Engineering and radicalism in the 1820s

This paper examines the use of Mechanical and Engineering publications in the 1820s and 30s as vehicles for radical political thoughts and manifestos during a time of repression. I will show how they carry arguments that had been seen in radical journals that could no longer survive due to the new stamp duty that aimed to put news and politics out of reach of the working classes. I will also show how education was opposition by the church and Tories— and finally onto how these magazines could indeed become conduits of radical ideas on education as well as gateways to more dangerous practical kinds of knowledge like bomb and bullet making.