The Industrial Revolution is usually remembered for its machines, in cathedral-sized brick-built factories filled with crowds of labourers. This is not a false picture, but not all the advances at this time were physical machines or industrial processes. Possibly spurred on by the leaps being made by ordinary industrialists, dedicated men made significant discoveries in the realm of Natural Philosophy, which we know as science.
Anatomy and Medicine
A surprising amount was already understood about how the body worked – in fact the circulation of blood had been discovered as far back as 1628 – but the nature of diseases and the mind were still quite mysterious. In 1811 the Scot Charles Bell published An Idea of a New Anatomy of the Brain, laying the foundations of modern neuroscience; Georges Cuvier (1769 – 1832) made great progress in the field of comparative anatomy, understanding the human body by comparing it to other creatures; and in 1796 Edward Jenner invented a safe vaccine for smallpox. Today, smallpox has been wiped from the earth thanks to the work that Jenner started.
Chemistry
It was in the field of Chemistry that the most progress was made. Where before there had been alchemists trying to turn lead into gold, and theorising that everything was made out of the elements air, fire, water and earth, now the beginnings of modern science started to emerge. Antoine Laviosier in 1789 listed twenty three of the elements we find today in the periodic table. He also came up with a systematic way of naming chemical compounds which is still used today. Joseph-Louis Proust worked out the weights of atoms and showed that the same elements combined in different proportions produced different chemicals.
The nature of air was also discovered: Nitrogen in 1772 by Daniel Rutherford, a Scottish medical student (although it wouldn't get its modern name until 1790); oxygen in 1774 by Joseph Priestly; carbon dioxide by Joseph Black (another Scot); and hydrogen in 1776 by Henry Cavendish who also theorised that water was made of oxygen and hydrogen.
Electricity
The new science of Galvanism, named after Luigi Galvani, seemed to hold endless possibilities. In 1791 Galvani made dead frogs' legs twitch using combinations of metals such as silver and zinc, although he thought it was “animal electricity” in the legs making it possible. Alessandro Volta realised that what Galvani had done was invent a way of storing electricity – the electric cell, or battery.
In 1803 Giovanni Aldini used Volta's perfected technology to perform the same trick as Galvani in front of an audience, but using decapitated human heads! Aldini's experiments may have been shocking, but they were part of a study to see whether electricity could raise the dead, a la Frankenstein (which was written only 13 years later). He never managed it, of course, but we have the early experimenters to thank for the batteries in our i-pods, our homes stuffed with electrical appliances, and the paddles used in hospitals which, as long as the patient's heart hasn't stopped for more than a minute or two, can bring the 'dead' back to life.
Sources: P Whitfield Landmarks of Western Science; D Ellyard Who Dicovered What When; C Adams et al The Bedside, Bathtub and Armchair Companion to FrankensteinMore: The Industrial Revolution
Join the Conversation