Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

en.wikipedia.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 27 posts

Re: Isambard Kingdom Brunel

#11

Post by buro9 »

brendannee wrote: post #9

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.

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.

Re: Isambard Kingdom Brunel

#13

Post by melville_X »

buro9 wrote: post #11
brendannee wrote: post #9

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.

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…

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

Re: Isambard Kingdom Brunel

#14

Post by arethuza »

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."

Re: Isambard Kingdom Brunel

#15

Post by kitd »

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.

Re: Isambard Kingdom Brunel

#17

Post by henderson101 »

kitd wrote: post #15

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 apparen…

Portsmouth has a major "thing" for him too.

Re: Isambard Kingdom Brunel

#18

Post by rojabuck »

kitd wrote: post #15

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 apparen…

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.

Re: Isambard Kingdom Brunel

#19

Post by VLM »

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.

Re: Isambard Kingdom Brunel

#20

Post by verytrivial »

kitd wrote: post #15

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 apparen…

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!)

Post reply on HN