Talk:Science and invention in Birmingham

Archive 1

Tidy Up

Over time I hope to try and clean up tenses here, include new material and source some picture to make the article easier on the eye. Old Bess (talk) 16:44, 29 April 2011 (UTC)

A few ideas. Start with a location section. No one in the States knows where Birmingham is - except in Alabama. Do it from the point of view of communications- canala- natural resources. Take text from History of Birmingham.

This might be better named like ( Timeline of Birmingham history--Timeline of science and invention in Birmingham, what we need is not just a list but back links that lead the reader to understanf what the unique factors in Bŕum made this the only place where it could have happened. Articles that are not timelines and lists need to be written in flowing prose- beats me why- from my background lists are far clearer. --ClemRutter (talk) 20:35, 3 May 2011 (UTC)

Thanks Clem, sorry it has taken so long for me to reply. I will add an intro as you suggest as I have some more facts on this as well which is specific to invention in the city, I did suggest changing the title of this read 'Science and Innovation In Birmingham' some time ago but it was met with low response so I left it. I think it would be a major job to change the title now but maybe a task for the future. I'm starting to add images to create more depth, and trying also to change the tenses to present a more 'as it happens' feel to the article. The hardest part is making sure the patents and inventions are worthy and notable of inclusion, this can be done in part by visiting the articles linked to and doing a bit of digging, in some cases articles are having to be updated to reflect this article. Old Bess (talk) 22:45, 26 July 2011 (UTC)

An update, I am now adding images and attempting to clean up and condense the 20th century. Old Bess (talk) 09:43, 18 August 2011 (UTC)

Stand Alone Cooking Stove

"At some time around the late 18th or early 19th century a stand-alone cooking range or [[stove is invented by John Heard (joiner), capable of roasting, boiling, baking and of course heating a room. The products of combustion are carried off by means of a flue leading to the chimney, the inventor mentions it is particularly suitable for use on board ships. This is possibly the first of its kind, as earlier stoves such as the Franklin stove do not appear to have flues attached and require a hearth and chimney to function, also it is not until the turn of the 19th century that other stoves begin appearing to cook in as well as heat a room."

Regarding the above section, I read it in the book on inventions taken out from the Library but I'd like to do more research to see whether it really was anything that different from other stoves of the time, not sure where else to look. Will leave it in for now but not add the information to articles on stoves directly. Old Bess (talk) 22:38, 26 July 2011 (UTC)

Orphaned references in Science and invention in Birmingham

I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Science and invention in Birmingham's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "odnb":

• From Evesham: Williams, Ann, "Godgifu (died 1067?)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(Online edition) 2006, Oxford University Press, retrieved 10 January 2011
• From Harry Gem: Rowley, Andrew, "Gem, Thomas Henry (1819–1881)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 10 July 2007
• From Joseph Lucas: Joseph Lucas at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• From George Stephenson: Kirby, M. W. (1984). "Stephenson, George (1781–1848)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2 ed.). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT⚡ 20:17, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

Re: Reference Improvements

I have carried out considerable work to cite sources and include as many direct links to relevant articles where sources are already cited since the "Refimprove" request posted back in July 2009. This banner is now removed and continued work on this area will hopefully ensure the page and article remains reliable. Thanks Old Bess (talk) 19:04, 9 October 2011 (UTC)

Citations must be in the article itself. It is not enough to link to pages that have the citations. The reader should not have to go to a linked page in the hopes of finding citations. KennethSides (talk) 12:27, 12 November 2011 (UTC)

Article is mostly unreferenced and contains uncited quotes

The article fails reliable sources. Information in a Wiki article must have inline sources and all quotes must have citations. That is required by Wikipedia in every article, regardless of where the info comes from. If it comes from another Wiki articles, the citations must be carried over. For a reader of this article, there is no way to verify the information provided in it. Do not remove the tags until Wiki reliable sources and verify policies are complied with! (They have recently been removed with no improvement to the article.) KennethSides (talk) 12:20, 12 November 2011 (UTC)

Thank you Kenneth, I shall endevour to carry the citations over and make sure all quotes and material is based on reliable sources. I'll contact you once this is done and you can remove the banner when happy :) Old Bess (talk) 16:11, 12 November 2011 (UTC)

Content

Since I last examined this article, it has been greatly expanded, acquiring long sections about the period up to the 18th century. The problem is that the result is to provide an article on History of trade and industry in Birmingham or Economic History of Birmingham, but very little of this is either concerned with "science" or "invention". I suspect that this article originated as a compilation from Prosser's book on Birmingham inventor, with much further addition. The sections that I am criticising contina good material, but I think they ought to be split off into another article, with one of the titles suggested. I would also suggest that listing people who were merely educated in Birmingham is probably not appropriate: they probably belong in a list of scientists from Birmingham, rather than here. Peterkingiron (talk) 16:21, 12 November 2011 (UTC)