About the Author: jonathan_aylen
Jonathan Aylen is immediate Past-President of the Newcomen Society and Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research within Manchester Business School at the University of Manchester. A former economist, he now specialises in innovation management and environmental management. For the past decade he has also undertaken historical research.
Jonathan has contributed papers to the Newcomen Society’s International Journal of the History of Engineering and Technology on the transfer of steel technology from the USA to Wales, on early process control computers and on weapons design and development, including the Bloodhound Guided missile and the Blue Danube bomb.
Dr Aylen has travelled widely throughout the world steel industry, given advice to international bodies and governments on steel issues and commented frequently on television and radio. He recently published a book with Ruggero Ranieri, Ribbon of Fire, on how the wide strip mill for steel came to Europe from the USA.
Jonathan’s current research focuses on Cold War technology and, in particular, the use of American TOPS computer software by British Rail in the 1970’s.
View the author’s work . . .
The Latest Newcomen Society Journal – Vol 90 No. 1
Woman engineer drilling an aero engine crankshaft at the Tongland Works in Galloway during the first decades of the 20th Century (Stewartry Museum, Kirkcudbright) The Latest Newcomen Society Journal - Vol 90 No. 1 Now posted to members direct - Volume 90 No. 1 of The International Journal for the History of Engineering & Technology features articles on: Tongland works in Galloway and the women engineers The life and work of John Baildon, the man who took British 18th century iron innivations to Upper Silesia in Prussia between 1793 and 1836. Steam engines on UK roads, 1862-1865: Banning [...]
The Shed Lectures
The Newcomen Shed Lectures given online at the time of Coronavirus are now free to watch online. Learn about Britain's Iron Industry in the middle ages, British Rails TOPS system, Charles Babbage's Abstraction of Mechanism and the 'famous' Flying Scotsman.
Coals to Whitstable
Jonathan Aylen tells a sailor’s yarn of how old technologies fade away. Much effort is spent considering the diffusion of new technologies, yet old technologies fade away unremarked.
The Latest Newcomen Society Journal – Vol 89 No’s 1 & 2
A section of Joseph von Baader’s new hydraulic equipment for pumping water in the Royal Gardens in Nymphenburg, 1804 (Deutsches Museum) The Latest Newcomen Society Journal - Vol 89 No's 1 & 2 Now posted to members direct - Volume 89 of The International Journal for the History of Engineering & Technology is a bumper 275 page edition with half of the contributions coming from outside the UK - a truly International issue! It includes a feature on the Time Ball at Port Louis, Mauritius built independently by the “colourful” Royal Engineer Lieutenant Colonel John Augustus Lloyd in 1833, as well [...]
Steelmaking Technology and a Trade Union Banner
A trade union banner from 1920 featuring a set of eleven paintings of steelworks around the UK, sheds light not only on the technology of the times but also the working conditions and social relationships between workers. These paintings by British artist Herbert Finn were originally commissioned for the banner and offer a snapshot of the UK steel industry a century ago as it emerged from the First World War.
Hazards “Mr Tetin Smelt Gas And Lit A Match!”
A house in St. Mary’s Road, Upton Park was partly wrecked and completely cut in two on Saturday by a gas explosion. The furniture was reduced to a mass of debris, while Mr George Tetin, the occupier, was injured and his wife and two daughters had narrow escapes. Fifty canaries in the dining room were also uninjured.
Runcorn To Widnes Bridge Refurbishment
The newly refurbished Runcorn to Widnes Road Bridge (also known as The Silver Jubilee Bridge) was originally designed by Mott, Hay and Anderson with steelwork by Dorman-Long (Bridge and Engineering). Work began in 1956 and it opened in 1961.