Victorian Engineering Brilliance - Do We Still Have It Today? 1

[Ussuri]

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. During the course of his career he designed railways, bridges, tunnels, cruise liners and a whole host more. His skills traversed boundaries such as civil, mechanical, structural, architectural. For a single engineer he was remarkbly prolific with a large number of his structures still in daily use. In addition to this he was a superstar of the day.

But, do we still have the ability to create engineering masterpieces today, or has all the legislation, standardisation and code development taken that away from us? Will we ever see the likes of IKB again?

Any thoughts?

http://www.brunel200.com/

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"The world keeps turning, it keeps me in my place; where I stand is only three miles from space"
Spiritualized

 

[zeitghost]

Was it Brunel or Gooch who said "Brakes? I design my engines to go, not to stop" or words to that effect...

 

[Ussuri]

Pass, I haven't heard that one before. I like this one though:

"I am opposed to the laying down of rules or conditions to be observed in the construction of bridges lest the progress of improvement tomorrow might be embarrassed or shackled by recording or registering as law the prejudices or errors of today"
I K brunel

 

[rb1957]

on the victorian theme ...
there was a very nice program on Discovery some weeks (months?) back about the London sewers ...

ask yourself this, if we were building a civil project today would it essentially still do the job 100 years later ?

i think we'd design to today's needs (just maybe a little cushion for some growth) 'cause it'd get penny pinched to death.

 

[Ashereng]

But, do we still have the ability to create engineering masterpieces today, or has all the legislation, standardisation and code development taken that away from us? Will we ever see the likes of IKB again?

How about:

"Does Brunel have the ability to create engineering masterpieces today, or has all the legislation, standardisation and code development taken that away from him?"

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
Albert Einstein
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[Ussuri]

Ashereng, Good answer. I often use that approach of rearranging a question and passing it back to the originator.

I think that there is no doubt IKB could not have operated his projects in todays climate because while they were brilliant, they were also very expensive in terms of human lives. Which a lot of the legislation has helped to improve, but unfortunately the industry does still kill people.

But, when he was working there were a handful of people who could do the work he was doing, so much so that each of these exponents became famous and the public flocked to see the construction undertaken. Nowadays there are a lot more professional engineers working on high profile projects but it is often the company not the individual which takes the credit. We dont really have 'engineering frontmen' anymore. Although the same cannot be said for Architects.

This perhaps raises another question about the PR aspects of engineering work. Have we lost the skill to make ourselves look good in the eyes of the public. I think this is a resounding yes based on a number of previous threads.

That said, I still think IKB would have been a remakable engineer in todays climate (even if I cant prove it)

 

[zeusfaber]

Ussuri,

Lots of good points there.

When did the age of "engineering frontmen" end? I can think of names like Mitchell and Wallis from the thirties and forties, and von Braun and Koroliev from the fifties and sixties - but who after that?

A.

 

[unclesyd]

It looks like the "engineering frontman" end came with the demise of the slide rule and the advent of the computer. The computer let the bean counters generate the pretty graphs and charts that management could understand and all of a sudden they ruled the roost as every engineer had to justify and account for everything he did.

 

[rb1957]

maybe the space shuttle designers ...

seriously, i think they did a good (great?) job with the tools they were given.

how about rutan ?

 

[Ashereng]

zeusfaber,

Gordon Moore - Intel. "Moore's Law"

Moore earned a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Chemistry and Physics from the California Institute of Technology. He was born in San Francisco, Calif., on Jan. 3, 1929.
He is a director of Gilead Sciences Inc., a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the IEEE. Moore also serves on the Board of Trustees of the California Institute of Technology. He received the National
Medal of Technology from President George Bush in 1990.



"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
Albert Einstein
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[DrillerNic]

zuesfaber- how about Colin Chapman, the founder of Lotus, who brought aerodymanics and the monocoque chassis to motor sport: basically all F1 and Indy cars today look the way they do because of him?

But you could argue that when IKB was in his pomp, engineering was still a young science. So the place to look for modern equivalents of IKB at al would be a young science like computing, where as well as Moore, you have famous names like Bill Gates and so on.

 

[UcfSE]

What was special back then is more common place today. Look what we do today with less time and less money and less man-power. We're doing all right as far as holding our own though we aren't all producing masterpieces. What could we accomplish today if we were also given plenty of time and money to build structures with a design life of 200 years, or a safety factor of 20? There's a reason we don't still do that: because no one wants to pay for it. I don't think that means we can't however. We have bridges that span miles, machines that go into space and other machines that do billions or maybe trillions of calculations per second. We did ok.

Noting that he was a superstar of his day, look what our superstars are: actors and ball-players, not exactly the people you think of when you think of intellect. Society doesn't like us for our brains anymore!

 

[gaufridus]

Its no longer Victorian Engineering Brilliance, its the 21st century and the world is more complicated. IKB was brilliant at a wide base of subjects and pushed back a lot of boundaries - yes for sure. Today, however, how would he get on? The depth of knowledge required for a single subject is now much deeper than in IKB's day so now there is less chance of being able to shine over a broad range.

Compare this with a caveman in neolithic (?) times - if he invented the stone axe, killed a beast for food with the axe and also found a cave for his tribe to live in he would have been regarded as a god who knew everything there was to know.

Having said that, sure there are brilliant engineers with ability and vision but in a much smaller sphere of activity, perhaps thats why they don't always get the broad recognition they deserve.

 

[notnats]

"Brakes? I design my cars to go, not to stop" was attributed to Ettore Bugatti in answer to criticism of his cars' brakes.

"Guesswork is best ... if it's right" Was the maxim of an old guy I knew years ago who learned his art in the early 20th Century. I think there was a lot of inspired guesswork in Victorian engineering which probably encouraged innovation.

 

[GregLocock]

Almost everything mechanical, worth having, on cars was done by 1925. Usually by Lanchester.



Cheers

Greg Locock

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[prost]

Really? Lanchester invented air bags, anti lock brakes and coffee mug holders right next to your seat?

 

[waross]

With emphasis on the word "Almost" I agree with GregLocock.
I guess we can agree to disagree.
respectfully

 

[GregLocock]

OK prost. I will admit there were mechanical anti lock brakes, and Lanchester didn't invent them, and he didn't invent the inertia reel seat belt either.

As for bloody cup holders...

Cheers

Greg Locock

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[Ashereng]

Greg,

How about the "real imitation metal wood grain" on the side of my Chrysler minivan? Or would that not be mechanical? Hee Hee

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
Albert Einstein
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[GregLocock]

That was invented long before Lanchester was a baby. I used to know someone who's 1780 house had fake woodgrain painted on the real wood panelling!

Cheers

Greg Locock

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