Friday 10 April 2015

Igor Ivanovich . . . . The A to Z of Slightly Strange Unknown Victorian Inventors and Explorers


Igor Ivanovich

Having learnt his trade as a set builder in the Bolshoi Ballet Igor Ivanovich was an expert at making a swan out of a roll of gaffer tape some old boxes and an old bicycle dragged out of the canal. And he probably would have never become an inventor had it not been for his fool hardy attempt at smuggling a set of the Barometric Bellows past the Russian customs after a tour by the Bolshoi Ballet in Britain. But he was forced to find new employment and adapted his many skills to producing sophisticated mechanical devices that appealed to the wealthy elite of Europe. As he often said . . . I hate the common man with his flat cap, football and meat pies laughing and singing in their ale houses. Yes sadly Igor Ivanovich was a bit of an elitist snob.


But he could make wonderful mechanical birds and insects which became known as  Ivanovich Intrigues and although not a practical invention they were much admired by Elizabeth Romanova who kept a large collection of Ivanovich Intrigues at her palace in Russia. For a time he was quite a celebrity, but one day as he walked to his workshop he took a short cut through one of the poorer parts of Saint Petersburg. Where he was recognized by a group of young street urchins who were keen to see one of his mechanical wonders.  However Igor Ivanovich looked at the children and stated that no device of his should ever to shown to horrid small street urchins and he demanded that they hid their heads in shame.  Unfortunately a large crowd of football supports eating meat pies and singing and laughing had just left the local ale house and overheard Igor Ivanovich’s words and it did not go down well.  When Igor Ivanovich recovered consciousness he found himself conscripted into the Russian navy for twenty five years. Sadly he never recovered from the hardship of navy life and spent his last few years locked in the Moscow State Lunatic Asylum (not one of the more enlightened hospitals of the day)  with an old bicycle wheel on his head convinced he was a penguin………… 

13 comments:

  1. What a great theme! And wow, a fascinating man. I bet his life would make for a marvelous story. Good luck with the Challenge! :)

    Visiting from Untethered Realms

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    1. Indeed he was a very interesting man but many of those Victorian Inventors were and some of those yet to come in the A to Z have even more interesting life stories. Its a wonder no one has written a book about them yet.

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  2. Tragic story, but Igor was obviously a creative genius.

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    1. He was and I only wish I had as a creative mind myself. But alas I am but a simple chap who writes the blog diary of the common man (me) on my blog. Oooo and pokes stuff with pointy sticks when provoked. (normally by Zombies) . . . . . . . . . .

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  3. :D Great story!

    @TarkabarkaHolgy from
    Multicolored Diary - Epics from A to Z
    MopDog - 26 Ways to Die in Medieval Hungary

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    1. I like the sound of that MopDog blog I will be investigating that very soon.

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  4. Aw a little disappointed that he didn't have a middle name, but that bicycle wheel on head convinced he was a penguin made up for it. Only a very creative person could have ended his days like that..did he make things like the Silver Swan? :)

    Cheers,

    Nilanjana

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    1. That Silver Swan is rather awesome and it is the sort of thing I had in mind when I Wrote the story. Many folk will have problems with thinking they are Penguins, the Victorians were very susceptible to such thoughts

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  5. What with trying to write my own posts, reviewing the Lil man's posts, trying to read everyone else's post and trying to fix a laptop, (does anyone know how to unlock a drive partition?) I'm rather late for this one.

    Not having much sympathy for Mr Ivanovich. Those poor street urchins deserved a little bit of a treat after urchin on the streets all day.
    Lovely picture Mr Z.

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    1. Me thinks the Lil man has been doing interesting stuff with his laptop. . . . Sounds like a trip to a repair man to me. . . . Has he been encrypting it and has lost the key . . . . Oooooo I hope not.

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  6. I s'ppose if one is going to be a snob, the choice of elitist as type would be one of the better ones to choose. Imagine someone who looked in disdain at people named Rob; being a 'Rob snob' would certainly be the worst kind, do you agree?

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    1. I do agree it would be terrible. . .

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    2. I nearly missed you comment Mr ESB that would also be terrible and not a nice thing to do. . . . . . it happens sometimes comments sneak in and I dont notice. I appear to be getting even more skatty than I thought I already was

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