Editing Industrial Revolution (section)

===Transfer of knowledge===
[[File:Wright of Derby, The Orrery.jpg|thumb|''[[A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery]]'' a {{circa|1766}} illustration by [[Joseph Wright of Derby]] depicting informal philosophical societies spreading scientific advances]]
Knowledge of innovation was spread by several means. Workers trained in a technique might move to another employer or be poached.<ref name="Landes">{{cite book |last=Landes |first=David S. |title=The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1969 |page=45}}</ref> A common method was the study tour, in which individuals gathered information abroad.<ref name="Mokyr98">{{cite book |last=Mokyr |first=Joel |title=The Enlightened Economy: An Economic History of Britain 1700–1850 |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2009 |page=98}}</ref> Throughout the Industrial Revolution and preceding century, European countries and America engaged in such tours; Sweden and France even trained civil servants or technicians to undertake them as policy,<ref name="Mokyr101">{{cite book |last=Mokyr |first=Joel |title=The Enlightened Economy |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2009 |page=101}}</ref> while in Britain and America individual manufacturers pursued tours independently.<ref name="Allen82">{{cite book |last=Allen |first=Robert C. |title=The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2009 |page=82}}</ref> Travel diaries from the tours are invaluable records of period methods.<ref name="Landes"/>

Innovation spread via informal networks such as the [[Lunar Society of Birmingham]], whose members met from 1765 to 1809 to discuss natural philosophy and its industrial applications. They have been described as “the revolutionary committee of that most far-reaching of all the eighteenth-century revolutions, the Industrial Revolution.”<ref name="Dunn23">{{cite book |last=Dunn |first=Kevin |title=The Lunar Society of Birmingham: A Social History of Provincial Science and Industry |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1980 |page=23}}</ref> Similar societies published papers and proceedings; for example, the [[Royal Society of Arts]] issued annual ''Transactions'' and illustrated volumes of new inventions.<ref>{{cite book |last=Royal Society of Arts |title=Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce |publisher=Royal Society of Arts |year=1789 |page=12}}</ref>

Technical encyclopaedias disseminated methods. [[John Harris (writer)|John Harris]]’s ''Lexicon Technicum'' (1704) offered extensive scientific and engineering entries.<ref name="HarrisTech">{{cite book |last=Harris |first=John |title=Lexicon Technicum; or, An Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences |publisher=W. & J. Innys |year=1704 |page=1}}</ref> [[Abraham Rees]]’s ''The Cyclopaedia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature'' (1802–19) contained detailed articles and engraved plates on machines and processes.<ref name="Rees1802">{{cite book |last=Rees |first=Abraham |title=The Cyclopaedia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature |publisher=Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown |year=1802–1819 |volume=3 |page=15}}</ref> French works such as the ''Descriptions des Arts et Métiers'' and Diderot’s ''Encyclopédie'' similarly documented foreign techniques with engraved illustrations.<ref>{{cite web |title=Descriptions des Arts et Métiers |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9617696w |publisher=Bibliothèque nationale de France |access-date=2025-05-02}}</ref>

Periodicals on manufacturing and patents emerged in the 1790s; for instance, French journals like the ''Annales des Mines'' printed engineers’ travel reports on British factories, helping diffuse British innovations abroad.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Godart |first=Jean-Jacques |title=Annales des Mines et Observations sur l'Art de l'Ingénieur |journal=Annales des Mines |date=1798 |volume=1 |page=12}}</ref>