William Armstrong was a brilliant and charismatic figure of the 19th Century - a self-made man whose achievements are now being more widely recognised. Inventor, scientist, engineer, and an early advocator of renewable energy, he built a pioneering house in Northumberland in the North East of England called Cragside, the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectricity.
Armstrong's industrial powerhouse Elswick Works on the Tyne employed over 25,000 people in its heyday manufacturing hydraulic cranes, warships and armaments.
He was a visionary who was loved, and hated, and feared in equal measure. While he brought great fame and fortune to his native Newcastle upon Tyne, and to his country as a whole, he was condemned in some quarters as 'a merchant of death' for his manufacturing of weapons of war.
'This intimate, authoritative portrait reveals as never before the extraordinary achievements of a multi-faceted Victorian giant.' David Kynaston
'An excellent book - hugely enjoyable.' Alexander Armstrong
William George Armstrong was a visionary inventor, scientist and businessman who bestrode the 19th-century world like a colossus, bringing global renown to his Elswick works at Newcastle upon Tyne, which employed 25,000 people in the manufacture of hydraulic cranes, ships and armaments. He created Cragside in Northumberland, and planted in its grounds seven million trees; his guests at Cragside included the Shah of Persia, the King of Siam, the Prime Minister of China and two future British kings. Magician of the North is much more than the life of one man, however. It is the story of Britain at the height of empire, riding the crest of industrial and technological success. The Queen and the Prince Consort played a vital role in fostering the scientific ferment, but so did characters such as Michael Faraday, Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley.
