The Rise And Decline Of Englands Watchmaking Industry 1550 1930

Download or read book The Rise and Decline of England's Watchmaking Industry, 1550–1930 written by Alun C. Davies and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-04-11 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This survey of the rise and decline of English watchmaking fills a gap in the historiography of British industry. Clerkenwell in London was supplied with 'rough movements' from Prescot, 200 miles away in Lancashire. Smaller watchmaking hubs later emerged in Coventry, Liverpool, and Birmingham. The English industry led European watchmaking in the late eighteenth century in output, and its lucrative export markets extended to the Ottoman Empire and China. It also made marine chronometers, the most complex of hand-crafted pre-industrial mechanisms, crucially important to the later hegemony of Britain’s navy and merchant marine. Although Britain was the 'workshop of the world', its watchmaking industry declined. Why? First, because cheap Swiss watches were smuggled into British markets. Later, in the era of Free Trade, they were joined by machine-made watches from factories in America, enabled by the successful application to watch production of the 'American system' in Waltham, Massachusetts after 1858. The Swiss watch industry adapted itself appropriately, expanded, and reasserted its lead in the world’s markets. English watchmaking did not: its trajectory foreshadowed and was later followed by other once-prominent British industries. Clerkenwell retained its pre-industrial production methods. Other modernization attempts in Britain had limited success or failed.

Download or read book The Rise and Decline of England's Watchmaking Industry, 1550-1930 written by Alun C Davies and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-04-08 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book surveys the rise and decline of English watchmaking in Clerkenwell, Prescot, Coventry, Liverpool, and Birmingham, filling a gap in the historiography of British industry. Its trajectory foreshadowed other once-prominent British industries.

Download or read book Products, Users, and Popular Luxury in Early Modern Greece written by Artemis Yagou and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-08-05 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyses aspects of the material culture of early modern Greece from an object-based perspective, using surviving artefacts from that period as primary sources. A printed book, a wine jug, an ecclesiastical embroidery, and a pocket watch are used as entry points to examine the consumer practices of the emerging Greek bourgeoisie under Ottoman rule in the long eighteenth century. The acquisition and usage of novel products – especially imported ones – by Greeks was connected to personal expression, identity building, and self-determination in the context of the Enlightenment. The enjoyment of innovative artefacts opened new horizons to them and facilitated their individual and collective empowerment. The originality of the book lies in its eclectic and interdisciplinary approach towards early modern Greek material culture, an under-researched topic. The study is embedded within contemporary discourses on transnational trade, the materiality of everyday life, pleasurable consumption, and the negotiation of identities. This volume will appeal to students and scholars of early modern and modern Greek history, Ottoman history, European history, material culture, history of technology, museum studies, and cultural heritage studies, as well as museum professionals, collectors, and the wider educated public.

Download or read book The Football Pools and the British Working Class written by Keith Laybourn and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-07-22 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first national study of the football pools in Britain which examines the politics and culture of the gambling on the football pools. It charts the rise of the football pools, focusing upon its rapid growth from the 1920s and its prolonged decline in British culture from the 1990s, partly as a result of the National Lottery. The book explores how this new gambling activity became a significant leisure opportunity for the working class - a way to feel that the individual skill of the punter could lead to the winning of some life-changing jackpot cheque being presented by a sporting personality of celebrity. Dominated by Littlewoods, and other large commercial companies, the weekly filling-in of the coupons was considered to be a safe form of investment, guaranteed by the integrity of the pool companies, rather than some seedy gambling operation. The Football Pools and the British Working Class looks at different elements of the football pools from what attracted people to this form of gambling to how the industry developed and adjusted to the suspension of the football fixtures in 1936, and the bad winter of 1962-3. Above all, it examines the deep hostility that surrounded the filling in of the football pools arising from the National Anti-Gambling League, religious groups, the football authorities and MPs. This book will appeal to all those interested in the history of British football and 20th century British working class culture.

Download or read book The Beveridge Report written by Derek Fraser and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-11-11 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides the definitive account of the making of the 1942 Beveridge Report and its influence on wartime and post-war social policy. The Beveridge Report: Blueprint for the Welfare State aims to offer a definitive analysis of the famous document, so influential in the founding of the Welfare State and the National Health Service, which still resonates in current debates about ‘getting back to Beveridge’ and a ‘Beveridge for the 21st Century’. It is based on extensive research into the papers of the Beveridge Committee, official Government archives and the papers of contemporary politicians and groups. Published to coincide with the Report’s 80th anniversary, the book is treated as a case study in policy formulation during the 1940s. Key features of the book include The first systematic review and assessment of the work of the Beveridge Committee and the evidence submitted to it Detailed analysis of the enthusiastic reception of the Report and the government’s lukewarm attitude A full survey of the detailed planning for welfare reform and Beveridge’s role when excluded from it An assessment of the influence of Beveridge upon the creation of the Welfare State by Attlee’s Labour Government This important book will be of interest to scholars of twentieth-century British, social history, political history and contemporary politics and comparative health and education systems. Derek Fraser is Emeritus Professor at the University of Teesside, where he served as Vice-Chancellor for 11 years.

Download or read book William Dawes written by Richard de Grijs and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-11-30 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book describes William Dawes’ life and professional achievements. William Dawes was a British Marine serving as the official astronomer on board the First Fleet making the 1787–1788 voyage from Britain to the new colony of New South Wales. Between 1788 and 1791, Dawes established not one but two observatories within a kilometre of Sydney’s present-day city centre, a full seven decades before the construction of Sydney’s historical Observatory at Dawes’ Point, today a stone’s throw from the Sydney Harbour Bridge. In this comprehensive biography, the authors discuss William Dawes’ life and his considerable impact—as astronomer, engineer, surveyor, ordnance officer and intellectual centre point—on the early colony in New South Wales (in essence, his impact on the earliest history of Sydney as a settlement) and, subsequently, on the British colonies of Sierra Leone on the West African coast and Antigua in the West Indies. Dawes’ life and professional achievements are closely linked to the earliest history of Sydney as a British settlement. He is often considered a man of high morals, and as such his interactions with the local populations in New South Wales, Sierra Leone and Antigua were mostly deemed respectful and above reproach. He is seen a truly enlightened individual, far ahead of his time. The authors of this book have a significant track record of successful and engaging communication of complex concepts in physics and astronomy with experts and non-experts alike. This biography touches on numerous aspects related to 18th century maritime navigation (“sailing on the stars”), societal relationships, the exploration of newly discovered lands, as well as the early history of Sydney and New South Wales, and the colonial histories of Sierra Leone and the West Indies. As such, this book will appeal to a wide range of readers, from scholars in the history of science and maritime navigation, to history enthusiasts ranging from local historians on Australia’s eastern seaboard to members of the public with a keen interest in British colonial history.

Download or read book Legacies of an Imperial City written by Samuel Aylett and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-12-30 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive history of the Museum of London traces the ways that the relationship between Britain and its imperial past has changed over the course of three decades, providing a holistic approach to galleries’ shifts from Victorian nostalgia to equitable representations. At its 1976 opening, the Museum of London differed from other museums in its treatment of empire and colonialism as central to its galleries. In response to the public’s evolving social and political attitudes, the museum’s 1993–1994 ‘The Peopling of London’ exhibition marked a new approach in creating inclusive displays, which explore the impact of immigration and multiculturalism on British history. Through photos, planning documents, and archival research, this book analyses museums’ role in enacting change in the public’s understanding of history, and this book is the first to critically engage with the Museum of London’s theme of empire, particularly in consideration of recent exhibitions. Legacies of an Imperial City is a useful resource for academics and researchers of postcolonial history and museum studies, as well as any student of urban history.