ABSTRACT
During the eighteenth century, Manchester, like other English towns, established a Literary and Philosophical Society. One must remember that eighteenth-century science was an amateur activity, a matter of self-patronage, the only corporate aspect of which was the clubbable one represented by the 'Lit & Phil' and kindred bodies. During the first hair of the nineteenth century, engineers came to play an increasingly important part in the activities of the Lit & Phil. Only a handful, of which the Manchester Institution was one, were to survive, however, to become permanent educational establishments. Among the prominent supporters of the movement in Manchester were Peter Ewart, William Fairbairn, and Richard Roberts, the great Welsh engineer. Manchester University had been a pioneer in the proressionalization of science. The most famous scientific work done in Manchester just before World War I was the establishment of the Rutherford-Bohr atom.
