scholarly journals From England to Italy: The Intriguing Story of Poli’s Engine for the King of Naples

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salvatore Esposito
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Technological Innovation ◽  
Scientific Revolution ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Direct Consequence ◽  
Steam Engine ◽  
Entrepreneurial Success ◽  
Kingdom Of Naples ◽  
History Of

AbstractAn interesting, yet unknown episode concerning the effective permeation of the scientific revolution in eighteenth-century Kingdom of Naples (and Italy more generally) is recounted. The intriguing story of James Watt’s steam engine, prepared to serve a Royal Estate of the King of Naples in Carditello, reveals a fascinating piece of the history of that kingdom, as well as an unknown step in the history of Watt’s steam engine, whose final entrepreneurial success for the celebrated Boulton & Watt company was a direct consequence. This story reveals that, contrary to what claimed in the literature, the first introduction in Italy of the most important technological innovation of the eighteenth century did not take place with the construction of the first steamship of the Mediterranean Sea, but rather thirty years before that, thanks to the incomparable work of Giuseppe Saverio Poli, a leading scholar and an influential figure in the Kingdom of Naples. The tragic epilogue of Poli’s engine accounts for its vanishing from historical memory.

The Enlightenment

2020 ◽  
pp. 179-206
Author(s):  
Tomás McAuley
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Scientific Revolution ◽  
Musical Harmony ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mechanical Approach ◽  
Modes Of Interaction

This chapter traces the history of music and philosophy in the Enlightenment, with a particular focus on English thinkers in the years 1660–1750. It identifies three modes of interaction between musical and philosophical ideas: music as object of philosophy, music as inspiration for philosophy, and music as corroboration for philosophy. The chapter hones in particularly on the significance of the new, “mechanical” approach to philosophy that emerged in the later seventeenth century and on changing explanations of music’s fabled ability to cure the bite of the tarantula. Through all of this, it uncovers how ideas about musical harmony and music’s affective power were intertwined in this period. It also includes two eighteenth-century case studies showing how these ideas played themselves out in the French “high” Enlightenment and in German Idealist philosophy at the close of the Enlightenment. The chapter closes with an examination of the relative merits, in this context, of the terms “Baroque,” “scientific revolution,” and “Enlightenment.”

James Watt and the Steam Engine

2020 ◽  
pp. 11-38
Author(s):  
Peter M. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Religious Belief ◽  
Scientific Revolution ◽  
Steam Engine ◽  
James Watt ◽  
Outside The Box

This chapter investigates the role of non-conformist religious belief in James Watt’s up-bringing in Greenock, Scotland. Calvinism, it is suggested, facilitated ‘outside the box’ thinking and enabled absorption of the knowledge advances made during the Scientific Revolution. In the case of Watt the Calvinist outlook combined with the eighteenth-century Enlightenment in Glasgow and Birmingham to foster the development of technologies that significantly improved the efficiency of the Newcomen steam engine.

LIVING THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION: JAMES WATT, MATTHEW BOULTON, AND THEIR SONS

1999 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER M. JONES
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Steam Engine ◽  
The West ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
West Midlands ◽  
History Of ◽  
James Watt ◽  
Discrete Family

This article is a contribution to the cultural history of English Enlightenment. It examines the formation of a discrete ‘family’ of philosophes in the West Midlands who maintained close links with their counterparts on the continent. Birmingham's role as a magnet for ‘industrial tourists’ in the second half of the eighteenth century helped to propagate the influence of this local intelligentsia who were mostly members of the Lunar Society. None the less, it is argued that the activities of the Society correspond more closely to an Enlightenment than to a proto-industrial pattern of inquiry. The events of 1789 in France disrupted this philosophic ‘family’. Their impact is explored through the medium of a real family; that of James Watt, the engineer, who came to Birmingham to manufacture the steam engine in partnership with Matthew Boulton. The vicissitudes of the Watt family, and of other prominent members of the Lunar Society, are unravelled to illustrate the dilemmas faced by men raised in the values of the Enlightenment when confronted with the reality – and the proximity – of a far-reaching political revolution.

scholarly journals James Watt, engineer and man of science

1970 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-232 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Technological Innovation ◽  
Steam Engine ◽  
Critical Importance ◽  
Great Utility ◽  
James Watt ◽  
The Law

IN the light of the controversy that has raged since the eighteenth century about the effects on British technological innovation of Watt’s patent for his improved steam-engine, granted in 1769 and continued by Act of Parliament until 1800, it is interesting to see what the engineer had to say in his own defence in July 1795 when he was preparing the heads of argument for a case in Chancery to decide whether a Scire Facias should be allowed to issue against his patent: When Mr W. applied himself to the improvement of Steam Engines he thought he was labouring for the publick benefit as well as his own; At least he knew of no other recompence than what might be obtained by some share of the benefits which individuals might derive from the use of his invention & he could not hope that it would be used unless it were proved to be advantageous to the users of it, not being one of those things where fashion or caprice could be expected to command the case, and having no immediate connection with what are deemed luxuries or the conveniences of a life of ease & little to soothe the vanity or pride of the possessor. It[s] object then and sole recommendation was its great utility and upon that, the argumentum ad cruminam , he rooted his hopes of profits. He felt that the profits eventually acquired after many years of labour and of uncertainty, protracted by legal battles, were no more than a just reward for an invention that proved to be of critical importance to the industrialization of Britain. That the principle of the separate condenser was fundamental to the development of other steam-engines seems an odd reason for denying Watt adequate compensation, while the uncertainties of the law threatened him throughout the term of his patent with the possibility of great losses, if not of ruin.

A history of botanical collections in the Luangwa Valley, Zambia

1998 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-291
Author(s):  
P.S.M. PHIRI ◽  
D.M. MOORE
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Vascular Plants ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Peak Activity ◽  
Historical Account ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Made In

Central Africa remained botanically unknown to the outside world up to the end of the eighteenth century. This paper provides a historical account of plant explorations in the Luangwa Valley. The first plant specimens were collected in 1897 and the last serious botanical explorations were made in 1993. During this period there have been 58 plant collectors in the Luangwa Valley with peak activity recorded in the 1960s. In 1989 1,348 species of vascular plants were described in the Luangwa Valley. More botanical collecting is needed with a view to finding new plant taxa, and also to provide a satisfactory basis for applied disciplines such as ecology, phytogeography, conservation and environmental impact assessment.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document