Having recently finished reading 'The Heart Of The Dales' by Gervase Phinn i was empty, i needed a book to fill the hole that had been left, so i picked up 'I Know You Got Soul' by Jeremy Clarkson, and what an interesting book it is!
So far i have read about the AK47, The Graf Zeppelin, Concorde and many other great and sometimes deadly machines that Jeremy Clarkson believes are more then just the work of some engineers.
One story that fully captivated me was the building and creation of the SS Great Britain, but more importantly the story of its creator...Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Brunel was born in Portsmouth on the 9th of April 1806 to Marc Isambard Brunel and Sophia Kingdom, as you can see his parents where original types so used there names for there son that would become one of the greatest engineers of all time and a man who was voted as the second greatest Britain in the BBC's public poll in 2002.
Brunel at the age of 20 was appointed chief assistant engineer of his fathers great project, The Themes Tunnel, which would go on and become the first tunnel to be built under water. Brunel's father had created a system for tunnels that is still used to day, most notably the Channel Tunnel.
Not only this, Isambard engineerd the Clifton Suspension Bridge, The Royal Albert Bridge, The Great Western Railway (GWR) and also spent a hell of alot of time and effort (ultimately unsuccessful) in the creation of the 'Atmospheric Railway' a idea that used vacuums and leather pulleys to power the trains.
However perhaps his most advanced creation was the SS Great Britain. The SS a unit of the Great Western Steamship Company. The SS was the first ocean going ship to combine the being built in Iron and using a screw propeller. When launched in 1843, she was the largest ocean going ship at the time, and perhaps also one of the most flawed.
It was not the quickest, the most comfortable or financially viable ship ever built. One ship that was built managed the journey from the UK to New York in an incredible 15 days, for me and for that time i find that amazing! But sadly the SS didn't manage as quickly.
After the SS had ended life as a ocean going ship, it was used between 1855 and 1858 as a troopship during the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny. Sadly during its next use as a cargo ship for coal it was damaged almost beyond repair after a fire whipped through the ship. It was bought by the Falklands Island Company and used as a coal bunker until 1937, when it was towed to Sparrow Cove and left to rot.
Thankfully after many years of Restoration it is open to visitors down in the docks in Bristol, and visitors can marvel at the plain amazingness of a ship built by one of the greatest Britain's to have lived and a ship that was so many years ahead of its time!
If you ever thought history was boring...then think, how did we get to where we are today?
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