News

New Bude Castle exhibition celebrates forgotten local genius Gurney

At Bude Castle, Cornwall, a new exhibition explores the life of a forgotten local genius Sir Goldsworthy Gurney, inventor of an extraordinary range of devices, including the oxy-hydrogen” blowpipe, a steam carriage for use on the road, the high-pressure “steam-jet, and his Bude Light, which was used to improve lighthouse operations, theatre lighting and used to light the House of Commons and Trafalgar Square.

Integrated Circles have installed solid-state VideoStores and SoundStores, which are used to tell the story of Gurney’s inventive life, and to demonstrate the scientific principles behind his many and varied creations.

By the age of 20, Gurney he had qualified as a doctor and set up a practice as a surgeon, but also became interested in chemistry and mechanical science. By 1823 he had given up medicine to experiment with steam engines. He constructed both a steam driven boat and a coach. In 1829 on of his steam coaches traveled from London to Bath and back at 15 miles per hour.

He also invented a better form of lighting for lighthouses and also realised if each lighthouse had a different flashing system, then sailors could know which lighthouse they were looking at. Gurney solved the existing problems of producing a bright light with his Bude Light, which was patented in 1839. Between 1854 and 1863 he was in charge of heating and lighting the Houses of Parliament. And he was knighted for this in 1863.

bude castle built by Gurney

Gurney built Bude Castle in 1830 to prove that a house could be built on sand with the use of a concrete raft. Today, the castle  is host to this permanent exhibition, Where visitors can explore Gurneys extraordinary life and access information about Bude and the surrounding areas.

Integrated Circles Project Manager, Paul Nolan explains “our VideoStores and SoundStores are ideal for this type of distant installation. Being small and operating silently without fans they can be fitted virtually anywhere, and their solid state design give them unparalleled reliability. This means we install them and leave site knowing that we won’t need to be returning very soon to service the site, so our customers will have reduced running costs over the life of the exhibition.”

Back to News | Previous Article | Next Article