Science / Technology

By the time of the Battle of Waterloo, the Industrial Revolution was beginning to change the world. For the first time in human history, energy from coal was replacing human or animal muscle power. Factories made things more quickly, and farms harvested more food. Inventions spread quickly across Europe, speeding up industry and science. This made the Napoleonic Wars even more fierce, as more soldiers could be sent to fight, more quickly, than ever before.

Explore the science of the age of Waterloo through videos, articles and fascinating gadgets.

  • Watch a Napoleonic Surgeon at Work

    Surgeon Mick Crumplin demonstrates the grisly work of a surgeon during the Napoleonic Wars.

  • Model of a French two-wheeled ambulance vehicle

    Model of a French Battlefield Ambulance

    This is a model of a two-wheeled sprung ambulance vehicle, as used by the French medical staff (Service de Santé) during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. This invention revolutionised battlefield medicine, letting wounded French soldiers get quick medical treatment, and was one of the first ambulances ever used.

  • Brown Bess Musket

    This is an India Pattern musket, nicknamed the “Brown Bess”. This was the standard weapon for ordinary soldiers (other ranks) in the British infantry. About three million were made between 1793 and the end of 1815. It was the most common weapon that the British Army used in its 20 years of war against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France.

  • Wellingtons telescope

    Wellington’s Telescope

    This is the telescope used during the Battle of Waterloo by the Duke of Wellington. A telescope was an important tool for any officer, but doubly so for a general. The telescope would magnify the image (30 times) enabling Wellington to pick out a unit and even an individual amid the confusion of battle.

  • Video of musket firing

    How to Fire a Brown Bess Musket

    Watch an expert re-enactor loading and firing a "Brown Bess" musket.

  • A German General, a British Steam Engine

    How many people know of the connection between Stephenson’s steam locomotives and the Battle of Waterloo?

  • Anticipating the Ambulance

  • “Keep Hougoumont” – at what price?

    The price of Hougoumont. Mick Crumplin gives a detailed account of the human cost.

  • Losing Sight of Glory: Medical Reflections on the War

    Watch surgeon Mick Crumplin talk about the triumphs and horrors of medicine at the time of Waterloo.

  • Surgeon George James Guthrie, Wellington’s combat medic

    George James Guthrie, the supreme military surgeon

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