SS GREAT EASTERN

7TH WONDER OF INDUSTRIAL WORLD

Builder                        : J. Scott Russell & Co., Millwall
Laid down                :1 May 1854
Launched                    :31 January 1858
Fate                            :Scrapped 1889-90

General characteristics
Tonnage                      :18,915 grt
Displacement               :32,160 tons
Length                         :692 ft (211 m)
Beam                          :82 ft (25 m)
Propulsion                   :Four steam engines for the paddles and an additional engine for the propeller. Total                                       power was estimated at 8,000 hp (6.0 MW). Rectangular boilers
Speed                         :14 knots (26 km/h)
Capacity                     :4,000 passengers

Great Eastern at Heart's Content, July 1866

Sectional plan of Great Eastern

On the deck, 1857

SS Great Eastern's launch ramp at Millwall.

Great Eastern on 12th Nov, 1857

Great Eastern before launch in 1858

Great Eastern At Sea, the great ship of IK Brunel as imagined at sea by the artist at her launch in 1858

Berthed at New York, 1860

Cable laying machinery installed on Great Eastern

The deck of Great Eastern in 1865

Great Eastern harboured in Milford Haven, 1870's

Magazine illustration ca. 1877

Great Eastern beached for breaking up

A topmast rescued from SS Great Eastern at the Kop end of Liverpool FCs stadium.

SS great Eastern is a huge ship before the construction of RMS Oceanic. 

It was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who was a civil engineer. 

The ship was builded by J. Scott Russell  at Millwall on the River Thames, London. 

It debuted the voyage in the year 31 January 1858. It had a capacity to carry 4,000 passengers per trip. 

It had 692 feet height and 32,160 tons of displacement. 

It worked under the power of 6.0 MW, say it's equal to 8,000 hp. It had 26 Km/hr speed. 

The SS Great Eastern was Brunel's massive 22,500-ton steamship that was  so far ahead of her time that her length (nearly 700 feet) and tonnage would remain unmatched for four more decades. 

She was by far the largest ship the World had ever seen and was intended for the passenger and cargo trade between England and Ceylon.

Though christened Leviathan during a initial launching attempt in early November 1857, she was thereafter always known as Great Eastern. 

Nearly three month's costly struggle to get her afloat, and more problems while she was completing, left her original company bankrupt. 

New owners decided to employ her on the route between Britain and North America. 

However, insufficient capitalisation restricted outfitting to luxury accomodations, thus ignoring the decidedly non-luxurious, but very profitable immigrant trade. 

The ship financial difficulties continued, compounded by a series of accidents.

In September 1859 Great Eastern's first voyage was cut short by a boiler explosion. 

Her second company collapsed under the expense of repairs and a new firm took her on. 

Finally reaching New York in June 1860, for the next two months she was exhibited to the public and made voyages along the U.S. coast. 

Nearly a year passed before Great Eastern's next westbound trip in May 1861, by which time the American Civil War had begun.

During June and July she transported troops to Quebec to reinforce Canada's defenses. 

In September Great Eastern began another trip to New York, but was disabled by a severe storm. 

In mid-1862 she made three voyages, but improving commercial prospects abruptly ceased when she struck an uncharted rock entering New York harbour, necessitating more expensive repairs. 

She did not resume service until mid-1863, making two more trips and bankrupting yet another company.

Sold at auction, Great Eastern was chartered for laying a trans-Atlantic telegraph cable. 

The ship finally found her niche. 

In 1866 Great Eastern brought a cable to North America, establishing nearly instantaneous communication between the Old World and the New that has remained unbroken ever since. 

Following a unfruitful effort by French interests to put her back into passenger service in 1867, Great Eastern returned to cable work. 

Between 1869 and 1874 she strung six more cables from Europe to America, repaired two earlier ones, and laid another across the Indian Ocean.

Great Eastern was laid up at Milford Haven, Wales in 1874. 

In 1886 she steamed to Liverpool to become an exhibition ship. 

This prosaic, but profitable employment continued during visits to London and Scotland later in the year. 

Sold late in 1887, Great Eastern went back to Liverpool, where she was stripped and slowly broken up during 1888 and 1889.

COLOSSUS OF RHODES

The Colossus of Rhodes was a statue of the Greek Titan Helios, erected in the city of Rhodes, on the Greek island of the same name, by Chares of Lindos between 292 and 280 BC. 

The original Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was sculpted by Chares of Lindos, and represented Helios, god/personification of the sun. It was toppled in 226 BCE by an earthquake.



We can say that the colossus of Rhodes is part of the seven wonders because of its exemplary vastness.

Moreover, it should well be realized that this Greek monument is the result of a very hudge technical process which is characterized, amongst other things, by the use of terra cotta moulds necessary to the casting of the colossus.

According to the legend, Charas of Lindos commited a suicide when he discovered an error in his calculs, error that one of his assistants had to correct.

Made of bronze and based on marble block, the statue was 32 meters (105 feet) height from the top of the head to the feet, that is to say 14 meters (46 feet) less than the statue of liberty in New York.

It was constructed to celebrate Rhodes' victory over the ruler of Cyprus, Antigonus I Monophthalmus, whose son unsuccessfully besieged Rhodes in 305 BC.

Before its destruction in the earthquake of 226 BC, the Colossus of Rhodes stood over 30 meters (98.4 ft) high, making it one of the tallest statues of the ancient world.


Ancient accounts, which differ to some degree, describe the structure as being built with iron tie bars to which brass plates were fixed to form the skin.

The interior of the structure, which stood on a 15 meter (50 foot) high white marble pedestal near the Mandraki harbor entrance, was then filled with stone blocks as construction progressed.

Other sources place the Colossus on a breakwater in the harbor.

The statue itself was over 30 meters (98.4 ft) tall.

Much of the iron and bronze was reforged from the various weapons Demetrius's army left behind, and the abandoned second siege tower may have been used for scaffolding around the lower levels during construction.

Upper portions were built with the use of a large earthen ramp.

During the building, workers would pile mounds of dirt on the sides of the colossus.

Upon completion all of the dirt was removed and the colossus was left to stand alone.

After twelve years, in 280 BC, the statue was completed. Preserved in Greek anthologies of poetry is what is believed to be the genuine dedication text for the Colossus.

The statue stood for 56 years until Rhodes was hit by the 226 BC Rhodes earthquake, when significant damage was also done to large portions of the city, including the harbor and commercial buildings, which were destroyed.

The statue snapped at the knees and fell over on to the land.

The heigh enabled the statue to be visible by the ships approaching to the port.

In his raised arm, the sun god held a torch while his other arm was pressed on a lance.

Contrary to the illustrations we usually find, ships were not passing under the colossesus legs to enter in the wearing of Rhodes.

It was technically impossible that the statue had its legs split.

The statue had been partially destroyed in 225 BC after a earthquake.

Then, in 653 AC, all the material (more than 13 tons of bronze and nearly 7 tons of iron, according to Philon) is taken by an arab expedition to be sold to a jewish merchant of Ephesea.

MOUNT EVEREST IN NEPAL

The 8,848 m (29,029 ft) height given is officially recognised by Nepal and China.

In 1856, Andrew Waugh announced Everest (then known as Peak XV) as 29,002 ft (8,840 m) high, after several years of calculations based on observations made by the Great Trigonometric Survey.

Mount Everest, as seen from Kalapattar

Sunset at Nuptse,a Himalayan giant in Nepal

The elevation of 8,848 m (29,029 ft) was first determined by an Indian survey in 1955, made closer to the mountain, also using theodolites.

It was subsequently reaffirmed by a 1975 Chinese measurement 8,848.13 m (29,029.30 ft). 

In May 1999 an American Everest Expedition, directed by Bradford Washburn, anchored a GPS unit into the highest bedrock. 

A rock head elevation of 8,850 m (29,035 ft), and a snow/ice elevation 1 m (3 ft) higher, were obtained via this device.

Northern panoramic view of Everest from Tibetan Plateau

Although it has not been officially recognized by Nepal,this figure is widely quoted. Geoid uncertainty casts doubt upon the accuracy claimed by both the 1999 and 2005 surveys.

A detailed photogrammetric map (at a scale of 1:50,000) of the Khumbu region, including the south side of Mount Everest, was made by Erwin Schneider as part of the 1955 International Himalayan Expedition, which also attempted Lhotse. 

An even more detailed topographic map of the Everest area was made in the late 1980s under the direction of Bradford Washburn, using extensive aerial photography.

On 9 October 2005, after several months of measurement and calculation, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping officially announced the height of Everest as 8,844.43 m (29,017.16 ft) with accuracy of ±0.21 m (0.69 ft). 

This height is based on the actual highest point of rock and not on the snow and ice covering it. 

The Chinese team also measured a snow/ice depth of 3.5 m (11 ft),which is in agreement with 

a net elevation of 8,848 m (29,029 ft). 

The snow and ice thickness varies over time, making a definitive height of the snow cap impossible to determine.

It is thought that the plate tectonics of the area are adding to the height and moving the 

summit northeastwards. 

Two accounts suggest the rates of change are 4 mm (0.16 in) per year (upwards) and 3 to 6 

mm (0.12 to 0.24 in) per year (northeastwards),but another account mentions more lateral 

movement (27 mm or 1.1 in),and even shrinkage has been suggested.

Geologists have subdivided the rocks comprising Mount Everest into three units called "formations".

Each formation is separated from the other by low-angle faults, called "detachments", along which they have been thrust over each other. 

From the summit of Mount Everest to its base these rock units are the Qomolangma Formation, the North Col Formation, and the Rongbuk Formation.