Steam was only introduced really to help out the waterwheel. ibid.
James Watt ... separated the condensing department from the cylinder. ibid.
Robert Stephenson and his company of course didn’t just build locomotives, they built the lines and the bridges and all the engineering works. Fred Dibnah’s World of Steam, Steel and Stone e4: Men of Steel
By 1847 Armstrong had given up practising law; he opened his Elswick works on the banks of the River Tyne where he manufactured hydraulics and all sorts of other engineering equipment. ibid.
By 1867 the Armstrong company had begun to build iron warships, and in the first fifteen years they built twenty. ibid.
The greatest armament supplier of the time. ibid.
By the 1890s the manufacture of arms and battleships had become one of our major industries. ibid.
The magnificent town hall like this one here in Bolton is a grand example of Victorian civic pride … It really was the great age of Victorian splendour. Fred Dibnah’s World of Steam, Steel and Stone e5: The Victorian Gentleman
The Victorians went to great lengths to make things very beautiful as well as functional. ibid.
Pugin called St Giles his gem. ibid.
For Fred the greatest of the Victorian engineers was Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Fred Dibnah’s World of Steam, Steel and Stone e9: Changing the Landscape
The canals were like the arteries of the Industrial Revolution. They helped to provide cheaper goods and raw materials. ibid.
By the middle of the nineteenth century we were constructing some magnificent spinning mills with beautiful chimney stacks. Fred Dibnah’s World of Steam, Steal and Stone s1e10: Great British Builders
This love of fine craftsmanship led us to a greater appreciation of the skills of craftsman of the past, and of the work of craftsmen and women today who carry on the traditions. Fred Dibnah’s World of Steam, Steal and Stone s1e11: Masters of Their Trade
‘Fred will have opened the eyes of lots of people to the joy of craftsmanship, and the small-scale perfection people put into things.’ ibid. John Yates, English Heritage
Fred Dibnah’s real heroes were the ordinary workers and labourers of the people like him who got their hands dirty. From the labourers and stone masons who built great medieval castles and cathedrals to twentieth century coal miners, mill workers and steel workers. He will always be remembered for the respect he had for all those people who made their living from making things. Wherever Fred went it was always the workers he related to. Fred Dibnah’s World of Steam, Steal and Stone s1e12: A Good Day’s Work
Richard Trevithick: to get round Watt’s patent Trevithick began to build his own engines. This was his greatest achievement: the Puffing Devil. All eight horse-power of it. And unlike Boulton & Watt’s engine it moved. Trevithick’s genius was he built high-pressure steam-engines. Michael Mosley, The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion, BBC 2010
This is not the age of pamphleteers. It is the age of the engineers. The spark-gap is mightier than the pen. Democracy will not be salvaged by men who talk, fluently, debate forcefully and quote aptly. Lancelot Hogben, Science for the Citizen 1938
We depend on engineers for new constructions to provide us with safe shelter, safe transportation and safe power. Professor Henry Petroski, Horizon: To Engineer is Human, BBC 1987
So successful was the Gothic style that its trappings have outlived their engineering need. ibid.
The challenge to engineering is to anticipate the fatal detail and to correct it in the design stage. Robert Stephenson had to face up to that kind of worry in the middle of the nineteenth century. ibid.
The phenomenon of progressive cracking leading to total failure is known as fatigue. And it’s a particularly sticky problem for engineers to deal with. ibid.
There is so much variability in the strength of materials that it is impossible for us to predict exactly how many bends the next paper clip out of the box will take. Or for that matter when concrete might eventually break in a test. ibid.
And all this was designed to be dismantled when the Great Exhibition closed so Hyde Park could be restored to its original state. ibid.
There are plenty of other examples of innovative designs that have succeeded to become symbols of engineering excellence. The first iron bridge still stands in the valley that cradled the industrial revolution. ibid.
The magnificent steam locomotives of the Great Western Railway: a combination of elegance and raw power. They still evoke a spirit of adventure. Great Railway Adventures with Dan Cruickshank: Brilliant Brunel, National Geographic 2010
Brunel was obsessed about every detail, building wonderful stations to suit his great enterprise. Nothing deters him. The Great Western Railway was just part of his steam-driven revolution. ibid.
The construction of the Great Western Railway between Bristol and London was inspired by Brunel’s vision to bring speed and comfort to the experience of travel. ibid.
It was the coming of the railway that led to Britain adopting a standard time across the country. ibid.
Brunel would eventually lose the battle of the gauges. ibid.
When the Great Eastern was launched its paddles were driven by the biggest marine steam-engine of its day. ibid.
After a journey of just fifteen days and five hours his Great Western steamship made a triumphant entry into New York Harbor. ibid.
Brunel had produced two of the finest ocean steamers in the world, but the city of Bristol failed to take advantage of his genius. ibid.
I sell here what the whole world desires – power. Matthew Boulton
I have been branded with folly and madness for attempting what the world calls impossibilities. Even the great engineer Mr James Watt said that I deserve hanging for bringing into use the high-pressure engine. Richard Trevithick
The parties adjourned to the hotel. And comforted their hearts with a roast goose and proper drinks. Richard Trevithick
Richard Trevithick: to get round Watt’s patent Trevithick began to build his own engines. This was his greatest achievement, the Puffing Devil. All eight horse-power of it. And unlike Boulton & Watt’s engine it moved. Trevithick’s genius was he built high-pressure steam-engines. Michael Mosley, The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion, BBC 2010
Nelson was the first of his kind. He was an inspiring commander who forged a new more personal style of leadership risking his own life alongside his men he died fighting to defend his King and Country. Lucy Moore, Great Britons: Horatio Nelson, BBC 2002
Horatio Nelson was born in 1758 in the village of Burnham Thorpe, two miles from the coast of Norfolk. ibid.
Nelson was one of the first spin-doctors of his own destiny. He was a master of self-promotion. ibid.
The French fleet was trapped in a pincer movement ... The battle began with a vengeance. ibid.
Back in Britain Nelson’s victory at the Nile was being celebrated. ibid.
Britain was still at war with France, and the kingdom of Naples was a neutral power ... Sir William Hamilton and Nelson persuaded the King and Queen to ally themselves with England. This was effectively a declaration of war. ibid.
It is hard to overestimate the fear of a French invasion at this time. ibid.
Nelson was hit by a sniper just after one o’clock; the bullet entered his shoulder, went through his lung and severed his spine. ibid.
Nelson’s appeal endures because he combined courage with compassion; fated for his successes he never forgot the key to his glory was the loyalty of his men. He was superman and every man. The first of his kind and the prototype for all our heroes to come. ibid.
In Britain today many people still feel that they have one quality in common – for many Britons a stiff upper lip remains a badge of national pride. Ian Hislop’s Stiff Upper Lip: An Emotional History of Britain I, BBC 2012
Those who embraced the cult of sensibility weren’t always thinking of others. ibid.
Never before had feeling been so fashionable. ibid.
Mary Wollstonecraft – in 1772 this novelist, historian and thinker, produced the first book on female liberation – A Vindication Of The Rights of Woman. ibid.
The first national icon of the nineteenth century – Admiral Horatio Nelson. ibid.
It was the sober example of Wellington that now spoke most directly to the priorities of Victorian Britain. ibid.
Englishmen and Englishwomen across society just did not get emotional in public. Ian Hislop’s Stiff Upper Lip – An Emotional History of Britain II: Heydey
The ideal of the stiff upper lip reached its zenith. ibid.
Self-control was now becoming a hallmark of the British middle class. ibid.
No-one would repeat [Matthew] Webb’s achievement for thirty-six years. ibid.