LATEST NEWS
Wednesday 23rd September 2009
Following its Frome success, Bridging the World goes nationwide at London’s inspirational Building Centre.
[ Read more... » ]
Monday 13th July 2009
On Tuesday 7th July Rook Lane Chapel was filled to capacity. The 160 strong audience had come to be entertained with Benjamin Baker’s seminal lecture ‘Bridging The Firth of Forth’.
[ Read more... » ]
Debate Report: The Forth Bridge & the Birth of Structural Expressionism
Monday 29th June 2009
On Friday 26th June Engineers Tony Hunt & Mark Whitby and Architect George Ferguson spoke to a lively audience of engineers, architects and enthusiastic lay people at Rook Lane Chapel on the subject of Benjamin Baker. [ Read more... » ]
Saturday 20th June 2009
A glorious afternoon of sunshine and entertainment greeted those who came along to the launch party of ‘Benjamin Baker of Frome: Bridging the World’. [ Read more... » ]
New beer from Milk Street: Iron Brew
Friday 19th June 2009
Iron Brew is the new real ale, brewed by Milk Street Brewery, especially for the Frome Festival celebrations of the life and works of Benjamin Baker. [ Read more... » ]
Life-size replica of Forth strut emerges from Rook Lane
Wednesday 17th June 2009
Spotted anything unusual on your way up Bath Road recently? Is there a secret plan afoot to reconstruct the Forth Bridge? [ Read more... » ]
Riveting Facts
- 1When Benjamin Baker was born, Fussells Ironworks (one of the many foundries in Frome) was one of the World’s main manufacturers of farming tools. Singers had recently been established and specialised in church ornaments. Cockeys was an established bell foundry.
- 2John Fowler (Baker’s partner) was a friend and contemporary of Isambard Kingdom Brunel & Robert Stephenson. These early engineers and the good fortune to be present at the height of railway construction and moved up quickly through their profession.
- 3Descendants of fellow Forth Bridge engineer, Tom Harrison, live close to Frome. Tom Harrison was known as ‘honest Tom’ and despite being advised against a career in civil engineering by Thomas Telford, had a successful career working on the railways.
- 4Like many engineers Baker did not attend university but served an engineering apprenticeship. By the time Evelyn George Carey came of age Civil Engineering was established as a professional degree.
- 5The Forth Bridge was the first ever steel bridge. Steel was a new material, processed using the Bessemer converter which by passing oxygen through molten iron removed silicone, carbon and manganese.
- 6The Forth Bridge used 65,000 tons of steel and nearly 7,000,000 rivets. Baker insisted that all the rivet holes were pre-drilled to avoid creating localised stresses. The contractor, William Arrol invented new machinery to aide construction.
- 7The first person to drive a train across the Forth Bridge was a woman (the wife of one of the rail company directors). This publicity stunt did not result in much press as the newspapers were rather grave and unresponsive at the time.
- 8The Forth Bridge was the longest bridge in the world until 1918 when it was overtaken by the Pont de Québec which is also a cantilever bridge. The Pont de Québec was initially badly designed (the weight of the structure was not calculated correctly) and collapsed killing 75 workmen in 1907.
- 9Baker was the first engineer to use the undulating railway line on the London Underground. On approach to a station the track would slope up and on departure slope down, thus aiding braking and acceleration. A radical fuel-saving idea still in use today!
- 10The term ‘Civil Engineering’ was coined by John Smeaton in the eighteenth century to distinguish their profession from that of military engineers. John Smeaton was famous for the Eddystone lighthouse but he was prolific in other areas such as, canals, bridges and instrument design.
