Joshua Routledge (1773–1829) was an engineer and inventor during the late 18th and early 19th centuries when the Industrial Revolution was in full swing. Mechanical engineering as a profession was on the rise, and the advent of the steam age opened up viable career alternatives for many young Englishmen who, like Joshua Routledge, had grown up in an agriculture-based society.Born on 27 April 1773 and baptised on the 29th in Riccall Yorkshire,. Joshua Routledge was third of ten children.