Visual Narratives: Reference Material

Throughout this project I have endeavoured to maintain a historical accuracy. This has proved a difficult task, as the events which I have studied are devoid of visual documentation. Fortunately there are rare examples of contemporary technology which was reportedly used on the project, such as spring carts. Otherwise I have had to make informed guesses as to the dressage and tools used by the navvies.

One particular example is the industrial pump used to clear flooding in the tunnel. There is no mention of the type of system used or even the general look of the device. I considered the large volumes of water pumped, suggesting that an industrial pump was used, additionally the pump must have been portable so I decided that a cart-drawn dock-pump was the most likely device of choice.

The following pages show two of the image collages I referred to during development: