The
Crystal Palace
Foundation

By Prof. Lord Asa Briggs

ONE OF THE MOST important surviving symbols of Britain's emergence as the world's first industrial nation is the Iron Bridge at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire; the first of its kind, this bridge was cast by Abraham Darby III at his foundry nearby, and built in the summer of 1779. Taking this momentous event as his starting point, Asa Briggs traces the growth and spread of industrial technology, based on coal, iron and steam power, to other parts of the country - including such major centres as Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford and Birmingham - before reaching out to embrace Europe, North America and the world at large. He looks at the new arteries of communication, first the c nals and later the railways; the outstanding inventors, engineers and ntrepreneurs such as Arkwright, Boulton and Watt, the Stephensons, Telford, BruneI and Wedgwood, all of whom played an impor­tant role - together with the navvies and the new industrial workforce - in creating the revolution. He also explains the newly 'developed processes in industries such as ironfounding, coal mining and textile manufacturing, and reviews the products of the early industrial era which were exhibited at the Crystal Palace in 185 I, another symbolic landmark - and one of international importance.

Eacb section of the book is illustrated with mostly contemporary drawings, en­gravings, paintings and photographs, many of these being items from the Elton Collection, an unrivalled source of visual material associated with Britain's early industrial history, which now has a per­manent home in the care of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust.

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Hardback 237 illustration, drawings and plans