Engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel (b.1806, Portsmouth), designed a lesser-known masterpiece; two conjoined red brick basket arches, known as the Maidenhead Viaduct or The Sounding Arch (1839).₁ Based on parabola geometry, the outer extradoses are pushed to extremity.₂ Each semi-ellipse spans 128ft (39m) and yet the curvature holds out to just 24ft (7.3m) high. The elongation to his intention is reiterated both by its arch doubling construct as well as each their own penetrating shudder of a delayed echo.
Oracidae is a broadly remote, uppercase typeface with Cyrillic letters and a ‘CT’ concurrent, which looks to bridge the approach of a deepening, self-isolated technological society, common by repetition.₃
2. Devised by eye, the stroke distinction in Oracidae amounts to the common double Y=X2, unless a cross-bar or contrasting feature. The overall depth remains a fluid, dynamic equilibrium, set to a standard reading logic, due to its cap-height linearity. Some letters peak however. For example, letter G overflows the boundary, whereas letter C complies. The bowl of letter R curls under. This is ascribed to the orientation of hand and stroke sequence – direction highlights slice way, hydraulic ink-traps persist with the tide [1].
3. The letter B has italic counters in order to breathe. Letter J does justice to its footing by reduction to the vertical stroke and shrugs a cold-shoulder.
4.Slight terminal renouncements occur in Oracidae CT, comparable to the Copperplate typeface of 1901 (ATF).₄The onlooker may surpass this semi-conducting gothic hint, however, these dovetail reference points acknowledge the medium to which Oracidae CT installs itself.₅ They are considered non-serif, as their being touches on methods of early stone inscription as opposed to motif. Some hang frosted, the tail of letter R and the base of W for instance [1].
5. Cyrillic script functions well under such compression [3]. Each character refers to traditional shape development. The letter Я is not simply a back-to-front Latin R, the form maintains an individual course of historic flow fabrication. The letter И is another indication of Cyrillic heritage, notice how the diagonal stroke bridges above the baseline and beneath the cap-height. The character Ж warps perceptions of reflection, what appears mirrored is not the case, the shape demonstrates progressive enlightenment.
6. Oracidaes numerals differ in contrast to the letters [5]. Based on extremities of filtered balance, the rounder contours give a hybrid buoyancy to the entire typeface, which sets them apart on glance. The zero has an off-vertical strike-through, the oval contrast is inverted by submission to clarify. Numeral one sits upon a declining base, a somewhat inclined reversal.
7. Oracidae CT Italic has been fine-tuned to the Monylop Principle₅
₁ Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–59) designed (among others) The Clifton Suspension Bridge, Gatehampton Railway Bridge, Paddington Railway Station and the Royal Albert Bridge. Isambard Kingdom Brunel. L. T. C. Rolt, London, 1957.
FR: Anse de panier. Basket arch. A Dictionary of Architecture. Nikolaus Pevsner, John Fleming and Hugh Honour, The Overlook Press, Woodstock, New York, 1976.
₂ The wooden scaffolding Brunel had built to build the bridge was denied permission to take down due to fear of collapse. To prove his theory, as a joke he cut off the top of the support centering without anyone knowing and let the scaffolding blow down in a storm.
The Maidenhead Viaduct opened on 1st July 1839. Grade I listed, it is the widest brick bridge in the world. Built to carry the Great Western main line train (London to Bristol) over the River Thames, still in operation today.
A. H. Millhouse (mechanical engineer) lives almost beneath the bridge on his boat.
₃ CT stands for CormoranT. The cormorant bird (Phalacrocoracidae) often flies through the arches.
₄ Copperplate (1901), typeface designed by Frederic W. Goudy for American Type Founders (ATF). Gothic, yet with small glyphic wedges.
₅ Monylop.→