Anton Howes
Historian of invention; writes Age of Invention on where the Industrial Revolution actually came from.
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Where they publish
Newsletter Age of Invention His newsletter on the history of innovation. Has a feed.
Recent
- Age of Invention: Why Scotland Succeeded 24 Mar 2026 It was capital, not education
- Age of Invention: Tudor Trade War 12 Jan 2026 The true effects of Henry VII's "industrial policy"
- Age of Invention: Joel Mokyr's Nobel 13 Oct 2025 A triumph for history and the importance of ideas
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- Age of Invention: The Century-Long Depression 26 Aug 2025 There’s an old proverb about England, current in the sixteenth century, that it was a hell for horses, a paradise for women, and a purgatory or prison for servants.
- Age of Invention: All Fired Up 2 Jul 2025 The mystifying, centuries-long failure of the coal briquette
- Age of Invention: Just Kiln Time 22 Apr 2025 The Quest for Pale Ale, Part I
- Age of Invention: How Coal Really Won 12 Feb 2025 The Coal Conquest, Part II
- Age of Invention: The Coal Conquest 4 Oct 2024 There was no shortage of trees
- Age of Invention: The Dutch Salten Age 27 Jun 2024 Part III of the Salt Series
- Age of Invention: The Second Soul, Part II 1 May 2024 The Lands that Salt Forgot
- Age of Invention: The Second Soul, Part I 8 Mar 2024 Here’s a riddle. There was a product in the seventeenth century that was universally considered a necessity as important as grain and fuel. Controlling the source of this product was one of the first priorities for many…
- Age of Invention: Unsung Materials 19 Jan 2024 One of my big goals for this year, as part of finally finishing my book on the causes of the Industrial Revolution, has been to get a handle on a bunch of industries of the period — ones that experienced dramatic change…
- Age of Invention: More the Merrier 22 Dec 2023 Today I’m making good on a promise.
- Age of Invention: The Interactive History of the Steam Engine 7 Dec 2023 I’m excited to announce something I’ve been quietly working on for a few months now behind the scenes: the first instalment of the interactive, animated, explorable history of the steam engine.
- Age of Invention: How to be a Public Historian 28 Nov 2023 Writing for a public audience is a double-edged sword.
- Age of Invention: Outdoing the Ancients 10 Nov 2023 When was the technology of the Ancient World superseded? The views from 1599 and 1715.
- Age of Invention: Lessons from the Rise of Coal 25 Oct 2023 The surprising rise of muscle power, the salty source of Scottish Lowlands wealth, the Dutch Republic's energy abundance, and why doesn't anybody ever talk about lime?
- Age of Invention: How to Steal Technology 10 Oct 2023 The extraordinary life of John Holker: industrialist, rebel, prisoner, fugitive, soldier, undercover agent, spy-catcher, industrial spymaster, innovation inspector, and nobleman.
- Age of Invention: Open History 22 Sept 2023 I was quite overwhelmed by the response to my last piece, on whether history has a reproducibility crisis — all the more overwhelmed because I posted it just before moving house. But I’ve been sent so many interesting t…
- Age of Invention: Does History have a Replication Crisis? 29 Aug 2023 Back in 2011, the field of psychology went into crisis. Some of the most famous and widely-cited experimental results could not be replicated by others. These were findings published in the field’s most prestigious acad…
Link verified 20 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 10 beliefs, 1 changed mind — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
Economics journals have made large datasets and heavy statistics the price of making any causal claim at all, which has squeezed qualitative economic history out of the field.
Over the past few decades, journal editors and peer-reviewers have increasingly insisted that papers must present large datasets that have been treated using complex statistical methods in order to make even the mildest claims about what caused what.
Age of Invention: Joel Mokyr's Nobel Said 13 Oct 2025
London did not lead England into coal: coal spread outwards from the Newcastle coalfield, and London was one of the last places to take it up.
Far from being the laboratory that brought coal into the home, then, London was actually a laggard — all the more so given it had been buying coal from Newcastle for centuries.
Age of Invention: How Coal Really Won Said 12 Feb 2025
England's deforestation was a consequence of cheap coal rather than its cause.
England’s deforestation — along with the draining of its peat-filled fens and marshes, and the clearing of its gorse-growing heaths — was instead itself caused by the arrival of cheap coal.
Age of Invention: How Coal Really Won Said 12 Feb 2025
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The Dutch Golden Age did not end for want of energy: peat and grain were cheaper than ever while its industries were collapsing.
The Dutch Republic’s Golden Age did not fail because it lacked energy sources.
Age of Invention: Lessons from the Rise of Coal Said 25 Oct 2023
Lime is a blind spot in economic history: cheap coal made it widely available as a soil treatment and raised farm output, and the standard growth estimates barely mention it.
Yet lime is a huge blind spot for economic historians, despite it increasing the productivity of what was still by far the largest portion of the economy: agriculture.
Age of Invention: Lessons from the Rise of Coal Said 25 Oct 2023
"Lots of anonymous people worked it out by trial and error" is never the real story of an invention: on closer investigation, identifiable people always turn out to be responsible.
“lots of anonymous people just invented through trial and error and adaptation” just doesn’t cut it for me — I’ve never found such stories to be true upon closer investigation.
Age of Invention: Lessons from the Rise of Coal Said 25 Oct 2023
History has a reproducibility problem worse than science’s replication crisis, because hardly anyone ever goes back to the sources to check what a historian claimed they say.
But I’ve become increasingly worried that science’s replication crises might pale in comparison to what happens all the time in history, which is not just a replication crisis but a reproducibility crisis.
Age of Invention: Does History have a Replication Crisis? Said 29 Aug 2023
Historical myths are close to unkillable: once in print they keep being repeated for decades or centuries after being disproved.
Historical myths are especially zombie-like. Even when disproven, they just. won’t. die.
Age of Invention: Does History have a Replication Crisis? Said 29 Aug 2023
The field of history runs on a trust it has not earned: almost nobody ever checks a citation, so an error can propagate unchallenged indefinitely.
But it’s hard to trust when you are exposed to one of the most frightening of revelations: that hardly anyone ever bothers to check.
Age of Invention: Does History have a Replication Crisis? Said 29 Aug 2023
Historians should be required to publish photographs or transcriptions of the archival sources they cite, the way scientists are expected to publish their data.
Just as in the sciences it is considered good practice to make one’s data available, in history it should perhaps be a requirement to upload to some public repository the photographs or transcriptions of any cited archival sources that are not otherwise freely accessible online.
Age of Invention: Does History have a Replication Crisis? Said 29 Aug 2023
What is a korrent?
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Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
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Feed
As its own page →Hiding
24 March
12 January
13 October 2025
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Their words
Over the past few decades, journal editors and peer-reviewers have increasingly insisted that papers must present large datasets that have been treated using complex statistical methods in order to make even the mildest claims about what caused what.
26 August 2025
2 July 2025
22 April 2025
12 February 2025
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On changing their mind
As I set out last time, the usual story — that this was caused by deforestation, making firewood so scarce that people resorted to burning an inferior but cheaper fuel — simply does not stack up.
From one piece Age of Invention: How Coal Really Won 2 beliefs · ageofinvention.xyz
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Their words
England’s deforestation — along with the draining of its peat-filled fens and marshes, and the clearing of its gorse-growing heaths — was instead itself caused by the arrival of cheap coal.
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Their words
Far from being the laboratory that brought coal into the home, then, London was actually a laggard — all the more so given it had been buying coal from Newcastle for centuries.
4 October 2024
27 June 2024
1 May 2024
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22 December 2023
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25 October 2023
From one piece Age of Invention: Lessons from the Rise of Coal 3 beliefs · ageofinvention.xyz
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Their words
“lots of anonymous people just invented through trial and error and adaptation” just doesn’t cut it for me — I’ve never found such stories to be true upon closer investigation.
Age of Invention: Lessons from the Rise of Coalageofinvention.xyz
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Their words
Yet lime is a huge blind spot for economic historians, despite it increasing the productivity of what was still by far the largest portion of the economy: agriculture.
Age of Invention: Lessons from the Rise of Coalageofinvention.xyz
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Their words
The Dutch Republic’s Golden Age did not fail because it lacked energy sources.
Age of Invention: Lessons from the Rise of Coalageofinvention.xyz
10 October 2023
22 September 2023
29 August 2023
Nothing matches.
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