This volume investigates the intellectual discourse and collaborative scientific inquiry occurring within informal 18th-century London social circles. The authors, Gerard L'E. Turner and Trevor Harvey Levere, utilize primary source manuscript minutes to reconstruct the meetings of a specific group of scientists. By transcribing these records and providing scholarly commentary, they argue that these coffee house gatherings served as a vital, albeit informal, laboratory for the exchange of ideas regarding chemistry and steam technology.

Historians of science regard this work as a valuable primary source document that illuminates the social dimensions of early modern scientific practice. Readers often note the academic density of the prose, which is intended for researchers and students of the history of science.