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SUMMARY:Charles Dickens and Victorian Disasters - Dr Peter Lewis\, Materia
 ls Engineering\, The Open University
DTSTART:20111019T183000Z
DTEND:20111019T200000Z
UID:TALK33519@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Geoff Hale
DESCRIPTION:Charles Dickens rose to fame as a novelist because he describe
 d society in early Victorian Britain both accurately and evocatively. That
  skill came about through his work as a journalist\, and his many first-ha
 nd experiences of events. He continued throughout his life to report on ma
 jor incidents and newsworthy ítems\, and was able to use those reports as
  the factual basis of his novels. His experiences of the railways were esp
 ecially important\, and he made great use of them in his novels such as Do
 mbey and Son. But it also included a major maritime disaster\, the sinking
  of The Royal Charter in a storm in 1859\, when he lost a near relative. L
 ater experiences included his own involvement in a railway disaster\, at S
 taplehurst in 1865\, a major trauma which led him to include the accident 
 at the end of Our Mutual Friend\, and led him to write a timely ghost stor
 y\, The Signalman. Many of those disasters were caused by materials used i
 n unacceptable applications\, but especially cast iron in tension. Lessons
  were not learnt quickly and bridge failures continued throughout the peri
 od\, and reflect poorly on the infrastructure of the railway network.
LOCATION:Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy\, New Museums Site
 \, Pembroke Street\, Cambridge CB2 3QZ
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