Episode 4

MICHAEL FARADAY: EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH IN ELECTRICITY (1855) Faraday’s work illuminated the connection between magnetism and electrical current. He changed the idea of what electricity was and in doing so made possible its generation and the harnessing of its power, without which modern life would be impossible. Every time we turn on a light we owe a debt of gratitude to Faraday. PATENT SPECIFICATION FOR ARKWRIGHT'S SPINNING MACHINE (1769) In 1769, Richard Arkwright took out a patent on his spinning machine: by law, no-one could copy it and Arkwright was able to reproduce it throughout his own mills, for his own benefit. Arkwright’s spinning machine spearheaded the events of the textile revolution, sparking off a chain of developments that would form the crux of the Industrial Revolution, broadening the horizons of every man and woman in Britain - and subsequently the world. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S FIRST FOLIO (1623) The First Folio edition of the collected plays of William Shakespeare was published in 1623, some seven years after his death. Only 18 of Shakespeare's plays appeared in print during his lifetime, and some of these were in corrupt or pirated editions.