Deborah edited 40 editons of Newcomen Links for the Newcomen Society for the History of Engineering and Technology, where she drew on her knowledge of industrial design, aesthetics, innovation and materials.

The Newcomen Society  was founded in 1920. and is the oldest society in the world specialising in the history of engineering and technology. Since 1920 it has published over a 1000 papers which are an invaluable archive of original research material for historians and available on-line. The  Society takes its name from Thomas Newcomen (bap. 1664, d.1729) who invented the first practical working steam engine, but its interests are broad and international, embracing all aspects of engineering from ancient times and the great inventions of the 18th and 19th centuries through to the sophisticated technologies of the 20th century and into the digital age.