This volume opens with a series of articles making up a monographic study of the Henry family of Manchester, a dynasty that was active in science, medicine, education and industry from the 1760s to the 1830s. This work is important in studying the relations between science and industry, and not least because it emphasises just how much can be learnt from looking at ‘second-rank’ figures in the provinces. The second group of papers pursues topics in the history of 19th-century chemistry and the development of the chemical industry, in particular that dealing with synthetic dyestuffs.