Jack of All Trades

This chapter describes the Royal Society of Arts' founders by 1754, which had largely been aristocrats, clergymen, and natural philosophers, with the middle classes overwhelmingly represented by well-off merchants and artisans. It analyzes the scientific advances over the century that spawned new industries as scientists and inventors discovered new fuels, alloys, and chemical compounds. It also covers the emergence of a class of more specialized professionals, such as chemists that implemented or advised on the latest scientific advances. The chapter talks about professional inventors that changed Britain by concentrating their efforts on making improvements without having to then make money from the products of their new machines and techniques. It cites “Inventor seeks capitalist” as the common advertisement in the pages of nineteenth-century newspapers by inventors looking for someone to fund their patent.