MIRLI BOOKS
  • Home
  • Books
    • Henry's Trials >
      • Extract from Henry's Trials
    • Smethurst's Luck >
      • Extract from Smethurst's Luck
    • Murder in the Red Barn >
      • Extract from Murder in the Red Barn
    • Reverend Duke and the Amesbury Oliver
  • Talks
    • Talk on Henry's Trials
    • Talk on Smethurst's Luck
    • Talk on Isambard Kingdom Brunel
    • Talk on the Murder in the Red Barn
    • BBC
  • Publications
    • The Amesbury Union Workhouse
    • The Separate System
  • Peter Maggs
  • Shop
  • Blog
  • Family History
    • Mirli
    • BM Creeper >
      • The Significance of Stonehenge
      • Educating Ealing I: How Lady Byron Did It
      • Educating Ealing II: Church of England Primary in the 1920s
      • All Because of Crystal Palace
      • Innocent in Ealing - Extract
      • Miss McDonald

Isambard Kingdom Brunel and the Box Tunnel

12/8/2015

1 Comment

 
I have been working on a project I started more than thirty years ago. Brunel has always fascinated me, and in Brunel’s Britain, by Derrick Beckett, I first came across the story that Brunel aligned the Box Tunnel on the Great Western Railway such that sun shines right through it on his birthday.

Years later, I now have the knowledge and the tools to do the calculations and see if it might be true. It isn’t; but there remain some fascinating questions. The sun does shine through the tunnel, but a few days earlier than Isambard’s birthday. Furthermore, if atmospheric refraction is ignored – this is the lensing effect of the atmosphere close to the horizon – the rising sun really does shine through the tunnel on the day in question.

I wanted to know when the story first came to light, as it were, and also what was the provenance of a Victorian lithograph reproduced by Beckett. It shows a train exciting the tunnel and has the legend:

It is a remarkable fact that annually on the morning of April 9th, the sun’s rays penetrate through the Great Box Tunnel of the Great Western Railway and on no other day in the year; The Daily Telegraph, April 12th 1859. Even more remarkable is the fact that April 9th is the birthday of Brunel.

Even more remarkable still, the Daily Telegraph of April 12th 1859 makes no mention of the Box Tunnel whatsoever… This last fact has troubled me for years, but the new newsroom at the British Library has the latest microfilm viewers installed, and using one of these I was able to establish this week that the story was run in the Daily Telegraph, not on 12th April, but the previous day.

Scrutiny of other newspapers of the period indicates that the legend was repeated many times between 1842, the year after the tunnel was finished, and 1859, the year Brunel died, but with the exception of the above mentioned lithograph, no mention was made that April 9th was Brunel’s birthday. Was it a conspiracy of silence to protect the reputation of the great man? I need to track down that lithograph and find out when it was published. Aggravatingly, Beckett does not record its provenance, and an enquiry to his publisher received no answer.

1 Comment
Phil Atkins link
3/2/2020 09:07:09 pm

Dear Mr Maggs

I share your fascination with Box Tunnel and the question of the rising sun on 9 April. I also, and others have calculated that a shine through should occur on 6 April in a Leap Year and 7 April in a non-Leap Year. In 1988, a Leap Year, I attended a properly organised vigil under BR supervision at Box, but sadly after a perfect sunset the night before regrettably it was cloudy! I have written a 2 page summary article on alleged sightings etc that was published in the historical railway periodical Back Track in December 2006, and can let you have a copy if you let me have your postal address. Only very recently it appears to have been noted that the rising sun on midsummer day shines directly through the pylons of the Clifton suspension bridge at Bristol!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Welcome to the Mirli Books blog written by Peter Maggs

    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Website and Contents © Peter Maggs 2023
  • Home
  • Books
    • Henry's Trials >
      • Extract from Henry's Trials
    • Smethurst's Luck >
      • Extract from Smethurst's Luck
    • Murder in the Red Barn >
      • Extract from Murder in the Red Barn
    • Reverend Duke and the Amesbury Oliver
  • Talks
    • Talk on Henry's Trials
    • Talk on Smethurst's Luck
    • Talk on Isambard Kingdom Brunel
    • Talk on the Murder in the Red Barn
    • BBC
  • Publications
    • The Amesbury Union Workhouse
    • The Separate System
  • Peter Maggs
  • Shop
  • Blog
  • Family History
    • Mirli
    • BM Creeper >
      • The Significance of Stonehenge
      • Educating Ealing I: How Lady Byron Did It
      • Educating Ealing II: Church of England Primary in the 1920s
      • All Because of Crystal Palace
      • Innocent in Ealing - Extract
      • Miss McDonald