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Industrial Revolution, and third for periods and events up to 1980 (though
later coverage is planned).You can pick up full English notes at the desk, and
there’s plenty to get your teeth into, whether it’s poking around the interior
of a Roman grain ship or comparing the rival nineteenth-century architec-
tural plans for the Eixample.There’s a dramatic Civil War section, while other
fascinating asides shed light on matters as diverse as housing in the 1960s or
the origins of the design of the Catalan flag. On the fourth floor,
La Miranda
café boasts a glorious view from its huge terrace of the harbour, Tibidabo,
Montjuïc and the city skyline – you don’t need a museum ticket to visit this
and it’s open as a café during museum hours, with a set lunch, as well as for
à la carte dinners.
Monturiol and the Catalan submarine
Narcís Monturiol i Estarriol
(1819–1885) was born in Figueres in northeastern
Catalunya but studied in Barcelona, soon falling in with radicals and revolutionaries.
Although a law graduate, he never practised, turning his energetic talents instead to
writing and publishing. He set up his first publishing company in 1846, the same year
he married Emilia; they later had eight children. A series of journals and pamphlets
followed, all espousing Monturiol’s radical beliefs – in feminism, pacifism and utopian
communism – and it was no surprise when one of his publications was suppressed
by the government in the heady revolutionary days of 1848. Monturiol was forced
briefly into exile and on his return to Barcelona, with the government now curtailing
his publishing activities, he turned his hand instead to self-taught science and
engineering.
It was a period in which scientific progress and social justice appeared as two sides
of the same coin to utopians like Monturiol – indeed, his friend, the civil engineer
Ildefons Cerdà, would later mastermind the building of Barcelona’s Eixample on
socially useful grounds. Monturiol’s mind turned to more immediately practical
matters and, inspired by the harsh conditions in which the coral fishermen of
Cadaques worked, he conceived the idea of a man-powered submarine. It would
improve their lot, he had no doubt, though Monturiol’s grander vision was of an
underwater machine to explore the oceans and expand human knowledge.
The
Ictineo
– the “fish-boat” – made its maiden voyage in Barcelona harbour on
June 28, 1859. At 7m long, it could carry four or five men, and eventually made more
than fifty dives at depths of up to 20m. An improved design was started in 1862 –
Ictineo II
– a seventeen-metre-long vessel designed to be propelled by up to sixteen
men. Trials in 1865 soon showed that human power wasn’t sufficient for the job, so
Monturiol installed a steam engine near the stern. This, the world’s first steam-
powered submarine, was launched on October 22, 1867 and dived to depths of up
to 30m on thirteen separate runs (the longest lasting for over seven hours). However,
Monturiol’s financial backers had finally run out of patience with a machine that,
though technically brilliant, couldn’t yet pay its way. They withdrew their support and
the submarine was seized by creditors and sold for scrap – the engine ended up in
a paper mill.
Monturiol spent the rest of his life in a variety of jobs, but continued to come up
with new inventions. With the
Ictineo
, he had pioneered the use of the double hull, a
technique still used today, while Monturiol also made advances in the manufacture
of glues and gums, copying documents, commercial cigarette production and steam
engine efficiency. He died in relative obscurity in 1885 and was buried in Barcelona,
though his remains were later transferred to his home town. There’s a memorial there,
while others to Monturiol’s pioneering invention, the
Ictineo
, are scattered throughout
Barcelona. Monturiol himself is remembered in the city by a simple plaque at the
Cementiri de Poble Nou.
THE WATERFRONT: FROM PORT VELL TO DIAGONAL MAR
|
Port Vell