William Armstrong

Book excerpt: 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