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| Version 2 | Version 3 |
|---|---|
| How the BBC rewrote history to disrespect Leeds ... again | How the BBC rewrote history to disrespect Leeds ... again |
| (8 days later) | |
| Some of you may be aware that I'm not adverse to the odd rant and last Thursday's The Genius of Invention on BBC 2 has wound me up so much that I'm not just hot under the collar, I've ripped off mi'shirt and it's currently smouldering in the garden. | Some of you may be aware that I'm not adverse to the odd rant and last Thursday's The Genius of Invention on BBC 2 has wound me up so much that I'm not just hot under the collar, I've ripped off mi'shirt and it's currently smouldering in the garden. |
| The programme disrespected John Blenkinsop, the hugely influential engineer/inventor Matthew Murray , Middleton Railway and the city of Leeds. | The programme disrespected John Blenkinsop, the hugely influential engineer/inventor Matthew Murray , Middleton Railway and the city of Leeds. |
| Now I've a long and rather sad list of ways in which I think the BBC, with its London/Manchester/Salford axis of bias, disrespects and under-represents Leeds – the UK's third biggest city – from coverage of the arts all the way through to their main weather map. | Now I've a long and rather sad list of ways in which I think the BBC, with its London/Manchester/Salford axis of bias, disrespects and under-represents Leeds – the UK's third biggest city – from coverage of the arts all the way through to their main weather map. |
| I'm going to question the BBC experts, academics and researchers of Genius from the position of a complete oik, not a specialist, and absolutely not qualified to do so … although what's to lose other than a tiny reputation as a writer (wi'mi'mum) and a smidgeon of personal pride. | I'm going to question the BBC experts, academics and researchers of Genius from the position of a complete oik, not a specialist, and absolutely not qualified to do so … although what's to lose other than a tiny reputation as a writer (wi'mi'mum) and a smidgeon of personal pride. |
| I've nothing against George Stephenson, whom they credited with the development of steam locomotives. Stephenson was a fabulous engineer, inventor and innovator who helped shape our world, but to deify him as they did, at the expense of others, is neither appropriate nor historically accurate. | I've nothing against George Stephenson, whom they credited with the development of steam locomotives. Stephenson was a fabulous engineer, inventor and innovator who helped shape our world, but to deify him as they did, at the expense of others, is neither appropriate nor historically accurate. |
| Their language was careful but misleading. When discussing pioneering steam engine and locomotive designer Richard Trevithick's work, Genius said "it was Stephenson who made it something really practical." Thirteen years before what they went onto discuss, up to 90 tons of coal a journey was already being move by locomotive from Middleton to Leeds via Middleton Railway. Was that not "really practical"? Not even after functioning for over 20 years? | Their language was careful but misleading. When discussing pioneering steam engine and locomotive designer Richard Trevithick's work, Genius said "it was Stephenson who made it something really practical." Thirteen years before what they went onto discuss, up to 90 tons of coal a journey was already being move by locomotive from Middleton to Leeds via Middleton Railway. Was that not "really practical"? Not even after functioning for over 20 years? |
| To make my chest switch to twin cylinder powered steam the programme implied that upon being presented with the problem of horse-drawn wagons moving coal by rail (1820) Stephenson scratched his chin and came up with the ground-shaking idea of using a rail-based steam locomotive. It's as if – to quote E. Kilburn Scott's Matthew Murray: Pioneer Engineer, p 123 – in "1813, George Stephenson came to Leeds to see Murray's locomotives" hauling coal had never happened. | To make my chest switch to twin cylinder powered steam the programme implied that upon being presented with the problem of horse-drawn wagons moving coal by rail (1820) Stephenson scratched his chin and came up with the ground-shaking idea of using a rail-based steam locomotive. It's as if – to quote E. Kilburn Scott's Matthew Murray: Pioneer Engineer, p 123 – in "1813, George Stephenson came to Leeds to see Murray's locomotives" hauling coal had never happened. |
| Watching the programme you'd have no idea that George 'modeled' his first steam locomotive Blücher, on Matthew Murray's Willington after studying it at Kenton and Coxlodge colliery on Tyneside. | Watching the programme you'd have no idea that George 'modeled' his first steam locomotive Blücher, on Matthew Murray's Willington after studying it at Kenton and Coxlodge colliery on Tyneside. |
| To be fair there was a single, catch-all sentence whilst a series of images (including Murray's Salamanca) flashed up. How sad that a supposedly informed run through locomotive history, should reduce the world's first commercially successful locomotive to a single, brief image with no mention or caption. | To be fair there was a single, catch-all sentence whilst a series of images (including Murray's Salamanca) flashed up. How sad that a supposedly informed run through locomotive history, should reduce the world's first commercially successful locomotive to a single, brief image with no mention or caption. |
| I understand that they're trying to make the programme 'sexy' and concentrate on big, historical 'names' – who hasn't heard of Stephenson's Rocket – but if that involves bending history until it snaps their format is clearly wrong. Bigging up a 'star name' leads to hyperbole and a disrespect of others work. Phrases such as 'by marrying the train to the track, George Stephenson …' as if it were an innovation and achievement, are misleading; Blenkinsop and Murray had already 'married the train to the track'. | I understand that they're trying to make the programme 'sexy' and concentrate on big, historical 'names' – who hasn't heard of Stephenson's Rocket – but if that involves bending history until it snaps their format is clearly wrong. Bigging up a 'star name' leads to hyperbole and a disrespect of others work. Phrases such as 'by marrying the train to the track, George Stephenson …' as if it were an innovation and achievement, are misleading; Blenkinsop and Murray had already 'married the train to the track'. |
| There were so many examples that made me boil and one I've just stumbled across, Stephenson's "brilliant idea" (presented as his idea and invention) of a fire-tube boiler which was multi-tubular. Brilliant, except it appears to be the invention of French engineer Marc Seguin and suggested to Stephenson by Henry Booth. Yeah, but that 'narrative' isn't as sexy. Ooh the genius of being able to listen. (1) | There were so many examples that made me boil and one I've just stumbled across, Stephenson's "brilliant idea" (presented as his idea and invention) of a fire-tube boiler which was multi-tubular. Brilliant, except it appears to be the invention of French engineer Marc Seguin and suggested to Stephenson by Henry Booth. Yeah, but that 'narrative' isn't as sexy. Ooh the genius of being able to listen. (1) |
| By excluding him, they decided that Matthew Murray didn't make extremely important contributions to locomotives and steam technology, as if his work wasn't relevant. Perhaps one of the experts could provide a list of his achievements, large and small? | By excluding him, they decided that Matthew Murray didn't make extremely important contributions to locomotives and steam technology, as if his work wasn't relevant. Perhaps one of the experts could provide a list of his achievements, large and small? |
| Anyway let's just get a couple of things straight, the world's first commercially functioning locomotive was produced by John Blenkinsop and Matthew Murray in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. Stephenson's first was two years later, after studying their work. | Anyway let's just get a couple of things straight, the world's first commercially functioning locomotive was produced by John Blenkinsop and Matthew Murray in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. Stephenson's first was two years later, after studying their work. |
| Now I'm no expert, no historian of locomotion, I've written a general Encyclopaedia of Leeds but I don't like misrepresentation or the 'sexing-up' of science and technology, just give me Brian Cox talking to me in terms that I understand and I'm happy. I sometimes worry that the 'sexing-up' of serious subjects requires the wheeling out and cleverly cutting in of experts and academics to tell the story the dynamic way, the 'cool' way, the often half the story way. Me I prefer accuracy, if it's a bit dry, so be it, and I prefer to know as much of the story as they do. | Now I'm no expert, no historian of locomotion, I've written a general Encyclopaedia of Leeds but I don't like misrepresentation or the 'sexing-up' of science and technology, just give me Brian Cox talking to me in terms that I understand and I'm happy. I sometimes worry that the 'sexing-up' of serious subjects requires the wheeling out and cleverly cutting in of experts and academics to tell the story the dynamic way, the 'cool' way, the often half the story way. Me I prefer accuracy, if it's a bit dry, so be it, and I prefer to know as much of the story as they do. |
| I hear The Genius of Invention is covering motion pictures in a couple of weeks. If they don't give a central role to Louise Le Prince and his production of the world's first moving film in Leeds and a quick nod to Leeds lad Wordsworth Donisthorpe – who appears to have created the world's second moving film (Trafalgar Square, 1890) – BBC Execs, you might as well scrap the programme now and replace it with something more realistic … perhaps Dr Who? | I hear The Genius of Invention is covering motion pictures in a couple of weeks. If they don't give a central role to Louise Le Prince and his production of the world's first moving film in Leeds and a quick nod to Leeds lad Wordsworth Donisthorpe – who appears to have created the world's second moving film (Trafalgar Square, 1890) – BBC Execs, you might as well scrap the programme now and replace it with something more realistic … perhaps Dr Who? |
| (1) Davies, Hunter (1975). George Stephenson. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-76934-0 | (1) Davies, Hunter (1975). George Stephenson. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-76934-0 |
| Mick McCann is a writer based in Leeds whose books include the local encyclopaedia How Leeds Changed the World. | Mick McCann is a writer based in Leeds whose books include the local encyclopaedia How Leeds Changed the World. |
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