Lunar Society

The Lunar Society was a discussion club, of a number of prominent industrialists and scientists, who met regularly in the latter half of the 18th century in Birmingham, England. The society's name came from their practice of scheduling their meetings at the time of the full moon (in that time of no street lighting, the extra light made the journey home easier)... The Lunar Society evolved through various degrees of organisation over a period of up to fifty years, but was only ever an informal group. No constitution, minutes, publications or membership lists survive from any period, and evidence of its existence and activities is found only in the correspondence and notes of those associated with it... Despite this uncertainty, fourteen individuals have been identified as having verifiably attended Lunar Society meetings regularly over a long period during its most productive eras: these are Matthew Boulton, Erasmus Darwin, Thomas Day, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Samuel Galton, Jr., Robert Augustus Johnson, James Keir, Joseph Priestley, William Small, Jonathan Stokes, James Watt, Josiah Wedgwood, John Whitehurst and William Withering. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Society

• also more-loosely involved: Ben Franklin
• While the society's meetings provided its name and social focus, however, they were relatively unimportant in its activities, and far more activity and communication took place outside the meetings themselves – members local to Birmingham were in almost daily contact, more distant ones in correspondence at least weekly.
• see also Lunar Men

http://www.greencheese.org

http://jquarter.members.beeb.net/morelunar.htm

http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/carnegie/ch7.html

http://www.virtualbrum.co.uk/history/brum5.htm

http://www.search.revolutionaryplayers.org.uk/engine/resource/exhibition/standard/default.asp?resource=670