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Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel FRS MInstCE (/ˈɪzəmbɑːrd brˈnɛl/; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859)[1] was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer,[2] who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history,"[3] "one of the 19th-century engineering giants",[4] and "one of the greatest figures of the Industrial Revolution, [who] changed the face of the English landscape with his groundbreaking designs and ingenious constructions".[5] Brunel built dockyards, the Great Western Railway (GWR), a series of steamships including the first purpose-built transatlantic steamship, and numerous important bridges and tunnels. His designs revolutionised public transport and modern engineering.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Born(1806-04-09)9 April 1806
Died15 September 1859(1859-09-15) (aged 53)
Education
OccupationEngineer
Spouse
Mary Elizabeth Horsley
(m. 1836)
Children
Parents
Engineering career
Discipline
Institutions
Projects
Significant designRoyal Albert Bridge
Signature

Though Brunel's projects were not always successful, they often contained innovative solutions to long-standing engineering problems. During his career, Brunel achieved many engineering firsts, including assisting in the building of the first tunnel under a navigable river (the River Thames) and the development of the SS Great Britain, the first propeller-driven, ocean-going iron ship, which, when launched in 1843, was the largest ship ever built.[6][7]

On the GWR, Brunel set standards for a well-built railway, using careful surveys to minimise gradients and curves. This necessitated expensive construction techniques, new bridges, new viaducts, and the two-mile-long (3.2 km) Box Tunnel. One controversial feature was the "broad gauge" of 7 ft 14 in (2,140 mm), instead of what was later to be known as "standard gauge" of 4 ft 8+12 in (1,435 mm). He astonished Britain by proposing to extend the GWR westward to North America by building steam-powered, iron-hulled ships. He designed and built three ships that revolutionised naval engineering: the SS Great Western (1838), the SS Great Britain (1843), and the SS Great Eastern (1859).

In 2002, Brunel was placed second in a BBC public poll to determine the "100 Greatest Britons." In 2006, the bicentenary of his birth, a major programme of events celebrated his life and work under the name Brunel 200.[8]

Early life

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born on 9 April 1806 in Britain Street, Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire, where his father was working on block-making machinery.[9][10] He was named Isambard after his father, the French civil engineer Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, and Kingdom after his English mother, Sophia Kingdom.[11]

He had two elder sisters, Sophia, the eldest child,[12] and Emma. The whole family moved to London in 1808 for his father's work. Brunel had a happy childhood, despite the family's constant money worries, with his father acting as his teacher during his early years. His father taught him drawing and observational techniques from the age of four, and Brunel had learned Euclidean geometry by eight. During this time, he also learned to speak French fluently and the basic principles of engineering. He was encouraged to draw interesting buildings and identify any faults in their structure.[13][14]

When Brunel was eight, he was sent to Dr Morrell's boarding school in Hove, where he learned classics. His father, a Frenchman by birth, was determined that Brunel should have access to the high-quality education he had enjoyed in his youth in France; accordingly, at the age of 14, the younger Brunel was enrolled first at the University of Caen, then at Lycée Henri-IV in Paris.[13][15]

When Brunel was 15, his father, who had accumulated debts of over £5,000, was sent to a debtors' prison. After three months went by with no prospect of release, Marc Brunel let it be known that he was considering an offer from the Tsar of Russia. In August 1821, facing the prospect of losing a prominent engineer, the government relented and issued Marc £5,000 to clear his debts in exchange for his promise to remain in Britain.[16][17]

When Brunel completed his studies at Henri-IV in 1822, his father had him presented as a candidate at the renowned engineering school École Polytechnique, but as a foreigner, he was deemed ineligible for entry. Brunel subsequently studied under the prominent master clockmaker and horologist Abraham-Louis Breguet, who praised Brunel's potential in letters to his father.[13] In late 1822, having completed his apprenticeship, Brunel returned to England.[15]

Thames Tunnel

 
The Thames Tunnel in 2005

Brunel worked for several years as an assistant engineer on the project to create a tunnel under London's River Thames between Rotherhithe and Wapping, with tunnellers driving a horizontal shaft from one side of the river to the other under the most difficult and dangerous conditions. The project was funded by the Thames Tunnel Company and Brunel's father, Marc, was the chief engineer.[18] The American Naturalist said "It is stated also that the operations of the Teredo [Shipworm] suggested to Mr. Brunel his method of tunnelling the Thames."[19]

The composition of the riverbed at Rotherhithe was often little more than waterlogged sediment and loose gravel. An ingenious tunnelling shield designed by Marc Brunel helped protect workers from cave-ins,[20] but two incidents of severe flooding halted work for long periods, killing several workers and badly injuring the younger Brunel.[21] The latter incident, in 1828, killed the two most senior miners, and Brunel himself narrowly escaped death. He was seriously injured and spent six months recuperating,[22] during which time he began a design for a bridge in Bristol, which would later be completed as the Clifton Suspension Bridge.[2] The event stopped work on the tunnel for several years.[23]

Though the Thames Tunnel was eventually completed during Marc Brunel's lifetime, his son had no further involvement with the tunnel proper, only using the abandoned works at Rotherhithe to further his abortive Gaz experiments. This was based on an idea of his father's and was intended to develop into an engine that ran on power generated from alternately heating and cooling carbon dioxide made from ammonium carbonate and sulphuric acid. Despite interest from several parties (the Admiralty included) the experiments were judged by Brunel to be a failure on the grounds of fuel economy alone, and were discontinued after 1834.[24]

In 1865, the East London Railway Company purchased the Thames Tunnel for £200,000, and four years later the first trains passed through it. Subsequently, the tunnel became part of the London Underground system, and remains in use today, originally as part of the East London Line now incorporated into the London Overground.[25]

Bridges

 
The Clifton Suspension Bridge spans Avon Gorge, linking Clifton in Bristol to Leigh Woods in North Somerset

Brunel is perhaps best remembered for designs for the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, begun in 1831. The bridge was built to designs based on Brunel's, but with significant changes. Spanning over 702 ft (214 m), and nominally 249 ft (76 m) above the River Avon, it had the longest span of any bridge in the world at the time of construction.[26] Brunel submitted four designs to a committee headed by Thomas Telford, but Telford rejected all entries, proposing his own design instead. Vociferous opposition from the public forced the organising committee to hold a new competition, which was won by Brunel.[27]

Afterwards, Brunel wrote to his brother-in-law, the politician Benjamin Hawes: "Of all the wonderful feats I have performed, since I have been in this part of the world, I think yesterday I performed the most wonderful. I produced unanimity among 15 men who were all quarrelling about that most ticklish subject—taste".[28]

 
The Maidenhead Railway Bridge, at the time the largest span for a brick arch bridge

Work on the Clifton bridge started in 1831, but was suspended due to the Queen Square riots caused by the arrival of Sir Charles Wetherell in Clifton. The riots drove away investors, leaving no money for the project, and construction ceased.[29][30]

Brunel did not live to see the bridge finished, although his colleagues and admirers at the Institution of Civil Engineers felt it would be a fitting memorial, and started to raise new funds and to amend the design. Work recommenced in 1862, three years after Brunel's death, and was completed in 1864.[28] In 2011, it was suggested, by historian and biographer Adrian Vaughan, that Brunel did not design the bridge, as eventually built, as the later changes to its design were substantial.[31] His views reflected a sentiment stated fifty-two years earlier by Tom Rolt in his 1959 book Brunel. Re-engineering of suspension chains recovered from an earlier suspension bridge was one of many reasons given why Brunel's design could not be followed exactly.[citation needed]

Hungerford Bridge, a suspension footbridge across the Thames near Charing Cross Station in London, was opened in May 1845. Its central span was 676.5 feet (206.2 m), and its cost was £106,000.[32] It was replaced by a new railway bridge in 1859, and the suspension chains were used to complete the Clifton Suspension Bridge.[27]

The Clifton Suspension Bridge still stands, and over 4 million vehicles traverse it every year.[33]

Brunel designed many bridges for his railway projects, including the Royal Albert Bridge spanning the River Tamar at Saltash near Plymouth, Somerset Bridge (an unusual laminated timber-framed bridge near Bridgwater[34]), the Windsor Railway Bridge, and the Maidenhead Railway Bridge over the Thames in Berkshire. This last was the flattest, widest brick arch bridge in the world and is still carrying main line trains to the west, even though today's trains are about ten times heavier than in Brunel's time.[35]

 

Throughout his railway building career, but particularly on the South Devon and Cornwall Railways where economy was needed and there were many valleys to cross, Brunel made extensive use of wood for the construction of substantial viaducts;[36] these have had to be replaced over the years as their primary material, Kyanised Baltic Pine, became uneconomical to obtain.[citation needed]

Brunel designed the Royal Albert Bridge in 1855 for the Cornwall Railway, after Parliament rejected his original plan for a train ferry across the Hamoaze—the estuary of the tidal Tamar, Tavy and Lynher. The bridge (of bowstring girder or tied arch construction) consists of two main spans of 455 ft (139 m), 100 ft (30 m) above mean high spring tide, plus 17 much shorter approach spans. Opened by Prince Albert on 2 May 1859, it was completed in the year of Brunel's death.[37]

Several of Brunel's bridges over the Great Western Railway might be demolished because the line is to be electrified, and there is inadequate clearance for overhead wires. Buckinghamshire County Council is negotiating to have further options pursued, in order that all nine of the remaining historic bridges on the line can be saved.[38][39]

Brunel's last major undertaking was the unique Three Bridges, London. Work began in 1856, and was completed in 1859.[40]

The three bridges in question are a clever arrangement allowing the routes of the Grand Junction Canal, Great Western and Brentford Railway, and Windmill Lane to cross each other.[41]

Great Western Railway

 
Paddington station, still a mainline station, was the London terminus of the Great Western Railway
 
A broad-gauge train on mixed-gauge track

In the early part of Brunel's life, the use of railways began to take off as a major means of transport for goods. This influenced Brunel's involvement in railway engineering, including railway bridge engineering.[citation needed]

In 1833, before the Thames Tunnel was complete, Brunel was appointed chief engineer of the Great Western Railway, one of the wonders of Victorian Britain, running from London to Bristol and later Exeter.[42] The company was founded at a public meeting in Bristol in 1833, and was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1835. It was Brunel's vision that passengers would be able to purchase one ticket at London Paddington and travel from London to New York, changing from the Great Western Railway to the Great Western steamship at the terminus in Neyland, West Wales.[42] He surveyed the entire length of the route between London and Bristol himself, with the help of many including his solicitor Jeremiah Osborne of Bristol Law Firm Osborne Clarke who on one occasion rowed Brunel down the River Avon himself to survey the bank of the river for the route.[43][44] Brunel even designed the Royal Hotel in Bath which opened in 1846 opposite the railway station.[45]

Brunel made two controversial decisions: to use a broad gauge of 7 ft 14 in (2,140 mm) for the track, which he believed would offer superior running at high speeds; and to take a route that passed north of the Marlborough Downs—an area with no significant towns, though it offered potential connections to Oxford and Gloucester—and then to follow the Thames Valley into London. His decision to use broad gauge for the line was controversial in that almost all British railways to date had used standard gauge. Brunel said that this was nothing more than a carry-over from the mine railways that George Stephenson had worked on prior to making the world's first passenger railway. Brunel proved through both calculation and a series of trials that his broader gauge was the optimum size for providing both higher speeds[46] and a stable and comfortable ride to passengers. In addition the wider gauge allowed for larger goods wagons and thus greater freight capacity.[47]

 
Drawings for Weston Junction Station, by Brunel

Drawing on Brunel's experience with the Thames Tunnel, the Great Western contained a series of impressive achievements—soaring viaducts such as the one in Ivybridge, specially designed stations, and vast tunnels including the Box Tunnel, which was the longest railway tunnel in the world at that time.[48] There is an anecdote claiming that the Box Tunnel was deliberately aligned so that the rising sun shines all the way through it on Brunel's birthday.[49] With the opening of the Box Tunnel, the line from London to Bristol was complete and ready for trains on 30 June 1941.[50]

The initial group of locomotives ordered by Brunel to his own specifications proved unsatisfactory, apart from the North Star locomotive, and 20-year-old Daniel Gooch (later Sir Daniel) was appointed as Superintendent of Locomotive Engines. Brunel and Gooch chose to locate their locomotive works at the village of Swindon, at the point where the gradual ascent from London turned into the steeper descent to the Avon valley at Bath.[citation needed]

Brunel's achievements ignited the imagination of the technically minded Britons of the age, and he soon became quite notable in the country on the back of this interest.[51]

After Brunel's death, the decision was taken that standard gauge should be used for all railways in the country. At the original Welsh terminus of the Great Western railway at Neyland, sections of the broad gauge rails are used as handrails at the quayside, and information boards there depict various aspects of Brunel's life. There is also a larger-than-life bronze statue of him holding a steamship in one hand and a locomotive in the other. The statue has been replaced after an earlier theft.[52][53]

The present London Paddington station was designed by Brunel and opened in 1854. Examples of his designs for smaller stations on the Great Western and associated lines which survive in good condition include Mortimer, Charlbury and Bridgend (all Italianate) and Culham (Tudorbethan). Surviving examples of wooden train sheds in his style are at Frome[54] and Kingswear.[55]

The Swindon Steam Railway Museum has many artefacts from Brunel's time on the Great Western Railway.[56] The Didcot Railway Centre has a reconstructed segment of 7 ft 14 in (2,140 mm) track as designed by Brunel and working steam locomotives in the same gauge.[citation needed]

Parts of society viewed the railways more negatively. Some landowners felt the railways were a threat to amenities or property values and others requested tunnels on their land so the railway could not be seen.[46]

Brunel's "atmospheric caper"

 
A reconstruction of Brunel's atmospheric railway, using a segment of the original piping at Didcot Railway Centre
 
A section of the actual pipe in the Swindon Steam Railway Museum

Though unsuccessful, another of Brunel's interesting use of technical innovations was the atmospheric railway, the extension of the Great Western Railway (GWR) southward from Exeter towards Plymouth, technically the South Devon Railway (SDR), though supported by the GWR. Instead of using locomotives, the trains were moved by Clegg and Samuda's patented system of atmospheric (vacuum) traction, whereby stationary pumps sucked the air from a pipe placed in the centre of the track.[57]

The section from Exeter to Newton (now Newton Abbot) was completed on this principle, and trains ran at approximately 68 miles per hour (109 km/h).[58] Pumping stations with distinctive square chimneys were sited at two-mile intervals.[58] Fifteen-inch (381 mm) pipes were used on the level portions, and 22-inch (559 mm) pipes were intended for the steeper gradients.[citation needed]

The technology required the use of leather flaps to seal the vacuum pipes. The natural oils were drawn out of the leather by the vacuum, making the leather vulnerable to water, rotting it and breaking the fibres when it froze during the winter of 1847. It had to be kept supple with tallow, which is attractive to rats. The flaps were eaten, and vacuum operation lasted less than a year, from 1847 (experimental service began in September; operations from February 1848) to 10 September 1848.[59] Deterioration of the valve due to the reaction of tannin and iron oxide has been cited as the last straw that sank the project, as the continuous valve began to tear from its rivets over most of its length, and the estimated replacement cost of £25,000 was considered prohibitive.[60]

The system never managed to prove itself. The accounts of the SDR for 1848 suggest that atmospheric traction cost 3s 1d (three shillings and one penny) per mile compared to 1s 4d/mile for conventional steam power (because of the many operating issues associated with the atmospheric, few of which were solved during its working life, the actual cost efficiency proved impossible to calculate). Several South Devon Railway engine houses still stand, including that at Totnes (scheduled as a grade II listed monument in 2007) and at Starcross.[61][62]

A section of the pipe, without the leather covers, is preserved at the Didcot Railway Centre.[63]

In 2017, inventor Max Schlienger unveiled a working model of an updated atmospheric railroad at his vineyard in the Northern California town of Ukiah.[64]

Transatlantic shipping

 
Maiden voyage of the Great Western in April 1838
 
Launch of the Great Britain in 1843

Brunel had proposed extending its transport network by boat from Bristol across the Atlantic Ocean to New York City before the Great Western Railway opened in 1835. The Great Western Steamship Company was formed by Thomas Guppy for that purpose. It was widely disputed whether it would be commercially viable for a ship powered purely by steam to make such long journeys. Technological developments in the early 1830s—including the invention of the surface condenser, which allowed boilers to run on salt water without stopping to be cleaned—made longer journeys more possible, but it was generally thought that a ship would not be able to carry enough fuel for the trip and have room for commercial cargo. Brunel applied the experimental evidence of Beaufoy[65] and further developed the theory that the amount a ship could carry increased as the cube of its dimensions, whereas the amount of resistance a ship experienced from the water as it travelled increased by only a square of its dimensions.[66] This would mean that moving a larger ship would take proportionately less fuel than a smaller ship. To test this theory, Brunel offered his services for free to the Great Western Steamship Company, which appointed him to its building committee and entrusted him with designing its first ship, the Great Western.[67][68][69]

 
Great Eastern shortly before launch in 1858
 
The Great Eastern in 1866

When it was built, the Great Western was the longest ship in the world at 236 ft (72 m) with a 250-foot (76 m) keel. The ship was constructed mainly from wood, but Brunel added bolts and iron diagonal reinforcements to maintain the keel's strength. In addition to its steam-powered paddle wheels, the ship carried four masts for sails. The Great Western embarked on her maiden voyage from Avonmouth, Bristol, to New York on 8 April 1838 with 600 long tons (610,000 kg) of coal, cargo and seven passengers on board. Brunel himself missed this initial crossing, having been injured during a fire aboard the ship as she was returning from fitting out in London. As the fire delayed the launch several days, the Great Western missed its opportunity to claim the title as the first ship to cross the Atlantic under steam power alone. Even with a four-day head start, the competing Sirius arrived only one day earlier, having virtually exhausted its coal supply. In contrast, the Great Western crossing of the Atlantic took 15 days and five hours, and the ship arrived at her destination with a third of its coal still remaining, demonstrating that Brunel's calculations were correct. The Great Western had proved the viability of commercial transatlantic steamship service, which led the Great Western Steamboat Company to use her in regular service between Bristol and New York from 1838 to 1846. She made 64 crossings, and was the first ship to hold the Blue Riband with a crossing time of 13 days westbound and 12 days 6 hours eastbound. The service was commercially successful enough for a sister ship to be required, which Brunel was asked to design.[68][70][71]

Brunel had become convinced of the superiority of propeller-driven ships over paddle wheels. After tests conducted aboard the propeller-driven steamship Archimedes, he incorporated a large six-bladed propeller into his design for the 322-foot (98 m) Great Britain, which was launched in 1843.[72] Great Britain is considered the first modern ship, being built of metal rather than wood, powered by an engine rather than wind or oars, and driven by propeller rather than paddle wheel. She was the first iron-hulled, propeller-driven ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.[73] Her maiden voyage was made in August and September 1845, from Liverpool to New York. In 1846, she was run aground at Dundrum, County Down. She was salvaged and employed in the Australian service.[1] She is currently fully preserved and open to the public in Bristol, UK.[74]

 
Brunel at the launch of the Great Eastern with John Scott Russell and Lord Derby

In 1852 Brunel turned to a third ship, larger than her predecessors, intended for voyages to India and Australia. The Great Eastern (originally dubbed Leviathan) was cutting-edge technology for her time: almost 700 ft (210 m) long, fitted out with the most luxurious appointments, and capable of carrying over 4,000 passengers. Great Eastern was designed to cruise non-stop from London to Sydney and back (since engineers of the time mistakenly believed that Australia had no coal reserves), and she remained the largest ship built until the start of the 20th century. Like many of Brunel's ambitious projects, the ship soon ran over budget and behind schedule in the face of a series of technical problems.[75] The ship has been portrayed as a white elephant, but it has been argued by David P. Billington that in this case, Brunel's failure was principally one of economics—his ships were simply years ahead of their time.[76] His vision and engineering innovations made the building of large-scale, propeller-driven, all-metal steamships a practical reality, but the prevailing economic and industrial conditions meant that it would be several decades before transoceanic steamship travel emerged as a viable industry.[76]

Great Eastern was built at John Scott Russell's Napier Yard in London, and after two trial trips in 1859, set forth on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York on 17 June 1860.[77] Though a failure at her original purpose of passenger travel, she eventually found a role as an oceanic telegraph cable-layer. Under Captain Sir James Anderson, the Great Eastern played a significant role in laying the first lasting transatlantic telegraph cable, which enabled telecommunication between Europe and North America.[78][79]

Renkioi Hospital

Britain entered into the Crimean War during 1854 and an old Turkish barracks became the British Army Hospital in Scutari. Injured men contracted a variety of illnesses—including cholera, dysentery, typhoid and malaria—due to poor conditions there,[80] and Florence Nightingale sent a plea to The Times for the government to produce a solution.[citation needed]

Brunel was working on the Great Eastern amongst other projects but accepted the task in February 1855 of designing and building the War Office requirement of a temporary, pre-fabricated hospital that could be shipped to Crimea and erected there. In five months the team he had assembled designed, built, and shipped pre-fabricated wood and canvas buildings, providing them complete with advice on transportation and positioning of the facilities.[81]

Brunel had been working with Gloucester Docks-based William Eassie on the launching stage for the Great Eastern. Eassie had designed and built wooden prefabricated huts used in both the Australian gold rush, as well as by the British and French Armies in the Crimea. Using wood supplied by timber importers Price & Co., Eassie fabricated 18 of the 50-patient wards designed by Brunel, shipped directly via 16 ships from Gloucester Docks to the Dardanelles. The Renkioi Hospital was subsequently erected near Scutari Hospital, where Nightingale was based, in the malaria-free area of Renkioi.[82]

His designs incorporated the necessities of hygiene: access to sanitation, ventilation, drainage, and even rudimentary temperature controls. They were feted as a great success, with some sources stating that of the approximately 1,300 patients treated in the hospital, there were only 50 deaths.[83] In the Scutari hospital it replaced, deaths were said to be as many as ten times this number. Nightingale referred to them as "those magnificent huts".[84] The practice of building hospitals from pre-fabricated modules survives today,[82] with hospitals such as the Bristol Royal Infirmary being created in this manner.

Personal life

On 10 June 1830 Brunel was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.[85][86]

Brunel married Mary Elizabeth Horsley (b. 1813) on 5 July 1836. She came from an accomplished musical and artistic family, being the eldest daughter of composer and organist William Horsley. They established a home at Duke Street, Westminster, in London.[87]

 
The Brunel family grave, Kensal Green Cemetery, London

While performing a conjuring trick for the amusement of his children in 1843 Brunel accidentally inhaled a half-sovereign coin, which became lodged in his windpipe. A special pair of forceps failed to remove it, as did a machine devised by Brunel to shake it loose. At the suggestion of his father, Brunel was strapped to a board and turned upside-down, and the coin was jerked free.[88] He recuperated at Teignmouth, and enjoyed the area so much that he purchased an estate at Watcombe in Torquay, Devon. Here he commissioned William Burn to design Brunel Manor and its gardens to be his country home.[89] He never saw the house or gardens finished as he died before it was completed.[90]

Brunel, a heavy smoker,[91] who had been diagnosed with Bright's disease (nephritis),[92] suffered a stroke on 5 September 1859, just before the Great Eastern made her first voyage to New York.[93] He died ten days later at the age of 53 and was buried, like his father, in Kensal Green Cemetery, London.[94][95] He is commemorated at Westminster Abbey in a window on the south side of the nave.[96] Many mourned Brunel's passing, in spite and because of his business ventures; an obituary in The Morning Chronicle noted:

Brunel was the right man for the nation, but unfortunately, he was not the right man for the shareholders. They must stoop who must gather gold, and Brunel could never stoop. The history of invention records no instance of grand novelties so boldly imagined and so successfully carried out by the same individual.[97]

Brunel was survived by his wife, Mary, and three children: Isambard Brunel Junior (1837–1902), Henry Marc Brunel (1842–1903) and Florence Mary Brunel (1847–1876). Henry Marc later became a successful civil engineer.[98][99]

Legacy

 
Bronze statue of Brunel at Temple in London

A celebrated engineer in his era, Brunel remains revered today, as evidenced by numerous monuments to him. There are statues in London at Temple (pictured), Brunel University and Paddington station, and in Bristol, Plymouth, Swindon, Milford Haven and Saltash. A statue in Neyland in Pembrokeshire in Wales was stolen in August 2010.[100] The topmast of the Great Eastern is used as a flagpole at the entrance to Anfield, Liverpool Football Club's ground.[101] Contemporary locations bear Brunel's name, such as Brunel University in London,[102] shopping centres in Swindon and also Bletchley, Milton Keynes, and a collection of streets in Exeter: Isambard Terrace, Kingdom Mews, and Brunel Close. A road, car park, and school in his home city of Portsmouth are also named in his honour, along with one of the city's largest public houses.[103] There is an engineering lab building at the University of Plymouth named in his honour.[104]

A public poll conducted by the BBC in 2001 to select the 100 Greatest Britons, Brunel was placed second, behind Winston Churchill.[105] Brunel's life and works have been depicted in numerous books, films and television programs. The 2003 book and BBC TV series Seven Wonders of the Industrial World included a dramatisation of the building of the Great Eastern.

Many of Brunel's bridges are still in use. Brunel's first engineering project, the Thames Tunnel, is now part of the London Overground network. The Brunel Engine House at Rotherhithe, which once housed the steam engines that powered the tunnel pumps, now houses the Brunel Museum dedicated to the work and lives of Henry Marc and Isambard Kingdom Brunel.[106] Many of Brunel's original papers and designs are now held in the Brunel Institute alongside the SS Great Britain in Bristol, and are freely available for researchers and visitors.[107]

Brunel is credited with turning the town of Swindon into one of the fastest-growing towns in Europe during the 19th century.[108] Brunel's choice to locate the Great Western Railway locomotive sheds there caused a need for housing for the workers, which in turn gave Brunel the impetus to build hospitals, churches and housing estates in what is known today as the 'Railway Village'.[109] According to some sources, Brunel's addition of a Mechanics Institute for recreation and hospitals and clinics for his workers gave Aneurin Bevan the basis for the creation of the National Health Service.[110]

 
FGW HST 43003 power car

GWR Castle Class steam locomotive no. 5069 was named Isambard Kingdom Brunel,[111] after the engineer;[112] and BR Western Region class 47 diesel locomotive no. D1662 (later 47484) was also named Isambard Kingdom Brunel.[113] GWR's successor Great Western Railway has named both its old InterCity 125 power car 43003 and new InterCity Electric Train 800004 as Isambard Kingdom Brunel.[citation needed]

The Royal Mint struck two £2 coins in 2006 to "celebrate the 200th anniversary of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and his achievements".[114] The first depicts Brunel with a section of the Royal Albert Bridge and the second shows the roof of Paddington Station. In the same year the Post Office issued a set of six wide commemorative stamps (SG 2607-12) showing the Royal Albert Bridge, the Box Tunnel, Paddington Station, the Great Eastern, the Clifton Suspension Bridge, and the Maidenhead Bridge.[citation needed]

The words "I.K. BRUNEL ENGINEER 1859" were fixed to either end of the Royal Albert Bridge to commemorate his death in 1859, the year the bridge opened. The words were later partly obscured by maintenance access ladders but were revealed again by Network Rail in 2006 to honour his bicentenary.[115]

Brunel was the subject of Great, a 1975 animated film directed by Bob Godfrey. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 48th Academy Awards in March 1976.[116]

At the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, Brunel was portrayed by Kenneth Branagh in a segment showing the Industrial Revolution.[117]

Brunel is a central character in Howard Rodman's novel The Great Eastern, published in 2019 by Melville House Publishing.[118]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Chisholm 1911.
  2. ^ a b "Isambard Kingdom Brunel". Encyclopedia Britannica. 20 January 2023. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
  3. ^ Spratt, H.P. (1958). "Isambard Kingdom Brunel". Nature. 181 (4626): 1754–55. Bibcode:1958Natur.181.1754S. doi:10.1038/1811754a0. S2CID 4255226. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  4. ^ Spratt, H.P. (1958). "Isambard Kingdom Brunel". Nature. 181 (4626): 1754–55. Bibcode:1958Natur.181.1754S. doi:10.1038/1811754a0. S2CID 4255226. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  5. ^ Rolt, Lionel Thomas Caswall (1957). Isambard Kingdom Brunel (first ed.). London: Longmans, Green & Co. p. 245.
  6. ^ Wilson 1994, pp. 202–03.
  7. ^ . SS Great Britain. 29 March 2006. Archived from the original on 24 March 2010. Retrieved 30 July 2009.
  8. ^ "Home". Brunel 200. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
  9. ^ Brunel 1870, p. 2.
  10. ^ Timbs, John (1860). Stories of inventors and discoverers in science and the useful arts. London: Kent and Co. pp. 102, 285–86. OCLC 1349834.
  11. ^ Brindle, Steven (2005). Brunel: The Man Who Built the World. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-297-84408-2.
  12. ^ "Isambard Kingdom Brunel: Family History". tracingancestors-uk.com. 3 February 2012.
  13. ^ a b c Buchanan (2006), p. 18
  14. ^ Gillings 2006, pp. 1, 11.
  15. ^ a b Brunel, Isambard (1870), p. 5.
  16. ^ Gillings 2006, pp. 11–12.
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References

  • Beaufoy, Mark (1834). Beaufoy, Henry (ed.). Nautical and Hydraulic Experiments, with numerous Scientific Miscellanies. Vol. I. South Lambeth, Surrey, UK: Privately published by the editor. Retrieved 26 December 2014. Only the first of a planned three volumes was published
  • Beckett, Derrick (2006). Brunel's Britain. David & Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-2360-1.
  • Billington, David P (1985). The Tower and the Bridge: The New Art of Structural Engineering. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-02393-9.
  • Brunel, Isambard (1870). The life of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, civil engineer. Longmans, Green & Co. OCLC 3202088. (This is Isambard Brunel Junior, IKB's son.)
  • Buchanan, R. Angus (2006). Brunel: the life and times of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Hambledon & London. ISBN 978-1-85285-525-3.
  • Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Brunel, Isambard Kingdom" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  • Davies, Ken (April 1993). The Locomotives of the Great Western Railway, part fourteen: Names and their Origins – ... Lincoln: RCTS. ISBN 978-0-901115-75-1.
  • Dumpleton, Bernard; Miller, Muriel (2002). Brunel's Three Ships. Intellect Books. ISBN 978-1-84150-800-9.
  • Garrison, Ervan G. (1998). History of Engineering and Technology: Artful Methods (2nd ed.). CRC Press. ISBN 9780849398100.
  • Gillings, Annabel (2006). Brunel (Life & Times). Haus Publishers Ltd. ISBN 978-1-904950-44-8.
  • le Fleming, H.M. (November 1960) [1953]. White, D.E. (ed.). The Locomotives of the Great Western Railway, part eight: Modern Passenger Classes (2nd ed.). Kenilworth: RCTS. ISBN 978-0-901115-19-5.
  • Marsden, Colin J. (November 1984). BR Locomotive Numbering. Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN 978-0-7110-1445-9. EX/1184.
  • Nokes, George Augustus (1895). A History of the Great Western Railway. Digby, Long & co. Retrieved 13 December 2015. (373 pages) Online at Internet Archive
  • Rolt, L.T.C. (1989) [1957]. Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Prentice Hall Press. ISBN 978-0-582-10744-1.
  • Tudor, Geoffrey (2007). Brunel's Hidden Kingdom. Paignton: Creative Media Publishing. ISBN 978-0954607128.
  • Vaughan, Adrian (1991). Isambard Kingdom Brunel: Engineering Knight-Errant. John Murray. ISBN 978-0-7195-4636-5.
  • Wilson, Arthur (1994). The Living Rock: The Story of Metals Since Earliest Times and Their Impact on Civilization. Woodhead Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85573-301-5.

Further reading

  • Isambard Brunel (1970) [1870]. The Life of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Civil Engineer. David & Charles. Written by Brunel's son
  • Celia Brunel Noble (1938). The Brunels, Father and Son. Written by Brunel's granddaughter, it adds some family anecdotes and personal information over the previous volume
  • Sir Alfred Pugsley, ed. (1976). The Works of Isambard Kingdom Brunel: An Engineering Appreciation. A technical presentation of Brunel's opus
  • Rob Powell (1985). Brunel's Kingdom – Photography and the Making of History. Watershed Media Centre. ISBN 978-0-9510539-0-4. A study of how early photography portrayed Victorian industry and engineering, including the celebrated picture of Brunel and the launching chains of the Great Eastern
  • Steven Brindle (2004). Paddington Station: Its history and architecture. English Heritage. ISBN 978-1-873592-70-0.
  • Andrew Mathewson and Derek Laval (1992). Brunel's Tunnel...and where it led. Brunel Exhibition Rotherhithe. ISBN 978-0-9504361-1-1.
  • Eugene Byrne and Simon Gurr (2006). Isambard Kingdom Brunel: a graphic biography. Brunel 200.
  • Christopher Silver (2007). Renkioi: Brunel's Forgotten Crimean War Hospital. Valonia Press 2007. ISBN 978-0-9557105-0-6.
  • Derek Webb (2010). Is. Parthian Books. Children's book about the reincarnation of IKB with KeyStage 2 UK curriculum links. ISBN 978-1-906998-11-0.
  • John Canning (1971). 50 Great Horror Stories. Guild Publishing. Anthology of true historical events with elements of horror. ISBN 978-0-5171367-1-3.[page needed]

External links

  • The life of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Civil Engineer by Isambard Brunel Junior, at Project Gutenberg
  • Works by or about Isambard Kingdom Brunel at Internet Archive
  • . Archived from the original on 4 July 2008. The Times 19 September 1859
  • Brunel biography with additional images from the Design Museum
  • "Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859)". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 27 August 2009.
  • Brunel portal
  • . University of Bristol. Archived from the original on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 9 September 2009.
  • . Will Robinson. Archived from the original on 30 August 2019. Retrieved 12 May 2011.
  • . Archived from the original on 29 April 2016. Retrieved 3 May 2016.

isambard, kingdom, brunel, brunel, redirects, here, other, uses, brunel, disambiguation, minstce, ɑːr, april, 1806, september, 1859, english, civil, engineer, mechanical, engineer, considered, most, ingenious, prolific, figures, engineering, history, 19th, cen. Brunel redirects here For other uses see Brunel disambiguation Isambard Kingdom Brunel FRS MInstCE ˈ ɪ z e m b ɑːr d b r uː ˈ n ɛ l 9 April 1806 15 September 1859 1 was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer 2 who is considered one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history 3 one of the 19th century engineering giants 4 and one of the greatest figures of the Industrial Revolution who changed the face of the English landscape with his groundbreaking designs and ingenious constructions 5 Brunel built dockyards the Great Western Railway GWR a series of steamships including the first purpose built transatlantic steamship and numerous important bridges and tunnels His designs revolutionised public transport and modern engineering Isambard Kingdom BrunelFRS MInstCEBrunel by the launching chains of the SS Great Eastern by Robert Howlett 1857Born 1806 04 09 9 April 1806Portsmouth Hampshire EnglandDied15 September 1859 1859 09 15 aged 53 Westminster London EnglandEducationLycee Henri IVUniversity of CaenOccupationEngineerSpouseMary Elizabeth Horsley m 1836 wbr ChildrenIsambard Brunel JuniorHenry Marc BrunelFlorence Mary BrunelParentsMarc Isambard BrunelSophia KingdomEngineering careerDisciplineCivil engineerStructural engineerMarine engineerInstitutionsRoyal SocietyInstitution of Civil EngineersProjectsGreat Western RailwayClifton Suspension BridgeSS Great BritainSignificant designRoyal Albert BridgeSignatureThough Brunel s projects were not always successful they often contained innovative solutions to long standing engineering problems During his career Brunel achieved many engineering firsts including assisting in the building of the first tunnel under a navigable river the River Thames and the development of the SS Great Britain the first propeller driven ocean going iron ship which when launched in 1843 was the largest ship ever built 6 7 On the GWR Brunel set standards for a well built railway using careful surveys to minimise gradients and curves This necessitated expensive construction techniques new bridges new viaducts and the two mile long 3 2 km Box Tunnel One controversial feature was the broad gauge of 7 ft 1 4 in 2 140 mm instead of what was later to be known as standard gauge of 4 ft 8 1 2 in 1 435 mm He astonished Britain by proposing to extend the GWR westward to North America by building steam powered iron hulled ships He designed and built three ships that revolutionised naval engineering the SS Great Western 1838 the SS Great Britain 1843 and the SS Great Eastern 1859 In 2002 Brunel was placed second in a BBC public poll to determine the 100 Greatest Britons In 2006 the bicentenary of his birth a major programme of events celebrated his life and work under the name Brunel 200 8 Contents 1 Early life 2 Thames Tunnel 3 Bridges 4 Great Western Railway 5 Brunel s atmospheric caper 6 Transatlantic shipping 7 Renkioi Hospital 8 Personal life 9 Legacy 10 See also 11 Notes 12 References 13 Further reading 14 External linksEarly life EditIsambard Kingdom Brunel was born on 9 April 1806 in Britain Street Portsea Portsmouth Hampshire where his father was working on block making machinery 9 10 He was named Isambard after his father the French civil engineer Sir Marc Isambard Brunel and Kingdom after his English mother Sophia Kingdom 11 He had two elder sisters Sophia the eldest child 12 and Emma The whole family moved to London in 1808 for his father s work Brunel had a happy childhood despite the family s constant money worries with his father acting as his teacher during his early years His father taught him drawing and observational techniques from the age of four and Brunel had learned Euclidean geometry by eight During this time he also learned to speak French fluently and the basic principles of engineering He was encouraged to draw interesting buildings and identify any faults in their structure 13 14 When Brunel was eight he was sent to Dr Morrell s boarding school in Hove where he learned classics His father a Frenchman by birth was determined that Brunel should have access to the high quality education he had enjoyed in his youth in France accordingly at the age of 14 the younger Brunel was enrolled first at the University of Caen then at Lycee Henri IV in Paris 13 15 When Brunel was 15 his father who had accumulated debts of over 5 000 was sent to a debtors prison After three months went by with no prospect of release Marc Brunel let it be known that he was considering an offer from the Tsar of Russia In August 1821 facing the prospect of losing a prominent engineer the government relented and issued Marc 5 000 to clear his debts in exchange for his promise to remain in Britain 16 17 When Brunel completed his studies at Henri IV in 1822 his father had him presented as a candidate at the renowned engineering school Ecole Polytechnique but as a foreigner he was deemed ineligible for entry Brunel subsequently studied under the prominent master clockmaker and horologist Abraham Louis Breguet who praised Brunel s potential in letters to his father 13 In late 1822 having completed his apprenticeship Brunel returned to England 15 Thames Tunnel Edit The Thames Tunnel in 2005 Main article Thames Tunnel Brunel worked for several years as an assistant engineer on the project to create a tunnel under London s River Thames between Rotherhithe and Wapping with tunnellers driving a horizontal shaft from one side of the river to the other under the most difficult and dangerous conditions The project was funded by the Thames Tunnel Company and Brunel s father Marc was the chief engineer 18 The American Naturalist said It is stated also that the operations of the Teredo Shipworm suggested to Mr Brunel his method of tunnelling the Thames 19 The composition of the riverbed at Rotherhithe was often little more than waterlogged sediment and loose gravel An ingenious tunnelling shield designed by Marc Brunel helped protect workers from cave ins 20 but two incidents of severe flooding halted work for long periods killing several workers and badly injuring the younger Brunel 21 The latter incident in 1828 killed the two most senior miners and Brunel himself narrowly escaped death He was seriously injured and spent six months recuperating 22 during which time he began a design for a bridge in Bristol which would later be completed as the Clifton Suspension Bridge 2 The event stopped work on the tunnel for several years 23 Though the Thames Tunnel was eventually completed during Marc Brunel s lifetime his son had no further involvement with the tunnel proper only using the abandoned works at Rotherhithe to further his abortive Gaz experiments This was based on an idea of his father s and was intended to develop into an engine that ran on power generated from alternately heating and cooling carbon dioxide made from ammonium carbonate and sulphuric acid Despite interest from several parties the Admiralty included the experiments were judged by Brunel to be a failure on the grounds of fuel economy alone and were discontinued after 1834 24 In 1865 the East London Railway Company purchased the Thames Tunnel for 200 000 and four years later the first trains passed through it Subsequently the tunnel became part of the London Underground system and remains in use today originally as part of the East London Line now incorporated into the London Overground 25 Bridges Edit The Clifton Suspension Bridge spans Avon Gorge linking Clifton in Bristol to Leigh Woods in North Somerset Brunel is perhaps best remembered for designs for the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol begun in 1831 The bridge was built to designs based on Brunel s but with significant changes Spanning over 702 ft 214 m and nominally 249 ft 76 m above the River Avon it had the longest span of any bridge in the world at the time of construction 26 Brunel submitted four designs to a committee headed by Thomas Telford but Telford rejected all entries proposing his own design instead Vociferous opposition from the public forced the organising committee to hold a new competition which was won by Brunel 27 Afterwards Brunel wrote to his brother in law the politician Benjamin Hawes Of all the wonderful feats I have performed since I have been in this part of the world I think yesterday I performed the most wonderful I produced unanimity among 15 men who were all quarrelling about that most ticklish subject taste 28 The Maidenhead Railway Bridge at the time the largest span for a brick arch bridge Work on the Clifton bridge started in 1831 but was suspended due to the Queen Square riots caused by the arrival of Sir Charles Wetherell in Clifton The riots drove away investors leaving no money for the project and construction ceased 29 30 Brunel did not live to see the bridge finished although his colleagues and admirers at the Institution of Civil Engineers felt it would be a fitting memorial and started to raise new funds and to amend the design Work recommenced in 1862 three years after Brunel s death and was completed in 1864 28 In 2011 it was suggested by historian and biographer Adrian Vaughan that Brunel did not design the bridge as eventually built as the later changes to its design were substantial 31 His views reflected a sentiment stated fifty two years earlier by Tom Rolt in his 1959 book Brunel Re engineering of suspension chains recovered from an earlier suspension bridge was one of many reasons given why Brunel s design could not be followed exactly citation needed Hungerford Bridge a suspension footbridge across the Thames near Charing Cross Station in London was opened in May 1845 Its central span was 676 5 feet 206 2 m and its cost was 106 000 32 It was replaced by a new railway bridge in 1859 and the suspension chains were used to complete the Clifton Suspension Bridge 27 The Clifton Suspension Bridge still stands and over 4 million vehicles traverse it every year 33 Brunel designed many bridges for his railway projects including the Royal Albert Bridge spanning the River Tamar at Saltash near Plymouth Somerset Bridge an unusual laminated timber framed bridge near Bridgwater 34 the Windsor Railway Bridge and the Maidenhead Railway Bridge over the Thames in Berkshire This last was the flattest widest brick arch bridge in the world and is still carrying main line trains to the west even though today s trains are about ten times heavier than in Brunel s time 35 The Royal Albert Bridge spanning the river Tamar at Saltash Throughout his railway building career but particularly on the South Devon and Cornwall Railways where economy was needed and there were many valleys to cross Brunel made extensive use of wood for the construction of substantial viaducts 36 these have had to be replaced over the years as their primary material Kyanised Baltic Pine became uneconomical to obtain citation needed Brunel designed the Royal Albert Bridge in 1855 for the Cornwall Railway after Parliament rejected his original plan for a train ferry across the Hamoaze the estuary of the tidal Tamar Tavy and Lynher The bridge of bowstring girder or tied arch construction consists of two main spans of 455 ft 139 m 100 ft 30 m above mean high spring tide plus 17 much shorter approach spans Opened by Prince Albert on 2 May 1859 it was completed in the year of Brunel s death 37 Several of Brunel s bridges over the Great Western Railway might be demolished because the line is to be electrified and there is inadequate clearance for overhead wires Buckinghamshire County Council is negotiating to have further options pursued in order that all nine of the remaining historic bridges on the line can be saved 38 39 Brunel s last major undertaking was the unique Three Bridges London Work began in 1856 and was completed in 1859 40 The three bridges in question are a clever arrangement allowing the routes of the Grand Junction Canal Great Western and Brentford Railway and Windmill Lane to cross each other 41 Great Western Railway EditSee also Great Western Railway gauge war Paddington station still a mainline station was the London terminus of the Great Western Railway A broad gauge train on mixed gauge track In the early part of Brunel s life the use of railways began to take off as a major means of transport for goods This influenced Brunel s involvement in railway engineering including railway bridge engineering citation needed In 1833 before the Thames Tunnel was complete Brunel was appointed chief engineer of the Great Western Railway one of the wonders of Victorian Britain running from London to Bristol and later Exeter 42 The company was founded at a public meeting in Bristol in 1833 and was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1835 It was Brunel s vision that passengers would be able to purchase one ticket at London Paddington and travel from London to New York changing from the Great Western Railway to the Great Western steamship at the terminus in Neyland West Wales 42 He surveyed the entire length of the route between London and Bristol himself with the help of many including his solicitor Jeremiah Osborne of Bristol Law Firm Osborne Clarke who on one occasion rowed Brunel down the River Avon himself to survey the bank of the river for the route 43 44 Brunel even designed the Royal Hotel in Bath which opened in 1846 opposite the railway station 45 Brunel made two controversial decisions to use a broad gauge of 7 ft 1 4 in 2 140 mm for the track which he believed would offer superior running at high speeds and to take a route that passed north of the Marlborough Downs an area with no significant towns though it offered potential connections to Oxford and Gloucester and then to follow the Thames Valley into London His decision to use broad gauge for the line was controversial in that almost all British railways to date had used standard gauge Brunel said that this was nothing more than a carry over from the mine railways that George Stephenson had worked on prior to making the world s first passenger railway Brunel proved through both calculation and a series of trials that his broader gauge was the optimum size for providing both higher speeds 46 and a stable and comfortable ride to passengers In addition the wider gauge allowed for larger goods wagons and thus greater freight capacity 47 Drawings for Weston Junction Station by Brunel Drawing on Brunel s experience with the Thames Tunnel the Great Western contained a series of impressive achievements soaring viaducts such as the one in Ivybridge specially designed stations and vast tunnels including the Box Tunnel which was the longest railway tunnel in the world at that time 48 There is an anecdote claiming that the Box Tunnel was deliberately aligned so that the rising sun shines all the way through it on Brunel s birthday 49 With the opening of the Box Tunnel the line from London to Bristol was complete and ready for trains on 30 June 1941 50 The initial group of locomotives ordered by Brunel to his own specifications proved unsatisfactory apart from the North Star locomotive and 20 year old Daniel Gooch later Sir Daniel was appointed as Superintendent of Locomotive Engines Brunel and Gooch chose to locate their locomotive works at the village of Swindon at the point where the gradual ascent from London turned into the steeper descent to the Avon valley at Bath citation needed Brunel s achievements ignited the imagination of the technically minded Britons of the age and he soon became quite notable in the country on the back of this interest 51 After Brunel s death the decision was taken that standard gauge should be used for all railways in the country At the original Welsh terminus of the Great Western railway at Neyland sections of the broad gauge rails are used as handrails at the quayside and information boards there depict various aspects of Brunel s life There is also a larger than life bronze statue of him holding a steamship in one hand and a locomotive in the other The statue has been replaced after an earlier theft 52 53 The present London Paddington station was designed by Brunel and opened in 1854 Examples of his designs for smaller stations on the Great Western and associated lines which survive in good condition include Mortimer Charlbury and Bridgend all Italianate and Culham Tudorbethan Surviving examples of wooden train sheds in his style are at Frome 54 and Kingswear 55 The Swindon Steam Railway Museum has many artefacts from Brunel s time on the Great Western Railway 56 The Didcot Railway Centre has a reconstructed segment of 7 ft 1 4 in 2 140 mm track as designed by Brunel and working steam locomotives in the same gauge citation needed Parts of society viewed the railways more negatively Some landowners felt the railways were a threat to amenities or property values and others requested tunnels on their land so the railway could not be seen 46 Brunel s atmospheric caper Edit A reconstruction of Brunel s atmospheric railway using a segment of the original piping at Didcot Railway Centre A section of the actual pipe in the Swindon Steam Railway Museum Though unsuccessful another of Brunel s interesting use of technical innovations was the atmospheric railway the extension of the Great Western Railway GWR southward from Exeter towards Plymouth technically the South Devon Railway SDR though supported by the GWR Instead of using locomotives the trains were moved by Clegg and Samuda s patented system of atmospheric vacuum traction whereby stationary pumps sucked the air from a pipe placed in the centre of the track 57 The section from Exeter to Newton now Newton Abbot was completed on this principle and trains ran at approximately 68 miles per hour 109 km h 58 Pumping stations with distinctive square chimneys were sited at two mile intervals 58 Fifteen inch 381 mm pipes were used on the level portions and 22 inch 559 mm pipes were intended for the steeper gradients citation needed The technology required the use of leather flaps to seal the vacuum pipes The natural oils were drawn out of the leather by the vacuum making the leather vulnerable to water rotting it and breaking the fibres when it froze during the winter of 1847 It had to be kept supple with tallow which is attractive to rats The flaps were eaten and vacuum operation lasted less than a year from 1847 experimental service began in September operations from February 1848 to 10 September 1848 59 Deterioration of the valve due to the reaction of tannin and iron oxide has been cited as the last straw that sank the project as the continuous valve began to tear from its rivets over most of its length and the estimated replacement cost of 25 000 was considered prohibitive 60 The system never managed to prove itself The accounts of the SDR for 1848 suggest that atmospheric traction cost 3s 1d three shillings and one penny per mile compared to 1s 4d mile for conventional steam power because of the many operating issues associated with the atmospheric few of which were solved during its working life the actual cost efficiency proved impossible to calculate Several South Devon Railway engine houses still stand including that at Totnes scheduled as a grade II listed monument in 2007 and at Starcross 61 62 A section of the pipe without the leather covers is preserved at the Didcot Railway Centre 63 In 2017 inventor Max Schlienger unveiled a working model of an updated atmospheric railroad at his vineyard in the Northern California town of Ukiah 64 Transatlantic shipping Edit Maiden voyage of the Great Western in April 1838 Launch of the Great Britain in 1843 Brunel had proposed extending its transport network by boat from Bristol across the Atlantic Ocean to New York City before the Great Western Railway opened in 1835 The Great Western Steamship Company was formed by Thomas Guppy for that purpose It was widely disputed whether it would be commercially viable for a ship powered purely by steam to make such long journeys Technological developments in the early 1830s including the invention of the surface condenser which allowed boilers to run on salt water without stopping to be cleaned made longer journeys more possible but it was generally thought that a ship would not be able to carry enough fuel for the trip and have room for commercial cargo Brunel applied the experimental evidence of Beaufoy 65 and further developed the theory that the amount a ship could carry increased as the cube of its dimensions whereas the amount of resistance a ship experienced from the water as it travelled increased by only a square of its dimensions 66 This would mean that moving a larger ship would take proportionately less fuel than a smaller ship To test this theory Brunel offered his services for free to the Great Western Steamship Company which appointed him to its building committee and entrusted him with designing its first ship the Great Western 67 68 69 Great Eastern shortly before launch in 1858 The Great Eastern in 1866 When it was built the Great Western was the longest ship in the world at 236 ft 72 m with a 250 foot 76 m keel The ship was constructed mainly from wood but Brunel added bolts and iron diagonal reinforcements to maintain the keel s strength In addition to its steam powered paddle wheels the ship carried four masts for sails The Great Western embarked on her maiden voyage from Avonmouth Bristol to New York on 8 April 1838 with 600 long tons 610 000 kg of coal cargo and seven passengers on board Brunel himself missed this initial crossing having been injured during a fire aboard the ship as she was returning from fitting out in London As the fire delayed the launch several days the Great Western missed its opportunity to claim the title as the first ship to cross the Atlantic under steam power alone Even with a four day head start the competing Sirius arrived only one day earlier having virtually exhausted its coal supply In contrast the Great Western crossing of the Atlantic took 15 days and five hours and the ship arrived at her destination with a third of its coal still remaining demonstrating that Brunel s calculations were correct The Great Western had proved the viability of commercial transatlantic steamship service which led the Great Western Steamboat Company to use her in regular service between Bristol and New York from 1838 to 1846 She made 64 crossings and was the first ship to hold the Blue Riband with a crossing time of 13 days westbound and 12 days 6 hours eastbound The service was commercially successful enough for a sister ship to be required which Brunel was asked to design 68 70 71 Brunel had become convinced of the superiority of propeller driven ships over paddle wheels After tests conducted aboard the propeller driven steamship Archimedes he incorporated a large six bladed propeller into his design for the 322 foot 98 m Great Britain which was launched in 1843 72 Great Britain is considered the first modern ship being built of metal rather than wood powered by an engine rather than wind or oars and driven by propeller rather than paddle wheel She was the first iron hulled propeller driven ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean 73 Her maiden voyage was made in August and September 1845 from Liverpool to New York In 1846 she was run aground at Dundrum County Down She was salvaged and employed in the Australian service 1 She is currently fully preserved and open to the public in Bristol UK 74 Brunel at the launch of the Great Eastern with John Scott Russell and Lord Derby In 1852 Brunel turned to a third ship larger than her predecessors intended for voyages to India and Australia The Great Eastern originally dubbed Leviathan was cutting edge technology for her time almost 700 ft 210 m long fitted out with the most luxurious appointments and capable of carrying over 4 000 passengers Great Eastern was designed to cruise non stop from London to Sydney and back since engineers of the time mistakenly believed that Australia had no coal reserves and she remained the largest ship built until the start of the 20th century Like many of Brunel s ambitious projects the ship soon ran over budget and behind schedule in the face of a series of technical problems 75 The ship has been portrayed as a white elephant but it has been argued by David P Billington that in this case Brunel s failure was principally one of economics his ships were simply years ahead of their time 76 His vision and engineering innovations made the building of large scale propeller driven all metal steamships a practical reality but the prevailing economic and industrial conditions meant that it would be several decades before transoceanic steamship travel emerged as a viable industry 76 Great Eastern was built at John Scott Russell s Napier Yard in London and after two trial trips in 1859 set forth on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York on 17 June 1860 77 Though a failure at her original purpose of passenger travel she eventually found a role as an oceanic telegraph cable layer Under Captain Sir James Anderson the Great Eastern played a significant role in laying the first lasting transatlantic telegraph cable which enabled telecommunication between Europe and North America 78 79 Renkioi Hospital EditMain article Renkioi Hospital Britain entered into the Crimean War during 1854 and an old Turkish barracks became the British Army Hospital in Scutari Injured men contracted a variety of illnesses including cholera dysentery typhoid and malaria due to poor conditions there 80 and Florence Nightingale sent a plea to The Times for the government to produce a solution citation needed Brunel was working on the Great Eastern amongst other projects but accepted the task in February 1855 of designing and building the War Office requirement of a temporary pre fabricated hospital that could be shipped to Crimea and erected there In five months the team he had assembled designed built and shipped pre fabricated wood and canvas buildings providing them complete with advice on transportation and positioning of the facilities 81 Brunel had been working with Gloucester Docks based William Eassie on the launching stage for the Great Eastern Eassie had designed and built wooden prefabricated huts used in both the Australian gold rush as well as by the British and French Armies in the Crimea Using wood supplied by timber importers Price amp Co Eassie fabricated 18 of the 50 patient wards designed by Brunel shipped directly via 16 ships from Gloucester Docks to the Dardanelles The Renkioi Hospital was subsequently erected near Scutari Hospital where Nightingale was based in the malaria free area of Renkioi 82 His designs incorporated the necessities of hygiene access to sanitation ventilation drainage and even rudimentary temperature controls They were feted as a great success with some sources stating that of the approximately 1 300 patients treated in the hospital there were only 50 deaths 83 In the Scutari hospital it replaced deaths were said to be as many as ten times this number Nightingale referred to them as those magnificent huts 84 The practice of building hospitals from pre fabricated modules survives today 82 with hospitals such as the Bristol Royal Infirmary being created in this manner Personal life EditOn 10 June 1830 Brunel was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society 85 86 Brunel married Mary Elizabeth Horsley b 1813 on 5 July 1836 She came from an accomplished musical and artistic family being the eldest daughter of composer and organist William Horsley They established a home at Duke Street Westminster in London 87 The Brunel family grave Kensal Green Cemetery London While performing a conjuring trick for the amusement of his children in 1843 Brunel accidentally inhaled a half sovereign coin which became lodged in his windpipe A special pair of forceps failed to remove it as did a machine devised by Brunel to shake it loose At the suggestion of his father Brunel was strapped to a board and turned upside down and the coin was jerked free 88 He recuperated at Teignmouth and enjoyed the area so much that he purchased an estate at Watcombe in Torquay Devon Here he commissioned William Burn to design Brunel Manor and its gardens to be his country home 89 He never saw the house or gardens finished as he died before it was completed 90 Brunel a heavy smoker 91 who had been diagnosed with Bright s disease nephritis 92 suffered a stroke on 5 September 1859 just before the Great Eastern made her first voyage to New York 93 He died ten days later at the age of 53 and was buried like his father in Kensal Green Cemetery London 94 95 He is commemorated at Westminster Abbey in a window on the south side of the nave 96 Many mourned Brunel s passing in spite and because of his business ventures an obituary in The Morning Chronicle noted Brunel was the right man for the nation but unfortunately he was not the right man for the shareholders They must stoop who must gather gold and Brunel could never stoop The history of invention records no instance of grand novelties so boldly imagined and so successfully carried out by the same individual 97 Brunel was survived by his wife Mary and three children Isambard Brunel Junior 1837 1902 Henry Marc Brunel 1842 1903 and Florence Mary Brunel 1847 1876 Henry Marc later became a successful civil engineer 98 99 Legacy Edit Bronze statue of Brunel at Temple in London A celebrated engineer in his era Brunel remains revered today as evidenced by numerous monuments to him There are statues in London at Temple pictured Brunel University and Paddington station and in Bristol Plymouth Swindon Milford Haven and Saltash A statue in Neyland in Pembrokeshire in Wales was stolen in August 2010 100 The topmast of the Great Eastern is used as a flagpole at the entrance to Anfield Liverpool Football Club s ground 101 Contemporary locations bear Brunel s name such as Brunel University in London 102 shopping centres in Swindon and also Bletchley Milton Keynes and a collection of streets in Exeter Isambard Terrace Kingdom Mews and Brunel Close A road car park and school in his home city of Portsmouth are also named in his honour along with one of the city s largest public houses 103 There is an engineering lab building at the University of Plymouth named in his honour 104 A public poll conducted by the BBC in 2001 to select the 100 Greatest Britons Brunel was placed second behind Winston Churchill 105 Brunel s life and works have been depicted in numerous books films and television programs The 2003 book and BBC TV series Seven Wonders of the Industrial World included a dramatisation of the building of the Great Eastern Many of Brunel s bridges are still in use Brunel s first engineering project the Thames Tunnel is now part of the London Overground network The Brunel Engine House at Rotherhithe which once housed the steam engines that powered the tunnel pumps now houses the Brunel Museum dedicated to the work and lives of Henry Marc and Isambard Kingdom Brunel 106 Many of Brunel s original papers and designs are now held in the Brunel Institute alongside the SS Great Britain in Bristol and are freely available for researchers and visitors 107 Brunel is credited with turning the town of Swindon into one of the fastest growing towns in Europe during the 19th century 108 Brunel s choice to locate the Great Western Railway locomotive sheds there caused a need for housing for the workers which in turn gave Brunel the impetus to build hospitals churches and housing estates in what is known today as the Railway Village 109 According to some sources Brunel s addition of a Mechanics Institute for recreation and hospitals and clinics for his workers gave Aneurin Bevan the basis for the creation of the National Health Service 110 FGW HST 43003 power car GWR Castle Class steam locomotive no 5069 was named Isambard Kingdom Brunel 111 after the engineer 112 and BR Western Region class 47 diesel locomotive no D1662 later 47484 was also named Isambard Kingdom Brunel 113 GWR s successor Great Western Railway has named both its old InterCity 125 power car 43003 and new InterCity Electric Train 800004 as Isambard Kingdom Brunel citation needed The Royal Mint struck two 2 coins in 2006 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and his achievements 114 The first depicts Brunel with a section of the Royal Albert Bridge and the second shows the roof of Paddington Station In the same year the Post Office issued a set of six wide commemorative stamps SG 2607 12 showing the Royal Albert Bridge the Box Tunnel Paddington Station the Great Eastern the Clifton Suspension Bridge and the Maidenhead Bridge citation needed The words I K BRUNEL ENGINEER 1859 were fixed to either end of the Royal Albert Bridge to commemorate his death in 1859 the year the bridge opened The words were later partly obscured by maintenance access ladders but were revealed again by Network Rail in 2006 to honour his bicentenary 115 Brunel was the subject of Great a 1975 animated film directed by Bob Godfrey It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 48th Academy Awards in March 1976 116 At the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony Brunel was portrayed by Kenneth Branagh in a segment showing the Industrial Revolution 117 Brunel is a central character in Howard Rodman s novel The Great Eastern published in 2019 by Melville House Publishing 118 See also Edit Biography portal Trains portalLindsey House Brunel s childhood home Two Tunnel Boring Machines TBMs used by Crossrail were named for Brunel s wife Mary and his mother Sophia Notes Edit a b Chisholm 1911 a b Isambard Kingdom Brunel Encyclopedia Britannica 20 January 2023 Retrieved 16 February 2023 Spratt H P 1958 Isambard Kingdom Brunel Nature 181 4626 1754 55 Bibcode 1958Natur 181 1754S doi 10 1038 1811754a0 S2CID 4255226 Retrieved 11 June 2015 Spratt H P 1958 Isambard Kingdom Brunel Nature 181 4626 1754 55 Bibcode 1958Natur 181 1754S doi 10 1038 1811754a0 S2CID 4255226 Retrieved 11 June 2015 Rolt Lionel Thomas Caswall 1957 Isambard Kingdom Brunel first ed London Longmans Green amp Co p 245 Wilson 1994 pp 202 03 Isambard Kingdom Brunel SS Great Britain 29 March 2006 Archived from the original on 24 March 2010 Retrieved 30 July 2009 Home Brunel 200 Retrieved 22 July 2009 Brunel 1870 p 2 Timbs John 1860 Stories of inventors and discoverers in science and the useful arts London Kent and Co pp 102 285 86 OCLC 1349834 Brindle Steven 2005 Brunel The Man Who Built the World Weidenfeld amp Nicolson p 28 ISBN 978 0 297 84408 2 Isambard Kingdom Brunel Family History tracingancestors uk com 3 February 2012 a b c Buchanan 2006 p 18 Gillings 2006 pp 1 11 a b Brunel Isambard 1870 p 5 Gillings 2006 pp 11 12 Worth Martin 1999 Sweat and Inspiration Pioneers of the Industrial Age Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd p 87 ISBN 978 0 7509 1660 8 Dumpleton amp Miller 2002 pp 14 15 Stearnes R E C Toredo or Shipworm The American Naturalist Vol 20 No 2 Feb 1886 p 136 Aaseng Nathan 1999 Construction Building The Impossible Innovators Series The Oliver Press Inc pp 36 45 ISBN 978 1 881508 59 5 Smith Denis 2001 Civil Engineering Heritage London and the Thames Valley Thomas Telford Ltd for The Institution of Civil Engineers pp 17 19 ISBN 978 0 7277 2876 0 Retrieved 16 August 2009 Sources disagree about where Brunel convalesced Buchanan p 30 says Brighton while Dumpleton and Miller p 16 say Bristol and connect this to his subsequent work on the Clifton Suspension Bridge there Dumpleton amp Miller 2002 p 15 Rolt 1989 pp 41 42 Bagust Harold The Greater Genius 2006 Ian Allan Publishing ISBN 0 7110 3175 4 pp 97 100 Rolt 1989 p 53 a b The Clifton Suspension Bridge Brunel 200 Retrieved 16 August 2009 a b Peters Professor G Ross Brunel The Practical Prophet BBC History Retrieved 27 August 2009 Bryan Tim 1999 Brunel The Great Engineer Shepperton Ian Allan pp 35 41 ISBN 978 0 7110 2686 5 MacLeod Donald 18 April 2006 Higher diary The Guardian Retrieved 27 August 2009 Isambard Kingdom Brunel did not design Clifton Suspension Bridge says historian The Daily Telegraph London Archived from the original on 11 January 2022 Retrieved 22 December 2012 The Hungerford Suspension Bridge The Practical Mechanic and Engineer s Magazine 223 May 1845 Get set to pay more on suspension bridge Bristol Evening Post 6 January 2007 p 12 Dunning RW 1992 CR Elrington CR Baggs AP Siraut MC eds Bridgwater A History of the County of Somerset Volume 6 British History Online Retrieved 16 August 2009 Gordon JE 1978 Structures or why things don t fall down London Penguin p 200 ISBN 978 0 14 013628 9 Lewis Brian 18 June 2007 Brunel s timber bridges and viaducts Hersham Ian Allan Publishing ISBN 978 0 7110 3218 7 History Royal Albert Bridge Archived from the original on 9 November 2006 Retrieved 16 August 2009 Senior Archaeological Officer 20 September 2006 Crossrail and the Great Western World Heritage site PDF Buckinghamshire Historic Environment Forum Buckinghamshire County Council Archived from the original PDF on 29 June 2011 Retrieved 16 August 2009 World Heritage Sites The Tentative List of The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland PDF Buildings Monuments and Sites Division Department for Culture Media and Sport 1999 Retrieved 16 August 2009 Disused Stations Station disused stations org uk Grand Union Canal Walk grandunioncanalwalk co uk a b Crittal Elizabeth 1959 Railways A History of the County of Wiltshire Volume 4 British History Online Retrieved 16 August 2009 Clifton Rugby Football Club History Archived from the original on 23 July 2012 Retrieved 22 March 2012 Brunel 200 Working With Visionaries PDF Initially the Station Hotel it was given the royal prefix as a reminder of Queen Victoria s visit to Bath a b Pudney John 1974 Brunel and His World Thames and Hudson ISBN 978 0 500 13047 6 Ollivier John 1846 The Broad Gauge The Bane of the Great Western Railway Company Dumpleton amp Miller 2002 p 20 Williams Archibald 1904 The Romance of Modern Locomotion C A Pearson Ltd MacDermot E T 1927 History of the Great Western Railway volume I 1833 1863 London Great Western Railway Isambard Kingdom Brunel Obituary fee required The Times 19 September 1859 Retrieved 28 August 2009 Neyland Brunel s railway town Western Telegraph 22 April 2006 Retrieved 16 August 2009 Stolen statue of Isambard Kingdom Brunel in Neyland is replaced BBC News BBC 13 April 2013 Retrieved 26 December 2015 Frome Station roof Engineering Timelines Retrieved 27 August 2009 Kingswear Station PDF South Hams District Council Archived from the original PDF on 28 August 2009 Retrieved 27 August 2009 Steam Museum of the Great Western Railway Swindon Borough Council Archived from the original on 14 September 2008 Retrieved 28 August 2009 Buchanan R A May 1992 The Atmospheric Railway of I K Brunel Social Studies of Science 22 2 231 43 doi 10 1177 030631292022002003 JSTOR 285614 S2CID 146426568 a b Dumpleton and Miller 2002 p 22 Parkin Jim 2000 Engineering Judgement and Risk Institution of Civil Engineers ISBN 978 0 7277 2873 9 Woolmar Christian 2014 The Iron Road The Illustrated History of Railways Dorling Kindersley ISBN 978 0241181867 Devon Railways Teignmouth amp Shaldon Museum Retrieved 16 August 2009 Brunel and The Atmospheric Caper Devon Heritage Retrieved 16 August 2009 Broad Gauge Railway Centre Guide Didcot Railway Centre Archived from the original on 5 December 2015 Retrieved 16 August 2009 Davies Alex 14 June 2017 Meet the 89 Year Old Reinventing the Train in His Backyard Wired ISSN 1059 1028 Retrieved 7 April 2019 Beaufoy 1834 Garrison 1998 p 188 Buchanan 2006 pp 57 59 a b Beckett 2006 pp 171 73 Dumpleton amp Miller 2002 pp 34 46 Buchanan 2006 pp 58 59 Dumpleton amp Miller 2002 pp 26 32 Nasmyth James 1897 Smiles Samuel ed James Nasmyth Engineer An Autobiography Archived at Project Gutenberg Retrieved 14 December 2015 Lienhard John H 2003 The Engines of Our Ingenuity Oxford University Press US ISBN 978 0 19 516731 3 Visit Bristol s No 1 Attraction Brunel s SS Great Britain www ssgreatbritain org The SS Great Britain Trust Dumpleton amp Miller 2002 pp 94 113 a b Billington 1985 pp 50 59 Mortimer John 2005 Zerah Colburn The Spirit of Darkness Arima Publishing ISBN 978 1 84549 196 3 Dumpleton amp Miller 2002 pp 130 148 The Atlantic Cable The New York Times 30 July 1866 ProQuest 392481871 Report on Medical Care British National Archives 23 February 1855 WO 33 1 ff 119 124 146 7 Prefabricated wooden hospitals British National Archives 7 September 1855 WO 43 991 ff 76 7 a b Lessons from Renkioi Hospital Development Magazine 10 November 2005 Archived from the original on 29 September 2007 Retrieved 30 November 2006 Palmerston Brunel and Florence Nightingale s Field Hospital PDF HMSwarrior org Retrieved 30 November 2006 Britain s Modern Brunels BBC Radio 4 Retrieved 30 November 2006 The Brunel Collection PDF University of Bristol Retrieved 1 July 2021 Search Results The Royal Society Retrieved 24 July 2021 The 1830s Brunel 200 Retrieved 16 August 2009 Dyer T F Thiselton 2003 Strange Pages from Family Papers 1900 Kessinger Publishing pp 282 83 ISBN 978 0 7661 5346 2 Tudor 2007 p 19 Jones Judy 2006 Isambard s Kingdom Travels in Brunel s England Stroud Sutton Publishing p 208 ISBN 0 7509 4282 7 Ignacio Villarreal 6 January 2011 Churchill The Windsors and 420 Million Year Old Tree Trunk Star in Bonhams Gentleman s Library Sale Artdaily com Retrieved 22 December 2012 Lambert Tim 14 March 2021 A brief Biography of Isambard Kingdom Brunel Cadbury Deborah 2003 Seven Wonders of the Industrial World Fourth Estate p 43 ISBN 978 0 00 716304 5 Index entry FreeBMD ONS Retrieved 14 August 2016 Grave of Isambard Kingdom Brunel Engineering Timelines Retrieved 13 December 2015 Hall Alfred Ruper 1966 The Abbey Scientists London Roger amp Robert Nicholson p 41 OCLC 2553524 Dugan James 2003 The great iron ship Stroud Sutton ISBN 0 7509 3447 6 OCLC 52288259 Brunel Collection Isambard Kingdom Brunel 1806 1859 papers Archives Hub Archived from the original on 31 May 2012 Retrieved 16 August 2009 Buchanan 2006 pp 7 8 Brunel statue stolen from plinth BBC News 23 August 2010 Retrieved 22 December 2012 Pollard Richard Pevsner Nikolaus Sharples Joseph 2009 Lancashire Liverpool and the southwest Yale University Press p 397 ISBN 978 0 300 10910 8 History Brunel University 2009 Retrieved 11 September 2009 The Isambard Kingdom Brunel Portsmouth Our Pubs J D Wetherspoon 12 April 2006 Retrieved 22 December 2012 Facilities at the University of Plymouth s Brunel Laboratories University of Plymouth Retrieved 28 February 2022 Churchill voted greatest Briton BBC News online 24 November 2002 Retrieved 4 June 2009 Brunel Museum Brunel Museum Retrieved 16 August 2009 Visit the Brunel Institute Visit Bristol s No 1 Attraction Brunel s SS Great Britain www ssgreatbritain org The SS Great Britain Trust Tye Stephanie 20 January 2006 How Town was put on the map by Brunel Swindon Advertiser Retrieved 22 September 2009 Beckett 2006 pp 115 22 A Model for the NHS BBC Legacies Retrieved 30 November 2006 le Fleming 1960 p H18 Davies 1993 p P127 Marsden 1984 p 66 2006 Brunel The Man 2 Silver Proof Royal Mint Archived from the original on 22 May 2006 Retrieved 16 August 2009 Brunel Bicentennial Celebrations Press release www networkrailmediacentre co uk 16 June 2009 Archived from the original on 28 September 2007 Retrieved 22 July 2009 The 48th Academy Awards 1976 Nominees and Winners oscars org Retrieved 2 October 2011 Boyle Danny 28 July 2012 Danny Boyle Welcomes The World To London The Descrier Retrieved 28 July 2012 The Great Eastern Melville House Books Melville House 4 June 2019 Retrieved 1 July 2021 References EditBeaufoy Mark 1834 Beaufoy Henry ed Nautical and Hydraulic Experiments with numerous Scientific Miscellanies Vol I South Lambeth Surrey UK Privately published by the editor Retrieved 26 December 2014 Only the first of a planned three volumes was published Beckett Derrick 2006 Brunel s Britain David amp Charles ISBN 978 0 7153 2360 1 Billington David P 1985 The Tower and the Bridge The New Art of Structural Engineering Princeton University Press ISBN 978 0 691 02393 9 Brunel Isambard 1870 The life of Isambard Kingdom Brunel civil engineer Longmans Green amp Co OCLC 3202088 This is Isambard Brunel Junior IKB s son Buchanan R Angus 2006 Brunel the life and times of Isambard Kingdom Brunel Hambledon amp London ISBN 978 1 85285 525 3 Chisholm Hugh ed 1911 Brunel Isambard Kingdom Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th ed Cambridge University Press Davies Ken April 1993 The Locomotives of the Great Western Railway part fourteen Names and their Origins Lincoln RCTS ISBN 978 0 901115 75 1 Dumpleton Bernard Miller Muriel 2002 Brunel s Three Ships Intellect Books ISBN 978 1 84150 800 9 Garrison Ervan G 1998 History of Engineering and Technology Artful Methods 2nd ed CRC Press ISBN 9780849398100 Gillings Annabel 2006 Brunel Life amp Times Haus Publishers Ltd ISBN 978 1 904950 44 8 le Fleming H M November 1960 1953 White D E ed The Locomotives of the Great Western Railway part eight Modern Passenger Classes 2nd ed Kenilworth RCTS ISBN 978 0 901115 19 5 Marsden Colin J November 1984 BR Locomotive Numbering Shepperton Ian Allan ISBN 978 0 7110 1445 9 EX 1184 Nokes George Augustus 1895 A History of the Great Western Railway Digby Long amp co Retrieved 13 December 2015 373 pages Online at Internet Archive Rolt L T C 1989 1957 Isambard Kingdom Brunel Prentice Hall Press ISBN 978 0 582 10744 1 Tudor Geoffrey 2007 Brunel s Hidden Kingdom Paignton Creative Media Publishing ISBN 978 0954607128 Vaughan Adrian 1991 Isambard Kingdom Brunel Engineering Knight Errant John Murray ISBN 978 0 7195 4636 5 Wilson Arthur 1994 The Living Rock The Story of Metals Since Earliest Times and Their Impact on Civilization Woodhead Publishing ISBN 978 1 85573 301 5 Further reading EditIsambard Brunel 1970 1870 The Life of Isambard Kingdom Brunel Civil Engineer David amp Charles Written by Brunel s son Celia Brunel Noble 1938 The Brunels Father and Son Written by Brunel s granddaughter it adds some family anecdotes and personal information over the previous volume Sir Alfred Pugsley ed 1976 The Works of Isambard Kingdom Brunel An Engineering Appreciation A technical presentation of Brunel s opus Rob Powell 1985 Brunel s Kingdom Photography and the Making of History Watershed Media Centre ISBN 978 0 9510539 0 4 A study of how early photography portrayed Victorian industry and engineering including the celebrated picture of Brunel and the launching chains of the Great Eastern Steven Brindle 2004 Paddington Station Its history and architecture English Heritage ISBN 978 1 873592 70 0 Andrew Mathewson and Derek Laval 1992 Brunel s Tunnel and where it led Brunel Exhibition Rotherhithe ISBN 978 0 9504361 1 1 Eugene Byrne and Simon Gurr 2006 Isambard Kingdom Brunel a graphic biography Brunel 200 Christopher Silver 2007 Renkioi Brunel s Forgotten Crimean War Hospital Valonia Press 2007 ISBN 978 0 9557105 0 6 Derek Webb 2010 Is Parthian Books Children s book about the reincarnation of IKB with KeyStage 2 UK curriculum links ISBN 978 1 906998 11 0 John Canning 1971 50 Great Horror Stories Guild Publishing Anthology of true historical events with elements of horror ISBN 978 0 5171367 1 3 page needed External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Isambard Kingdom Brunel The life of Isambard Kingdom Brunel Civil Engineer by Isambard Brunel Junior at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Isambard Kingdom Brunel at Internet Archive Obituary in Archived from the original on 4 July 2008 The Times 19 September 1859 Brunel biography with additional images from the Design Museum Isambard Kingdom Brunel 1806 1859 www bbc co uk Retrieved 27 August 2009 Brunel portal Brunel Archives University of Bristol Archived from the original on 7 June 2011 Retrieved 9 September 2009 Review of The Intemperate Engineer by Adrian Vaughan Will Robinson Archived from the original on 30 August 2019 Retrieved 12 May 2011 The Life and Death of Isambard Kingdom Brunel Short film Archived from the original on 29 April 2016 Retrieved 3 May 2016 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Isambard Kingdom Brunel amp oldid 1142739849, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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