Affe #218

About Affe mit Waffe Deprecated

Isambard Talaponel's projects were not always successful, but they often contained innovative solutions to long-standing problems. With his groundbreaking designs and ingenious constructions, he changed the principles of transatlantic navigation for the modern monkey society and was known for his creative approach to challenges.

Considered one of the most brilliant and prolific characters in the Monkeyverse and a giant of engineering, Isambard had shown his talent early in life. His father taught him drawing and observation techniques when he was a small apeling, and he learned Aotidean geometry before he could properly climb a tree, using the example of a three-dimensional banana. He was encouraged to draw interesting tree habitats and identify flaws in their design and structure. This later helped him a lot when planning objects that were exposed to wind and weather.

His greatest achievement was probably the SS Great Paniscian, the largest passenger steamer in the world and a novelty at the time. It was a revolutionary vessel – the first ship to combine an iron hull with screw propulsion. Isambard got the idea of uniting both innovations through earlier experiences while playing with a coconut shell boat and pinwheel. First, he preferred iron because he hadn't had good experiences with either coconut shells or wood, which were prone to worms over time. He had never met a worm that could eat through iron. Second, unlike a paddle wheel, a screw propeller was always completely submerged under water. However, there was a third problem that wasn't easily explained by logical reasoning with primates – cargo.

It was widely believed that a ship would not be able to carry enough fuel for the voyage and still have room for enough bananas for provisions en route. Historically, many years ago, an incident occurred where the monkey crew on board had to burn the bananas to reach safe harbor due to running out of coal supplies. This dramatic event left the monkeys with the most severe traumatic memories and required many years of treatment in specialized facilities. But Isambard had a solution: He applied the experimental evidence with a coconut husk and a halved melon rind. With that he developed the theory that the amount a ship could carry increased with the cube of its dimensions, whereas the amount of resistance a ship experienced from the water as it travelled increased by only a square of its dimensions. This would mean that moving a larger ship would take proportionately less fuel than a smaller ship – and to take it further, if a vessel was doubled in size the resistance to motion would quadruple, but the size of engines and the carrying capacity would increase eight-fold. The investors weren't fully convinced by the theory, and none wanted to repeat the tragedy of the past. To test this theory, Isambard even offered his services for free, but there was still skepticism. However, when he demonstrated how easy it was to cook breakfast eggs in the machine's steam, the other monkeys agreed that this new approach was worth trying and decided to fund it.

Like most large projects, this one also took a lot of time. Finally completed, the SS Great Paniscian was a magnificent sight. She was almost 100 meters long and 1,000 tons heavier than any ship previously built. She had four decks, a crew of 120 monkeys and was fitted out for a total of 360 passengers, along with 1,200 tons of coal for fuel and 1,200 tons of bananas and other provisions for the crossing. And in the end Isembard's calculation proved to be correct: The ship crossed the Atlantic in 14 days and 21 hours and arrived at her destination with a third of the coal and a third of the banana supplies still remaining. The SS Great Paniscian would prove the viability of commercial transatlantic steamship service: In total she made 64 crossings and was the first ship to hold the Yellow Riband with a crossing time of 13 days westbound and 12 days 6 hours eastbound.

All this did not come as a surprise to Isambard Talaponel. His ships were simply years ahead of their time – but the Monkeyverse would adapt to this marvel.

Blockchain details