Abstract
THE eighteenth century gave birth to some remarkably interesting personalities in the realms of both industry and science. From the Midland manufacturers in the persons of Wedgwood, Boulton and Watt, there can be singled a trio who became fellows of the Royal Society. In science, the Midland men of fame include Joseph Priestley and Erasmus Darwin. The spirit of inquiry of the age, with its zest for experiment, led Wedgwood to convert his manufactory into an industrial “elaboratory”, as he termed it. He was determined to convert crude clays into artistic ceramic products. He had to wrestle with all the four familiar elements of philosophers in the pre-scientifio age-fire, air, earth and water. His “Trial Books” now in the Etruria Museum justify his claim to be considered a man of science.
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Thomas, J. Josiah Wedgwood and his Portraits of 18th Century Men of Science. Nature 143, 395–400 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143395a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143395a0