Science and technology in Manchester
Manchester is one of the principal cities of the United Kingdom, gaining city status in 1853, thus becoming the first new city in over 300 years since Bristol in 1542. Often regarded as the first industrialised city,[1] Manchester was a city built by the Industrial Revolution and had little pre-medieval history to speak of. Manchester had a population of 10,000 in 1717, but by 1911 it had burgeoned to 2.3 million.[2]
As its population and influence burgeoned, Manchester became a centre for new discoveries, scientific breakthroughs and technological developments in engineering. A famous but unattributed quote linked to Manchester is: "What Manchester does today, the rest of the world does tomorrow".
Famous scientists to have studied in Manchester include
17th century
In 1630, astronomer
Crabtree corresponded with Jeremiah Horrocks (who sometimes spelt his name in the Latinised form as Horrox), another enthusiastic amateur astronomer, from 1636. A group of astronomers from the north of England, which included William Gascoigne, formed around them and were Britain's first followers of the astronomy of Johannes Kepler. "Nos Keplari" as the group called themselves, were distinguished as being the first people to gain a realistic notion of the solar system's size.[9] Crabtree and Horrocks were the only astronomers to observe, plot, and record the transit of the planet Venus across the Sun, as predicted by Horrocks, on 24 November 1639 (Julian calendar, or 4 December in the Gregorian calendar). They also predicted the next occurrence on 8 June 2004. The two correspondents both recorded the event in their own homes and it is not known whether they ever met in person, but Crabtree's calculations were crucial in allowing Horrocks to estimate the size of Venus and the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Unfortunately Horrocks died early in 1641 the day before he was due to meet Crabtree. Crabtree made his will on 19 July 1644, and was buried within the precincts of the Manchester Collegiate Church on 1 August 1644, close to where he had received his education.[8]
18th century
The creation of the first economically successful canal
The Bridgewater Canal, opening in 1761 is generally regarded as the earliest successful canals. The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, in North West England. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester. It was opened in 1761 from Worsley to Manchester, and later extended from Manchester to Runcorn, and then from Worsley to Leigh.
The Duke invested a large sum of money in the scheme. From Worsley to Manchester its construction cost £168,000 (equivalent to £27,543,120 in 2021),[10][11] but its advantages over land and river transport meant that within a year of its opening in 1761, the price of coal in Manchester fell by about half.[12] This success helped inspire a period of intense canal building, known as Canal Mania.[13] Along with its stone aqueduct at Barton-upon-Irwell, the Bridgewater Canal was considered a major engineering achievement. One commentator wrote that when finished, "[the canal] will be the most extraordinary thing in the Kingdom, if not in Europe. The boats in some places are to go underground, and in other places over a navigable river, without communicating with its waters ...".[14][15]
19th century
Manchester Liverpool Road is a former
Robert Angus Smith, a Scottish chemist visited Manchester in the 1840s. In his research in Manchester, Smith discovered the existence of acid rain, a by product of the industrial revolution.[23] Smith consequently pushed for greater environmental awareness and helped to found the Noxious Vapours Abatement Society in Manchester, which raised awareness of the consequences of poor air.[23]
Joseph Whitworth
Joseph Whitworth was an engineer and inventor who hailed from Stockport, Cheshire (now Greater Manchester). A talented mechanic amongst various other engineering roles, for long periods of his life, he worked in factories in Manchester. Whitworth would ultimately devise a standard screw thread system, the first of its kind in the world.[24] The system he created in 1841 would become known as the British Standard Whitworth.
Whitworth also invented the
John Frederick Bateman and water supply
By the 1850s, Manchester had grown into an industrial city, but the alacrity of such development had placed great strain on the city's infrastructure. Engineering developments such as water supplies, sewers and transport links (typically via canals) would provide Manchester with the necessary supplies to move forward.
In the 1840s, the Manchester Corporation Water Works recommended that to the city corporation that an infrastructure to increase water supplies to cope with demand must be built. The obvious choice for this supply would come from areas of high rainfall and there were three choices which were close enough to Manchester. The Lake District, Peak District and Snowdonia are traditionally rainy areas with its numerous valleys, ideal for a large reservoir. This was rejected in favour of John Frederick Bateman's proposal to build a supply chain of six reservoirs in the Longdendale Valley to the east of Manchester.
Further feats of engineering were required to cope with Manchester's increasing demand for water. From 1890 to 1925, the Thirlmere Aqueduct was constructed from Thirlmere to Heaton Park Reservoir.
Manchester Ship Canal
In the 1880s, plans for a new Manchester Ship Canal were proposed. The idea was championed by Manchester manufacturer
Trafford Park
As the ship canal was opened in 1894, plans were afoot for a new industrial estate, the first of its kind in the world. Two years after the opening of the ship canal, financier Ernest Terah Hooley bought the 1,183-acre (4,790,000 m2)[33] country estate belonging to Sir Humphrey Francis de Trafford for £360,000 (equivalent to £44.3 million in 2021).[34][10] Hooley intended to develop the site, which was close to Manchester and at the end of the canal, as an exclusive housing estate, screened by woods from industrial units[35] constructed along the 1.5-mile (2.4 km) frontage onto the canal.[36]
With the predicted traffic for the canal slow to materialise, Hooley and Marshall Stevens (the general manager of the Ship Canal Company) came to see the benefits that the industrial development of Trafford Park could offer to both the ship canal and the estate. In January 1897 Stevens became the managing director of Trafford Park Estates,[35] where he remained until 1930, latterly as its joint chairman and managing director.[37]
Within five years Trafford Park, Europe's largest
Inland from the canal
During World War II, Trafford Park became an important centre for the manufacture and development in engineering in the aim of giving Britain a technological advantage over its enemies. Having an abandoned factory in
The Ship Canal is now past its heyday, but still sits at Europe's largest industrial estate, Trafford Park and there are plans to increase shipping. Its importance highlighted by the engineering achievement that was the Manchester Ship Canal, the only ship canal in Britain and growth of the first industrial estate in the world in Trafford Park.
20th century
The 'Nuclear Family'
In the late 19th and early 20th century, Manchester gained a pioneering reputation for a city at the centre of physics, namely in the field of nuclear physics. The 'Nuclear Family'[44] was the alias given to a group of scientists who studied nuclear physics in Manchester. 'Family' highlights the consistent development through the generations in nuclear physics, beginning with Thomson in the late 18th century and ending with James Chadwick in the 1930s who discovered the neutron. Ernest Rutherford is often described as the 'father of nuclear physics', equally the same could be said of J. J. Thomson who discovered the electron and isotopes, and ultimately taught Rutherford who later go on to split the atom. Scientists who were part of the 'nuclear family' in Manchester included J. J. Thomson, Ernest Rutherford, Niels Bohr, Hans Geiger, Ernest Marsden, John Cockcroft and James Chadwick.
J. J. Thomson, a Manchester-born physicist hailing from
In 1907, Ernest Rutherford, a scientist who had been taught by Thomson at the
Aviation
From the advent of aviation at the beginning of the 20th century, Manchester has been home to a number of famous aviation companies, most notably Avro.
In 1910, French aviator Louis Paulhan flew from London to Manchester in approximately 12 hours. Paulhan won the first Daily Mail aviation prizes who offered the prize in 1906.
Jack Alcock was born on 5 November 1892 at Seymour Grove,
Ducrocq took Alcock on as a mechanic at the
After the war, Alcock wanted to continue his flying career and took up the challenge of attempting to be the first to fly directly across the
In 1910, Eccles-born Alliott Verdon Roe founded Avro on at Brownsfield Mill on Great Ancoats Street in Manchester city centre. Alongside, Farnworth-born aircraft designer Roy Chadwick, Avro would go on to design some recognisable British aircraft of the 20th century. The Avro Lancaster bomber, devised for World War II was a redeveloped version of the Avro Manchester and subsequently became the most important British aircraft of the war alongside the Supermarine Spitfire.
Astronomy
In the 1930s, Bernard Lovell, an astronomer moved to Manchester to become a research fellow on the cosmic ray research team at the Victoria University of Manchester. He spent war time years working on developing radar systems and the like to assist in the war effort. After the war, he continued his studies in cosmic rays, but background radiation and light in the large Manchester impeded his work. He decided to push for funding for a large radio telescope which would be based away from the city on the Cheshire Plain south of Manchester at the Jodrell Bank Observatory.
Funding was granted from the Nuffield Foundation with some contribution from the government, and soon an 89-metre height structure, which was the largest telescope in the world at the time of construction, was operational in 1957.[50]
The telescope became operational in October 1957, which was just before the launch of Sputnik 1, the world's first artificial satellite. Only the Soviet hierarchy were aware of Sputnik and it was the Lovell Telescope which tracked the satellite. While the transmissions from Sputnik itself could easily be picked up by a household radio, the Lovell Telescope was the only telescope capable of tracking Sputnik's booster rocket by radar; it first located it just before midnight on 12 October 1957.[51][52] It also located Sputnik 2's carrier rocket at just after midnight on 16 November 1957.[53] Jodrell Bank continued tracking new artificial satellites in the following years, and also doubled up as a long range ballistic missile radar system, a beneficial trait which helped the telescope gain funding from the British government.[54] The Jodrell Bank Observatory is currently operated by the University of Manchester and was nominated for UNESCO World Heritage Status in 2011.[55]
Computing
In December 1946, Stockport-born
The Baby had provided a feasible design and development began on a more, usable and practical computer in the Manchester Mark 1. Joined by Alan Turing, the university continued development and by October 1949, the Mark 1 was finished.[56] The computer ran successfully, error-free, on the 16 and 17 June 1949. Thirty-five patents resulted from the computer and the successful implementation of an index register.[56]
First test-tube baby
In 1978, after a decade of research by Manchester-born
Refinements in technology have increased pregnancy rates and it is estimated that in 2010 about 4 million children have been born by IVF
21st century
Graphene
In 2010, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, physicists at the University of Manchester won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on graphene.[62] Successfully isolated in 2004, research and development continues on the 'miracle material'[63] today to find practical, everyday uses for the material.[64] The following year in 2011, the British government announced £50 million of funding to allow further development of graphene in the United Kingdom.[65]
See also
- Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester
References
- Citations
- ISBN 0-7158-1203-3.on 7 December 2006. Retrieved 18 December 2006.
• "Manchester United in Celebration of City". European Structural Funding. 2002. Archived from the original - ^ Manchester (England, United Kingdom). Encyclopædia Britannica.
- ^ "Rebuilding Manchester". Manchester Confidential. 4 July 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2011.
- ^ "That Day We Sang; The Crash of the Elysium; The Village Bike – review". 10 July 2011. Retrieved 9 November 2011.
- ^ "My kind of town: Manchester". The Guardian. 5 August 2011. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
- ^ "Gritty city wins the boho crown". The Guardian. 26 May 2003. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
- ISBN 1-85216-131-0pages 48&52
- ^ S2CID 162490754.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 24 February 2002. Retrieved 9 November 2011.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ a b UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
- ^ Timbs 1860, p. 363
- ^ The Times newspaper: Bridgewater Collieries, London, 1 December 1913, retrieved 19 July 2008
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Kindleberger 1993, pp. 192–193
- ISBN 0-7509-1840-3
- ^ Mather 1970, p. xvi
- ^ "Life and work of John Dalton - Colour Blindness". BBC News. Retrieved 9 November 2011.
- ^ Butt 1995, p. 153
- ^ "About us". Science and Industry Museum.
- ^ Former Liverpool Road Railway Station, and Station Master's House, Heritage Gateway, retrieved 7 January 2010
- ^ Butt 1995, p. 152
- ^ "First in the world: The making of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway". Science and Industry Museum. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
- OL 11956311M.
- ^ a b Wyke, Terry (29 May 2009). "Manchester: industrial revolution's birthplace poised for green renaissance". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 November 2011.
- ^ Gilbert, K. R., & Galloway, D. F., 1978, Machine Tools. In C. Singer, et al., (Eds.), A history of technology. Oxford, Clarendon Press & Lee, S., (Ed.), 1900, Dictionary of national biography, Vol LXI. Smith Elder, London
- ^ Snipers in History
- ^ Whitworth Rifle No. C529 Archived 2010-12-11 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Whitworth Sharpshooter Rifle Archived 2010-04-02 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Artillery of the Civil War[permanent dead link]
- ^ Winter 2002, pp. 121–122
- ^ Owen 1983, p. 31
- ^ "1 January 1894: Opening of the Manchester ship canal". The Guardian. 1 January 1894. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
- ^ "Manchester celebrates 100 years of Model T". mosi.org.uk. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- JSTOR 60241154
- ^ Nicholls 1996, p. 22
- ^ a b Nicholls 1996, p. 24
- ^ Farnie 1980, p. 114
- ^ Nicholls 1996, p. 112
- ^ a b Parkinson-Bailey 2000, p. 128
- ^ Frame, Don (9 September 2008). "Vintage T in the Park". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ISBN 1-85310-285-7.
- ^ a b Nicholls 1996, p. 103.
- ^ Hooker 1984, pp. 58–59.
- ^ Nicholls 1996, p. 105.
- ^ a b "Rutherford: splitting the atom". BBC. 30 September 2009. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
- ^ Davis & Falconer, J.J. Thomson and the Discovery of the Electron
- ^ "The man who went nuclear: How Ernest Rutherford ushered in the atomic age". The Independent. 3 March 2011. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
- ^ "St Thomas CE Primary - Parents Zone". Archived from the original on 5 October 2011. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ Scholefield p.212
- ^ Scholefield (2004) p.218
- ^ Randerson, James (2 February 2009). "Background on the Lovell telescope". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
- ^ Lovell, Story of Jodrell Bank, p. 196
- ^ Lovell, Astronomer by Chance, p. 262
- ^ Lovell, Story of Jodrell Bank, p. 197
- ^ "Lovell Telescope: 50 years on". BBC. 3 July 2008. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
- ^ "Jodrell Bank on shortlist for World Heritage site status". BBC News. 22 March 2011. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
- ^ a b c d "School of Computer Science - History". University of Manchester. Archived from the original on 2 January 2008. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
- ^ "On this day - 1978: First 'test tube baby' born". BBC. Retrieved 14 November 2011.
- ^ a b "The 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine - Press Release". Nobelprize.org. 4 October 2010. Retrieved 4 October 2010.
- ^ "The First Live Birth Donation" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 February 2009. Retrieved 20 February 2009.
- ^ "Home — OBG Management". Archived from the original on 8 October 2007. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
- ^ "Talking With Children About Ovum Donation". Archived from the original on 23 March 2011. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
- ^ Brown, Jonathan (6 October 2010). "The Nobel Prize that was made in Manchester". The Independent. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
- ^ "Is graphene a miracle material?". BBC. 21 May 2011. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
- ^ Sample, Ian (5 October 2010). "Nobel prize for physics goes to Manchester University scientists". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
- ^ Carpenter, Jennifer (3 October 2011). "UK invests in graphene technology". BBC News. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
- Bibliography
- Farnie, D. A. (1980). The Manchester Ship Canal and the rise of the Port of Manchester. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-0795-8.
- Hylton, Stuart (2003). A History of Manchester. Phillimore. ISBN 978-1-86077-240-5.
- Kindleberger, Charles Poor (1993). A Financial History of Western Europe. Oxford University Press US. ISBN 0-19-507738-5.
- Mather, F. A. (1970). After the Canal Duke. Oxford University Press.
- Nicholls, Robert (1996). Trafford Park: The First Hundred Years. Phillimore & Co. ISBN 978-1-86077-013-5.
- Owen, David (1983). The Manchester Ship Canal. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-0864-6.
- Parkinson-Bailey, John J. (2000). Manchester: an Architectural History. ISBN 0-7190-5606-3.
- Timbs, John (1860). Stories of Inventors and Discoverers in Science and the Useful Arts: A Book for Old and Young. London: Kent and Co.
- Winter, James (2002). Secure from Rash Assault. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-22930-4.