QI | Who Made Sure The Channel Tunnel Met In The Middle?

6 February: On this day in 1964, Britain and France agreed to build the Channel Tunnel.
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This clip is from QI Series H, Episode 11, 'Highs and Lows' with Stephen Fry, Alan Davies, Rob Brydon, Fred MacAulay and Sandi Toksvig.

[@pohjan4]

That ”we have sold two” will always be the most spontaniously funny thing I have ever heard!!

[@willmcpherson2]

The delayed reaction from everyone in the room 💀

[@FreakyPete]

As well as not really funny, that remark is not accurate. Gyrotheodolites are used by surveyors in underground mines world wide, as well as well by engineers in tunnelling operations.

[@kayecastleman6353]

A clever line, but it will have to stand in line for honours in my book, especially on this show where "spontaneously funny" is epidemic. Glad it served you so well, though. 😊

[@muskatDR]

The germans always bringing french and britain together

[@Minecraftrok999]

muskatDR ^Underrated comment (as far as a comment with 84 likes can be called "underrated" of course)

[@damionsunderpantstbcutm9664]

If they had had it in 1940, it would have brought them together with us.

[@pmolqrcd3370]

In ww1 and ww2

[@diabl2master]

NICE

[@diabl2master]

Lewis Hampson Oh damn we've got a genius over here.

[@lukassnakeman]

"ve 'ave zold two" i'm dead

[@JohnJohnson-ok4gf]

Kills me every time, and I've seen this bit at least 20 times.

[@Tichi20]

Did you hit?

[@JoeBleasdaleReal]

“All done vere vell!” 😂😂😂

[@JonasDAtlas]

German is my second language and that was surprisingly accurate - and definitely hilarious.

[@malteee9073]

Do not macke fun off uz we are zuperior

[@jayhill8892]

I joking said to myself "It's got to be a German. Only thing that can force a Englishman and a Frenchman to work together." Can't believe that was right.

[@OriginalPiMan]

I read the question and thought "if the choice is between the English and the French, this is QI so the answer will be the Germans."

[@adamdavid3195]

I was thinking exaftly the Germans too :D

[@danielpetersen4123]

Same

[@momouppa]

OriginalPiMan i was thinking a swiss engineer

[@ObjectsInMotion]

I guessed Americans

[@Thediamondduck11]

OriginalPiMan i thought shouting

[@marcuscross8051]

Sandi Toksvig started in the far right chair (the one Rob's sat in), then moved to the one she's sat in here, then replaced Stephen at his chair, and in a few years she will replace Alan, then eventually end up in the far left chair.

[@Dafoodmaster]

Marcus Cross surely they're all on the far ri- sorry, wrong reference.

[@pauljmorton]

That's Bailey's seat, he won't budge.

[@apocrypha5363]

And maybe, maker willing, at some point of that journey she'll get a laugh. *fingers crossed*

[@RandomPlayIist]

She was always funny and interesting as a panelist so I knew she'd be the same as host.

[@ep4everlegend317]

She must have misunderstood the rules and thought this is musical chairs

[@kixlepixel]

That last joke was perfect

[@LikelyToBeEatenByAGrue]

Pepys I wasn't paying attention. It went in one ear and out the other.

[@00fabian7]

Pepys If only that were true for the Indian engineer

[@jamesbulldogmiller]

Ending the video on that joke was masterful

[@grahamlive]

It was the one and only time that Fred McCauley has ever been funny.

[@sam_marley]

grahamlive they were referring to Rob's joke right at the very end, not Fred's joke

[@tristramkeats2089]

It's a really clever piece of equipment. All it really does is ensure that a straight line is kept (accounting for earths curvature (of course)) using the relative difference in spin experienced in a gyroscope depending on latitude and the tangential angle between a perceived horizon and a projected correct horizon!

[@TheOneWhoMightBe]

Simples!

[@edd6820]

Tristram Keats man, sweet.

[@ARed1Abedin]

I'd like you in my party

[@Jotari]

How do the flat earthists explain that!

[@connormawe01]

floooooooooooooooood The same way they explain everything else. With ignorance.

[@SunnyBear]

Rob's french little sigh at 04:00 is perfection

[@jamesf3148]

Civil engineer involved in building pipelines: we use gyros occasionally. Whenever the pipeline is far from the surface or under a wide body of water we get a gyro for the drill..it's incredibly expensive. (horizontal directional drilling) so there is a good market for it.

[@bobcorbett5614]

They also have good use in mines.

[@666gertrude]

We have sold two! Kills me every time...

[@johnnydemaggio8127]

ENGLAND: We've done 10 meters today. How far have you gone. FRANCE: Yeah same.

[@RoderickGMacLeod]

The French apologized for being late and gave the excuse of "I would have been here sooner but my rock was so hard."

[@mark-ish]

Rumour has it they surrendered just as it started, so had to catch up.

[@Jotari]

That last joke was in such poor taste but it really managed to connect.

[@willemvandebeek]

Yeah, that joke was right on the edge

[@victore92]

That my fellow KZbinr, was a excellent follow up joke, haha!

[@Totto87]

No, but if asked if he hit or not made it hilarious! :)

[@thinkagain9457]

Looks like the f#*king pc police are here. Lighten up buddy, this is a TV show for gods sake.

[@CannedLizard]

Sometimes, you need to take a shot in the dark and hope you don't die up there on stage.

[@yongtaufooboy]

German accent caught me off guard

[@xiphosura413]

French one got me

[@SebHaarfagre]

German Accent will now issue a punishment to you for being off guard

[@JustinCase99999]

At the beginning, he says the Frenchman's name was Creuset. The final t is actually silent, so his name sounds exactly like "creuser", the french verb for "to dig". 😊 Edit: turns out I heard the name wrong, it's Cozette, and therefore it has nothing to do with dig, "creuser". On the other hand it sounds exactly like Cosette, the character in Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables, the girl you see on the poster for the famous musical. A French novel, made into a musical in the early 80s, turned into a huge hit by the Brits. So, somehow appropriate still. 😄

[@tiffanywetherspoon420]

And the Englishman was called Fagg. The second g is not pronounced, and it means to drill into a dark and dirty hole.

[@Octopop2010]

@@tiffanywetherspoon420 yikes tiff

[@markmayonnaise1163]

@@Octopop2010 Don't knock it 'til you try it

[@poopcock4357]

no it's not silent

[@paulallen579]

He said the wrong name or didn't articulate enough, the name of the French worker was Philippe Cozette. www.thoughtco.com/the-channel-tunnel-1779429

[@Monkofmagnesia]

As an AMerican who has only seen full episodes when they are put on KZbin and discovered this show three or four years ago, what fascinated me about this clip is that I never knew Sandi Toksvig had been a panelist on the show before she became host.

[@justvin7214]

Sandi has been a panelist 17 times before she became the host.

[@Monkofmagnesia]

@@justvin7214 I now have every episode to date! I have been binge watching the past four days and have a long way to go. It is a lot of fun and I do not notice the passing of time.

[@justvin7214]

@@Monkofmagnesia Welcome to my world...

[@NoisqueVoaProduction]

There were 2 previous tunnels that had an interesting story. In fact, they were the first 2 tunnels to start on both ends. The first is in Jerusalem (Siloam tunnel) where the tunnel was close to the surface and they could listen to the shovels and could guide the workers by the noise. The second one was made geometrically. The tunnel of Eupalinos is considered one of the great feats of the Greek Engineering. They went around the mountain with perpendicular lenghts and then constructed a similar triangle and dug in the direction of the hypotenuse. They got precise enough to the point they could hear the other tunnel in the middle of the mountain and made the connection. It served as an aqueduct and saved thousand of lives.

[@pokemaster123ism]

Geez, those clever greeks

[@matthewsawczyn6592]

It’s amazing how sad I felt when Stephen spoke about the British making their machines burrow themselves into the earth 😆 Pixar has done its job

[@almostfm]

3:35 points should have been awarded for that "Great Escape" reference.

[@MikeJF85]

To defend the British, the burrowed machines serve a valuable purpose: they act as a mid-tunnel electrical grounding.

[@carlosandleon]

bullshit excuse

[@ferrumignis]

@@carlosandleon It's neither an excuse nor bullshit, it's a simple fact. Not as simple as yourself, obviously.

[@lordgarion514]

We normally use a metal rod hammered into the ground for ground. I don't see how the machine does a better job.

[@bobbodaskank]

@@ferrumignis I mean, it's not really as simple as that, is it? I could plug a pinhole leak with the sapphire from my wife's ring. Telling her not to be angry because it's serving a valuable purpose might be factual, but it's still a bullshit excuse for mistreating something significant or valuable when I could have used something else instead. Those machines could have seen more service, got broken broken down for a monstrous amount of scrap metal, or they could have been sold to other countries wanting to perform similar civil engineering projects. "Sorry, chaps, ask the French, but if you need the usual steel electrical grounding spikes, we have a few spares."

[@ferrumignis]

@@bobbodaskank You have clearly never worked on huge civil projects like this. The machines would have been pretty tired by that point, and the cost of breaking them down and removing them would have been huge.

[@mathewhale3581]

In Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, he mentioned a tunnel built in Samos(?) by the ancient Greeks. One mile long and out by only a foot or two in the middle. I read this 35 years ago and I’m going from memory so I can’t confirm it. Also in Cappadocia are some amazing tunnels.

[@leomarrah]

Gyroscopes are such an underrated invention, with a properly aligned gyro you can tell your positive and relative movement in any frame of causality.

[@welshpete12]

more of a discovery then in invention. But they are very handy things . :-)

[@vintagetortoise2022]

In answer to Stephen’s question. The reason they buried the British Boring Machines was because if they didn’t, when the French arrived, they would have 2 machines facing right at each other head on. Since they can’t exactly be reversed they agreed to bury the British ones (makes sense since they finished digging first) and allow the French to drive straight through.

[@telectronix1368]

So was it the French one that Sandi would have seen by the road?

[@lilaralston6314]

"Gyrotheodolite" is the name of my Alan Parsons Project cover band.

[@Judesmood118]

“Did he hit?” Brutal!

[@diabl2master]

That last joke was fucking savage... good bant

[@erictaylor5462]

The Romans built an underground aquifer through a mountain, starting at each end and met in the middle with an error of less than a foot.

[@Alucard-gt1zf]

Wonder how many people died for it to happen

[@krashd]

Building a straight line through anything has been possible for thousands of years, building a tunnel that goes under a very deep body of water and then up the other side is very difficult. The amount of course corrections alone through various types of rock and soil for 25km each makes the fact that they were only 30cm out absolutely staggering.

[@erictaylor5462]

@@krashd I didn't say it was impossible. Clearly it was. But that doesn't mean it was easy, or, after thousands of years, that we know how they did it. There are many examples of engineering in the ancient world that we have no clue how they did it, but the fact they exist proves it was possible. No impossible engineering feat have ever been discovered, because they are, well, impossible.

[@derekscanlan4641]

Yeah, but apart from building an underground aquifer through a mountain, starting at each end and meeting in the middle with an error of less than a foot... what have the Romans ever done for us?

[@kingdom1682]

@@derekscanlan4641 hahaha 😆

[@Kabaye20]

I’m on a QI marathon and Stephen seems to look different in every video regardless of the date the episode was recorded

[@pjabrony8280]

The problem is that when the German brought up the gyrotheodolite to the tunnel, there was a man there who said, "Vere is your licence?!"

[@HarryJMac]

Lots of good stuff here but: The gyrotheodolite was used to make sure that there was no cumulative error building up in the survey but the basic accuracy was down to good old precision surveying, so precise that it accounted for the light being bent by the thermal gradient between the edge and the middle of the tunnel. The accuracy was not advertised as the surveyors knew that it was far better than they had any reason to expect being about 50mm, 75mm and 150mm (up/down. left/right and length). Considering that, at the start, we didn't know where France was to that sort of accuracy, it is pretty amazing. The UK tunnelling machines were buried largely because they would have been extremely difficult to get out as they are larger than the completed tunnel. However, the machines that dug the land tunnels from Dover to Folkestone were retrieved and put up for sale.

[@dazzaboy04]

"Helloo? Are you there? We are here!" Oh sorry we've gone past you!" 😂😂😂😂

[@11Kralle]

The gyrotheodolite wasn't invented solely for the channel-project though - it was in use since 1949... In short: "Ve have zold zavven!"

[@randomisedjacob]

A frenchmen, an englishmen and a german walk into a tunnel

[@VestigialHead]

+ randomisedjacob If nobody was there to hear them did they make a sound?

[@annmitchell4663]

The Frenchman said Ah..this would make a great wine cellar..the Englishman said Ah..this would make a great beer cellar,the German said Ah...now we can REALLY invade Britain this time..!

[@SebHaarfagre]

Three Germans walk out of the tunnel

[@refragerator]

"Did he hit?" LMAO

[@LudietHistoria]

The French and the English once more unified with the help of Germany xD

[@screaminlordbyron7767]

So quick with the last line! Brilliant!

[@stitcha123]

Scripted

[@avinotion]

4:48 I was waiting for the following inevitable question.

[@JimT.Pirate]

I thought they would just magnetise the drills to make them meet. One small issue was raised when they both chose the same polarity of magnet, which is why there's a few loops in the middle of the tunnel.

[@JJONNYREPP]

QI | Who Made Sure The Channel Tunnel Met In The Middle? 0847am 1.8.23 dont hurry back was the cry!

[@JhullyAmilly]

I read Birdsong ages ago, have to read it again, forgot how good it was

[@Omega_Orion]

"Did he hit?" Caught me so off-guard

[@jb888888888]

I'm reasonably sure that the construction area had a rule about hard hats required by everyone. Superman, no matter how impervious he is, would follow that rule to set a good example.

[@jeanvonestling7408]

Honestly, when Stephen said names of the French and English workers I ws sure that he just made up one very English name and one very French name. But those are real names of those two workers.

[@pafnutiytheartist]

"did he hit" - brilliant

[@dogwalker666]

I saw the TBM in the factory when they were building it what an amazing machine.

[@kaboom138]

I guess the tunnellers knew that key lesson from history: Only the Germans can bring the English and the French together (Edit: Wow, thanks for all the thumbs up!)

[@EPICFAILKING1]

Yes, hahaha xD

[@TheMajesticJunkyard]

kaboom138 so THAT'S WHAT THEY NEEDED TO NOT HAVE BREXIT

[@thecatwiththehat5818]

Lets not bring politics here

[@FrederickFokker]

If there were Academy Awards for KZbin comments...you'd lose, of course, because those awards shows are all shit. But you still get my vote.

[@kaboom138]

Thanks!

[@PsychicRadroach]

Really? "Series X, Episode X?" Seriously? I can't believe they'd [INSERT LAZY ACTIVITY HERE]! It really makes me want to [INSERT REPRIMANDING ACTION HERE].

[@hornyfuckinturtle]

H, 11

[@ezekiel0606]

is there even a season x yet

[@PomegranateStaindGrn]

horny turtle you’ve sunk my battleship

[@Shrivedh]

@@PomegranateStaindGrn lmao🤣🤣

[@ralpsimpson3925]

Actually I was Eric Radcliff, a surveyor Par Excelance. Mr Fagg was the instrument that opened the Surveyors expert guidence.

[@bunniz]

I watched a documentary about this earlier this week it was so interesting. Even though the French's machines were slower but they were water proof unlike the British's.

[@donepearce]

The French were pessimists. We were pretty sure we wouldn't need to tunnel underwater.

[@DlcEnergy]

I'd have thought they just dug the entire tunnel from one side. So there's no chance they'd bog it up. But it is of course twice as fast to dig both sides at once. And nice for both countries to have contributed.

[@MijmerMopper]

It also doesn't fix the needed accuracy. If the one side bogs up even a little bit you end up having a tunnel that doesn't connect on the other side.

[@DlcEnergy]

@@MijmerMopper Obviously overall, regardless whether you're digging one or two, you could still bog it up if you had no accuracy whatsoever. The whole point is that joining two requires absolute PERFECT accuracy. While with just one it wouldn't matter if they dug all the way from England to France and was the slightest bit off from where the French would've started their tunnel. lol Oh no! Now we gotta put the tracks a few feet to the left. Sacré bleu! lmao

[@diabl2master]

"We have sold two!"

[@ronaldmcgregor3520]

When he said how did they met in the middle who besides me thought the middle man would be a great answer the wrong one but a great one

[@jjpower6769]

Thank you for the subtitles.

[@drdrdrk]

1:16 did he just spoil me the book I’m currently reading?!?! 😱

[@tomaziskra4318]

What is the name of thr book

[@drdrdrk]

Tomaž Iskra Birdsong by S. Faulks

[@dansaunders1655]

Let me know who let their bomb off when you finish it

[@telectronix1368]

@@dansaunders1655 Someone let's a bomb off when you finish the book? I always thought no good would come from all that reading.

[@howardsend6589]

It's great that Alan Davies mimes every joke he does. If he hadn't shouted after saying shouting, I would not have known what a shout was.

[@jamestodd1104]

Grow up

[@rigomrtz]

A snide that hides is despised

[@SlobbyMotor]

trevor unswin I thought it was pretty good

[@NickMullet]

1:31 Brydons pronunciation of Superman is amazing

[@stiimuli]

Vee haf sold too !

[@stupidburp]

Seems to me that a gyroscopic theodolite would also be handy for underground mining operations.

[@jessicalee333]

Dara O'Briain did an amazing bit about the poor digger that got left behind. I think it's on Crowd Tickler. #pooroldchuggy

[@okok72277]

Shame he's ridiculously unfunny

[@campbellcaraher1008]

The British drilling rig was buried beneath the middle tunnel so that the French rig could be driven through to Folkestone and turned around to drill the two 12.5m diameter running tunnels. The middle maintenance tunnel was used to access both running tunnels during the projects construction.

[@sarkybugger5009]

Please don't comment on things you clearly have no knowledge of.

[@TheActualJae]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrotheodolite

[@thesprawl2361]

1:31 Bloody Fathers for Justice get everywhere these days

[@Nedread]

1:35 Shout out to that one lady who lost her shit when they zoomed in!

[@tairneanaich]

Reminds me of the theories about the people digging the tunnels in the ancient Levant- possible they dripped water through the gaps in the earth above and the diggers followed the line of water

[@jonashellsborn7648]

Good idea if there is no ubiquitous ground water. And a single fracture system, going in the desired direction. So maybe it's a "desktop idea".

[@eaaeeeea]

Couldn't the same device be used for helping the submarines to navigate (to keep straight course)? Or is it already being used for that purpose?

[@jamesbulldogmiller]

Gyroscope compasses are used in ships and airplanes (before the advent of GPS)

[@HolandaChiquita]

Not accurate enough. Also you have the drilling and the fact that it's underground to keep in mind...

[@adamfoxton6341]

Gyroscopes are and have been used in for subs and the like for years. Also for missiles. Look up Ring Laser Gyros and Fibre Optic Gyros. Wonderful bits of kit.

[@samiam619]

In his book Red Storm Rising (great book) Clancy has his Submarine navigator say: “all I need is a map and a stopwatch“.

[@stephenjacks8196]

The Chunnel is within soft chalk (like Cliffs of Dover) with millions of tons of sea water above.

[@MrLachyG]

Genuinely was expecting Alan to say ‘Blue Whale’

[@Mattmo675]

When Stephen said it was a German you could tell everyone thought "for fucks sake" to themselves

[@RicardoD957]

Rob Brydon, savage as hell lol.

[@captainroll]

Poor Chuggy! 😢😢😭

[@jwvandegronden]

Brilliant as always

[@kell1reilly2]

what was the book alan was talking about?

[@darthwillem]

Birdsong, by Sebastian Faulks.

[@pravinrao6785]

darthwillem thanks!

[@WodanKlaaschOften]

*Puts his fingers 3mm apart*, "they were only 300 mm out". Dude that's 30 cm, a foot long.

[@lmcf_gtr]

WodanKlaaschOften on a 22 mile long tunnel? That's not bad!

[@glentight]

Luke Mcfarlane 300mm is actually terrible. Gyro from both ends.. control network updates at regular intervals.. should be less than 50mm on breakthrough.

[@jackbromley4340]

Glen Tight it works though doesn't it. And I'm sure you couldn't do better

[@glentight]

This is Anonymous It what I do. Last breakthrough, control adjustment E:7mm N:3mm Height adjustment 6mm Drive lengths 4.7km/5.4km

[@SarveshCK]

WodanKlaaschOften It was to scale.

[@wraith.ferron]

I was expecting someone to make a middle management joke.

[@memofromessex]

So many good accents!

[@JoeBleasdaleReal]

"Ve have sold two!" 😂😂😂😂😂

[@katochnr]

Ah poor Col Barog, at least the tunnel and a station is named after him on a UNESCO Heritage Line. So not too bad at the end

[@therub2191]

A young sally gunnell, whilst playing the fiddle

[@Grimberg111]

Well they sold two more of the devices than RARlab has been able to sell WinRAR licenses.

[@michaelmartin9022]

There's a fascinating interview with that guy, actually. He doesn't care about home users using it for free, because businesses will try to keep themselves above-board by registering. If everybody's using it at home, as soon as the boss shouts out "anybody know how to open a rar?" somebody will recommend it.

[@tompw3141]

"only 300mm or so out" *holds hands 3mm apart*

[@jessifrantier216]

" turn left. You are under the sea".

[@petejones879]

I never thought I would ever hear and see a Scotsman speaking English in a German accent.. although in truth I've never really thought about it before.. Lol

[@jonathannash8471]

This is why we always bring Dotty back from the caves. Rock & Stone!

[@wdwerker]

Patent on the gyroscopic theodolite ran out in 1978. A top end model with GPS costs $140,000.00 !

[@boblewis5558]

Don't people remember the two Welsh ex miners who won the original bid by miles! £5000!! Dai and Will explained that the bid included the ferry ticket and the cost of two picks and two shovels. Why the Ferry ticket they were asked, to which Dai replied that as Will spoke a bit of French he would travel over to France and Dai would go to Folkestone. They would mark direction lines and start digging towards each other until they met in the middle? "What happens if you miss?" they were asked. "Well" said Dai & Will together, " in THAT case you'll have a 'Twofer'!" "A Twofer!?" Yes said Dai ... Two fer the price of one!" 🤪🤪😆😆😆

[@markrowland1366]

Quite interestingly a gyro theodolite would be needed for each tunneling machine being used. between. Or a boy on a bike to race between.

[@-Tidgy]

That last joke 😂😂😂

[@OFFICIALDJFLASHBACK]

Technically I've heard that the machines that have been burrowed on the English side were to provide an electrical ground...

[@AnnaAnna-uc2ff]

THanks.

[@douglasreeves9938]

Haven't watched this yet but I can tell you who made sure the Tunnel met in the middle. The Germans.

[@sophiegreen1923]

“Ve hav sold two, ya” ahahahah😂😂😂

[@cloudsparrow7729]

the simpler solution is that they should have both started in the middle

[@nczioox1116]

😂

[@Yonkage]

I don't understand why they needed a fancy gyroscopic theo-whatsit to find their position underground. They just have to open the debug menu and check the coordinates!

[@tristramkeats2089]

Yonkage How is the machine going to know its coordinates? The gyro theodolite ensures that a straight line is kept and therefore you can know where you are!

[@thecatwiththehat5818]

It was a gaming joke I believe

[@shinobisauren]

Minecraft reference to be exact.

[@hebl47]

They wanted achievements so the console was locked.

[@skyeturner5003]

@@shinobisauren a year late but since when is it only Minecraft that has a debug menu with co-ordinates?

[@harryturner8701]

No the English drill was called Chuggy and French drill was called Chugon

[@BedsitBob]

Regarding tunnelling under enemy positions, investigate the tunnelling they did in the Battle of Messines.

[@blindleader42]

Check out the site on Google Earth. Start at N 50.771126°, E 2.864958° and follow a line of circular ponds running almost due North for about 3km.

[@Delinae]

Rob Brydon's French accent, ooooo

[@PanglossDr]

If it was an Irishman managing it he would have said 'If you get to Calais, turn back. You've gone too far'

[@CptSpears007]

What book did Alan talk about, I couldn’t make it out

[@sticklebrix1756]

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

[@TheHutchy01]

Our machines were named Chuggy by an Irishman called Dara.

[@thesaint8400]

Tolsteeg's bullshit at 1:50 called out by Fry at 2:13