Matthew Boulton

Baskerville encouraged Boulton’s sense of experiment. Watt, always the more cautious, joined him in a notable 25-year manufacturing partnership. Of other Lunar Society colleagues, Wedgwood (the other great enlightened industrialist of the age) and Darwin were good friends, Small his confidant and doctor. Flaxman and Murdoch (a key colleague) both worked for him. Franklin, introduced by Michell, was a hero to him (they took to each other enthusiastically). Banks and Herschel were friends (Boulton supplied Banks with green glass earrings to barter on Cook’s voyage), Boswell and Johnson were suitably-impressed visitors.