On a full-moon evening in Birmingham, in the 1760s…
…a doctor sketched a steam carriage long before anyone could build one, and rode home by moonlight.
§ The story
In a town called Birmingham, more than two hundred and fifty years ago, a country doctor called Erasmus Darwin loved ideas. He wrote poems about plants. He drew a carriage that would run on STEAM — with no horses at all — long before anyone could build one. And he was the grandad of another Darwin, called Charles, who is very famous now.
Once a month, Erasmus and his friends met at each other's houses for supper. They picked the Monday nearest to the FULL MOON, so the moonlight could show them the way home on their horses. They called themselves the Lunar Society. Lunar means to do with the moon.
Around the table sat James Watt, who made steam engines better. Josiah Wedgwood, who made beautiful pots. Joseph Priestley, who found out about the gas we breathe — OXYGEN. Ideas jumped between them like sparks. That is often how new things begin: not with one person alone, but with friends around a table.
» You read this line
They met on the full moon.
» You read this line
Ideas jumped like sparks.
Close the book. Tell it back. Say the four friends' names if you can remember them.
§ Tell it in three pictures
Three pictures: a big full moon over Birmingham, four friends at a supper table, and Erasmus's drawing of a carriage with steam puffing out.
Harder, go as far as you can — Under picture 2, write the name of ONE Lunar Society member.
Check yourself: Darwin, Watt, Wedgwood, or Priestley.
§ The Lunar rhyme
Say each little line three times. Say the whole thing while looking at a picture of the moon.
Illuminate — Illuminate the great letter M as a big silver moon.
§ Number page
The Lunar Society met once a month, on the Monday nearest the full moon.
Check yourself: a) 12 meetings b) 6
§ Draw the inside
Draw a very simple steam engine sliced open. At the bottom, a FIRE. Above it, a BOILER with water going bubbly. A pipe carries the steam to a PISTON in a tube. The piston pushes a WHEEL.
drawn by me
Labels
§ Listening minute
Go into a garden or by an open window at dusk. Sit still for one minute. What do you catch?
The Lunar Society could hear horses' hooves on the road. Could you?
§ Move & notice
Catch
On a clear night, go outside and find the moon. Is it a full circle, half, or a slim slice? Draw its shape as small as your thumbnail.
Predict first
Guess first — do you think the moon will be big or small tonight?
§ The thinking question
Erasmus drew a steam carriage that nobody could build yet. Was that a waste of time?
For your treasury book
LUNAR
From the Latin luna, the moon. Anything ‘lunar’ has to do with the moon.
Copy LUNAR into your treasury book. Draw the moon in three shapes beside it.
Test the grown-up tonight — Ask Daddy which of the Lunar Society men he has heard of. Almost everyone knows James Watt.
§ For the corridor timeline
First, look at your timeline string. Does a panel for this century already hang there? If not, cut out the century panel below. Then clip the event card onto it.
THE 18th CENTURY · the 1700s
event cards clip below this line — leave room, more will come
Event card
THE LUNAR SOCIETY, 1760s
Friends meeting by moonlight in Birmingham quietly build the modern world.
draw the event here before you clip it up
§ Evening review
FOR DAD
Morning ignition (10 minutes)
Today we met the Lunar Society. A doctor, a potter, a steam-engine maker and a gas-finder. They met once a month on the full moon so they could ride home by its light.
The sealed question
“Which of those four friends did you already know about, without knowing they all sat at the same table?”
Evening review, in this order
Mark the badges (circle one for each)
One line worth remembering from today
the day is sealed here
Add to your week