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Tim Harford tells the story of how HonorΓ© Blanc, a gun-maker in 18th-century France, transformed the way the world manufactures things - but couldn't benefit from his own innovations.

Available now

11 minutes

Last on

Mon 16 Sep 2019 03:50GMT

Image credit

Cam-plate and die from Babbage's Analytical Engine, 1834-1871 (Credit: Science & Society Picture Library/Getty Images)

Sources

Simon Winchester Exactly Harper Collins

William Howard Adams The Paris Years of Thomas Jefferson Yale University Press 1997

Thomas Jefferson The Papers of Thomas Jefferson 30 August 1785, Ed. Julian Boyd

Frank Dawson John Wilkinson: King of the Ironmasters The History Press 2012

H.W. Dickinson A Short History of the Steam Engine Cambridge University Press 1939

Robert C. Allen Global Economic History: A Very Short Introduction Oxford University Press 2011

L. T. C. Rolt Tools for the Job London HM Stationery Office 1986

Ben Russell James Watt Reaktion Books, London 2014

David A. Hounsell From the American System to Mass Production 1800-1932 John Hopkins Press, Baltimore 1987

Priya Satia Empire of Guns Duckworth Overlook London 2018

Broadcasts

  • Sat 14 Sep 2019 04:50GMT
  • Sat 14 Sep 2019 13:50GMT
  • Sun 15 Sep 2019 14:50GMT
  • Sun 15 Sep 2019 21:50GMT
  • Sun 15 Sep 2019 22:50GMT
  • Mon 16 Sep 2019 03:50GMT

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