Back to Anglia Ruskin Library I started back working at Anglia Ruskin University Library in late September. In many ways this is my favourite library at the moment. That is mainly because it offers an experience that is closest to the pre-covid days. Unlike the Lockdown experience at some other libraries the shelves are open…
Steam Engines, Ships and Poetry Percy Shelley is mainly remembered as an idealistic, revolutionary son of a baronet. Shelley is seen as a vegetarian poet that eloped twice and then drowned aged 29. On the face of it Shelley seems an unlikely person to build a steam engine and a steam ship. Mary Shelley wrote…
Thinking my way into this research project on Romantic Engineering I decided to make a Stirling Engine from scrap metal. I have an old Boxford Lathe that dates from the 1960s on which I’ve started to turn the parts. My progress is entirely dependent on using scrap I can find rather than buying in components….
At Sheffield Archives At Sheffield Archives I looked at documents concerning the city’s first Mechanics’ Library (1823) and Mechanics’ Institute (1832). I consulted the Minute Books and also posters advertising Institute exhibitions from all over the North and Midlands of England. Some of them are reproduced here, and are from 1823 until around 1850. Many…
