Expatriate British Engineers in the Industrial Revolution

Introduction

Many countries were keen to adopt technology developed in Great Britain during the Industrial Revolution. Buying machinery, or gaining knowledge of designs and techniques, was often not sufficient to make progress, and there was a demand for the direct involvement of experienced engineers and other workers.

For a time, British government policy was firmly against such transfer of technology, discouraging emigration of skilled workers and banning the export of machinery and information. Many British industrialists disagreed with this policy, partly because it limited the market for their products, and partly because other countries would be encouraged to make strenuous efforts to develop their own machinery, and become competitors.

For the present purposes, the period of interest is up to the 1850s.

Engineers and Entrepreneurs

Allcard, Buddicom and Co of France - Railway equipment

Michael Alcock (1714-1785) of France

Charles Brown (1827-1896) of Switzerland

John Cockerill of Belgium

Job Dixon of France, Belgium and Holland

James Edward Earnshaw of Germany

Henry Hinde Edwards of Chaillot, France

Hall, Powell and Scott of Rouen

John Holker of Rouen

Manby, Wilson and Co

Aaron Manby France

Charles Manby France

Samuel Owen of Sweden

William Richards (Hettstedt)

William Richards (1816-1893) Spain - gas industry

Wharton Rye Germany

Thomas Scott (Rouen)

John Steele of Rouen

Henry Sykes (France) of Saint-Rémy-sur-Avre

Samuel Slater USA - Textile production

William Waddington of Saint-Rémy-sur-Avre

William Wilkinson (1744-1808) France - iron production

Daniel Wilson France

Other Workers

It was often the case that merely acquiring a machine or process was of no use to the purchaser, making it necessary to hire skilled operators from Britain or Ireland. Rarely do we know their names, but a notable exception applies to workers employed by a number of textile producers in Norway

Other Aspects of Technology Transfer

Although beyond the scope of this entry, much has been written about the acquisition of technical know-how, particularly by France, by means of overt and covert intelligence gathering. The sources provide fascinating information, and often include the names of expatriate workers. .

Some operatives in the cotton industry who had been temporarily employed overseas gave evidence before the House of Commons Select Committee on Artizans and Machinery in the 1820s. For example, James Lever, a carder, had been encouraged in 1822 to go to the cotton spinning mill of Victor Jolly at St. Quintin in France, where John Fell from Manchester had been recruited as a manager. There he was paid £2 a week instead of 34s. One of his reasons for returning to England was that he preferred English food to that on offer in France! He mentioned that the contractor for the machinery at Jolly's mill was John Marsden, who had left Manchester about 1819.

William Shoults and John Greenwood were bobbin-net operatives from Nottingham, and represented themselves and fellow lace-makers in giving evidence to the Committee about the smuggling of lace-making machinery and technology to France. They were concerned about the loss of their business to overseas makers. They referred to a family named Levers who had emigrated to France and set up business at Grancion, near Rouen, and to a man named Derbyshire, who intended to go to France to start making bobbin-net machinery. Other names given were a Mr Barrett, from New Radford, who took machinery to Dunkirk. George Shore went to Lisle. Mr Bates from Leicester established a business in Antwerp.

See Also

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