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clan chieftain

Joined: 05 Apr 2008 Posts: 2041 Location: Motherwell
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Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 7:11 pm Post subject: The greatest Briton who ever lived. |
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Isambard Kingdom Brunel gets my vote.
He worked a 20 hour day nearly all his life. but his achievements were outstanding...bridges , railways, tunnels, boats...to name but a few. _________________ The Clan Chieftain |
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Uncle Joe Guest
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Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 8:43 pm Post subject: |
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Are you asking purely within engineering? |
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peppiB
Joined: 30 Jun 2008 Posts: 686 Location: Newcastle upon Tyne
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Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 9:17 pm Post subject: |
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The BBC programme on this chose Winston Spencer Churchill - and he still has my vote overall, but I.K.B. was the best engineer, ahead of father and son Stephenson |
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Greeney in France

Joined: 06 Mar 2008 Posts: 1173 Location: Limousin area of France
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Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 10:30 pm Post subject: |
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Too difficult to define again without categories but I would suggest
Thomas Savery whom in 1698 invented a crude steam engine.
I think the invention of this steam engine and later perfected by Watt and Trevithic not only brought about the industrial revolution but was the beginnings or understanding an engine can produce power and motion _________________ www.OldFrenchCars.com
We do these things not to escape life but to prevent life escaping us |
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clan chieftain

Joined: 05 Apr 2008 Posts: 2041 Location: Motherwell
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Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 10:47 pm Post subject: |
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Yes within engineering......you cant compare Jagger and Lennon for example against Brunel.
Britons have been the greatest inventors of all time
Trevithick, Watt, Logie Baird,Bell.Dunlop,MacAdam,McAlpine,Armstrong and the list goes on and on. _________________ The Clan Chieftain |
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Job-Rated

Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 1010 Location: Sugarbeet County
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Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 8:44 am Post subject: |
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Bell was a thief. Kindly remove his name from your list.
Thomas Crapper is more worthy. _________________ Don't run your fingers over my truck & I won't run my truck over your fingers!
http://www.loosechange-band.co.uk/ |
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Uncle Joe Guest
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Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 3:50 pm Post subject: |
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71marina wrote: |
Britons have been the greatest inventors of all time. |
Well, though I do have a tendency to agree that some of those mentioned were great inventors, the two that I consider to be the best were italian and american.....without the first, we wouldnt have cars, and without the second, we wouldnt be able to buy spares for the cars to restore them. |
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pigtin
Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 1879 Location: Herne Bay
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Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 4:30 pm Post subject: |
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This being a forum concerned with transport it's understandable that the first "Great Britons" thought of are in that line of business. The great advances in medicine of the twentieth century call to mind Alexander Fleming: the inventor of penicillin. How many of us would have died without it? I would have. Then there's the discovery of DNA... possibly the most significant and lifechanging discovery ever. The names: Crick, Wilkins and the American Watson spring to mind; but what of Rosalind Franklin, who died shortly after making the most significant of the breakthroughs? |
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peter scott

Joined: 18 Dec 2007 Posts: 7211 Location: Edinburgh
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Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 5:45 pm Post subject: |
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Given the wide range of fields and contributions I think it's really impossible to pick an outright winner even if we were to limit ourselves to vehicle technology.
Peter |
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Roverron
Joined: 04 May 2008 Posts: 134 Location: Yorkshire
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Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 6:02 pm Post subject: |
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I'm afraid that if it hadn't been for Winston Churchill I'd be typing this in German. When Churchill was outvoted in the 1945 general election he took his seals of office back to George VI in his Rolls Royce. The new PM Clement Attlee) went in his Standard 10. So a motoring connection (sort of) and an ideal demonstration of the then differences between Conservative and Labour. _________________ To Hell with ambition, it drives a man mad, I can scarcely wake up to be fed. |
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Uncle Joe Guest
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Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 6:26 pm Post subject: |
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After spending a lot of time in Germany recently, I'm not sure if I would have preferred speaking german just now... but really, all that Winston did was clear up the mess that Queen Victoria statred when she died.....so maybe she was the greatest briton ever? |
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ukdave2002
Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 4231 Location: South Cheshire
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Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 7:11 pm Post subject: |
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Chaps (sorry ladies!) surely a momentary lapse of concentration on all your parts! You have not mentioned Sir Alf  |
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Roverron
Joined: 04 May 2008 Posts: 134 Location: Yorkshire
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Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 7:23 pm Post subject: |
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Garnett? _________________ To Hell with ambition, it drives a man mad, I can scarcely wake up to be fed. |
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Rich5ltr

Joined: 28 Mar 2008 Posts: 681 Location: Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:18 pm Post subject: |
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Uncle Joe wrote: | After spending a lot of time in Germany recently, I'm not sure if I would have preferred speaking german just now... but really, all that Winston did was clear up the mess that Queen Victoria statred when she died.....so maybe she was the greatest briton ever? | Are you suggesting that the British Empire was the cause of the 2nd WW?  |
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clan chieftain

Joined: 05 Apr 2008 Posts: 2041 Location: Motherwell
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Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 10:04 pm Post subject: |
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Isnt it amazing that a lot of the "Great Britons " were Scottish  _________________ The Clan Chieftain |
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