Innovation Station Industrial Revolution

CristinaADL, Socials 9

                The innovation that I have chosen is the suspension bridge. The image and design of the suspension bridge was created by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, but the actual idea came from a wine       merchant. An English wine merchant wanted to sell his wine on the other side of gorge but couldn’t get across. The idea of making a bridge able to go across rivers and gorges that were too wide and dangerous was put out to the public as a contest to get your design to come to life. When the first contest happened, the judge chose his own idea and when everyone found out they all wanted a retry. In the second contest Isambard Kingdom Brunel won with his new and modern design of a suspension bridge.

                Many problems occurred during the construction of the bridge such to of a complex design. Some things that ended up coming out of this was that since the design was so advance, the builders didn’t have the right technology to build what Brunel wanted. The builders also didn’t know how to build the structure properly and due to both of those problems the design had to be changed to make it more reasonable for the era the bridge was built in. Today when a new structure is going to get built there are certain standards and rules the designer needs to follow. The designer also tends to collaborate with the builder to see if their idea they have come up with id doable and will be safe to build and use.

                Money became a problem during the construction too. By not having enough money the project was put on hold until they could afford to pay for it. Workers started getting mad because hey weren’t getting paid and due to that they didn’t want to work until they got paid. What the result was supposed to look like, the construction needed to have certain materials and machines to create it but all that cost money. They already didn’t have enough money to pay the workers and how much the project itself cost so adding this additional cost just made it worse. Now a days when something is going to get built all the money that is going to be used comes from the taxpayers like us. Before the money is used, the city and the builder normally will come together and see how much the whole project will cost and if they have enough money. Though that helps to have all the right machinery and the builders are trained for the build, it doesn’t always stop projects for being put on hold. Sometimes the project will go to court, need a new construction crew or need to look over the plan. It helps to kind of prevent it but to doesn’t fully prevent it.

                One problem that didn’t happen a lot but was the worst result was that the area the bridge was getting built in was very dangerous and due to that a couple people died. Two of the construction workers sadly died during the construction and on site. This tragedy also made the project get put on hold because people were curious how and why the two people died. After the two deaths, people began to think that the bridge was going to be unsafe to build and just to cross so they lost a lot of support for this project. Today we don’t come across this problem offend for a few reasons. One is that in British Columbia now we have Work Safe BC, which is an agency that watches over working site and any job where you can be seriously injured. For example, back during the industrial revolution when they were building the pylons, they probably didn’t wear harness and ropes. Today when ever you are working or on something that is very high and has a risk of falling off you must wear a harness and roped for safety reasons as well as a helmet.

                Some things that have changed in the way that the suspension bridge id made is that they use lighter materials. Since the material is lighter it doesn’t need a lot of support from below to hold up and in that what uses less materials and doesn’t cost as much money. The bridge is also used for longer spans of water or valley than rather short ones. By covering more land or water they are more ways to get places and faster too. The cables they use are heavier so the so there isn’t as much support need from below and last longer because they support from the bottom isn’t in the water and doesn’t need to be replaces or fixed in the future.

                All these changes have made a positive impact on they way it is used. All these changes added up into one solution is that the entire bridge will last longer. The light-weight materials and the heavier cables hold up the bridge so the support from below isn’t need and the base isn’t going to need to be repaired.

                Even though there are many positive of things with new suspension bridges, there are also some downfalls. When building a suspension bridge, they are made for longer spans of land so that means that it takes longer to build and due to that the traffic will be slower and longer to get home.

                Today suspension bridges are made by cables holding up the road and the top of those cables are connected to suspenders which they are connected to the pylons. These types of bridges are used very offend and very common, they also happen to work very well.

Bibliography

Images, Celestial. “Blueprint Of Suspension Bridge by Celestial Images.” Fine Art America, https://fineartamerica.com/featured/blueprint-of-suspension-bridge-celestial-images.html

Reflection

I was able to find majority of the problems easy but some of the problems were harder to find whether it be I didn’t word the question right or wasn’t looking up the right thing. For finding the problem and solutions I was would look up problems and then look up that problem but add solution in the search bar. I looked up future suspension bridge ideas and research and added all the information and create something that seemed right and usable. I was proud of my final idea but I don’t think that this idea will be invented in 10 years. In the future I would probably use a different medium and choose something that I actually and interested in.

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