Archive - Age of Invention, by Anton Howes

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Age of Invention: The Interactive History of the Steam Engine

I’m excited to announce something I’ve been quietly working on for a few months now behind the scenes: the first instalment of the interactive…

Dec 7 •

November 2023

Age of Invention: How to be a Public Historian

Writing for a public audience is a double-edged sword. It’s all very well to want to put your work out there and reach as wide an audience as possible …

Nov 28 •

Age of Invention: Outdoing the Ancients

When was the technology of the Ancient World superseded? The views from 1599 and 1715.

Nov 10 •

October 2023

Age of Invention: Lessons from the Rise of Coal

The surprising rise of muscle power, the salty source of Scottish Lowlands wealth, the Dutch Republic's energy abundance, and why doesn't anybody ever…

Oct 25 •

Age of Invention: How to Steal Technology

The extraordinary life of John Holker: industrialist, rebel, prisoner, fugitive, soldier, undercover agent, spy-catcher, industrial spymaster…

Oct 10 •

September 2023

Age of Invention: Open History

I was quite overwhelmed by the response to my last piece, on whether history has a reproducibility crisis — all the more overwhelmed because I posted it…

Sep 22 •

August 2023

Age of Invention: Does History have a Replication Crisis?

Back in 2011, the field of psychology went into crisis. Some of the most famous and widely-cited experimental results could not be replicated by others…

Aug 29 •

Age of Invention: Cash Cows

He was born, farmed, and died at Dishley, much like his father before him. But Robert Bakewell, unlike most people, caught the improving mentality, or…

Aug 10 •

July 2023

Age of Invention: The Mountain of the Copper King

Anglesey, a large island off the north-west coast of Wales, has seen copper mining since ancient times. But it was not until the late 1760s that miners…

Jul 28 •

Age of Invention: Cort Case

Over the course of the last day alone, four separate people have asked for my comment on an article in The Guardian. It is about some new research…

Jul 7 •

June 2023

Age of Invention: Water World

We often think of Britain’s Industrial Revolution as the advent of mechanisation. But long before the rise of the water-powered cotton mills of…

Jun 29 •

Age of Invention: Freight Expectations

With many countries’ recent productivity woes, there’s been a lot of focus lately on trying to build more transport infrastructure. Buses, railways…

Jun 23 •

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