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Open to the public for the first time in 145 years, Brunel Tunnel under the Thames
Daily Mail ^ | March 12, 2010 | Staff

Posted on 03/12/2010 7:16:12 AM PST by C19fan

The public is to get its first chance in 145 years to see the Brunnel tunnel under the Thames that was hailed as an eighth wonder of the world and a triumph of Victorian engineering. The tunnel is open today and tomorrow and a Fancy Fair originally held in 1852 below the river will be recreated at the nearby Brunel Museum. It was built between 1825 and 1843 by Marc Brunel and his son, Isambard, and was the first known to have been built beneath a navigable river.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: brunel; engineering; godsgravesglyphs; thames; victorian
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To: ichabod1

They didn’t if it was pressurized. It’s called Caisson’s disease


21 posted on 03/12/2010 8:30:50 AM PST by OregonRancher (Some days, it's not even worth chewing through the restraints)
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To: OregonRancher; ichabod1

They discovered that they had to depressurize slowly, just like modern day divers.

America’s closest equivalent to the Brunels were the German immigrant John Roebling and his sons and grandsons. Responsible for the Brooklyn Bridge (1867), workers (and Roebling himself) were badly injured by the ‘bends’ when coming up from the pressurized footing-construction caissons extending below riverbed level. They shortly rigged up decompression chambers to combat the problem.


22 posted on 03/12/2010 8:56:45 AM PST by Erasmus (Give to the Antonio Janigro College Fund; a strong bow is a terrible thing to waste.)
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To: caver

23 posted on 03/12/2010 9:26:05 AM PST by WOBBLY BOB (ACORN:American Corruption for Obama Right Now)
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To: C19fan

cool , bookmarked


24 posted on 03/12/2010 10:03:22 AM PST by housemouse 1
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To: WOBBLY BOB

I gotta plead ignorance. Is that guy named Brunel?


25 posted on 03/12/2010 10:27:56 AM PST by caver (Obama: Home of the Whopper)
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To: caver

Mark Brunell-QB


26 posted on 03/12/2010 10:31:14 AM PST by WOBBLY BOB (ACORN:American Corruption for Obama Right Now)
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To: Erasmus

Yes, but this was like 30-40 years before Roebling. It was the Roebling case that made me wonder. Maybe the Thames, not being very deep, was not far enough down to create as hazardous a situation.


27 posted on 03/12/2010 12:21:41 PM PST by ichabod1 ( I am rolling over in my grave and I am not even dead yet.)
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To: Erasmus

OK, I’ve been reading about this all afternoon, rather than working. I think the reason they didn’t experience it is that they weren’t breathing pressurized air. The caissons on the Eads and Brooklyn bridges were closed at the top and air was pumped in, which was also the mechanism by which the castings were brought out the center tube, called the “muck tube, i.e., the muck tube sucked the castings out. Apparently muck is a combination of mud and rock, which I never knew. I thought it was mud that sucked.


28 posted on 03/12/2010 1:42:21 PM PST by ichabod1 ( I am rolling over in my grave and I am not even dead yet.)
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To: C19fan

Brunel was also instrumental in the building of the Crystal Palace.


29 posted on 03/12/2010 1:43:52 PM PST by ichabod1 ( I am rolling over in my grave and I am not even dead yet.)
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To: ichabod1

You may be right about the Thames tunnel construction not being pressurized.

There are stories of polluted water and gases forcing their way into the tunnel. That suggests that they were working at essentially ground-level atmospheric pressure.

On the other hand they must have been 100 feet below the surface, and that would mean significant hydrostatic pressure to hold off with the sliding-form system (invented by the elder Brunel) without assistance from air pressurization.


30 posted on 03/12/2010 1:44:45 PM PST by Erasmus (Lying fallow in preparation for planting season)
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To: Erasmus

Yeah they had a lot of trouble with methane gas getting in and catching fire, but I don’t think they had the knowledge or ability to pressurize the whole tunnel at the time, which probably saved many lives, though it didn’t help the construction time any. The methane got in because apparently the bottom of the river was essentially a bog of sh!T... err, sewage from hundreds of years of the thames being used as a toilet.

Now, Downstream they got the wonderful tidal flushes.


31 posted on 03/12/2010 1:54:13 PM PST by ichabod1 ( I am rolling over in my grave and I am not even dead yet.)
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To: atomic conspiracy

Some of the older guys at work and I have had conversations along this line.

I read some of the report of the building of the Los Angeles Aqueduct.

That whole project was paper and pencil, careful planning and thinking, etc. And within cost and under budget. The sections of pipe were manufactured back east, then shipped to the aqueduct project, and all the pipe lengths and rivet holes lined up — just one of the amazing features.

You can download the report here. Over 300 pages, but it has pictures.

http://books.google.com/books?id=7yIWAAAAYAAJ


32 posted on 03/12/2010 3:08:43 PM PST by Scrambler Bob (If you could read my mind ... just count up the felonies!)
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To: hennie pennie; nickcarraway

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·

 
Gods
Graves
Glyphs
Thanks hennie pennie.

Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
 

·Dogpile · Archaeologica · LiveScience · Archaeology · Biblical Archaeology Society ·
· Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google ·
· The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·


33 posted on 03/12/2010 9:22:54 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Freedom is Priceless.)
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