1775
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The first meeting of the Lunar Society is given as Sunday, 31 December
1775
on p.141 of
Schofield (1963).
The history of the Lunar Society is, however, rather complex.
According to pp.33-117 of
Schofield (1963), it was preceeded (1765-1775)
by informal meetings of a group
that Schofield names the Lunar Circle.
According to p. 3 of
Schofield (1963), it was a small group comprised of only 14 members,
including Erasmus Darwin, Samuel Galton, Joseph Priestly, Jonathan Stokes,
James Watt, and Josiah Wedgewood (the renowned potter);
and it specialized in the application of science and technology to
industry.
The group took the name Lunar Society,
according to p.3 and p.145 of
Schofield (1963),
because they generally scheduled their dinner meetings on the Sunday or
Monday
closest to the Full Moon.
The website for a latter-day Birmingham-based
Lunar Society indicates that the proximity of meetings of the original
Lunar Society to the Full Moon was
"to make travel easier before the days of street lighting."
According to p.4 of
Schofield (1963), the Lunar Society never published its proceedings.
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1775 - 1809?
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Lunar Society
[Sometimes referred to as:
Lunar Society of Birmingham.]
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The first meeting of the Lunar Society is given as Sunday, December 31
1775
on p.141 of
Schofield (1963).
And on p.414 of
Schofield (1963), Schofield indicates that the Lunar Society went into
decline after 1791, but he acknowledges that Eric Robinson had cited
evidence of meetings of the Lunar Society as late as 1801.
The website for a latter-day Birmingham-based
Lunar Society gives a cessation date of 1809 for its
eighteenth-century predecessor.
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