However, when introducing the origin of shield machine, Xiao Bian found an interesting phenomenon, which is about the inventor of shield machine — — Brunell, although experts agree that brunell was the first to register a shield patent and applied it in the construction of the Thames Tunnel, the introduction to him is somewhat vague. Some people say that it is French engineer brunauer, while others say that it is British engineer brunell, and Baidu Encyclopedia even confuses the relationship between the two.
Although there is no substantive result in discussing this issue, with the editor’s rigorous attitude, Xiaobian has sorted it out, and if there is anything wrong, please ask experts to correct me.
1. There are two people in brunell. They are father and son.
2. Father Marc Isambard Brunel (1769— In 1849), he was a joint applicant for the patent technology of drilling and digging tunnel boring machine. He is generally called the inventor of the shield patent, and was inspired by ship maggots (also known as chiseling shells). In 1818, brunell improved the mechanical system of the shield structure, and designed a closed shield shell with full-face spiral excavation (the first generation hand-dug shield machine).
3. Son Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806— 1859), a great British engineer, ranked second (second only to Winston Churchill) in the "100 Greatest Britons" selection held by the BBC in 2002, which Baidu Encyclopedia wrongly awarded to his father.
4. Father and son jointly participated in the construction of the Thames Tunnel (formally started in February 1825 and excavated in November 1841), which is an underwater tunnel buried under the Thames River bed in London, England. In 1865, the tunnel was acquired by the railway company and used for railway transportation to this day.
5. Father Mark isambard brunel should be French and have British nationality; My son, isambard kingdom brunel, is British because he was born in Britain and belongs to French-English.
6. Comparatively speaking, isambard kingdom brunel, his son, seems to have made greater achievements. His contribution is not only to build the Thames Tunnel, but also to host the construction of the Great Western Railway, a series of steamships (including the first large steamship with a propeller across the Atlantic) and many important bridges. He revolutionized public transportation, modern engineering and other fields. At present, there are statues of brunell all over Britain, all of which should be based on their sons.
◎ Brunel University (English: Brunel University, founded in 1966) is a public research university located in the suburb of Oxbridge in London, England, named after isambard kingdom brunel, a Victorian engineer;
◎ In 2006, the Royal Mint minted a commemorative coin of 2 pounds for brunell to commemorate the 200th anniversary of his birth;
◎ At the opening ceremony of the London Olympic Games in 2012, brunell made another appearance. In the second chapter, Green and Pleasant Land, Kenneth Bleiner, an English Shakespeare dramatist who played brunell, recited lines from Shakespeare’s comedy The Tempest. His first line, "Don’t be afraid, the island is full of all kinds of sounds", was also engraved on the Olympic clock hanging on the spot.
◎ The trophy of ITA Engineering Award in 2018 is the statue of British engineer isambard kingdom brunel.
[Extended reading]: The efforts of two generations of father and son — — Construction of Thames Tunnel
In 1823, Mark isambard brunel began to prepare for the construction of the tunnel from Weiping to Lothi with this technology. In 1824, he was funded by a number of private investors, including the Duke of Wellington, to set up the Thames Tunnel Company. The tunnel was formally started in February, 1825. The first step of the project was to dig the starting shaft 46 meters away from the shore in Lothi, on the south bank. For this reason, a huge steel ring with a diameter of 15 meters was made. The lining with a height of 12 meters and a thickness of 91 cm was built in the steel ring, and then the steam engine was used to drive the digging pump. The whole drilling and digging device was estimated to weigh 1,000 tons (1 ton = 1.016069088 tons). The edge at the bottom of the shield cuts the soft soil below like a blade. The soil accumulated in the steel ring is manually removed by workers, and the device slowly sinks under its own weight. At that time, the cutting device was stuck by the surrounding soil after sinking to a certain depth, and about 50 thousand bricks were temporarily loaded in order to keep it sinking. In November 1825, Lothi’s drilling and excavation device was completely lowered to the design depth, and the tunnel excavation process began.
The parts of the shield machine for tunneling were manufactured by the mechanical inventor Henry Maudslay’s workshop in Lamberthz and transported to the Lothi drilling site for assembly. The original shield machine consists of 12 large iron plates arranged side by side vertically, and then divided into three horizontal columns by two iron plates to provide a foothold for the upper and middle floors, thus forming 36 working spaces, and each space has a movable door panel against the soil in the drilling direction. A worker removes the door panel from each compartment, digs out a certain amount of soil in front of it, and then fixes the door panel in the depth of the dug space with tools. Each grid at the top and bottom of the shield machine will use giant screws to support the brick wall section behind the tunnel wall. When the soil in front of the shield machine has been dug away, the workers will turn the screws to make the shield machine go deeper. While the workers on the shield machine dig away the soil, another group of workers will keep laying brick walls behind them.
Each vertical iron plate of the shield machine weighs more than 7 tons, and the whole shield machine weighs about 80 tons. The advantage of this tunnel drilling and excavation method is to provide support for the inside of the tunnel to reduce the risk of collapse. However, many workers and engineers, including brunell, are infected by underground sewage flowing into the tunnel through the river bed, which will release methane gas and cause an explosion because of the ignition of oil lamps. In April 1826, after John Armstrong, a resident engineer, fell ill, brunell’s then 20-year-old son isambard kingdom brunel took over the baton. The progress of drilling and excavation is very slow, and the tunnel advances about 3 to 4 meters per week. On May 18, 1827, when the tunnel was dug to 167 meters, it was suddenly flooded. In order to stop the water seepage, Isambard entered the tunnel with a dinghy, swam to the top of the water seepage tunnel wall with a diving bell and plugged the cracks with sandbags. After the repair and pumping were completed, he held a banquet at the accident site in November to prove to the public that the underwater tunnel was safe.
In order to subsidize the project cost, the tunnel company opened the site for foreigners to visit. At that time, the admission fee was 1 shilling per person and attracted about 600 to 800 visitors every day.
On January 12, 1828, the tunnel was flooded again, which resulted in the death of six workers. Isambard fled to a locked emergency exit. A contractor behind the emergency exit noticed that someone was calling for help on the other side of the door, broke the door and rescued Isambard, who was in a coma. After being rescued, Isambard learned of the bid to build a bridge across Avon Canyon during his six-month convalescence. He won the project and built the Clifton suspension bridge later. Due to the subsequent financial problems, the tunnel was put on hold for seven years in August of that year, and the back of the shield machine was blocked by brick walls.
In December 1834, Mark isambard brunel successfully applied to the British Treasury for a loan of 247,000 pounds to continue the project. In August 1835, the original shield machine was dismantled and removed because it was aging. In March 1836, the improved shield machine weighing 140 pounds was replaced and the drilling and excavation continued. However, until 1840, the tunnel was flooded four times, and the fire, methane and hydrogen sulfide gas leakage continued to delay the construction progress. Finally, the tunnel was built in November 1841. From 1841 to 1842, the Thames Tunnel was paved with roads and lighting, and a spiral staircase was built at the exit for pedestrians to get up and down, which was opened to the public on March 25, 1843. The workshop on the Lothi side was converted into a storage place for pumping equipment to pump away the leaking groundwater when necessary, and this workshop was later converted into a museum to show the history of tunnels.
The Thames Tunnel is the first tunnel excavated by shield technology in the world, so it is a milestone of great significance in the history of tunnel engineering. Today, the Thames Tunnel has become a part of the London underground system, and thousands of Londoners rush through this gorgeous tunnel every day. At the same time, the Thames Tunnel has become a world-famous public attraction. (Source: Tunnel and Underground Engineering Lecture Hall)
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