brunelIsambard Kingdom Brunel

 

Biography Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Short Bio - Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS (9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British engineer. He is best known for the creation of the Great Western Railway, a series of famous steamships, and numerous important bridges.

Though Brunel's projects were not always successful, they often contained innovative solutions to long-standing engineering problems. During his short career, Brunel achieved many engineering "firsts," including assisting in the building of the first tunnel under a navigable river and development of SS Great Britain, the first propeller-driven ocean-going iron ship, which was at the time also the largest ship ever built.

Brunel suffered several years of ill health, with kidney problems, before succumbing to a stroke at the age of 53. Brunel was said to smoke up to 40 cigars a day, and get by on only four hours of sleep a night.

In 2006, a major programme of events celebrated his life and work on the bicentenary of his birth under the name Brunel 200.

Early Life Brunel

The son of engineer Sir Marc Isambard Brunel and Sophia, born Kingdom (d. 1854), Brunel was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, on 9 April 1806. His father was working there on block-making machinery for the Portsmouth Block Mills.

At 14 he was sent to France to be educated at the Lycée Henri-Quatre in Paris and the University of Caen in Normandy. Brunel rose to prominence when, aged 20, he was appointed chief assistant engineer of his father's greatest achievement, the Thames Tunnel, which runs beneath the river between Rotherhithe and Wapping.

The first major sub-river tunnel, it succeeded where other attempts had failed, thanks to Marc Brunel's ingenious tunnelling shield — the human-powered forerunner of today's mighty tunnelling machines — which protected workers from cave-in by placing them within a protective casing. Marc Brunel had been inspired to create the shield after observing the habits and anatomy of the shipworm, Teredo navalis.

Most modern tunnels are cut in this way, notably the Channel Tunnel between England and France.

Brunel established his design offices at 17–18 Duke Street, London, and he lived with his family in the rooms above.

On 5 July 1836, Brunel married Mary Elizabeth (b. 1813), the eldest daughter of William Horsley, organist and composer, who came from an accomplished musical and artistic family.

R.P. Brereton, who became his chief assistant in 1845, was in charge of the office in Brunel's absence, and also took direct responsibility for major projects such as the Royal Albert Bridge as Brunel's health declined.

Bridges built by Brunel

Brunel's solo engineering feats started with bridges — the Royal Albert Bridge spanning the River Tamar at Saltash near Plymouth, and an unusual timber-framed bridge near Bridgwater.

Clifton Suspension Bridge

However, Brunel is perhaps best remembered for the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. Spanning over 700 ft (213 m), and nominally 200 ft (61 m) above the River Avon, it had the longest span of any bridge in the world at the time of construction. Brunel submitted four designs to a committee headed by Thomas Telford and gained approval to commence with the project. 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." He did not live to see it built, although his colleagues and admirers at the Institution of Civil Engineers felt the bridge would be a fitting memorial, and started to raise new funds and to amend the design. Work started in 1862 and was complete in 1864, five years after Brunel's death.

In 2006, there is the possibility that several of Brunel's bridges over the Great Western Railway might be demolished because the line is planned to be electrified, and there is inadequate clearance for the overhead wires. Buckinghamshire County Council is petitioning to have further options pursued, in order that all nine of the historic remaining bridges on the line can remain.

Great Western Railway

Drawing on his experience with the Thames Tunnel, the Great Western contained a series of impressive achievements — soaring viaducts, specially designed stations, and vast tunnels including the famous Box Tunnel, which was the longest railway tunnel in the world at that time.

Transatlantic shipping

Even before the Great Western Railway was opened, Brunel was moving on to his next project: transatlantic shipping. He used his prestige to convince his railway company employers to build the Great Western, at the time by far the largest steamship in the world. She first sailed in 1837.

Death of Brunel

Brunel suffered a stroke in 1859, just before the Great Eastern made her first voyage to New York.[26] He died ten days later at the age of 53 and was buried, like his father, in Kensal Green Cemetery in London.

 

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