"In the 1760s a group of amateur experimenters met and made friends in the Midlands. Most came from poor families, all lived far from the centre of things, but they were young and their optimism was boundless: together they would change the world. Among them were the ambitious toy-maker Matthew Boulton and his partner James Watt, of steam-engine fame; the potter Josiah Wedgwood; and the larger-than-life Erasmus Darwin, physician, poet, inventor and theorist of evolution (a forerunner of his grandson Charles). Later came Joseph Priestley, discoverer of oxygen and fighting radical." "With a small band of allies, including the exuberant followers of Rousseau, Richard Lovell Edgeworth and Thomas Day, they formed the Lunar Society of Birmingham (so called because it met at each full moon). Blending science, art and commerce, the Lunar Men built canals, launched balloons, named plants, gases and minerals, changed the face of England and the china in its drawing rooms, and plotted to revolutionize its soul."--Jacket.