Abstract
THE conditions of the chief industries of the country at the date (1754) when the Society of Arts was founded were surveyed by Sir Henry Trueman Wood in an elaborate paper read by him at a meeting of the society on April 20. In the middle of the eighteenth century England was not to any noteworthy extent a manufacturing country, the most important industry being agriculture and occupations relating to it. At the epoch to which the paper refers, however, an industrial revolution was beginning which transformed England from an agricultural country, with no manufactures beyond those required for the supply of its own population, into the workshop of the world. Sir H. T. Wood described the positions of industries concerned with wool, cotton, linen, silk, various metals, brewing, distilling, tanning, paper, printing, and many other arts. From the mass of historical material brought together in the paper a few extracts are subjoined upon subjects associated with science. The retrospective view which these extracts provide is of interest to students of the progress of science and industry.
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Industrial England in the Middle of the Eighteenth Century . Nature 83, 264–268 (1910). https://doi.org/10.1038/083264a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/083264a0