British History
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘British History’
The opening of the Bombay to Thane line was the real beginning of British India.
Just twenty-three years after the Liverpool and Manchester Railway hosted the world’s first regular steam-hauled passenger service, British entrepreneurs began running the first trains in India. The ‘Illustrated London News’ described it as an event more important than all Britain’s battles on Indian soil.
When captain Richard Pearson of the Royal Navy surrendered to American revolutionary John Paul Jones, Jones naturally assumed that meant he had won.
Following the Declaration of Independence in 1776, American resentment towards King George III’s dastardly oppression reached such a pitch that they made common cause with that champion of republican liberty, King Louis XVI of France. One mustard-keen revolutionary, John Paul Jones, even buccaneered around Britain’s coastline harassing merchant shipping convoys, until the Royal Navy stepped in.
The invention of the steamboat was a formidable challenge not just of engineering, but of politics and finance.
Steam power came to rivers and lakes even before it came to railways. Exactly who was ‘first’ is often debated, but the short answer is that a Frenchman was the first to try it, a Scotsman was the first to make it work, and an American was the first to make a profit from it.
All but forgotten today, the RCH was one of the most important steps forward in British industrial history.
The humble Railway Clearing House (RCH) brought real co-operation to Victorian Britain’s many different private railway companies, and gave yet further impetus to the country’s accelerating industrial revolution. Its success should be a reminder to private companies that they and their passengers actually share very similar interests.
A former convict told Henry Morley about his debt to Thomas Wright, the prisoner’s friend.
Thomas Wright (1789-1875) was a foreman in a Manchester iron foundry and a father of nineteen, who never earned above £3 10s a week in his life. But he helped hundreds of ex-convicts back into society, using his own money to indemnify their employers against any relapse.
Thomas Wright never earned more than a foreman’s wage, but he helped hundreds of prisoners back into society.
Thomas Wright (1789-1875) was an ordinary Manchester workman who dedicated his life to helping former prisoners back into society, all on his own time and using his own money. Yet he never earned much over £150 a year, roughly £15,000 today.