alternatehistory.com

Archimedes is supposed to have once said "Give me a lever long enough and somewhere to stand, and I shall move the World." Reading into IKB's career, it may seem like what he planned to be his final project would be a long enough lever. From bridges, tunnels, dockyards, big bloody massive ships, railroads, rail stations, big bloody massive trains, canals, the man certainly liked thinking big.

Unfortunately, he was also a heavy smoker, and he died at age 53 from a stroke, just before the first voyage of his crowning achievement, SS Great Eastern. I'm wondering if it is possible for him to have survived for another 20 to 30 years, up to 1889 at the latest, and how he might continue his career following Great Eastern. To compare, the first hydroelectric power plant in history opened in Wisconsin in 1882. What would IKB do with another few decades of life?
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