Industrial leaders honoured on stamps
Pioneers of the Industrial Revolution will feature the men behind eight ground-breaking inventions that helped transform Britain from a rural economy to a manufacturing giant.
Pioneers of the Industrial Revolution will feature the men behind eight ground-breaking inventions that helped transform Britain from a rural economy to a manufacturing giant.
Those depicted include George Stephenson (railways), John McAdam (road building), James Watt (steam engine), Richard Arkwright (textiles) and Josiah Wedgwood (ceramics).
Adam Hart-Davis, the television scientist who has written the presentation pack to accompany the new issue, welcomed the Royal Mail’s decision to celebrate the men whose roads, railways, canals and other ingenious designs put Britain at the vanguard of industrialisation.
“It’s wonderful that the work of these pioneers of technology is being recognised in this way,” he said.
“Two hundred and fifty years ago a few brilliant individuals unleashed innovative technologies to provide the intellectual driving force which propelled Britain into the Industrial Revolution.
“Their collective genius was crucial to earning Britain the accolade of ‘the workshop of the world’, and their immense legacy can still be seen around us today.
“Take James Watt’s and Matthew Boulton’s steam engine: more than 200 years after its invention, 80 per cent of the world’s electricity is still provided by its successor, Charles Parson’s steam turbine.”
Boulton, who was an entrepreneur, and Watt, who was the brain power behind the engine, worked together; they are featured on the two 1st Class stamps. The 50p stamps feature Arkwright and Wedgwood, who remain familiar names.
Stephenson and Henry Maudslay, the machine maker, come together on the 56p stamps and the issue is completed with two pioneers of transportation: McAdam and James Brindley, the canal engineer, on the 72p stamps.
The issue marks the 250th anniversary of Wedgwood setting up his own pottery works in Burslem, Staffordshire; the 250th anniversary of Brindley starting the historic Bridgewater Canal from Worsley to Manchester; and the bicentenary of Boulton’s death.
Julietta Edgar, head of special stamps for Royal Mail, said: “The individuals celebrated on these stamps had a profound effect on Britain and across the globe, making a huge contribution to manufacturing and creating the infrastructure that brought products to their markets.”
The stamps will be released on 10 March.
