Here is a description of a lively and unusual tour of industrial Britain in the period which reached its public climax in the Great Exhibition of 1851. Professor Fay sets his tour in the heart of the "stream of industrial invention" in the fields of metals, machinery, transportation, and industrial arts such as spinning, weaving, and paper-making. We travel with him through the industrial sections of Britain, observing conditions in the steel industries of Sheffield, the mines of Merthyr Tydfil, the shipyards of the Clyde, and the factories of Bradford. We see social, economic, and financial conditions in these areas, presented often through contemporary documents, and meet such significant, colourful figures as Adam Smith, Faraday, and Robert Owen.