Benjamin Baker’s Human Cantilever Model of the Forth Bridge

The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge across the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, 9 miles west of central Edinburgh. Completed in 1890, it is considered as a symbol of Scotland (having been voted Scotland’s greatest man-made wonder in 2016), and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was designed by English engineers Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker.

After the collapse of an earlier Tay Bridge in 1879 (with the loss of an estimated 75 lives), Benjamin Baker and Sir John Fowler submitted a design to the Forth Bridge Company on the cantilever and central girder principle. Fowler and Baker were well-established engineers whose long list of achievements included a substantial role in constructing the London underground rail network.

For many years an exponent of the use of cantilevers as the most effective means of constructing long-span bridges, Baker devised the human cantilever to explain the principle at a lecture to the Royal Institution in London in 1887.

To demonstrate the stability of the cantilever, Benjamin Baker designed a demonstration with three men, two chairs, two piles of bricks, and four broomsticks. With their outstretched arms, the people on the left and right serve to transfer the load of the suspended person (center) to the anchors (pile of bricks on left and right). As he explained, “when a load is put on the central girder by a person sitting on it, the men’s arms and the anchorage ropes come into tension, and the men’s bodies from the shoulders downwards and the sticks come into compression.”

Hanging by a Thread

Forth Bridge’s engineers created one of the first living models of the bridge in 1885. A closer look at the photograph makes a question if the model was successful, both in explaining the cantilever and transmitting confidence.

‘Forth Bridge Construction’, possibly Evelyn George Carey, 1885.

The building in the background is not set on the ground; it is supported by construction materials, creating a feeling of uncertainty and improvisation. The composition is off-centre, and the window and the construction site are distracting. The wrinkled drawing on the wall looks makeshift. There are construction materials scattered around, making it difficult to see what is holding the wooden sticks. Wooden boards under the left chair try to compensate the unevenness of the ground, aggravating the sense of precariousness.

The feeling of instability is even more pronounced if we look at the young man sitting in the middle. His face looks worried, and his awkward body language – a stiff pose, hands rigidly placed on his lap – suggests uneasiness. Looking even closer, we notice that his seat is tilted and secured by sloppy, thin strings. They seem to be on the verge of breaking. He is, literally, hanging by a thread. One cannot help but wonder if he fell off the model in the end.

Stronger Ropes, Stronger Message

Two years later, at a talk held before the Royal Institution, Benjamin Baker showed a photograph depicting a notably different setting.

‘Living Model Illustrating Principle of the Forth Bridge’, published in ‘The Forth Bridge’, W. Westhofen, 1890.

The perfectly centered building is sturdier and firmly set on an even, cleaner ground than in the first version. There are no distracting elements. The drawing on the wall looks more polished. The chairs are levelled and the brick structure holding the model on each side is clear. The two men sitting on the chairs are the same as in the previous image. Their faces show the same expression. But their bodies are now much more confident and upright, their limbs straight and symmetrical.

Even the ropes are thicker, enhancing the strength of the structure. The ropes holding the seat are shorter and were put closer to the ends of the sticks, positioning the middle seat higher. The analogy with the cantilever principle applied to the bridge became more pronounced.

Looking Confident to Create Confidence

The most striking difference is, however, the man sitting in the middle. The insecure looking, puny boy has disappeared. In his place we find a man with a knowledgeable-looking countenance, dressed in better clothes, his clock chain partially showing. The man’s hands are firmly placed on the wooden board. His legs are crossed, revealing how relaxed and assured he is. There is even another image of this same model where he crosses his arms with confidence, looking almost defiantly at the camera. He is telling us that he will not fall.

‘Demonstration of the Cantilever Principle of the Forth Bridge’, 1887.

The 1887 model is clearly much more effective in showing that the cantilever principle applied to bridges is stable and safe. More than explaining an engineering principle, it has a reassuring agency of its own. It shows how a model can be both objectively accurate and subjectively persuasive.

The well-dressed man of this second model is Kaichi Watanabe, a Japanese engineer who studied in Glasgow and who worked at the Forth Bridge construction.

The Forth Bridge under construction.

The Forth Bridge under construction.

(via V&A blog)

45 Amazing Photos Capture Street Scenes in Edinburgh in the 1970s

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. The city was historically part of the county of Midlothian (formally called the “county of Edinburgh” or Edinburghshire until 1947), but was administered separately from the surrounding county from 1482. It is located in Lothian on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth. Edinburgh is Scotland’s second-most populous city, after Glasgow, and the seventh-most populous city in the United Kingdom.

The city is home to national cultural institutions such as the National Museum of Scotland, the National Library of Scotland and the Scottish National Gallery. The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1582 and now one of three in the city, is considered one of the best research institutions in the world. The city is also known for the Edinburgh International Festival and the Fringe, the latter being the world’s largest annual international arts festival.

Historic sites in Edinburgh include Edinburgh Castle, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the churches of St. Giles, Greyfriars and the Canongate, and the extensive Georgian New Town built in the 18th/19th centuries.

These amazing photos from Podkin were taken by Hugh McCreadie that show street scenes of Edinburgh in the 1970s.

Rose Street, Edinburgh, circa early 1970s

City Observatory, Edinburgh, 1970

Nuffield Transplantation Surgery Unit, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, 1970

Paddling pool, Portobello, Edinburgh, 1970

Parrots, Edinburgh Zoo, 1970

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27 Fascinating Vintage Photographs That Capture Street Scenes of Edinburgh in the late 1950s

These images show Edinburgh in the late 1950s at a time when the nation was on the cusp of change, when traditional industries were struggling to survive and historic buildings were making way for modern designs.

The photographs were captured by Allan Hailstone in 1958, during several trips to Scotland. “Edinburgh was not the tourist destination it has since become, and its blackened buildings held a great atmosphere,” he said. “And I do not think that many people considered Glasgow in those days to be a tourist destination, but the city had hidden depths. Glasgow and Edinburgh are chalk and cheese.”

Like Glasgow, the late 1950s saw a huge slum clearance program in Edinburgh, causing the Old Town’s population to plummet. However, traditional industries such as insurance, banking, printing and brewing, continued to prosper. And it was also around this time that the city began to capitalize on its history – with tourists beginning to visit in huge numbers to admire Edinburgh’s grand buildings.

Meanwhile, just outside the city on the banks of the Firth of Forth, the Forth Road Bridge, a massive project to link North and South Queensferry, neared completion. The need for a new bridge, which would provide a crossing between Edinburgh and Fife, was needed due to a massive spike in private car ownership.

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Beautiful Vintage Kodachrome Photos of Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1961

These fascinating images were taken by Charles Weever Cushman, an amateur photographer, during his trip to Scotland. Cushman arrived at Edinburgh on June 15, 1961 and later made way to Glasgow before jetting off.

Take a look at these 18 beautiful Kodachrome photographs of the two cities, and check out Cushman’s pictures of London in 1961:

Hope and Sauchiehall Streets, Glasgow

Hope and Sauchiehall Streets, Glasgow

Princes Street, West from St. Andrew, Edinburgh

Princes Street at St. Andrew, Edinburgh

Ferry ship River Clyde, Glasgow

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Two Women in Long Dresses and Hats Rock Climbing the Salisbury Crags in Edinburgh in the 1900s

These days, rock climbing equipment is very high tech, with safety features like harnesses, spring-loaded carabiners, helmets, as well as special climbing shoes with crips, spikes and rubber soles. This wasn’t the case in the early 1900s, as this amazing photograph taken in Holyrood Park shows.

Lucy Smith and Pauline Ranken of the Ladies’ Scottish Climbing Club climbing the Salisbury Crags in 1908.

Lucy Smith and Pauline Ranken, two members of the Ladies’ Scottish Climbing Club founded in 1908, can be seen ascending Salisbury Crags wearing long, ankle-length skirts, hats, blouses and smart shoes. The only protection they had was a length of rope that was tied around each of their waists. There were no harnesses, crampons or other modern safety equipment available to them at the time.

Lucy Smith, one of the women in the photo, was one of the founder members of the Ladies’ Scottish Climbing Club: the other two founders were Jane Inglis Clarke and her daughter Mabel. They formed the club because as women, they were barred from joining the men-only Scottish Mountaineering Club, and they trained regularly on Salisbury Crags in Edinburgh.

All three women climbed extensively in Scotland and the Alps before forming the club, including the major climbing areas in Scotland such as Crianlarich, Glencoe and Skye. And they did much of that climbing in thick, long tweed skirts, smart jackets and hats. Unlike the men’s club, who wore stout boots and trousers, which must have made things easier.

The club meeting at the start of 1909. Founder Lucy Smith is leftmost while Jane Inglis Clark is in the centre of the doorway.

By the end of 1908 the club had fourteen members. To qualify, women had to ascend four peaks of at least 3,000 feet with two snow climbs and two rock climbs. To be decent, they would start their climbs in their restrictive, long skirts. However, when no men were around they would often discard these to climb in knickerbockers: knee length trousers that could be hidden under dresses.

(via Edinburgh Live)

Found Photos Show Life of a Family At Bruntsfield, Edinburgh in 1954

Bruntsfield is a largely residential area around Bruntsfield Place in Southern Edinburgh, Scotland. In feudal times, it fell within the barony of Colinton.

Bruntsfield Place is less than 1 mile (1.6 km) south on the A702 main road from the West end of Edinburgh's principal street, Princes Street. The modern district of Bruntsfield lies west of Bruntsfield Links, beyond which lies the district of Marchmont.

Merchiston is to the west and Tollcross to the north. To the south and east lies the former estate of Greenhill, and to the south Morningside. The estate built on land originally belonging to Bruntsfield House is called Marchmont, which the Warrender family began feuing in 1872. Many of the street names reflect the association with that family.

The whole area lay within the Burgh Muir of Edinburgh, from which a former farm Burghmuirhead took its name which passed eventually to a small area within Bruntsfield. The Burgh Muir stretched all the way through from the present-day Meadows to the Braid Burn at the foot of the northern slopes of the Pentland Hills.

A set of vintage photos was found by Nigel Baxter that shows life of a family at Bruntsfield, Edinburgh in 1954.

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July 5, 1966: The World’s Most Famous Sheep, Dolly, Was Born at the Roslin Institute in Scotland

Dolly was part of a series of experiments at the Roslin Institute, part of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, that were trying to develop a better method for producing genetically modified livestock. If successful, this would mean fewer animals would need to be used in future experiments. Scientists at Roslin also wanted to learn more about how cells change during development and whether a specialized cell, such as a skin or brain cell, could be used to make a whole new animal.

Dolly the Sheep, the world’s first cloned mammal, is shown in this undated photo. (Photo: Getty Images)

Dolly, center, was the world’s first cloned sheep. Dolly was located at the Roslin Institute in Scotland. (Photo: Karen Kasmauski/Getty Images)

Dolly was cloned by Keith Campbell, Ian Wilmut and colleagues at the Roslin Institute and the biotechnology company PPL Therapeutics, based near Edinburgh. The funding for Dolly’s cloning was provided by PPL Therapeutics and the Ministry of Agriculture. She was born on July 5, 1996 and died from a progressive lung disease five months before her seventh birthday (the disease was not considered related to her being a clone) on February 14, 2003. She has been called “the world’s most famous sheep” by sources including BBC News and Scientific American.

Although Dolly was born in July 1996, researchers announced Dolly’s existence on February 22, 1997. The delay in the announcement was due to the time needed to amass sufficient data on the project, check the data, write and get the manuscript published.

Dolly meets the world’s media. (Photo: Murdo Macleod)

On Dolly’s name, Wilmut stated “Dolly is derived from a mammary gland cell and we couldn’t think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton’s.”

Dolly had three mothers: one provided the egg, another the DNA, and a third carried the cloned embryo to term. She was created using the technique of somatic cell nuclear transfer, where the cell nucleus from an adult cell is transferred into an unfertilized oocyte (developing egg cell) has had its cell nucleus removed. The hybrid cell is then stimulated to divide by an electric shock, and when it develops into a blastocyst it is implanted in a surrogate mother.

Dolly was the first clone produced from a cell taken from an adult mammal. The production of Dolly showed that genes in the nucleus of such a mature differentiated somatic cell are still capable of reverting to an embryonic totipotent state, creating a cell that can then go on to develop into any part of an animal.

Dolly in 1997 on the right. Her penmate is Polly, a sheep genetically engineered by the team at Roslin. (Photo: John Chadwick/AP)

Dolly the Sheep with her first born lamb, called Bonnie. (Photo: The Roslin Institute/The University of Edinburgh)

Dolly as a lamb with her surrogate mother. (Photo: The Roslin Institute/The University of Edinburgh)

Dolly wasn’t the first animal to be cloned—research on cloning had been going on since the mid-20th century—but she was the first example of successful cloning of a mammal from an adult cell, rather than a more malleable embryo. Getting there wasn’t easy, nor was it easy for laypeople to understand how the Scottish team succeeded.

After her death in February 2003, the Roslin Institute donated Dolly’s body to the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, where she has become one of the museum’s most popular exhibits. Dolly is back on display in the museum after an extensive gallery refurbishment, alongside an interactive exhibit on the ethics of creating transgenic animals featuring current research from the Roslin Institute.

Burke & Hare Murder Dolls: The Mystery of the Miniature Edinburgh Coffins

In late June 1836, a group of boys headed out to the north-east slopes of Edinburgh’s Arthur’s Seat to hunt for rabbits. What they found there has remained a baffling mystery ever since. In a secluded spot on the north-east side of the hill, the boys discovered a small cave in the rock, hidden behind three pointed slabs of slate. Concealed within were 17 miniature coffins.

The tiny coffins were arranged under slates in three tiers: two tiers of eight and one solitary coffin on the top. Each coffin, only 95mm in length, contained a little wooden figure, expertly carved and dressed in custom-made clothes that had been stitched and glued around them.

After this initial flurry of media interest, the coffins passed into the hands of private collectors, reappearing in 1901, when eight were donated to the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and from there to National Museums Scotland. What happened to the remaining nine? According to The Scotsman, a number were destroyed by the boys, although we don’t know how many – certainly no more have come to light since.

On surveying the evidence from The Scotsman, Edinburgh Evening Post and Caledonian Mercury, cuttings from which were donated with the coffins, the Society concluded that “the intention [of the coffins] seems to be to symbolize honorific burial.”

But the mystery has not been allowed to rest there. Who made the intricate carved figures? Who did they represent? Who placed them in their secret sepulcher… and why?

At first theories on the dolls’ significance ranged from witchcraft to child’s toys, but eventually, it began to seem that the 17 tiny figures could be effigies for the 17 murder victims a decade earlier. There is also a belief that the figurines were meant to represent sailors lost at sea who hadn’t received a proper burial. Holyrood Park, where the dolls were discovered, has a clear view of the Firth of Forth estuary. Even the nearby St. Anthony’s Chapel ruins were said to act a lighthouse. There is a possibility that these were funeral effigies.

Between 1827 and 1828, William Burke and William Hare lured in and murdered their lodgers in a scheme to provide fresh bodies to the local anatomy school. Dr. Robert Knox, a brilliant and well-known local anatomy lecturer, purchased the bodies and most likely knew that something was a bit suspicious about his supply chain.

William Burke and William Hare

The crimes were exposed when another lodger discovered the body of a previous tenant and reported it to the police. Burke and Hare were apprehended along with Burke’s mistress, Helen McDougal, and Hare’s wife, Margaret Laird. Despite finding the body of this last lodger in Knox’s classroom, ready for dissection, the evidence was not truly damning until Hare turned on Burke and gave a full confession. William Burke was hanged in January 1829. His body was handed over for dissection, and his skeleton and a book bound from his skin remain in the collection of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh.

Although it is generally agreed that the mysterious little dolls are associated with the crimes of Burke & Hare, no one is certain who among the killers created them. While twelve of Burke and Hare’s victims were female, the corpses in the coffins are all dressed as men, but perhaps the figures were simply meant as symbols.

And yet, if they were, who buried them? Someone close to the murders, or a sympathetic onlooker? We’ll never know.

(Photos © National Museums Scotland, via the National Museum of Scotland and Atlas Obscura)

Aerial View Over Edinburgh circa 1920, One of the Best Aerial Photographs Ever Taken

Taking photos from great heights is all the rage these days. Which makes sense, given how easy it now is to get your hands on a camera-equipped drone, or commandeer a satellite. But after seeing this photo of Edinburgh, taken by Alfred Buckham around 1920, we’re not sure there’s much need to keep snapping. Put your lens caps on, pilots: the most majestic aerial photo was taken nearly a century ago!

Alfred G. Buckham, Aerial View over Edinburgh, c. 1920, courtesy of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

From the earliest days of manned flight, photographers sought to capture the strange and unfamiliar beauty of the view from above. Whether it was from balloons, airships or later, fixed-wing aircraft, enterprising pioneers overcame formida­ble technical obstacles to create striking new images of the world below. It was, however, through warfare in the twentieth century that aerial photography came to prominence. Alfred Buckham’s remarkable body of work in the air had its origins in a brief, eventful career with the Royal Navy in the last phase of the First World War, but he was also able to develop a highly personal approach that combined his skills in documentary reconnaissance with an artist’s feeling for mood and atmosphere.

Born in London, Buckham’s first ambition was to become a painter but after seeing an exhibition of work by J.M.W. Turner at the National Gallery he apparently destroyed all his own work. He turned instead to photography and in 1917 was enlisted into the photographic division of the Royal Navy. He was stationed first at Turnhouse near Edinburgh and was later transferred to the Grand Fleet based at Rosyth on the Firth of Forth. On his missions he took two cameras, one for his technical photography for the Navy and the other for personal use. Flying over Scotland he took numerous photographs of cloud formations, hilly landscapes and views of towns, often seeking out extremes of weather to add drama to his subject matter.

“It is not easy to tumble out of an aeroplane, unless you really want to, and on considerably more than a thousand flights I have used a safety belt only once and then it was thrust upon me. I always stand up to make an exposure and, taking the precaution to tie my right leg to the seat, I am free to move about rapidly, and easily, in any desired direction; and loop the loop and indulge in other such delights, with perfect safety.” – Alfred Buckham

Buckham’s aerial view of Edinburgh has become one of the most popular photographs. The view is taken from the west, with the castle in the foreground and the buildings of the Old Town along the Royal Mile gradually fading into a bank of mist with the rocky silhouette of Arthur’s Seat just visible in the distance. Buckham was always keen to capture strong contrasts of light and dark, often combining the skies and landscapes from separate photographs to achieve a theatrical effect. As he does here, he some­times collaged or hand-painted the form of a tiny aircraft to enhance the vertiginous effect. Yet accuracy remained a concern; Buckham later professed a particular fond­ness for his view of Edinburgh, ‘because it presents, so nearly, the effect that I saw’.

In the early days of flight, aerial recon­naissance was a hazardous task. Buckham crashed nine times and in 1919 was discharged out of the Royal Navy as one hundred per cent disabled. However, he continued to practise aerial photography through the 1920s, and in 1931 he travelled to Central and South America to take photographs for an American magazine, a commission that resulted in a remarkable series of views of mountain ranges and snow-rimmed volcanoes. In his journals and in various magazine articles, Buckham conveyed a spirit of adventure and derring-do that is not for the faint-hearted or those with a fear of flying.

Alfred G. Buckham, Cloud Turrets, c. 1920, courtesy of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Alfred G. Buckham, Flying Boat over Sea, c. 1920, courtesy of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Alfred G. Buckham, R100, c. 1920, courtesy of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Alfred G. Buckham, Volcano. Crater of Popocatetl c. 1930, courtesy of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

(via the National Galleries of Scotland)

Rare Photographs of Edinburgh, Scotland From the 1840s

In 1840s Edinburgh, painter David Octavius Hill and engineer Robert Adamson formed the city’s first photography studio, which created thousands of images until Adamson’s sudden death. They are best known for their wonderful portraits, but over the course of their sadly short partnership they also created quite a few city views.

At a time when most photographers worked with daguerreotypes, Hill and Adamson used the negative-positive process, creating negatives on paper (calotypes) which could then be printed on salted paper. The Special Collections at the University of Glasgow holds large numbers of their original negatives, and their online collection provides digitally reversed positive images.

The photographs are wonderful not only as some of the earliest views of a beautiful city, but for the aesthetic of the early paper negative. Even with skill level like Hill and Adamson's, the process was still highly unpredictable. The photographs are imperfect--which is ultimately a testament to the incredible fact of their existence.

View of the Mound, 1843.

A view of the Old Town.

Edinburgh Castle and the Grassmarket.

View from Calton Hill, after October 1844.

The National Commerical Bank, George Street.

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