Enormous mistakes of engineers. Pogroms in Paris Constitution Bridge in Venice

Chapter two Higher school. Student and professor, engineer of the Telegraph Company. Disease. Amazing invention. Paris, Strasbourg, Paris again. "Horse Circle" From Europe to America Recovery seemed to finally resolve the issue of Nikola’s further education.

Conclusion. The City We See: A Changing Paris in Maps and Paintings In the mid-1850s, exactly two hundred years after Louis XIV conceived his “grand plan” to rebuild Paris, a new remaking of the French capital began, this time by order

Back in the Middle Ages, a network of winding tunnels and labyrinths appeared near Paris, which only increased over time. In 1855, Gaspard Felix Tournachon visited this underground city and captured everything he saw on film.

View of the catacombs

The Paris Catacombs are a network of underground tunnels and artificial caves. At the end of the 18th century, the monstrous congestion of cemeteries (some graves contained up to 1,500 remains from different eras) forced the authorities of the French capital to remove disinfected bones to abandoned quarries located under the city streets.

Bones from the Tour Saint-Jacques cemetery, transported to the catacombs in 1859

By 1860, the remains of six million people had been moved to the catacombs. Special inspection workers ensured that bones and skulls were placed in neat stacks, organized underground galleries and erected monuments. Over time, the catacombs became a popular place for wealthy Parisians hungry for thrills.

Sewage drain near the Menal Bridge

For people of the 19th century, sewers were associated with riots and unrest. It is there that in the finale of Les Misérables, former convict Jean Valjean saves student Marius Pontmercy, wounded on the barricades. Nadar specifically noted that this photograph was taken under the Moneychanger Bridge, where there was a sewer through which escaped prisoners more than once hid in the 18th century. However, the photographer emphasizes, after reconstruction, a modern technological system appears in place of the old stinking pipes.

Catacomb trash

In the catacombs of Nadar, what was most striking was the visual fragility of human existence, vanitas vanitatum: “This skull on which your foot stepped, nameless remains, forgotten, lost, abandoned - could have belonged to your grandfather, who loved and was loved.”

Sewage equipment under the Boulevard Saint-Denis

In medieval Paris, waste was simply poured into the street. The science of the 19th century, which declared excrement (and its miasma) the source of disease, forced the authorities to take the sewer system seriously. Under Mayor Haussmann and his assistant, the hydrological engineer Belgran, the sewer network was expanded fivefold, and underground canals and reservoirs delivered 235 thousand cubic meters of water to Paris every day.

Labyrinths of the catacombs

Nadar worked underground for three months. He took with him bulky equipment - a camera, a tripod, Bunsen elements (a chemical current source) and carbon arc lamps. Minimal visibility, cold, disgusting smells, damp and stale air - the photographer was filming in difficult conditions. Several of his assistants were poisoned by sulfur and nitrogen emissions from a chemical battery - they were carried upstairs by hand.

Mannequin pulling a cart with bones

Nadar also wanted to show the workers who work in the catacombs and sewers. However, he was shooting with a shutter speed of 18 minutes, and so he had to turn to the help of mannequins, which gave the photographs some theatricality.

Sewer technical equipment and mannequin worker

The photographer explored the architectural “anatomy” of the Parisian sewer system, emphasizing its technological complexity and mechanization. In this sense, the closest analogue of Nadar’s underground series can be called the works of Philip Henry Delamotte, dedicated to the assembly and disassembly of the “Crystal Palace” (1854), and photographs of French railways taken by Edouard Baldu at the request of Baron Rothschild (1855) - the first examples of engineering photography.

Catacombs with traces of emulsion

Random traces of emulsion in the photographs (a characteristic feature of the collodion photographic process) create bizarre shapes that enhance the impression of unreality and otherworldliness of the world of the catacombs.

Self-portrait of Nadar

In the catacombs of Nadar, he was more interested not in death and the grotesque aesthetics of the afterlife, but in politics and history. Numerous vagabonds, criminals and revolutionaries hid there. Nadar decided to make his self-portrait against the background of bones from the Madeleine cemetery, where victims of the French Revolution are buried - including the guillotined Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

A plaque indicating that these remains were removed from the Cemetery of the Innocents

Nadar constantly experimented with shooting angle, focus, depth of frame, but most of all with lighting. The bright electric light gave the skulls and bones of the catacombs a peculiar picturesqueness and even theatricality, which amazed contemporaries.

Crossing sewers

In Nadar’s view, the sewage system was an analogue of the human body - in both “mechanisms” fluids circulate, the stagnation of which leads to disease. The visual contrast between the massive walls and the smooth flow of wastewater highlights the efficient operation of the sewer system.

The last gallery of the catacombs

Light at the end of the tunnel

Louis XI, in any case, did not abuse the so-called feudal law, even the right of the overlord. He did not strive to preserve fiefdoms for combat-ready knights, but in the name of the common good and state interests to thank advisers, officials of every rank, and devoted servants, and they thus found themselves connected with families that otherwise would not have accepted them. Such interference in personal life, which sometimes took a dramatic turn due to threats and coercion, was all the more shocking because it almost always ran counter to the interests of relatives who had other plans. The king did not show scrupulousness, used any means, carefully and persistently monitored the progress of such matters, never abandoning his plans. We have to admit that he sought not only to benefit one of his servants, but also to weaken and humiliate the family that did not inspire confidence in him. Then he imposed on such a clan an honorable man, who owed this strange happiness only to the work done for his master - sometimes it was unsightly work, as vile as his origin.

Georges de Brillac, a nobleman belonging to the Orleans Party, was forced to marry his daughter to a certain Luke, a chamberlain, a man of ill repute. On the other hand, the king betrothed Mademoiselle de la Berandière, an orphan and a wealthy heiress from Anjou, to one of his hunters, Rene de la Roche. He ordered another orphan, twelve years old, to be taken from his grandfather by force in order to marry her off to a chamberlain, and Madame de Pusagny, the widow of a feudal lord from Saintonge, was forced to marry a Scotsman from the royal guard.

Bourgeois officials subject to the king were subjected to ill treatment as soon as anyone set their eyes on their fortune: one rich “elected” from Soissons was forced, in order to maintain his position and, probably, his freedom, to agree to the marriage of his only daughter with a commoner. servant from the royal palace.

Let the woman be already married, let the family resist, appeal to their friends, even to Parliament or the Church - it doesn’t matter. Louis took his lawful wife from Monsieur de Fay, brother of the Bishop of Limoges, and gave her to Pontbriand, captain of a detachment of one hundred spears. In order to marry one of his notorious agents - a certain Jos-Len de Bois Bailly - a gouffurier, and in fact a servant of all trades - he ordered the arrest immediately after the wedding of Anna Gas, who married Monsieur de Magrain, a noble Limousin. She and her mother were taken to Niort to the seneschal of Poitou, and then to Tours to the king; abuse and terrible threats were rained down on their heads, so they yielded. It is unknown how the first marriage was declared invalid.

For major military leaders and high-ranking officials, the king selected even more noble families. He did not take anything into account and did not pay attention to the clear refusals repeated in every way. He forced the Archbishop of Narbonne to intervene in order to force the Count d'Albret, who did not humble himself and was loudly indignant, to give his daughter to Beaufil de Juge. Amber de Batarnay, who became the lord du Bouchage solely by royal grace, wanted to marry Georgette, daughter of Fulk de Marchenu , Lord de Chateauneuf, but encountered resistance from his father, who resolutely rebelled against this meanness. Fulk was thrown into prison, and he stayed there for a year under the threat of losing all his property; he also feared for the fate of his relatives, persecuted in various ways, subjected to unbearable pressure , and finally reconciled; the marriage contract was signed in the presence of the king on March 24, 1463, and the wedding was celebrated without delay on April 25. Amber's brother Antoine, the royal squire, married May de Ulfort, daughter of the Caen bailiff, and received a tidy sum in six thousand mortgages (not immediately paid) on the security of Evrecy's possession in the same baillage.

The Villeneuve brothers, who were at the royal court, declared their belonging to the nobility, but recent, granted by royal charters of July 14, 1469. At the beginning of August, Louis ordered the Paris Court of Auditors to approve these charters. He was not the kind of man to waste time.

The salary of the nobility was not an innovation. Previously, Charles VII had done this, in particular in favor of Jacques Coeur, but the expansion of such a practice, which shook the social foundations, still caused grumbling. But this was beneficial for the king: this way he paid for services, honored loyal people, increased their social status, attracted loyal clients and paid them without spending his money on it, because nobility was not awarded for free. If the Villeneuves did not pay anything to the treasury, it was only because, the king reminds, “we left and gave them the funds due for payment for this nobility.” Likewise, Thomas Kissarne’s doctor did not pay anything; the custodians of the Court of Accounts were ordered to ratify the charters of nobility granted “to him and to his direct descendants already begotten, and to those born of him in lawful wedlock,” for the amount payable had been donated to him. Most of the newly minted nobles paid the required amount, but demanded to be exempted from taxes.

Socially, the granted nobility eventually created a new nobility, which, at least at first, remained loyal to the king,, if necessary, opposed the old one and was not recognized by everyone. Until now, the nobility, of course, was neither a “class” nor even a clearly defined “estate”. The position of the “noble” did not correspond to any legal concept, and the recruitment of this social group was not stipulated by clear rules. “Nobility” in the French kingdom was a matter of personal merit, valor and lifestyle - everything that was valued by loved ones and recognized by others. Access to the “nobility” was not closed. A kind of consensus of noble neighbors led to him, who were convinced that this person served with arms in his hands, recruited troops, commanded troops, owned estates, decent incomes, a large house, rather a castle, and horses, and that through marriage he entered into an alliance with a noble family. However, the letters of salary of the nobility and the choice of the king, which did not require approval and was considered arbitrary, imposed a completely different concept of the nobility. The king's men became noble by order, and the opinions of their equals or their neighbors were not taken into account.

Moreover, King Louis did not, like his father, strive to distinguish people who had already proven themselves in high positions and had earned honors and were respected for their merits. He “ennobled” a variety of people simply because they were called to perform some kind of position - a purely administrative one, without any risk or sacrifice. Already in November 1461, he autocratically decided that all the city authorities of Niort - the mayor, the twelve echevins and the twelve councilors - “will be considered, from now on and forever, noble in court, in wartime and in any place whatsoever.” In July 1470, the inhabitants of Orleans received the right to acquire the estates of the nobility, retaining all feudal rights for them. The king also elevated the magistrates of Tours, Beauvais and Angers.

What was previously a sign of real differences became the will of the sovereign. The sudden and resounding success was overshadowed by the stamp of arbitrariness.

Experienced and cautious, the king of France knew how to draw lessons from a past that he had not seen, but which, being recent, remained in the memory in images of unrest and violence. His father and advisers taught him to beware of Paris. In contrast to other cities in the kingdom, it still seemed very dangerous and, in any case, unreliable. At that time, more than one hundred thousand inhabitants lived in it, versus twenty to thirty thousand in Rouen. This city was shaken by social storms, it was vulnerable, capable of rebelling and following preachers of any kind, princes of the blood with tightly stuffed wallets and well-hung tongues, handing out promises and barrels of wine right and left, or inspired speakers calling for justice without any risk to themselves by talking about God's wrath and the Last Judgment. Charles V, as Dauphin, and then Charles VI found themselves locked in Paris, constantly exposed to danger, and many of their officials lost their lives there. Awareness of these threats was also caused by the terrible massacre on a May night in 1418, when from ten to twenty thousand people - men, women and children - recognized (often mistakenly) as supporters of the Armagnacs, were killed in prisons and on the streets. Charles VII was then the Dauphin, he miraculously managed to escape from the city, which was in the grip of a crowd that no tribune could curb. Having become king, he managed to subjugate this city only after fourteen years of battles, but never truly settled in it. He only visited the capital for a short time, thereby marking the beginning of a long period of absence of the monarch here, right up to the heirs of Francis I. Always under suspicion, the city lost its court, foreign merchants and major financiers. Business fell into disrepair, money became scarce; artists went to create first in Bourges, then in cities and castles in the center of the country. What we usually call the era of the “Loire castles” was first the era of castles on the Cher or Indre rivers and was the result not of a whim, but of a calculated political decision. It was not about returning to nature, not about playing shepherds among the fields, but about managing away from the threats and pressure of the street crowd.

All people make mistakes. More often than not, this is not so scary, at least if we are not talking about engineering calculations. An engineer's mistake is not simply unforgivable. Very often, such a mistake can cost a lot of money, resources and even human lives. Today we will talk about the seven biggest and most terrible mistakes of engineers, which, fortunately, did not lead to human casualties.

1. Constitution Bridge in Venice

Of course it looks beautiful

Venice is a beautiful city of canals, bridges and gondolas. Even knowing what Venice is like only in words, it’s not difficult to imagine that there are a lot of bridges there! However, there is one “special” one, which has already been remembered as an example of the wildest engineering failure. We are talking about the Constitution Bridge, which was conceived at one time as one of the most beautiful and modern.

A third of the bridge is steps

The bridge was built in 2008. The main materials were concrete, steel and glass. By the way, most of the bridge covering is made from the latter. The bridge was supposed to connect the railway station and the bus station.

Unfortunately, it just so happens that one third of the bridge is steps. Walking through them with a suitcase on wheels is a real “adventure”. Even worse, the steps turned out to be very inconvenient and even dangerous. When it rains, snows or gets foggy, the bridge becomes incredibly slippery. The general slope of the structure does not add to its safety.

2. Bridgewater Place Leeds

The ill-fated skyscraper

Today it is already difficult to surprise someone with a tall skyscraper. But, you can surprise with a skyscraper that can influence the weather! In general, the fact that buildings, and skyscrapers in particular, can increase winds has been known for a long time. However, this fact was not taken into account by the creators of the Bridgewater Place center, built in Leeds, UK in 2006.

Immediately after its opening, the ill-fated skyscraper was dubbed the “wind maker”, and was also given the offensive nickname “Dalek”, in honor of the race of mutants from the series “Doctor Who”. In 2008, the skyscraper was awarded the prize as the ugliest building in Europe.

Travel restricted

Unfortunately, appearance is not even half the story. Bridgewater Place was nicknamed “The Windmaker” for a reason. The fact is that after its construction, the winds around the building became so strong that they literally blew people away. Several people were even injured because of this. And after the wind overturned several cars in the parking lot at Bridgewater Place, traffic near the skyscraper was completely limited.

3. Trains

They just didn't fit into the station

It's not very funny, but incidents with engineers working on train design happen more often than with everyone else. There are many precedents. One of the latest occurred in France, in 2014. The authorities there ordered 2 thousand new carriages. In the end, the carriages were made, but they turned out to be too big! They simply couldn't fit between the platforms of most stations in the country.

4. Submarine

Even submarines make mistakes

Technology is a delicate thing. Errors in its design are unacceptable! Nevertheless, they happen. A good example in this regard was the Spanish government's project to create new S-80+ class submarines. Everything went according to plan, but when they began to assemble the first submarine, it turned out that it was 68 tons heavier than it should have been. The check helped to find out that one of the engineers made a minor syntax error during the design. A mistake that almost buried the project.

The error was one comma

New calculations have shown that the resulting submarine will be able to float on water. However, the first dive will be the last, since the boat will no longer be able to surface. They solved the situation gracefully - they simply lengthened the resulting boat by several meters.

5. Falling Houses Reserve

Crooked houses in Sao Paulo

The city of Santos, located in Brazil and located near Sao Paulo, is, among other things, notorious for its “reserve of falling houses”. The thing is that almost all high-rise residential buildings in the city center, as well as on the coast, are built crookedly. Literally - crooked. In some places the roll reaches three meters! It turned out this way due to a whole series of engineering errors during the construction boom. The houses were built without taking into account the specifics of the local sandy-clay soil. It is worth explaining that houses on such soil can only be built on very deep piles, which was not done.

And although all this looks terrifying, it is worth taking into account that real estate there is very cheap!

6. Dancing Bridge

The ill-fated Millennium Bridge

Surely many have heard about the “dancing bridge” in Volgograd, Russia. However, the bridge there is far from unique in its grief. There is a similar loser in London. We are talking about the Millennium pedestrian bridge, which connects the two banks of the Thames. Immediately after opening, the bridge was closed for repairs. It turned out that he was shaking too much during large crowds of people.

In Volgograd:

And here in London:

Although the bridge has been strengthened and stabilized (using vibration dampers), authorities still close it to pedestrians when the weather is too windy.

7. Forgotten City

Forgotten city in Paris

In conclusion, I would like to talk about an entire residential quarter in Paris, created according to the design of the architect Emile Ayoyo, who christened his brainchild, no less, the city of the future. The result was a “forgotten city of the future.” The kit was built back in 1977. The only “sin” of the buildings was their very unusual shape, because of which almost no one wants to buy apartments in them. Mostly pensioners live in this complex.