author
Marquis of Edward Somerset Worcester
1601–1667
A Royalist nobleman, diplomat, and inventor, he is best remembered for pairing political drama with restless mechanical curiosity. His famous book A Century of the Names and Scantlings of Such Inventions helped keep his reputation alive as an early thinker about steam-powered machinery.
1 Audiobook
The Century of Inventions of the Marquis of Worcester from the Original MS., with Historical and Explanatory Notes and a Biographical Memoir
by Marquis of Edward Somerset Worcester
About the author
Born in the early 1600s and later becoming the 2nd Marquess of Worcester, Edward Somerset was a prominent Catholic aristocrat who supported Charles I during the English Civil Wars. He was deeply involved in royalist affairs and is also associated with diplomatic efforts connected to Ireland during that turbulent period.
Alongside politics, he had a lasting fascination with machines and practical invention. His best-known work, A Century of the Names and Scantlings of Such Inventions, published in 1663, describes a wide range of devices and is the main reason he is still discussed in the history of engineering.
Although some stories about his inventions grew grander over time, his reputation as an imaginative mechanical experimenter has endured. He stands out as one of those seventeenth-century figures whose life brought together court politics, war, and early technological ambition.