Victorian Technology

We all know that the best way to study a foreign language is to go to a country where it's spoken, but can the same immersion method be applied to history? How do interactions with antique objects influence perceptions of the modern world?

To live in 19th-century Britain was to experience an astonishing series of changes, of a kind for which there was simply no precedent. There were revolutions in transport, communication and work; cities grew vast; and scientific ideas made the intellectual landscape unrecognisable. This was an exhilarating time but also a horrifying one. In his new book, David Cannadine has created a bold, fascinating new interpretation of the British 19th century in all its energy and dynamism, darkness and vice.

A cold bedroom. An empty coal scuttle. A family waiting for breakfast. And the water is still down the street. For generations, this was how the day began. How do you wash a family’s clothes when every bucket must be carried home? Keep milk fresh in summer without a refrigerator? Get through a winter night when the only warm place in the house is beside the kitchen fire? In Everyday Life on Both Sides of the Atlantic, Quinn Alder takes you inside ordinary homes in Britain and the United States between 1800 and 1950, revealing the absorbing details of lives both familiar and startlingly ...

“All is not as it seems as secrets are revealed and mysterious connections are discovered in this terrific steampunk tale.” —Daily Mail (London) From the bestselling author of Things in Jars and The Night Ship comes a spellbinding gothic novel in which lifelike machines walk, old bones lie...

The most complicated machine you will touch today is the one you think about least. Sometime this morning you turned a knob roughly the width of a bottle cap, and within minutes you had boiling water. The whole transaction took about four seconds of your attention. Behind that knob is a valve. Behind the valve, a pipe or a wire. Behind those, a distribution network, a transmission system, a generating fleet or a compressor chain, a processing plant, a mine or a wellhead — and, at the far end, a formation of rock laid down before anything with a spine walked on land. Controlled Burn is the...

Brilliantly imaginative urban fantasy on a colossal scale from an award-winning author The metropolis of New Crobuzon sprawls at the centre of its own bewildering world. Humans and mutants and arcane races throng the gloom beneath its chimneys, where the rivers are sluggish with unnatural...

Discover the gripping true story of one of history’s most famous last stands in Spears Against Rifles: How 150 Men Survived the Zulu Onslaught. Set against the sweeping backdrop of the South African veldt in 1879, this narrative unmasks the dramatic clash between the British Empire and the powerful Zulu Kingdom. While the empire sought a grand confederation under British rule, the proud Zulu warriors, known for their "horns of the buffalo" tactic, stood as a formidable barrier to colonial ambition. As a premier entry in Anglo-Zulu War history books, this work meticulously details the ...

Read by the incredible John Lee Winner of the August Derleth award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award, Perdido Street Station is an imaginative urban fantasy thriller, and the first of China Miéville's novels set in the world of Bas-Lag. The metropolis of New Crobuzon sprawls at the centre of its...

Long before smartphones, a single web of copper wires sparked a communication revolution that reshaped human history. Perfect for curious minds seeking an energetic commute listen, this historical deep-dive transports you to an era where messages suddenly outran armies and ocean tides. The...

The epic firsthand chronicle of the nineteenth century’s greatest engineering triumph: laying the first transatlantic telegraph cable. In the mid-19th century, news moved no faster than steamships could cross stormy seas. Sending a dispatch between London and New York took weeks, isolating two hemispheres and leaving diplomacy, commerce, and human lives at the mercy of distance. To dream of transmitting words across thousands of miles of uncharted ocean floor in mere seconds was widely dismissed as impossible. One man believed otherwise. In The Story of the Atlantic Cable, visionary ...

Beneath the empire’s polished rails, something ancient stirs—and it’s hungry for more than steam. Disgraced inspector Alaric Voss thought exile had ended his days chasing ghosts. But when a train vanishes without a trace on the Trans-Etherian Line, he’s summoned to the frontier town of Ketter’s Gate. There, he finds a town gripped by fear, an engineer with fire in her veins, and whispers of a conspiracy buried deep in the steel bones of the empire. Riona Flint, brilliant and wary, is searching for her missing father—the chief architect of the railway—and the secrets he left ...

The centuries that rewired how we think — and the century that rewired how we live. From Galileo's telescope to Watt's steam engine. Two manuscripts in one book: The Scientific Revolution: An Enthralling Exploration of Discoveries That Changed the World Forever Industrial Revolution: An Enthralling Look at How Machines and Factories Changed Our World Two revolutions. One modern world. This 2-in-1 book tells the linked story of the two upheavals that built the world you live in. The first changed how humanity understands reality. The second changed how humanity lives, works, and moves. ...

Every clock is telling the truth. Except yours. For nearly two centuries, the Meridian Circle has shaped human behaviour through time itself. Railway timetables, factory clocks, digital watches and connected devices were never simply inventions of convenience. They were steps towards a world in which every deadline, delay and appointment could be controlled. Historian Dr Adam Harcourt discovers the pattern after his oldest friend dies under suspicious circumstances, leaving behind an antique railway timetable, an obsolete digital watch and a chilling warning: They did not invent the clock. ...

Love and lies can corrupt even the purest heart.... In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, while her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will - the wall he has built...

Crackling wires and cryptic clicks launched the information age, forever revolutionizing global history and technology. Perfect for an educational commute, this fascinating audio journey reveals how instant communication transformed a world once limited by the speed of horses and ships. Dive...

With her heart broken over losing Harry, Winnie finds her heart opening to other possibilities. She struggles to find her place in Victorian London's glittering society as she helps her aunt, the Duchess of Applegate matchmake her bachelor son. With London inundated with American heiresses looking to marry into British nobility, they have a wide cast to choose from but the Duke has his sights set on one particular heiress but she is already promised to another. Befriended by an American heiress, Winnie is determined to discover the truth when she goes missing. With the help of her new ...

What has data ever done for us? Georgina Sturge, House of Commons Library statistician and author of the critically acclaimed Bad Data, explores the rich history of the times the UK has counted itself - from the revolutionary first census of 1801 to modern worries over technological surveillance...

No city can survive without water, and lots of it. Today we take the stuff for granted: turn a tap and it gushes out. But it wasn't always so. For centuries London, one of the largest and richest cities in the world, struggled to supply its citizens with reliable, clean water. The Mercenary...

Can technology corrupt a person’s soul? Can a culture break free from mechanical objectification? Might resisting technology lead to a better understanding of self? Having escaped the Staines parish poorhouse, Stormbuckler rescues a crucial worker of the newly arrived multimillionaire American steam-mill owner named Lindwürm. The American has set-up mills and manufacturing plants in Staines. After saving Lindwürm’s worker, Stormbuckler is offered a job by the steam-millionaire. Mayotte, employed as a parlour housemaid by a notable Middlesex family, hopes to better herself. Having left...