John Whitehurst FRS: Innovator, Scientist, Geologist and Clockmaker

John Whitehurst was one of a select number of men of science living and working in the eighteenth century whose minds were as remarkable for their breadth as their talents were for their diversity. Although remembered today mainly as a notable clockmaker from Derby – the town in which he lived and worked for over forty years – Whitehurst was also an instrument maker, mechanical engineer, hydraulicist, home improver, meteorologist, the father of modern geology and he had a hand in the development of the steam engine­­­­.