MRS Fanny Hertz is probably not a name that is instantly recognisable, and possibly not commonly discussed in 21st Century Bradford. However, in the 19th Century Fanny was a woman ahead of her time. Born in Hanover, Germany, in 1830, and related to Heinrich Hertz, famous physicist and discoverer of Hertz’ Rays, Fanny would become a leading light in the struggle for women’s education, and as such it is fair to say she can be labelled as a feminist. In the mid 1870s she moved to London and spent the next decade dividing her time between Bradford and the Capital. Her husband, William David Hertz was a yarn merchant and mill owner, and before long their Bradford home would be transformed into an engine house of artistic and radical discussion. It was at this period in her life that Fanny became interested in science, through her friendship with Frederic Harrison. He was an advocate for Positivism, a philosophy that claims that true knowledge of the world can be derived throug