It is interesting to read about the individuals who brought about these changes during industralisation. Few of them were trained scientists. Education in basic sciences like physics or chemistry was extremely limited until the late nineteenth century, even after the technological inventions described above. Since these inventions did not require a full knowledge of the laws of physics or chemistry on which they were based, advances in science could be and were made by brilliant, intuitive thinkers and persistent experimenters.
They were helped by the fact that England had certain features which other European countries did not. Dozens of scientific journals and published papers of scientific societies appeared in England between 1760 and 1800. There was a widespread thirst for knowledge even in the smaller towns. This was met by the activities of the Society of Arts (founded in 1754), by travelling lecturers, or in ‘coffee houses’ that multiplied through the eighteenth century.
