« Killer American Icon | Main | Futurama Returns (again) »
February 03, 2006
Real Life Nemo
Okay. This is art. This is science. This is grace. This is blow your mind amazingness to the nth degree.
It's 1862 and a Spanaird named Narcis Monturiol has just built the world's first steam powered submarine. Out of olive trees. And a little copper. He has called this submarine... Ictineo II. Ictineo the great. Ictineo the elegant. In Barcelona, they claim that it is the world's first navigable submarine, and therefore the first true sub in the world. I'll buy that. Because it looks so cool. Inside and out.
Unfortunately, Monuriol's sub made precious little profit as a rescue vessel and was sold as scrap in 1868. (The photos here are of the life-size reconstruction which now rests in the harbor of Barcelona.)
Above photo by Daly and Daly (cc)
a
b
c
a. Ictineo I – Man-powered
b. Ictineo II – Reconstruction, Photo by Daly and Daly (cc)
c. Ictineo II – Recontruction closeup, photo by Daly and Daly (cc)
February 3, 2006 | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c030d53ef00d834719fe153ef
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Real Life Nemo:
Comments
Wow, everytime I think I have a handle on how things in the past truly were, I see something like this and I am truly astonished. This baffles the mind, and makes me rethink Plato's writings on Atlantis, the lost colonies of San Leandru, and Pangea... it reminds me of those old navigational maps where it is written: "Here there be monsters." Either that, or someone is back in time changing everything, which is extremely probable...
Posted by: Adam Wilmer | Feb 3, 2006 1:16:19 PM
Awesome, indeed.
Posted by: Stephen Henderson | Feb 3, 2006 2:09:27 PM
Only one appointment:
Narcís Monturiol was Catalan, from Catalunya that is a country with their own traditions, language and politics.
Bye.
Posted by: Josep Maria | Sep 24, 2008 4:43:42 AM
Only one appointment:
Narcís Monturiol was Catalan, from Catalunya that is a country with their own traditions, language and politics.
Bye.
Posted by: Josep Maria | Sep 24, 2008 4:45:21 AM
