Matthew Boulton: Industry's Great Innovator

By Anthony Burton and Jennifer Tann

Matthew Boulton, of the famous Boulton & Watt steam engine partnership, was an eighteenth-century designer and inventor. Before he partnered up with James Watt he was a successful industrialist manufacturing a range of silver and plated goods, buttons and buckles, and the sort of knickknackery known at the time as ‘toys’. He had a business network throughout continental Europe with travelling agents who represented his various interests. Without his commercial skills, Watt would probably have failed to bring his steam engine to market, but in due course Boulton started the process that would revolutionise the world of industry and transport: the engine was exported all over the world. Boulton was an affable man who enjoyed company and creative conversation. He was also a founder member of the Lunar Society and became a fellow of the Royal Society.

This exciting new book, the first full-length biography of Matthew Boulton since H.W. Dickinson’s excellent publication in 1937, is the culmination of twenty years’ original research and brings to life one of the most colourful characters of the Industrial Revolution.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Feb 29, 2012
• ISBN: 9780752483399

Anthony Burton

Anthony Burton is an author specialising in the history of technology and transport. His books for The History Press include The Anatomy of Canals, The Iron Men, Miners, Navvies, and The Workers’ War. Other books include biographies of Thomas Telford, Richard Trevithick, George and Robert Stephenson and Marc and Isambard Brunel. He has been involved in over 100 TV documentaries, half as writer/presenter and others as historical adviser, including The Past at Work for the BBC and appeared as a guest expert on Coast, Reel History and Big, Bigger, Biggest. More recently he has been Historical Adviser for six ten-part series for Discovery that have involved visiting industrial sites in both Europe and America. He lives in Stroud.