A Man Called Kingdom
Feb. 9th, 2011 12:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
steepholmPulling into Bristol Temple Meads yesterday, I found myself musing on the curious fact that Isambard Kingdom Brunel, having retired from a career of large-scale innovative engineering projects, devoted the remainder of his life to using his prodigious talents to Fight Crime. A Victorian amalgam of Tony Stark, Bruce Wayne and Jeff Tracy, he built a subterranean base inside the Box Hill Tunnel, a site later co-opted as the Central Government War Headquarters on the basis of IKB's groundwork. From this troglodytic fastness Brunel stood ready to emerge, whenever the call came, at the levers of a Giant Mole, Auto-Lasso, Smog Belcher, or whatever other steampunk behemoth the exigency of the hour demanded. Nor should we forget that, on a more domestic scale, his famous stove-pipe hat concealed a real stove, providing power to the numerous devices in his Utility Fob.
Alas for Brunel, he kept his scheme so secret, and lived in an age of such impeccable public order, that his services were never required. But isn't it time his story was told?
The secret entrance to Brunel's hideout, cleverly concealed on the "purloined letter" principle
Alas for Brunel, he kept his scheme so secret, and lived in an age of such impeccable public order, that his services were never required. But isn't it time his story was told?
The secret entrance to Brunel's hideout, cleverly concealed on the "purloined letter" principle
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-09 03:40 pm (UTC)(That's part 3 of a story, so it may not make sense. But it has Brunel saying LOOKS LIKE YOU COULD USE AN ENGINEER, which makes me happy every time I think of it.)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-09 04:04 pm (UTC)I long to see an account of "I. K. Brunel vs. The Cork Leg."
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-09 05:28 pm (UTC)I second this webcomic in the strongest possible terms.
(That panel used to be available as a T-shirt: I got it last year for my brother, who is a mechanical engineer.)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-09 03:47 pm (UTC)Victorian England?
Boggle!
A little research into the works of Henry Mayhew may tell otherwise.
Btw, on this sort of subject, have you seen: 'The Secret Life of Queen Victoria'? It was a little cartoon book published some years ago explaining what she ACTUALLY got up to during that extended period of mourning for Albert and is hysterically funny :o)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-09 03:58 pm (UTC)Victorian England?
Boggle!
You mean my research may have been, in some minor respects, defective? Oh noes!
No, I've not come across that book - perhaps I should check it out...
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-09 04:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-09 04:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-09 04:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-09 06:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-09 06:34 pm (UTC)I wonder whether a bridge to the moon is an impossibility, though? I know that space elevators only work with geostationary satellites, but if the earth end could be attached to wheels and/or floats...
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-09 07:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-09 10:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-09 09:44 pm (UTC)