I believe that the ANZACs used Vegemite for much the same purpose.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
referring back to the water table i must add as an irrelevance when trains go through the shakespeare tunnel they actually go under underground springs.
clever bloke that brunel.
Brunel?? William Cubitt I think?
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
you sure about that bob?
someone else said it was cubitt, doubtful though, cubitt was one of those blokes that thought the earth was round.
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
Yes Howard, quite easy in chalk, but the area Alexander is talking is through a sand and shingle spit
Been nice knowing you :)
Howard, just found this:-
Cubitt, Sir William
William Cubitt was born and Baptised in Dilham, Norfolk, in 1785, and died in Clapham Common, London, on 13 October 1861, aged 76. He was the son of Joseph Cubitt, miller, of Bacton Wood near Dilham. He became millwright at Horning, Norfolk where he invented and patented self-regulating windmill sails in 1807. From 1812-21 he was employed by Ransome & Son of Ipswich, agricultural implement makers, and was a partner between 1821 and 1826 (Peter Brown disputes this). In 1817 he invented the treadmill, at once adopted in the main British gaols. From 1826 to 1858 he practised as a civil engineer in London. He designed the Oxford canal improvements and the Birmingham & Liverpool Junction (now Shropshire Union) canal.
From 1836 to 1846 he built the South Eastern Railway. The biggest operation was blasting down the face of Round Down Cliff with one charge of 18 000lb (8 165kg) of gunpowder exploded electrically on 26 January 1843. The work included Shakespeare Cliff tunnel, 1387yd (l268m). On 23 September 1844 he was appointed consulting engineer to the London & York (GNR) following the resignation of Locke, until his retirement in 1855. He superintended the construction of the Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition of 1851, for which he was knighted at Windsor Castle on 23 October 1851. He built two large floating landing stages on the Mersey at Liverpool and the iron bridge across the Medway at Rochester.
In case there is risk of seeing Cubbitt as infallible it is worth noting that he was the engineer of the London & Croydon Railway and a forceful advocate of the atmospheric system. Dendy Marshall History of the Southern Railway (rev. Kidner) pp. 45-6.
Elected MICE 1823; Member of Council 1831; Vice President 1836; President 1850-2; FRS 1.April1830.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
sounds like one of your scams bob, all very informative until the end.
his last qualification was on april fools day!!!!!
interesting to read about ransomes of ipswich though did not realise they were that old, i used to handle their exports back in the eighties. no idea if they are still going.
One of my scams indeed! Info here:-
http://www.steamindex.com/people/cubitt.htm
Interestingly there is also a Thomas Cubitt who was a London master builder also from Norfolk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cubitt
Sounds a bit like the Digges family from Barham locally, three generations of little appreciated mathematicians and scientists who no-one round here has ever heard of!
Thomas is my favourite as he was brought up by John Dee after his father's death, one of my Elizabethan heroes as anyone who has the largest private library in London has to be O.K. (especially when you also have a scrying table also which I have viewed at the Museum of Science at Oxford). Picture of latter below:-
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
not aware of any mathematicians that get ticker tape parades bob.
never heard of the digges family, at least they were handy for the crematorium.
I bet the first of the three did all the spadework for his son and grandson.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
you may have reduced bob to tears sid, have you no sensitivity?
I despair! Here's some info on Thomas and Dover Harbour. Some of you might be interested?
http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/staff/saj/thesis/dover.htm
Leonard, his dad was responsible for the design of the first theodolite. As I said I find it a great shame that few local people have heard of the family.
Oh for the good old days when mathematical practitioners were revered rather than having the piss taken out of them on-line!
I used to be a mathematical practioner Bob, but then got into trouble at school for it. Aparently runnning a numbers game don't count! Imagine!!!
Guest 693- Registered: 12 Nov 2009
- Posts: 1,266
Why did Mr Cubitt elect Mice? No UKIP vote at the time I suppose......
True friends stab you in the front.
Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
Paul, that again is a good point. In fact the area used to be the beach, and also where the Dour ran into the sea. In theory it would make the construction of a tunnel all the easier, even using an already-mentioned project that Dave Hannent brought up a few months ago concerning a tunnel under Townwall Street: to dig from the surface! Still, a canalisation deeper than the tunnel should solve the problem of water seeping into it. So when all is said and done (your points are very good), it is technically possible to have a tunnel under the two said streets.
Question remains: do we want it and do we want to do it?
I am in favour!
Ross Miller
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,700
Alexander this is another unfeasible plan.
Of course when Townwall Street was first pushed through between town and sea front, they could have and should have built it as a cut and shut tunnel, certainly from the end of East Cliffe out to Snarsgate Street. To try and remediate this now would kill the docks and the town due to the disruption that would be caused by the long term (years probably) closure of Townwall Street.
Similarly, cutting a new tunnel through a gravel spit that has at least 2 rivers running through it, even with modern tunnelling machinery is a significantly difficult task with tunnels prone to significant water ingress, instability of the ground you are tunnelling through leading to subsidence etc. this is why even if the funding was available no one has seriously proposed a tunnel as a solution.
"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." - James Dean
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,
While loving someone deeply gives you courage" - Laozi
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
Both the Tunnels beween Dover and Folkestone are called wet tunnels over the years working for British rail I was working with the then PW ,and have done a lot of work along that line,the cost of keeping it open is more then any other line in the UK and there have been talk now for some years to close it ending the link up with Folkestone and I can see with all the cut backs this could just happen soon.
Guest 673- Registered: 16 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,388
Regarding the blowing up of Round Down Cliff to build the stretch of line from the Abbotscliffe tunnel to the Shakespeare tunnels, which I seem to recall reading was the largest manmade explosion in history up to that time, although it only manifested itself as a dull subterranean rumble:
Here is a print from the Illustrated London News in 1849 regarding the wreck of the East Indiaman "Tigris" which went aground off that stretch of line, which can be seen in the picture. The accompanying text is rather interesting!
The full sized images can be viewed on my fotopic site at:
http://shipsintheportofdover.fotopic.net/c1844530.htmlGuest 690- Registered: 10 Oct 2009
- Posts: 4,150
Interesting read there Ed thanks. I wonder what it would be like today if a ship load of lager got wrecked, and all washed up along the coast?
Tell them that I came, and no one answered.
Hic! How did you find out about it Colin? Hic!
