Monkman and Seagull

Eric Monkman and Bobby Seagull travel around Britain as they explore their favourite scientific breakthroughs, beginning with the 18th-century inventions that kick-started the Industrial Revolution and transformed scientific understanding. They head to Derbyshire to investigate Richard Arkwright's water frame - a spinning machine that allowed cotton textiles to be mass-produced, and then examine James Watt's separate condenser, an unassuming invention that would be the biggest single improvement ever made to the steam engine.

Eric Monkman and Bobby Seagull continues their travels around Britain, this time seeking out the birthplaces of the inventions that fuelled the nation's industrial infrastructure. Their first stop is the Royal Institution in London, where they examine how the Davy lamp saved the lives of thousands of coal miners, then pay a visit to the preserved laboratory of Michael Faraday, another of their scientific heroes, whose research on electricity paved the way for its application as a ubiquitous energy supply.

Eric Monkman and Bobby Seagull explore their favourite inventions and scientific breakthroughs from the years between 1850 and 1900, beginning at Crossness Pumping Station in south-east London, which was part of the redevelopment of London's sewerage system. They then head to London Zoo, where they get their hands on a first edition of Charles Darwin's masterwork On the Origin of Species.