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Interesting they didn't mention that Charles Darwin was his grandson. The pottery business funded Darwin's voyage on the Beagle.
by georgecmu 8y ago
Interesting they didn't mention that Charles Darwin was his grandson. The pottery business funded Darwin's voyage on the Beagle.
- bromuro 8y agoI don’t get it... Why it is interesting they didn’t mention it?
- labster 8y ago"Interesting that" is just a figure of speech that people use to introduce information weakly related to OP.
- scarejunba 8y agoHaha right but it’s interesting that Charles Darwin was the grandson. It isn’t interesting that they didn’t mention it. Sorry for perpetuating meta discussion.
- pseudoanonymity 8y agoI'd argue that it is an interesting element to the story. To add a little hyperbole, the wealth cascaded down two generations and helped enable a lifetime of serious scientific work that fundamentally changed the world.
- scarejunba 8y agoFair enough. Consider me convinced.
- timClicks 8y agoFascinating. I've always assumed that the expeditions were funded by patrons. That never really seemed right to be though, because Charles Darwin wasn't very sociable IIRC.
- mannykannot 8y agoThe voyage itself was funded by the British Admiralty, for the purpose of a hydrographical survey, but Darwin's presence on it was privately funded.
- mannykannot 8y agoJosiah Wedgwood and Charles Darwin's paternal grandfather Erasmus Darwin were both members of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, which also included the chemist and liberal theologian Joseph Priestly, James Watt of steam-engine fame, and Watt's patron and partner Matthew Bolton, who was as much a technological entrepreneur as Wedgwood.
- claudiawerner 8y agoTo add yet another connection, Watt is thought to have inspired Smith's physicalist theory of value at the university in Glasgow.
- Theodores 8y agoInterestingly they did not mention the wonderful work that he did for the abolitionists who wanted to get rid of the slave trade. The pottery business made the abolitionist cause fashionable.
- deergomoo 8y agoI’m from Stoke-on-Trent. The Wedgwood factory is about a 30 minute walk from where I grew up. There’s a big statue of him outside our railway station. This is the first I’m hearing that Darwin was his grandson. I’m amazed that I didn’t know, and so far no-one I’ve asked knew either. Crazy.
- dizzy3gg 8y agoDitto, I’m from Longton and it’s the first I’ve heard.