Isambard Kingdom Brunel (artifact 9)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdOrpAt1t7M&feature=player_embedded#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDFY2UQt9_Q&feature=related

- brief introductions of Isambard Kingdom Brunel


Brunel and his Times

		1800 Maudslay's precision screw-cutting lathe 1802 Dalton states his Atomic Theory 1804 Beethoven's 'Eroica' 1805 Trafalgar
Brunel born 1806
		1807 Fulton's steamboat on Hudson River1811 Luddite riots 1812 Napoleon retreats from Moscow 1814 Stephenson builds the Blucher 1815 Waterloo 1817 Constable paints 'Flatford Mill'
Goes to France 1820		1820 Ampère's Laws of Electro-dynamic Action 1821 Faraday invents the electric motor
Enters father's office aged 16 1822		1823 Babbage begins his calculating machine
Engineer in charge of Thames Tunnel 1826		1825 Stockton and Darlington Railway opened 1827 Ohm's Law stated
Wins second Clifton Bridge competition 1830		1829 Stephenson's Rocket wins Rainhill Trials
Construction begins 1831		1832 First Reform Bill
Bristol Dock works and GWR route survey 1833		1833 First Factory Act 1834 Tolpuddle Martyrs
Marriage to Mary Horsley 1836 'Great Western' launched 1837		1837 Queen Victoria succeeds to throne 1839 'People's Charter' 1840 Joule begins work on heat
Line from London to Bristol opened 1841 Thames Tunnel opened and 'Great Britain ' launched 1843		1842 Mayer's Law of Conservation of Energy 1845 Cayley's Theory of Linear Transformations and McNaught's compound steam engine
Saltash Bridge commenced 1848		1848 'Year of Revolutions' 1849 'David Copperfield' 1851 The Great Exhibition
Chepstow Bridge opened 1852
Prefabricated hospital for Crimea 1855		1854-5 Crimean War 1855 Lawrence's turret lathe 1856 Bessemer's steel-making process
'Great Eastern' launched 1858 Saltash Bridge opened 1859 Brunel dies 1859		1859 'Origin of Species' and 'A Tale of Two Cities'

Biography:
   
   In the 100 years up to 1860, the work of a small group of engineers made possible the economic and social upheaval in England that we call the Industrial Revolution. Brunel, perhaps, was the most prodigious of them all and many of his works, which challenged and inspired his colleagues during this period, have survived to our own time and some are still in use.

He was born in 1806, the son of a distinguished French engineer, Sir Marc Brunel, who had come to England at the time of the French Revolution. Unlike most engineers of the time, Isambard Brunel received a sound education and practical training - partly in France - before entering his father's office and taking full charge of the Thames Tunnel at Rotherhithe when he was only 20.

At the age of 26, he was appointed Engineer to the newly-formed Great Western Railway and acted with characteristic boldness and energy. His great civil engineering works on the line between London and Bristol, are used by today's high-speed trains and bear witness to his genius He eventually engineered over 1,200 miles of railway, including lines in Ireland, Italy and Bengal. He died on 15th of September 1859, at age 53.

In 2002, Brunel was placed second in a BBC public poll to determine the "100 Greatest Britons". In 2006, the bicentenary of his birth, a major programme of events celebrated his life and work under the name Brunel 200.

Accomplishments: 

Thames tunnel -
The Thames Tunnel is an underwater tunnel, built beneath the River Thames in London, United Kingdom, connectingRotherhithe and Wapping.  It was the first tunnel known successfully to have been constructed underneath a navigable river, and was built between 1825 and 1843 using Thomas Cochrane and Marc Isambard Brunel's newly invented tunnelling shield technology, by him and his son Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The tunnel was originally designed for, but never used by, horse-drawn carriages and now forms part of the London Overground railway network.

Interior of the Thames Tunnel, mid-19th century

The Thames Tunnel in 2005












Great Western Railway-
The Great Western Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom that started in 1833. It also ran buses and owned ships and hotels. In 1948 the government took control of the company and Great Western Railway became the Western Region of British Railways. The first railway line built by the Great Western Railway opened in 1838. It started in London and ended at Maidenhead which was 22.5 miles (36.2 km) west. By 1841 the line had been made much longer and it went farther west to the towns of Reading, Swindon, Bath and Bristol. By 1852 the line was 305 miles (491 km) long and went to Penzance. Penzance railway station is the farthest south and farthest west in Great Britain. It was engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Brunel astonished Britain by proposing to extend the Great Western Railway westward to North America by building steam-powered iron-hulled ships. He designed and built three ships that revolutionised naval engineering.

Clifton Suspension Bridge-

The Clifton Suspension Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Avon Gorge, and linking Clifton in Bristol to Leigh Woods in North Somerset, England. Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, it is a landmark that is used as a symbol of Bristol. It is a grade I listed building. 

Great Eastern-
The 'Great Eastern', or 'Leviathan', launched in 1858, was much larger than any previous ship and was not equalled in size for another 50 years. She had both paddle and screw propulsion and was designed to carry 4,000 passengers but she made only nine Atlantic crossings before her conversion to a cable-laying ship. Length 692 feet. Displacement 32,000 tons. 

Reflection questions:

1) a. What main topic does the artifact relates to? In what way?

ans: It relates to the main topic Invention, ingenuity and entreprenuers. Brunel built a lot of transporting equipment which requires Ingenuity, and he is also an entreprenuer and engineer.

b. Which other main topic does it also relate to?

ans: It also relates to the topic Communication and transportation revolution. Brunel built the first tunnel under water and it is still in use now.

2) Why did you choose this artifact, and how much time did you spend creating and /or processing it?

ans: I chose this artifact because Brunel is a very important engineer in the industrial age in Great Britain, and also I've studied about him in History class. It took me around 90 minutes to complete this artifact.

3) What insights and understanding have you gained from the creation and/or processing of this artifact?

ans: I think it is really amazing for someone to contribute so much to the society, tobe such a pre-eminent person in the engineering fields.

4) Does this artifact reflect your best work and/or ideas? Why, or why not?

ans: I think this artifact reflects my best work, because I wrote about the main accomplishments of Brunel and I put lots of effort into it.

5) Rate this artifact on a scale of -5 to 5 (0 is neutral) for the following four criterion.
a. Impact on the quality of your portfolio. 2
b. Impact on your level of enjoyment and happiness. 4
c. Impact on your learning. 3
d. Level of creativity and Originality. 3

ans: 2.5

6) Any additional comments.

ans: No comment.