With power increasingly removed from the old virtue games of royalty and Church, Britain was a nation uniquely capable of taking the tiny knowledge-based success game of the Republic of Letters and spreading it to the masses. Not only could successful innovators win fame amongst their peers, Britain’s institutions allowed them to earn major wealth and even national celebrity, their stores of status swelling spectacularly. Increasingly, it became a game open not only to an intellectual elite but to thousands of mechanics, entrepreneurs, engineers, tinkerers and artisans. This
