How does a tree get pregnant?
By a woodpecker!
Sir Thomas BouchBorn 25 Feb 1822; died 30 Oct 1880 at age 58.English railway engineer who was knighted for building the Tay Railway Bridge that afterwards collapsed in a fierce gale on 28 Dec 1879 killing a trainload of people. His railway engineering career began at age 17. By 1849, he was Engineer and Manager of the Edinburgh and Northern Railway. Realising the value of a bridge to replace ferries across the mile-wide Firth of Tay on the east Scottish coast, he spent 20 years promoting such a project before it was approved. The foundation stone was laid on 22 Jul 1871. The two-mile bridge of lattice girders on ironwork columns was opened 31 May 1878, but failed the next year. He died four months after the Court of Inquiry held him responsible for poor design against wind pressure.« |
