Speaker: John Kanefsky
Simon Goodrich was for over 20 years one of the key players in the engineering and economic history of England. His work at the Portsmouth Dockyard, where among other things he managed the creation of probably the first production line in the world, the Block Mills, is justly celebrated. Yet surprisingly little is known about him as a person. He was appointed in 1799 at the young age of 26 as Mechanist (chief engineer) of the Royal Dockyards at Portsmouth and one of his first acts was to undertake a month-long tour of the midlands and north of England to see for himself the new technologies that were being developed at this seminal point in the Industrial Revolution, with an eye to how he and his boss, Sir Samuel Bentham, could apply new technologies to improving the capabilities and efficiency of the Dockyards and the Royal Navy.
He documented his travels in a number of long letters comprising a journal sent to Bentham, of which perhaps the most important are the 18 foolscap pages documenting the first week of his itinerary in and around Derby and Belper, where he met and discussed with all the key people in the area and was shown their works and factories. This journal has been dipped into by many historians, especially in relation to early work on fireproof mills, but none have hitherto transcribed the whole and put it into context. Today’s talk explains what he saw in Derbyshire; the unparalleled insights his reports give into the importance of the area at the time; and highlights the transition from hand- and wood-based ways of working to mechanisation and iron as the medium of machinery. It also illuminates the people he met in the County, including William Strutt and his family, Erasmus Darwin and others. Many of this audience will probably know a good deal about these worthies, but Goodrich’s fascinating commentary on and insights into the local scene is less known.
Dr John Kanefsky studied and taught at the University of Exeter and then joined the National Coal Board, first as one of the authors of their history of coal mining then until privatisation in management. He was subsequently at the Coal Authority and thereafter had a varied career in the NHS and educational research before retirement. His research focuses on 18th century steam power and on in Devon in the 18th and 19th centuries. He is also the author and curator of the Early Engines database of all known eighteenth century steam engines.
