph Priestley and physician Erasmus Darwin. 8/9
Demand for Watt’s engines came from paper mills, flour mills, cotton mills, iron mills, distilleries, canals and waterworks, making him wealthy despite his personal nervousness about business dealings. 7/9
Watt moved to Birmingham, where he and Boulton began a 25-year partnership in which Boulton’s financial support enabled rapid progress. 6/9
Watt formed a partnership with John Roebuck, founder of the Carron Iron Works near Falkirk. When Roebuck went bankrupt, his patent rights were acquired by Matthew Boulton, who owned the Soho Works in Birmingham. 5/9
His solution was a separate condenser, in which the steam cylinder remained hot while a separate condensing vessel was cold. He eventually adapted his engine to produce rotary motion, broadening its use beyond pumping water. 4/9
While working as a maker of mathematical instruments at the University of Glasgow, Watt found himself repairing a Newcomen engine and saw it was wasting energy by cooling and reheating the cylinder. 3/9
He was born in Greenock, Renfrewshire, where his father ran a successful ship- and house-building business. In 1776, Watt developed a steam engine that improved on Thomas Newcomen’s 1712 version. 2/9
THESE ISLES: James Watt (1736-1819), father of steam engine technology, was one of several Scottish innovators who played a key part in the Industrial Revolution. 1/9
Bill Brandt’s snicket, Halifax, west Yorkshire, 1986, photo by Michael Kenna.
Happy 93rd birthday to Michael Caine.
Remembering Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, who died on this day 2016.
Albert Einstein was born on this day 1879 in Ulm, Germany. When already famous as the pioneer of relativity theory, gave his first British lecture at the University of Manchester in 1921 – a symbolic step in restoring international scientific relations after WW1.
Monday.
The Ha’penny Bridge, Dublin, 1962, photo by Henri Cartier-Bresson.
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