"This book looks at the way science and industry relate to one other, and at the way social attitudes affect this relationship. Garrett Scaife illustrates this beautifully by tracing the story of the remarkable endeavours of the Parsons family during the century and a quarter that embraced their lives in Ireland and Great Britain at the time of the developing industrial Revolution.

The father of the family, William Parsons, Earl of Rosse, discovered the Spiral Nebula at his observatory in Ireland and displayed an unusual familiarity with engineering principles in the building of his two giant telescopes. His son, Charles, was at the forefront of the new age of technology among shipbuilders and engineers of the North East coast of England."--BOOK JACKET.