By Callum Harries
Famous Victorians
Charles Darwin
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Florence Nightingale
Title of slide
Number of slide
Charles Robert Darwin
3
The Life of Charles Darwin
4
The HMS Beagle
5
Exploration
6
The Origin Species
7
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
8
The Life of I.K. Brunel
9
The Clifton Suspension Bridge
10
The Great Western Railway
11
The S.S. Great Western
12
The S.S. Great Britain
13
The S.S. Great Eastern
14
The Greatest Ever Briton?
15
Florence Nightingale
16
The Life of Florence Nightingale
17
John Cadbury
Alexander Graham Bell
The Crimean War
18
Nightingale’s Nurses
19
John Cadbury
20
The Life of John Cadbury
21
The Chocolate Revolution
22
The Bournville Dream
23
Alexander Bell
24
Alexander Graham Bell
25
The Race
26
The Telephone
27
Left : Charles Darwin aged 51
The first evolutionary biologist and
originator of the concept of natural
selection.
1809-1882
Below: Charles Darwin’s signature
Charles Robert Darwin was born on the 12th February 1809 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire.
His family was wealthy and well known. One of his grandfathers was Josiah
Wedgwood, the famous china manufacturer, while the other, Erasmus Darwin was
one of England’s leading intellectuals.
Charles Darwin originally planned to become a doctor, and studied medicine at
Edinburgh University. However, he later changed courses and studied divinity at
Cambridge University.
Above: Cambridge University
Above : Edinburgh University
In 1831 Darwin joined a 5 year scientific expedition aboard
the ship HMS Beagle. They were headed for South America
and the Pacific islands. He was invited on the voyage by
Francis Beaufort on behalf of Captain FitzRoy who, aware of
the ‘stressful loneliness of command’ wanted a gentleman
companion that had the same intellectual capacity as him, to
dine and discuss things with.
Below : Voyage of the Beagle
Above : HMS Beagle
Up : HMS Beagle
Darwin spent three years of the expedition on land collecting specimens of scientific value and
made careful notes and observations on the rich variety of animal and plant life. Darwin
particularly studied finches ,and noticed that each island harboured its own variety of finch,
which were closely related but differed in certain ways that seemed dependant on the
environment.
Upon returning to England, Darwin thought carefully about his observations and how species
may evolve. It seemed that animals and plants, best suited to the environment were more likely
to survive and reproduce, passing on to their offspring the best characteristics. In this way
species gradually change over time.
Right : Darwin’s pictures of four
different types of Galapagos
finches.
Darwin worked on his theory of ‘natural selection’ for 20 years. He delayed publishing his
findings and ideas because he knew that the Victorian world would find them extremely
controversial. At this time most people believed that the world was created by God in 7 days as
described in the bible. Darwin was about to suggest that people had evolved from apes! He was
disagreeing with and undermining the teachings of the Christian Church – a dangerous and
unwise thing to do at this time.
Darwin's book ‘The Origin of Species’ was based on his journey to the Galapagos on the Beagle
1831-1836 . It explained his theory on natural selection (that only the strongest most adapted
creatures survived).
Right : Isambard K. Brunel
Left: Temple meads station
The worlds foremost transport engineer.
1806-1859
Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born on 9th April 1806 in Portsmouth . He was the only son
of a French engineer called Mark Brunel . His father sent Isambard to school in France
and when he returned he went to work for his father .
At the age of 20 Isambard Kingdom Brunel was responsible for the engineering work on
the Thames Tunnel which was completed, after several setbacks, in 1843.
Left : Thames Tunnel
In 1831 Brunel won a competition to design a bridge to cross the Avon Gorge in
Clifton , Bristol . The construction of the Clifton suspension bridge began in the
same year but the landmark bridge was not finished until after Brunel's death in
1864 . He did however build several other impressive bridges that are still in
service today including the Tamar bridge near Plymouth and the Wye bridge at
Chepstow.
Brunel is probably best known for his construction on the Great Western Railroad . In
1833 he was appointed chief engineer and began work linking Bristol to London .
As well as introducing the ‘broad gauge’ on this line he constructed a long list of
amazing feats of engineering such as viaducts, tunnels and stations.
Left : The Albert Railroad
As well as bridges, tunnels and railways Brunel was also responsible for the design of
three famous ships.
The Great Western, launched in 1837, was the first steam ship that carried passengers
across the Atlantic.
Left : The Great
Western
On its maiden voyage from Bristol to New York on 8th April 1838, The Great Western
left with only 7 passengers on board. Many people had cancelled their voyage
thinking the ship was unsafe after an engine fire in which Brunel himself was badly
hurt.
The Great Western crossed the Atlantic 45 times in 8 years before being sold to the
Royal Mail Packet Company and serving in the West Indies and later as a troop ship
in the Crimean War. She was broken up at Castle’s Yard, London in 1856.
The S.S. Great Britain was the first iron hulled, steam driven, screw propeller passenger
liner. She was built in a specially prepared dry dock in Bristol and floated out through
the Avon Gorge on 19th July 1843.
The S.S.
Great Britain
from the
back and
front.
After 127 years at sea and over 1,000,000 miles travelled ,including 34 trips around the
world, she was eventually returned to the same dry dock in which she was built. Due to the
poor condition of her rusting iron hull she will sadly never sail again but has been restored
and will be preserved, in dry air, for future generations to enjoy.
The Great Eastern launched in 1859 was the biggest ship ever built at the time. She
could carry up to 4000 passenger and could travel around the world without
refuelling.
Left: Model of
The Great Eastern
Brunel redesigned and was responsible for the construction of many of Britain’s
major docks including Bristol, Cardiff and Milford Haven.
Over just 3o years Isambard Kingdom Brunel produced a massive amount of beautiful
and practical architecture which is still used today.
His frantic work rate is thought to have cost him his health and he died of a stroke on
15th September 1859.
Many people believe him to be one of the greatest ever Englishmen and he came
runner up for the title of Greatest Ever Briton losing out to Sir Winston Churchill in
a public vote a few years ago.
Left: Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Above : Florence Nightingale’s
Signature
The lady with the lamp.
1820-1910
Right: Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale was born on May 12th 1820 into a wealthy family. When she grew
up she was expected to marry and conduct a traditional upper class woman's life.
She felt, however, that ‘God was calling her to work’. She developed an interest in
nursing but her family felt it an inappropriate job for a woman of her status.
They eventually agreed to her training in Germany in 1851. In 1854 with the onset of
the Crimean War she was asked by Sidney Herbert, the War Minister to oversee a
team of nurses in the military hospitals in Turkey.
She was appalled at the conditions in the military hospitals and with her nurses she
greatly improved the conditions and hugely reduced the death rates.
Left :Royal Herbert hospital
Florence Nightingale exhibited a gift for maths and had a special interest in statistics, a
field in which her father was an expert. In 1857 she invented the pie chart as a way
to visually explain and show the causes of death of the wounded soldiers in the
Crimean War.
She revealed startling findings that most soldiers did not die from their wounds but
from infections and diseases related to poor hygiene and sanitation.
Left: Victorian hospital
When she returned to England in 1856 Florence Nightingale set up The Nightingale
Training School for nurses at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London. Nurses trained here
were sent all over the country to implement the ‘Nightingale Model’ they had
been taught.
She published ‘Notes on Nursing’ in 1860 and was hugely influential in improving
hygienic practices, concerns of sanitation, health in the military and modern
hospital planning.
Left : The school’s emblem
Above : Cadbury’s chocolate factory
Chocolate extraordinaire.
1801-1889
Above : Mr John Cadbury
Left : The Cadbury Logo
John Cadbury was born on 12th August 1801 in Birmingham. His father, Richard Tapper Cadbury
was a draper and had moved his family from Exeter to open a shop. The Cadbury family
were Quakers and had a successful business.
Quakers were not allowed to go to university which meant that John Cadbury could not study a
profession and as pacifists a military career was also not an option. He therefore decided to
go into business like his father. He became an apprentice to a tea dealer in Leeds in 1818.
He returned to Birmingham in 1824 and set up a small grocery shop, next to his father’s, at 93
Bull Street.
Left: 93 Bull street
John Cadbury soon noticed that a new product
was becoming very fashionable amongst
the upper classes. This new import from the
continent was taking the place of tea, coffee
and even alcohol as a preferred drink. This
appealed to John Cadbury because as a
Quaker he disapproved of alcohol and he
saw the possible potential of cashing in on
chocolate.
In 1831 he changed his business and rented an
old malt house in Crooked Lane and so
began the ‘chocolate legacy’.
The manufacturing of drinking chocolate and
cocoa products prospered and in 1847 his
brother Benjamin Cadbury joined the
business.
Right:1886 advertisement for Cadbury's cocoa
In 1861 John and Benjamin Cadbury dissolved their partnership and retired leaving John’s two
eldest sons, Richard and George, to continue to build the business.
They also held strong Quaker beliefs and wanted good working conditions for all their
employees and their families. They bought undeveloped land in a small rural village, just 4
miles from Birmingham, and built their ‘factory in a garden’. They also built housing and
leisure facilities for the community and called the growing development, Bournville.
Bournville is now a major suburb of Birmingham and still houses the Cadbury factory today.
Right : George
Cadbury
Right :Richard
Cadbury
Right : Alexander Graham Bell
Pioneer of telecommunications .
1847-1922
Below : Alexander Bell’s signature
Alexander Bell was born in 1847 into a family that specialised in
the field of elocution but only gained his middle name for his
11th birthday as he wanted one because both his brothers had
one!
By 1863 at the age of 16 he and his brother Melville began
researching the mechanics of speech – experiments which
meant sacrificing the family cat in order to study the vocal
chords in detail.
In 1864 Bell became a resident master in Elgin's Weston House
Academy in Scotland. Here he researched his idea of
transmitting speech using electricity. After a considerable
amount of research, and a move to Canada, he came up with
a simple receiver that could turn electricity into sound.
Right : Bell’s first receiver
Other inventors and scientists were also working on similar ideas and devices, among them was
an Italian-American called Antonio Meucci. His invention of the ‘teletrofono’ was ready to
patent in 1871, 4 years before Bell’s, but he could not afford to do it. There are still
arguments today whether it was really Bell that invented the telephone. In 2002 the
American Government made a statement recognising that it was Meucci that first had the
idea. However, on 6th April 1875 it was Bell that was granted the patent for his multiple
telegraph.
Left : Antonio Meucci
Right : Bell’s Telephone
Bell’s real breakthrough in the development of the telephone as we know it today came, by
accident, on 2nd June 1875 while doing tests with one transmitter and two receivers. He
discovered that the receivers also worked in reverse, instead of making sounds when
electricity was passed through it, it also made electricity when sound was passed through it.
More importantly the electricity and sounds produced varied with the voice!
Bell worked on and perfected his system and submitted his patent on 14th February 1876 – just
two hours before another rival Elisha Gray. It was possibly the most valuable patent ever
issued.
Bell was not yet 30 years old and went on to have many more ideas for and successes with a
variety of inventions including techniques for teaching speech to the deaf, medical research,
aircraft design and built the forerunner to the iron lung.
Left : ivory handsets made for Queen
Victoria