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Brunel with chains of the Great Eastern, photograph
Isambard Kingdom Brunel standing infront of the chains he designed for the S.S. GREAT EASTERN. The chains were made at the Brown Lenox works at Pontypridd, and this picture was taken at Scott Russell's shipyard & ironworks on the Isle of Dogs.
Victoria & Albert Museum caption reads: This famous portrait was taken as part of a series of photographs by Robert Howlett that documents the construction of the massive steamship The Great Eastern on the banks of the Thames. It is a powerful image in which the British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859), who was the ship’s creator, projects all the confidence and ambition of the Victorian era. Howlett portrays Brunel in his ‘stove-pipe’ hat and stacked-heel boots to give him height and presence. His formal clothes are dishevelled and muddied from the site. The backdrop is dominated by the chains of the stern checking drum. This controlled the slow slide of the ship down to the water’s edge, where it was launched by being lifted on the tide.