Model T: A Revolution On Wheels

By Roger Alexander

Henry Ford invented neither the automobile nor the assembly line, but recast each to dominate a new era. Indeed, no other individual of the last century so completely transformed the way people go from Point A to Point B.

By improving the assembly line so that the Model T could be produced ever more inexpensively, Ford placed the power of the internal combustion engine within reach of the average citizen. He transformed the automobile itself from a luxury to a necessity.

The Advent of the Model T seemed to renew a sense of independence among Americans who had lost their pioneer spirit to industrialization. Yet the methods that Henry Ford devised for producing his car so efficiently advanced that very industrialization.

Like its inventor, the Model T represented both high ideals and hard practicalities.

In the 1890s, any mechanic with tools, a workbench, and a healthy imagination was a potential titan in the infant industry. Even while continuing his career at Edison, Ford devoted himself to making a working automobile.

By rights, Henry Ford probably should have been a farmer. He was born in 1863 in Dearborn, Michigan, on the farm operated by his father, an Irishman, and his mother, who was from Dutch stock.

Even as a boy, young Henry had an aptitude for inventing and used it to make machines that reduced the drudgery of farm chores. At the age of thirteen, he saw a coal-fired steam engine lumbering along a long rural road, a sight that galvanized his fascination with machines.

At sixteen, against the wishes of his father, he left the farm for Detroit, where he found work as a mechanic’s apprentice. Over the next dozen years he advanced steadily, and became chief engineer at the Edison Illuminating Company.

At twenty-four, Ford married Clara Bryant, a friend of his sister’s; he called her ‘The Believer’ because she encouraged his plans to build a horseless carriage from their earliest days together.

In 1891, he presented his wife Clara with a design for an internal combustion engine, drawn on the back of a piece of sheet music. Bringing the design to reality was another matter, but on Christmas Eve1893 he made a successful test of one of his engines, in the kitchen sink.

The engine was merely the heart of the new machine that Ford hoped to build. On weekends and most nights, he could be found in a shed in the back of the family home, building the rest of the car.

So great was his obsession that the neighbours called him Crazy Henry. However, at 2:00 a.m. on June 4, 1896, Crazy Henry punched a large hole in the wall of his shed, and emerged at the wheel of an automobile - his automobile. In the weeks that followed, Ford was often seen driving around the streets of Detroit.

In 1901, Henry Ford poured his expertise into a pair of big race cars, one of which he entered in a ten-mile match race against a car built by Alexander Winton, a leading automaker from Ohio. The race took place in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and Ford’s car won.

Because of the victory, the coal merchant Alexander Malcomson agreed to back Ford in a new business venture. In 1903, they formed the Ford Motor Company, in association with about a dozen other investors.

In 1903, Ford’s 125 workers made 1,700 cars in three different models. The cars were comparatively expensive, and their high profit margins pleased the stockholders.

Insisting that high prices ultimately slowed market expansion, Ford decided in 1906 to introduce a new, cheaper model with a lower profit margin: the Model N. Many of his backers disagreed. While the N was only a tepid success, Ford nonetheless pressed forward with the design of the car he really wanted to build. The car that would be the Model T.

“I will build a motorcar for the great multitude,” he proclaimed. Such a notion was revolutionary. Until then the automobile had been a status symbol painstakingly manufactured by craftsmen.

However, Ford set out to make the car a commodity. “Just like one pin is like another pin when it comes from the pin factory, or one match is like another match when it comes from the match factory,” he said.

In the winter of 1906, Ford had secretly partitioned a twelve-by fifteen-foot room in his plant, on Piquette Avenue in Detroit. With a few colleagues, he devoted two years to the design and planning of the Model T.

Early on, they made an extensive study of materials, the most valuable aspect of which began in an offhand way. During a car race in Florida, Ford examined the wreckage of a French car and noticed that many of its parts were of lighter-than-ordinary steel.

The team on Piquette Avenue ascertained that the French steel was a vanadium alloy, but that no one in America knew how to make it. The finest steel alloys then used in American automaking provided 60,000 pounds of tensile strength. Ford learned that vanadium steel, which was much lighter, provided 170,000 pounds of tensile strength.

As part of the pre-production for the new model, Ford imported a metallurgist and bankrolled a steel mill. As a result, the only cars in the world to utilize vanadium steel in the next five years would be French luxury cars and the Ford Model T. A Model T might break down every so often, but it would not break.

The car that finally emerged from Ford’s secret design section at the factory would change America forever. For $825, a Model T customer could take home a car that was light, at about 1,200 pounds; relatively powerful, with a four-cylinder, twenty horsepower engine, and fairly easy to drive, with a two-speed, foot-controlled ‘planetary’ transmission.

Simple, sturdy, and versatile, the little car would excite the public imagination. It certainly fired up its inventor. When Henry Ford brought the prototype out of the factory for its first test drive, he was too excited to drive. An assistant had to take the wheel.

“Well, I guess we’ve got started,” Ford observed at the time. The car went to the first customers on October 1, 1908. In its first year, over ten thousand were sold, a new record for an automobile model.

In 1909, mining magnate Robert Guggenheim sponsored an auto race from New York to Seattle in which the only survivors were two Model T Fords. “I believe Mr Ford has the solution of the popular automobile,” Guggenheim concluded.

On May 26, 1927, Henry Ford watched the fifteen millionth Model T Ford roll off the assembly line at his factory in Highland Park, Michigan. Since his “universal car” was the industrial success story of its age, the ceremony should have been a happy occasion.

Yet Ford was probably wistful that day, too, knowing as he did that the long production life of the Model T was about to come to an end. He climbed into the car, a shiny black coupe, with his son, Edsel, the president of the Ford Motor Company.

Together, they drove to the Dearborn Engineering Laboratory, fourteen miles away, and parked the T next to two other historic vehicles: the first automobile that Henry Ford built in 1896, and the 1908 prototype for the Model T.

Henry himself took each vehicle for a short spin: the nation’s richest man driving the humble car that had made him the embodiment of the American dream.

Alexander's Quest Doesn't End Here!

Sphere: Related Content

The Second Coming Of Marie Antoinette

By Roger Alexander

211 years after the revolutionary Republicans in France beheaded Marie Antoinette – she of the (in)famous “Let them eat cake” quote – present day French nobility (yes, they’re back) is all set to toast her memory on Tuesday, September 21, 2008.

The occasion is the formal reopening of the Petit Trianon chateau in the Versailles Palace grounds, Marie Antoinette’s favourite hideaway, after restoration. (image above) The chateau, which had fallen into an advanced state of disrepair, has been restored by a generous grant from Chairman of the Swatch Group and Chairman and CEO of Manufacture Breguet, Nicolas G Hayek.

Montres Breguet’s 5 million Swiss francs patronage encompassed the restoration of the Petit Trianon, the Belvédère and the Pavillon Français. In exchange, the Manufacture has got the right to host promotional events on this historic site. That time has now come. And Hayek is using the occasion to present to the world an exact replica of the world’s most famous watch – the Marie Antoinette created by the celebrated French watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747-1823) as a monument to the glory of 18th century horology.

Only a man like Hayek, driven by passion for art and a sense of history, could have dared to make a replica of the Breguet watch No. 160, better known as the Marie-Antoinette after the last Queen of France for whom it had been ordered by an admirer, a Swedish officer of the Queen’s Guard named by historians as Count Axel de Fersen, in 1783.

All in all, it is an incredible story in keeping with the mysterious destiny of this prestigious timepiece, which experts concur, is the world’s most valuable watch. Rarely has so much been written about a timepiece as for Breguet’s Marie-Antoinette watch.

The French queen, a Hapsburg actually, was driven by a truly passionate desire for Breguet watches. Keen to possess any auspicious novelty, she had acquired a number of timepieces, including a perpetuel watch embellished with a self-winding device developed by Abraham-Louis Breguet at the Quai de l’Horloge on the Ile de la Cite in Paris. According to Hayek, Marie-Antoinette was a true admirer of Breguet’s work, “so much so that she mounted the scaffold in 1793 with one of his watches in her hand.”

Whilst commissioning the watch ordered from the workshops in the Quai de 1’Horloge, De Fersen wanted a watch incorporating the entire body of horological science of the time – perpetual calendar, repeater, thermometer, chronograph, power reserve and parachute - as a gift to the queen.

The Neuchâtel watchmaker was no stranger to Louis XVI’s court. Fascinated by objects of value, Marie-Antoinette already owned one of Breguet’s perpétuelles, a watch with a self-winding rotor mechanism, invented by Breguet himself. Clearly enamoured, the queen’s suitor contacted the watchmaker in 1783 with an unexpected proposal: to make the most spectacular watch ever seen.

With no limitation of time or expense, Breguet had free rein to create a watch that must leave Marie-Antoinette speechless with admiration. In fact, the order specified that gold should, wherever possible, be used instead of other metals, and that the complications should be both multiple and varied. There were to be no limits to the original price, Breguet was simply told to make the “most spectacular” watch possible. Unconstrained by limitations of cost or time, Breguet had a free hand.

Marie Antoinette knew nothing of this extraordinary gift. Nor did she live to admire it. When she mounted the scaffold in 1793, the watch was still at Breguet’s Parisian workshop. It was not finished until 1827.

It took a full 44 years to complete the watch, proof indeed that it is a work of art. This stunning piece features the greatest watchmaking complications known at that time. One of Breguet’s perpétuelles, the Marie-Antoinette watch includes a minute-repeater, a full perpetual calendar, an equation of time (that is, the difference each day between solar time and mean time indicated by clocks and watches), a power-reserve indicator, a bimetallic thermometer, a large independent seconds hand and a small centre seconds hand, a lever escapement, a gold balance spring and a parachute anti-shock device. This profusion of technological wonders was housed inside a gold case with a rock crystal dial through which the movement could be admired.

However, neither De Fersen nor the queen saw the watch in its final glory. The Marie-Antoinette pocket watch was completed in 1827, 34 years after the queen was guillotined and four years after Breguet’s death. (see pic)

Owing to its origins and complicated engineering, the watch quickly became a legend. Indeed, its roots and story, as fabulous as it is epic, have haunted the watchmaking world and the minds of collectors for more than two centuries

The watch continued was ready only in 1827. But there was no one to buy it. According to Hayek, a certain Count Marquis de la Groye purchased it and brought it back (to Breguet) for repairs but never returned to collect it. Funnily, the company didn’t have his address and it was never returned to him.

Finally, the surviving members of Breguet family sold the business and it went through different hands. It was finally acquired by Chaumet, a big jeweller in France. He in turn sold it to a big fund investor. Eventually, the watch was sold to the Mayor of London who, incidentally, was the first Jewish mayor of London.

After his death the watch was bequeathed to his daughter who donated many objects of art that her father gave her to the LA Mayer Museum of Islamic Art in Jerusalem. It was from there that the watch was stolen in 1983 along with 40 items from the original collection of 100 watches and clocks, one of the most important in the world.

Hayek says he wanted to advertise and pay for the watch, but was advised against it, as the museum would seek its return. Besides, he did not want to deal in stolen property even though it was an important part of Breguet’s history. Therefore, in 2005, he decided to make a new Marie Antoinette that would be a replica to the last detail.

(In the meanwhile, even as the new Marie-Antoinette was being created, the stolen watch reappeared under dramatic circumstances and was offered to Hayek who refused to buy stolen property. The Jerusalem museum had no compunction in buying it back from the thief and its back there but not on display but in its vault. In fact, the museum wanted millions to let Breguet examine it, but Hayek would have none of it.)

Three years later he unveiled only the second example of the gold pocket watch (Ref 1160BA/40) at the Baselworld watch fair earlier this year. “When we decided to make this watch ourselves, it was a hell of a challenge,” Hayek told Watch World. After all, none among the watchmakers at Breguet had even seen the original when the team embarked on the task of recreating the watch!

All they had were drawings and technical details archived in museums including Breguet’s own. Comparative examinations of contemporary antique watches, notably the Due de Praslin watch, revealed new factors concerning the styling and watchmaking techniques of the period.

With only a few rare documents, which gave no details of the complications, to guide them, Breguet’s watchmakers spent long months reproducing this exceptional timepiece’s ultra-complicated movement. The research also brought to light skills that have vanished and enabled the watchmakers to produce a timepiece that is in every respect faithful to its predecessor.

Indeed, Breguet’s watchmakers pulled off an extraordinary feat to create an exact replica of the original watch, which is proof of their immense talent. Their research even uncovered a complication that had never before been mentioned in relation to the Marie-Antoinette, namely the jumping hours, yet another of Breguet’s inventions.

The Hayek Marie-Antoinette stands out as an extraordinary work of art, in every way true to the original with its myriad complications including jumping hours, full perpetual calendar, minute-repeater, thermometer and equation of time and reveals a host of complications. According to Hayek, “In appearance it’s the same but now we have much better gold and much better steel. The quality of the materials is better.”

Each function and every decorative feature was minutely analysed. In the coachwork of the watch for example, the yellow gold of the 63mm-diameter case was cast in a special, more coppery alloy in order to match the period hue. The glasses for the dial and the case, made of rock crystal, allow the movement to display its finery and the marvels of its finish.

As a self-winding watch with a minute-repeater striking the hours, quarters and minutes on demand, the Hayek Marie-Antoinette has all the makings of a work of art. A full perpetual calendar displays the dates, the day and the months respectively at 2 o’clock, 6 o’clock and 8 o’clock. The equation of time at 10 o’clock proclaims the daily difference between solar time and the mean time told by watches.

In the centre, the jumping hours - invented by Breguet - and the minutes are joined by a long independent seconds hand, while the small seconds are shown at 6 o’clock. The 48-hour power-reserve indicator 10:30 balances a bimetallic thermometer at 01:30.

The self-winding, ‘perpetuel’ movement comprises 823 outstandingly finished components. The baseplates and bridges, the smallest gear-wheels in the trains for the underdial work, the dates and the repeater are fashioned in pink gold polished with wood. The screws are in polished blued steel; the points of friction, holes and bearings, set with sapphires.

The smallest details demonstrate perfect execution and have been finished by hand. This masterly and unprecedented mechanism is furthermore fitted with a particular type of natural-lift escapement, a helical balance-spring in gold and a bimetallic balance-wheel. The anti-shock device - a double pare-chute, another Breguet invention - gives protection against blows and shocks to the balance staff and to the shafts of the winding weights.

Even as the Hayek Marie-Antoinette was getting ready, Hayek learnt that the queen’s favourite oak tree in the royal palace of Versailles outside Paris was about to be felled. He offered to buy the wood to make the box for the pocket watch but Versailles offered the tree at no cost. In appreciation, Breguet donated 5.0 million euros (7.85 million dollars) to the restoration of a section of the palace called Petit Trianon - where Marie-Antoinette spent most of her time.

For Hayek, to take wood from the queen’s favourite oak tree in Versailles to make a box that houses the replica watch is an ultimate tribute to her.

The box is a composition of 3,500 pieces, sculpted from the royal oak’s wood. The exterior is an exact reproduction of the parquet floor inside the Petit Trianon.

It opens to reveal a second, smaller box, the top of which could be mistaken for a masterpiece in oils. It is in fact a handcrafted marquetry of over a thousand pieces depicting Marie-Antoinette’s hand holding a rose, inspired by a famous portrait of the queen. As for the watch itself, nestled inside, it is as imposing for its size as for its myriad complications and, of course, for all that it represents for eighteenth-century French culture.

In as much as in those days Breguet intended to make this watch into a monument to the glory of 18th century horology, the brand has in 2008 performed a feat of prowess by bringing a legend to life and anchoring it in the 21st century. And Hayek insists it’s a piece of art and not for sale, upping the desirability quotient of the most awaited watch even more.

--------------

The Hayek Pocket Watch Marie-Antoinette (Ref 1160BA/40)

Specifications

Case round in a special alloy of 18-carat gold. Glasses of back and bezel made of rock crystal. Diameter: 64mm. Winding-crown without ratchet key with bolt for hours, quarter and minute repeater.

Dial in rock crystal. Hours and minutes at the centre. Central independent seconds hand, small-seconds at 6 o’clock. Power-reserve indication at 10:30. Equation of time at 10 o’clock. Perpetual calendar with month indication at 8 o’clock, date indication at 2 o’clock and day indication at 6 o’clock. Thermometer at 1:30. Chapter ring with Roman numerals, open-tipped Breguet hands in blued steel.

Movement, mechanical self-winding called perpetuelle, is composed of over 823 spare parts. Main plate, bridges and gear-wheels in rose gold polished with wood. Screws in blued polished steel, Numbered and signed Breguet. Power reserve of 48 hours. Perpetual calendar, equation of time, minutes, quarters and hours repeater, independent seconds hand, jumping hours, thermometer. 26'/2 lines, 63 jewels. Natural-lift escapement, cylindrical gold spiral. 2.5Hz bimetallic balance-wheel. Adjusted in all the positions.

Alexander's Quest Doesn't End Here!

Sphere: Related Content

Gordon Lewis Pugh: The Human Polar Bear

By Roger Alexander

When British explorer, endurance swimmer and environmentalist Lewis Gordon Pugh took the Investec North Pole Challenge – a one kilometre swim in an area that should be frozen over to demonstrate the devastating impact of climate change – it was therefore only natural that he called upon Villemont, to act as timekeeper for what would eventually be a record-breaking feat.

Just like the famous Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen who inspired him, Lewis Pugh planned this dangerous expedition with meticulous care. His preparation, both logistically and physically, enabled him to face the elements under the optimal conditions. But preparation alone, however thorough, were not enough.

In the process, Pugh became the only person to ever take a long-distance swim at the North Pole. Wearing only a Speedo, cap, and goggles, he managed to paddle 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) in saltwater that was a frigid -1.7 degrees C – below the freezing point of freshwater. It was the coldest water in which a human had ever swum.

The geographic North Pole is situated at 90º North and the previous record held for the coldest point swum by a human is 0ºC off Antarctica – a record also held by Pugh. The record-breaking swim in an area that should be frozen over was to demonstrate the devastating impact of climate change.

“Just five or 10 years ago this swim would never have been possible - most people have no idea that you can find patches of open sea at the North Pole in summer,” explained Pugh before leaving for the North Pole.

Pugh set off from Murmansk in the Russian icebreaker ‘Yamal’ with his team on July 8, 2007 that included expedition scout Jørgen Amundsen, who skied alongside him to find open sea to make the record attempt.  (Jørgen Amundsen is a relative of Roald Amundsen, who was the first man to walk to the South Pole and first man to fly across the Arctic Ocean via the North Pole.)

Other team members included his mind coach David Becker and Professor Tim Noakes of the University of Cape Town, who is a leading expert on the effect of cold water on the human body.

The logistics were a nightmare (e.g. finding a suitable place to for Lewis to swim, positioning the crew and getting Lewis sufficiently warm immediately after the swim) and the conditions are very unpredictable (e.g. ice drifting over the open water, where the swim was being attempted or a polar bear in the region).

However, it was clear that Lewis wasn’t going to let anything stand in his way and any negative thoughts were dismissed and replaced by proper and proactive planning for what lay ahead.

On Day 4 of the voyage (July 12) Lewis wrote in his diary, “I woke up hoping to get an opportunity to undertake my first training session in the Arctic waters which would also give the team their all important dress rehearsal for Sunday (July 15, 2007).”

By now the terrain had changed dramatically. From horizon to horizon (you are on the top of the world and everywhere you look is the horizon!), the surface area was covered in thick ice, extending to three or four metres thick in some places. The large Russian icebreaker continued to plunge forward through the ice, seeking out occasional open spaces of water in which to increase its speed.

 At around 5 p.m. the Yamal was brought to a complete standstill. Professor Noakes took the temperature of the water - a chilling minus 1.8 degrees centigrade. This would be the coldest and most northerly long-distance swim to date in the world. 

After taking a couple of pictures and completing the set-up it was time to get down to business. It took Lewis about 10 minutes to mentally prepare himself before diving in wearing just his Speedo briefs, swimming cap and goggles as prescribed by the (English) Channel Swimming Association Rules.

“I’d planned to do five minutes,” Lewis wrote. “All went according to plan. I swam 297 metres in the five minutes and my team managed to get me back on to the ship and into a hot shower within five minutes of getting out the water.”

Over dinner that night it was evident that although Lewis spent only five minutes in the water, the difference in temperature between 0 degrees (the temperature of his previous swim in the Antarctic) and -1.8 degrees was much bigger than expected. So with the first record established Lewis knew that the main swim was not going to be easy.

It was about minus 1 degree outside, and the first sunny day, and the Yamal had passed the latitude 86 degrees North. The ship made steady progress throughout the day due to the fact that there were regular patches of open water through which the Yamal could travel speedily. Lewis expected much thicker ice and wondered, “Is this because of climate change?”

The closer the ship got to its destination, the quieter Lewis became. It was clear he was busy preparing himself for what lay ahead. In the late afternoon we reached the North Pole, almost a day ahead of schedule! After months of training and preparation the time had come and the sense of anticipation was huge.

The team gathered on the ship’s bridge for the last briefing and to delegate responsibilities amongst the team members so Lewis could focus entirely on the job at hand - swimming a distance of no less than 1000 metres at the North Pole.

After searching for an appropriate piece of water (a patch of open water at least 250 metres in length and sufficiently wide for two zodiacs –rigid inflatable boats - to accompany Lewis), Yamal had to be positioned perfectly to off-load the team, equipment and zodiacs. 

Lewis found the perfect piece of water and the captain did an incredible job of getting the Yamal into position.  If he got it wrong, the ice would be too dangerous and the open water would be disturbed. Manoeuvring the ship with great expertise, the captain took about an hour to get it boat in position and then another two hours to off-load the zodiacs and equipment and lower the gangplank.

Just after 1 a.m. on July 15 morning the support team embarked onto the ice to measure the distance for the swim and to erect the 10 flags that would be the beacons for Lewis along the swimming route.  In these ferocious swimming conditions, it was important for Lewis to break up the swim into short chunks or targets. The flags along the water’s edge allowed him to do this.

Three Russian guards also accompanied the team to make sure that the perimeter was safe and to look out for polar bears.  Finally, the scene was set and Lewis, who had been back in the cabin mentally preparing for the challenge with his mind coach David Becker, was ready.

In order to complete the swim, Lewis needed to be emotionally charged and mentally focussed. Otherwise he would die.

On D-Day, July 15, just after 2 a.m., Lewis stepped off the gangplank onto the ice and then on to the zodiac.  He travelled to the starting position where the support team was gathered. Everyone could see that he was focussed on one thing and one thing only - completing the swim. Failure was not an option.

Still fully clothed, Lewis jogged the 250 metre perimeter of the course that was set out for him.  At the last flag, where the 3^rd Russian guard stood, he stopped and shook hands with him. After a short moment to prepare himself, he was in the water, swimming to the Norwegian flag.

Prof Tim Noakes and David Becker were on one zodiac next to Lewis, while Jørgen Amundsen was on skis on the ice next to Lewis, shouting encouragement and giving time and distance.

Lewis turned after the first 250 metres at around four minutes, a very quick time, looking strong and comfortable. The next 250 metres took about five minutes and it was clear that there was a very strong current in the water against which he had to swim.

As Lewis was starting out on his final 500 metres the fog came in.  It was an eerie sight for the team to see him almost disappear in the thick fog, swimming along a very narrow ledge in the frozen waters of the Arctic.

The water temperature varied from 0 to about -1 degrees and the depth of the water was estimated at about 4.3 km. The water was black and most unappealing. It is the last place on earth one would possibly wish to swim.

“The water was absolutely black,” Pugh said later; “It was like jumping into a dark black hole. It was frightening. The pain was immediate and felt like my body was on fire. I was in excruciating pain from beginning to end and I nearly quit on a few occasions. It was without doubt the hardest swim of my life. I just kept on looking at Jørgen (Amundsen). I will never ever give up in front of a Norwegian, let alone a relative of Roald Amundsen. There is too must rivalry between our two nations!"

Lewis turned for his last 250 metres into the strong current at around 14 minutes. At this stage he must have been in agony, but his will never seemed to falter.  This last 250 metres, against a strong current, would be driven by his mind and his strong desire to succeed.  The end was marked with the British and North Pole flags.

He finally stepped out of the water after 18 minutes 50 seconds, barely able to talk as his lips and jaw started to freeze.  He was clearly in a bad way and was barely coherent. He had made it, but the next hour would be critical, as his temperature would continue to drop quickly even after the swim.

This was an unprecedented record and a physically-challenging feat that required a long and intensive period of preparation. The swim took exactly 18 minutes and 50 seconds to complete. A new record! Never before has anyone swum such a great distance, braving such extreme temperatures, much less in the mythical part of the world that is the North Pole.

With trained precision, the team got him on the zodiac and drove him off into the mist where the Yamal and a warm shower were waiting for him.  By now his temperature was decreasing rapidly.  When entering the steaming shower his temperature bottomed out at just below 36 degrees and then it started to rise again.  His toes and fingers were blue and he had multiple cuts from the ice. He was clearly in a lot of pain. But he had made it and survived.

Two hours later, Lewis was still shivering heavily, but there was a broad smile on his face that would last for a long time and deservedly so!  With this swim he became the first human to complete a sub zero 1 km swim at the geographic North Pole (and broken his previous record of the most northerly long distance swim).

For the record, Lewis’s core body temperature was 36.5 degrees on exiting the water and dropped to 35 degrees 20 minutes later.

Speaking after his record-breaking feat, Lewis said, “I am obviously ecstatic to have succeeded but this swim is a triumph and a tragedy - a triumph that I could swim in such ferocious conditions but a tragedy that it’s possible to swim at the North Pole.” This feat, is the Lewis’ 21^st world record, has now officially entered the famous record book Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.

 After Lewis set a new record, Prof Noakes said, “Lewis has once again pushed the boundaries of what is possible in these conditions. To swim at the North Pole is an incredible achievement and is the culmination of years of unique endeavour by an astonishing individual.

At the end of the swim Lewis was showing obvious signs of distress but he never faltered and his performance was his best yet.  As on all his previous swims, his body recovered extremely quickly and he was back to normal within an hour of finishing the swim.”

“This expedition represents the end of an era of Arctic exploration as we know it,” said Amundsen. “Many expeditions fail each year when they encounter big stretches of open sea. I cannot imagine what pioneer explorers like Roald Amundsen and Admiral Robert Peary would have thought of someone swimming at the North Pole.”

It was Roald Amundsen’s long-term vision that led him to succeed where others had failed. He taught us that to be a great adventurer one must never lose sight of one's dream, and must continue to believe it is achievable even when all the evidence suggests otherwise.

Jørgen Amundsen, a decendant of great explorer who is Brand Director for Villemont of Geneva who provided the timekeeping said, “It was amazing to watch.  I have never seen someone push them to that limit before.  The atmosphere was incredible!  It was 18 minutes 50 seconds of a very special moment in history.  For Villemont it was extraordinary to time an event at the North Pole, where time does not exist. It was this vision that led him to become an example for modem explorers like Lewis Pugh.”

Pugh is helped ashore after his histroic feat

WHO IS LEWIS GORDON PUGH?

Lewis Gordon Pugh is a 39 year old lawyer who has pioneered more swims around famous landmarks than any other swimmer.

Explorer, environmentalist and swimmer, Lewis is no stranger to completing seemingly impossible challenges where the odds are stacked against him. He is the only person to have completed a long distance swim in each of the five oceans of the world.

He was the first person to complete a long distance swim in all five oceans of the world and the first to complete a long distance swim in both the frozen waters of the Arctic and Antarctic. 

In 2003 he completed the first swim in the Barents Sea by swimming around North Cape, Europe’s most northern point.  The following year, he swam the entire length of the 204 km long Sognefjord, Norway’s longest fjord, in an epic feat that took him 21 days to complete. 

In August 2005 he plunged into the Arctic Ocean near the North Pole and swam 1 km around the most northern point of the island of Spitsbergen at 80° North to break the world record.  

In 2005 Lewis completed the most Southern swim in the world when he covered 1 km in 18 minutes at Petterman Island in Antarctica in waters of 0°C.

In 2006 he completed the challenge of swimming the entire length of the River Thames (203 miles).  In February 2007 year he swam across the width of the Maldives, a distance of some 87 miles. Both events were sponsored by Investec and promoted awareness of WWF’s climate change campaign.

In a career spanning nearly 20 years the explorer and endurance swimmer has ignored the dangers of sharks and polar bears and taken on winds and sea currents to prove just how far an athlete can push himself.

His unique ability to withstand cold and significantly raise his core body temperature in anticipation of water has surprised many top sports scientists and earned him the name, the human ‘Polar Bear’.

Alexander's Quest Doesn't End Here!

Sphere: Related Content