Armstrong's Admirable Speech

BRITISH SCIENCE FESTIVAL

ARMSTRONG’S ADMIRABLE SPEECH Hear how the great prophet of the Victorian Age foresaw the end of coal mining and the urgent need for sustainable energy sources – and voice your own opinion!

A 150th anniversary performance

by Chris Connel guest contributors Chi Onwurah MP Dr Andy Kerr

Sunday, 8 September 2013 King’s Hall, Armstrong Building Newcastle University Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU doors open at 7pm; event starts at 7.30pm tickets £6, available online from www.britishsciencefestival.org or by calling 08456 807 207

Darwin, the British Association and the Admirable Speech In 1863, the British Association for the Advancement of Science held its annual festival in Newcastle, where its host and president was Sir William Armstrong – knighted in 1859 and hailed as a national hero after handing over his gun patents to the government.

Founded in 1831, the British Association embraced all the scientific luminaries of the day, including Charles Darwin (right), whose recent book On the Origin of Species was causing a huge stir. Darwin coined the phrase ‘Armstrong’s Admirable Speech’ to describe the president’s remarkable address to members.

Covering an astonishing array of subjects, from the birth of the railways to the discovery of the source of the Nile, the Admirable Speech is a magisterial and inspiring analysis of human ingenuity and the industrial revolution. Much of its content still resonates today.

Among many prophetic insights, Armstrong accurately predicted the end of large-scale coal mining in Britain and urged his audience to look beyond fossil fuels to electricity, water power and other more sustainable ways to meet humanity’s ever-growing energy needs.

Armstrong’s speech was rapturously received by the crowd in Newcastle’s New Town Hall (see the Illustrated London News, below) and there was a huge demand for transcripts in the days that followed. Reproduced word for word in national and local newspapers, it was also printed as a pamphlet and widely circulated.

Actor Chris Connel brings Armstrong’s speech back to life on the 150th anniversary of its first performance in Newcastle With the British Science Association (as it is now called) again meeting in Newcastle, the time is ripe for a reenactment of the speech – and the man to do it is Chris Connel. Highly acclaimed for his portrayal of Oliver

Kilbourn in The Pitmen Painters, Chris has recently excelled in Close the Coalhouse Door and other Live Theatre productions. His television work includes Emmerdale, The Bill, Byker Grove and George Gently.

Chi Onwurah, MP for Newcastle Central and a shadow cabinet office minister, will introduce ‘William Armstrong’.

Chi is an electrical engineer with a particular interest in promoting business, innovation and life-long education.

After the speech, she will chair a short debate and audience Q&A with Dr Andy Kerr, executive director of the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation (ECCI).

Who was William Armstrong?

William Armstrong (1810–1900) was one of the most brilliant and charismatic figures of the Victorian Age – a self-made man whose amazing achievements have long been underestimated.

Inventor, scientist, philanthropist and engineer, he built Cragside in Northumberland (right), the first house in the world lit by hydroelectricity, and created an industrial powerhouse on the Tyne employing 25,000 people in the manufacture of hydraulic machinery, ships and armaments.

Widely renowned as ‘the inventor of modern artillery’ (The Times), Armstrong was also a conservationist far in advance of his time, planting on his Cragside estate more than 7 million trees and advocating the use of ‘renewable’ energy.

As the Admirable Speech makes clear, Armstrong was a lucid and visionary communicator. He was the principal founder of the College of Science, later Newcastle University, and the university’s Armstrong Building is named after him.

James Ramsay’s portrait shows Armstrong at 35, soon after he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society.

ARMSTRONG’S ADMIRABLE SPEECH On your arrival at King’s Hall, Armstrong Building, at 7pm on 8 September 2013 Tristan Selden will play the Northumbrian pipes Chris Connel will deliver the Admirable Speech and there will be a short debate led by Chi Onwurah and Andy Kerr inviting questions from the audience a carbon-themed artwork by Jennie Speirs Grant ARBS of Armstrong Studio Trust, Newcastle, and ECCI’s Artist in Residence, will accompany the presentation

The event will be filmed by Lodestone Studios, with the aim of creating a lasting educational resource. The organisers would like to thank Barbour and the British Science Association for their generous sponsorship.

Thanks are also due to Newcastle University for the use of King’s Hall and its facilities, to Ces Maddison of Tench Maddison Ash for his inspiration and ideas, and to Little Theatre Gateshead and Dorothy and Peter Farrell for providing the actor’s costume.

Armstrong’s Admirable Speech is part of the British Science Festival 2013 and is produced in association with the Great North Festival. The Producer is Henrietta Heald, author of William Armstrong, Magician of the North. www.williamarmstrong.info