Isambard Kingdom Brunel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isambard_Kingdom_Brunel

by rexreed • 12 years ago

103 23 12 years ago

en.wikipedia.org

fredgrott• 12 years ago

The reading of Brunel's "atmospheric caper" sounds somewhat a forerunner to one of Elon Musk's transport ideas.

rexreed• 12 years ago

That was my first thought too - and if you dig deeper you'll see there were quite a few folks working on this concept in the mid-1800s. Suprising! Steampunk indeed.

damian2000• 12 years ago

FYI

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_railway

Pitarou• 12 years ago

I didn't know about the "atmospheric caper" but, yup, it's Elon Musk in a top hat.

awda• 12 years ago

Speaking of this guy, my nephew is named after him :).

brendannee• 12 years ago

There is a bizarre animated biography on IKB made by the BBC in 1975:

http://transportationist.org/2012/09/17/great_isambard_kingd...

"It is mostly about Brunel, but it is also telling of the state of the UK in the early 1970s. Something was clearly wrong that this was green-lighted."

What is even stranger is that it won an oscar in 1976.

Its definitely worth watching if you can find it.

buro9• 12 years ago

I just tried finding that on YouTube as the IMDB comments suggested it might be there.

I didn't find that film, but I found this film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXgGsEO1b04

Which, for a condensed, half-witty animation, does a fair job of putting such a life into 3 minutes.

The best I found on the Oscar winning film are some clips: http://0xdb.org/0073068/clips/position . From the clips, I would describe it as a cross between the animations of Monty Python's Flying Circus and Yellow Submarine.

And those clips worked best in Firefox, click a frame and wait for no feedback, and then 5 seconds will play (with audio) when you least expect it.

melville_X• 12 years ago

http://torrentz.eu/search?f=ISAMBARD+KINGDOM+BRUNEL

goatforce5• 12 years ago

http://video.yandex.ru/users/urikis/view/644 seems to be it, complete with Russian subtitles.

uppe• 12 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZn8EQaoD9w

arethuza2• 12 years ago

Babbage had an argument with Brunel about the who had the right of way when driving their own railway engines:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKqdlpuLDPE

Brunel is also a character in the brilliant "The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage":

http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/cast/

Where his described as:

"The Wolverine of the mid-Victorians, he was short, ripped, had big sideburns, smoked forty cigars a day and generally kicked everyone’s ass."

kitd2• 12 years ago

Brunel is one of my heroes.

I was born in Bristol and he was a large part of the city's heritage and featured in the school curriculum. I have an early memory of standing on the edge of the Avon watching the SS Great Britain come under the suspension bridge into the Cumberland Basin in around 1970.

Funnily enough, I visited the ship again just the other weekend for the first time in about 30 years. It is only apparent to me now just how advanced the ship was at the time. This was the very first iron-only ocean-going liner and even the use of a propeller was bleeding-edge when it was built, and yet some the techniques used were similar to what you might see now. If you're ever in the area, I really recommend a visit.

Also worth mentioning is Maidenhead Railway Bridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maidenhead_Railway_Bridge

built in 1838, which held the record for the longest flattest brick arches in the world up until only quite recently I believe. It appears in Turner's famous painting "Rain, Steam, Speed" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rain_Steam_and_Speed_the_...

and also has a fantastic sounding echo underneath.

henderson101• 12 years ago

Portsmouth has a major "thing" for him too.

rojabuck• 12 years ago

I can see the SS Great Britain out of my window as I type this very reply :)

Such an utterly wonderful piece of engineering, the combination of so many advances from it's iron construction to its rotary screw propeller.

verytrivial• 12 years ago

Maidenhead Railway Bridge -- such a handsome construction. I distinctly recall attempting to ride a bicycle under it back in 2008, but was stopped in my tracks by the sight of it. I was a recent arrival to the UK so didn't know who Brunel was. I saw his name for the first time on that bridge's plaque. Fan ever since.

(The story goes the bridge was opened but its extreme flatness disturbed the locals, whom forced him to put the wooden supporting arches used during construction back under it, fearing it would surely collapse. He did so and the supports remained there for some time. It wasn't until he was he was allowed to take them down again that he revealed that they were put back without touching the bridge; it had been freestanding since being opened. What a champion!)

arethuza2• 12 years ago

Thanks - "Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway" makes a superb screen background!

duncanawoods• 12 years ago

I love the Clifton Suspension bridge - its a thing of beauty. I like this combo of engineering feats - Concorde's last flight included a flyby over the bridge:

http://www.justmomentsintime.com.au/BaileySite/Terrys%20Page...

For added interest - the white building is one of only two working camera obscuras in the country and the bridge is over Avon Gorge. If you hear of "Silicon Gorge", now you know what it looks like!

kitd2• 12 years ago

Lovely shot. Concorde is a thing of beauty too, all done with pen/paper/slide-rules of course.

At about the time the SS Great Britain was being repatriated, Concorde was undergoing its initial test flights. We saw an early one take off from Filton from across the Bristol Channel in Wales. In those days, it was allowed to do sonic booms as it flew along the Welsh coast. Bloody hell it was loud!

pkolaczk• 12 years ago

Sting wrote a song related to him (actually one of the ships he'd built): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH44goCQqCU

Joeboy• 12 years ago

Totally reddit style comment, destined for downvote oblivion, but I like this Brunel related Steampunk song so much I can't resist linking to it just this once: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21QqXumEWFU

VLM• 12 years ago

I was familiar with his story from playing the "railroad tycoon" series of games as a kid. I suspect many startup / HN / MBA types were inspired by playing those games and therefore had some exposure to Brunel's story.

jacques_chester• 12 years ago

A remarkable engineer. My father nearly named me Isambard, but my mother got in first with "Jacques".

narag• 12 years ago

Hadn't heard the name ever. I guess it's not very common, is it? Also "Kingdom".

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

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