This introduction sets out the origins and evolution of the mechanics institute, a nineteenth century phenomenon, emerging from the 1820s and continuing into the years preceding the First World War. The institutes were the product of the Industrial Revolution which had created demand for a workforce to manage its machinery, to tend, repair and improve the complex mechanisation that revolutionised our output. They provided education for the working man through lending libraries, lecture theatres, class rooms and laboratories and often included in the mix of courses and technical...