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.