Cornish Science: Steam, Mines, and The Heat of The Earth

In the nineteenth century, Cornwall’s engineers lead the world in the construction of steam engines of unprecedented power and efficiency.  

Around all this engineering enterprise, crucial to the region’s industrial mining, a rich scientific culture developed, uniquely Cornish in character.  

Falmouth natural philosopher Robert Were Fox was at the forefront of this scientific activity, using Cornwall’s mines to measure the Earth’s great subterranean heat.  

Both through his access to these underground places of work, and through local engineering knowledge of steam-engine construction, Fox developed radical new theories over how the planet had formed and the nature of its internal structure.  

These experiments brought Fox, and Cornish science in general, to the attention of Europe’s leading scientific authorities.  This was a unique moment at which Cornwall played a central role in the development of the natural sciences.

Cornish Science: Steam, Mines, and The Heat of The Earth

Friday 14th April, 6.30pm

Tickets: £1 Poly Fund