The after-dinner speaker just didn't have a Stop button. He burbled on and on and on, oblivious to his increasingly restless audience. Finally one of the more drunken diners hurled an empty wine bottle at him. It missed, and hit the Chairman instead.
As the Chairman slid slowly to the floor clutching his head, he was heard to murmur, "Hit me again, I can still hear him."
Alfred BrandtBorn 3 Sep 1846; died 29 Nov 1899 at age 53.German civil engineer whose major achievement was enabling construction of the 12.5 mile (20-km) Simplon Tunnel, a major tunnel through the Alps between Italy and Switzerland. As a young engineer working onboring the St. Gotthard Tunnel between Italy and Switzerland, he learned about the difficulties involved, and the use of pneumatic drills and blasting. A hydraulic drill of his own design was used to drive theArlberg Tunnel between Austria and Switzerland. To dig the Simplon Tunnel, he innovated by driving two separate tunnels 55-ft (17-m) apart, connected by crosshatches to provide for ventilation, temperature control and a circuit for debris-removal trains. He died early in the project, from the strain of overworking himself.«[Image: Simplon Tunnel during construction, model] |
