Everything about Isambard Kingdom Brunel totally explained
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, including the first with a propeller, and numerous important
bridges and
tunnels. His designs revolutionised public transport and modern day engineering.
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 to sleep as little as four hours each 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
The son of engineer Sir
Marc Isambard Brunel (the name Brunel is a derivation from the French name Brun, cognate with Brown), a
Frenchman, and Sophia (
née Kingdom) Brunel (d. 1854), Isambard Kingdom 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.
At 15 his father,
Marc Brunel, was sent to a debtors prison for debts of over £5000. These were mostly paid by the government to prevent this eminent engineer defecting to Russia. Isambard was therefore able to continue his studies in France.
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 Southern 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 Horsley (b. 1813), the eldest daughter of composer and organist William Horsley, 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.
Thames Tunnel
River Thames, with tunnellers driving a horizontal shaft from one side of the river to the other under the most difficult and dangerous conditions. Brunel's father, Marc, was the chief engineer, and the project was funded by the Thames Tunnel Company. The composition of the Thames river bed at
Rotherhithe was often little more than waterlogged sediment and loose gravel, and although the extreme conditions proved the ingenuity of Brunel's tunnelling machine, the work was hard and hazardous.
For the workers the building of the tunnel was particularly unpleasant because the Thames at that time was still little better than an open
sewer, so the tunnel was usually awash with foul-smelling, contaminated water. The tunnel was often in imminent danger of collapse due to the instability of the river bed, yet the management decided to allow spectators to be lowered down to observe the diggings at a
shilling a time. Two severe incidents of flooding halted work for long periods, killing several workers and badly injuring the younger Brunel.
The later incident, in 1828, killed the two most senior miners, Collins and Ball, and Brunel himself narrowly escaped death; a water break-in hurled him from a tunnelling platform, knocking him unconscious, and he was washed up to the other end of the tunnel by the surge. As the water rose, by luck he was carried up a service stairway, where he was plucked from almost certain death by an assistant moments before the surge receded. Brunel was seriously hurt (and never fully recovered from his injuries), and the event ended work on the tunnel for several years.
Originally designed for pedestrians, the tunnel was converted to accommodate the
East London Railway in
1869 and became part of the
London Underground East London Line between
Rotherhithe and
Wapping in
1933. It was closed in December 2007 to be converted for use by the
London Overground system and is due to reopen in
2010. The building that contained the pumps to keep the Thames Tunnel dry was saved from demolition in the 1970s by volunteers and made a
Scheduled Ancient Monument. It now houses the
Brunel Museum, which documents not just the Thames Tunnel but also Brunels' other many achievements.
The Thames tunnel is open to the public during September each year as part of the
Open House London Weekend. Free-of-charge tube trains, travelling at creep speed, journey through the tunnel, and guides point out the remnants of the world's first shopping mall. Vendors used to trade in the arches built along its length.
Bridges
Royal Albert Bridge spanning the
River Tamar at
Saltash near
Plymouth, and an unusual timber-framed bridge near
Bridgwater.
Brunel's oldest
wrought iron bridge is the
Windsor Railway Bridge, which was built in 1861 - 1865.
Built in 1838, the
Maidenhead Railway Bridge over the Thames in
Berkshire was the flattest, widest brick arch bridge in the world and is still carrying main line trains to the west. There are two arches, with each span totalling 128
ft (39
m), having a rise of only 24 ft (7 m), and a width that carries four tracks. The rather flat arches reduce the difficulty railway engines have with steep gradients (especially on hump back bridges) and today's trains are about 10 times as heavy as Brunel ever imagined.
In 1845
Hungerford Bridge, a
suspension footbridge across the Thames, near
Charing Cross Station in
London, was opened only to be replaced by a new railway bridge in 1859.
Throughout his railway building, 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; these have had to be replaced over the years.
The Royal Albert Bridge was designed in 1855 for the
Cornwall Railway Company, 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.
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've performed, since I've 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 didn't 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's 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's 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
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. 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 Eastern Steamship at the Terminus in
Neyland, South Wales.
Brunel made two controversial decisions: to use a
broad gauge of 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 worked out through mathematics and a series of trials that his broader gauge was the optimum railway size for providing stability and a comfortable ride to passengers, in addition to allowing for bigger
carriages and more
freight capacity. He surveyed the entire length of the route between London and Bristol himself.
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.There is an anecdote that Box Tunnel is so oriented that the sun shines all the way through it on Brunel's birthday. For more information, see
Box Tunnel.
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
Locomotives. 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.
Brunel's achievements ignited the imagination of the technically minded Britons of the age, and he soon became one of the most famous men in the country on the back of this interest.
After Brunel's death the decision was taken that standard gauge should be used for all railways in the country. Despite the Great Western's claim of proof that its broad gauge was the better (disputed by at least one Brunel historian), the decision was made to use Stephenson's standard gauge, mainly because this had already covered a far greater amount of the country. However, by May 1892 when the broad gauge was abolished the Great Western had already been re-laid as
dual gauge (both broad and standard) and so the transition was a relatively painless one.
The present
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 and
Kingswear.
The great achievement that was the
Great Western Railway has been immortalised in the
Swindon Steam Railway Museum.
Brunel's "atmospheric caper"
atmospheric railway, the extension of the 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 air from the tunnel.
The section from Exeter to Newton (now
Newton Abbot) was completed on this principle, with pumping stations with distinctive square chimneys spaced every two miles, and trains ran at approximately 20
miles per hour (30
km/h). Fifteen-inch (381 mm) pipes were used on the level portions, and 22-inch (559 mm) pipes were intended for the steeper gradients.
The technology required the use of leather flaps to seal the vacuum pipes. The leather had to be kept supple by the use of
tallow, and tallow is attractive to
rats. The result was inevitable — the flaps were eaten, and vacuum operation lasted less than a year, from 1847 (experimental services began in September; operationally from February 1848) to
10 September 1848.
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. A number of
South Devon Railway engine houses still stand, including that at
Starcross, on the estuary of the
River Exe, which is a striking landmark, and a reminder of the atmospheric railway, also commemorated as the name of the village
pub.
A section of the pipe, without the leather covers, is preserved at the
Didcot Railway Centre.
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. Great Western first sailed in 1837.
She was 236 ft (72 m) long, built of wood, and powered by sail and paddlewheels. Her first return trip to
New York City took just 29 days, compared to two months for an average sailing ship. In total, 74 crossings to New York were made.
The
Great Britain followed in 1843; much larger at 322 ft (98 m) long, she's considered the first modern ship, in that she was built of metal rather than wood, was 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.
Brunel was a strong proponent of propellers for ships, and the Royal Navy commissioned him to prepare a test for proof of the propeller's superior propulsion method compared with the paddle wheels of that time. Brunel fitted two identical tugs of the same engine and power, one with paddle wheels and the other with a propeller, and staged a "tug of war" with two tugs pulling a rope on the Thames river in England. The propeller driven HMS Rattler was further challenged by having to pull the rival tug boat upstream, yet the propeller driven tug boat won and the Royal Navy was convinced propellers were more efficient.
In 1852 Brunel turned to a third ocean-going ship, even larger than both of her predecessors, and intended for voyages to
India and
Australia. The
Great Eastern (originally dubbed
Leviathan) was cutting-edge technology for her time: almost 700 ft (213 m) long, fitted out with the most luxurious appointments and capable of carrying over 4,000 passengers.
She was designed to be able to cruise under her own power non-stop from London to Sydney and back since engineers of the time were under the misapprehension that Australia had no coal reserves, and she remained the largest ship built until the turn of the century. Like many of Brunel's ambitious projects, the ship soon ran over budget and behind schedule in the face of a series of momentous technical problems.
The ship has been portrayed as a
white elephant, but it can be argued that in this case Brunel's failure was principally one of economics — his ships were simply years ahead of their time. His vision and engineering innovations made the building of large-scale, screw-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.
Great Eastern was built at
John Scott Russell's Napier Yard in London, and after two trial trips in 1859, set forth the following year on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York on
17 June 1860.
Though a failure at her original purpose of passenger travel, she eventually found a role as an oceanic
telegraph cable-layer, and the
Great Eastern remains one of the most important vessels in the history of shipbuilding — the
Trans-Atlantic cable had been laid, which meant that
Europe and
America now had a
telecommunications link.
Crimean war
During 1854, Britain entered into the
Crimean War, an old Turkish Barrack building became the British Army hospital in Scutari (modern-day
Üsküdar in
Istanbul). With injured men suffering from a variety of illnesses including
cholera,
dysentery,
typhoid and
malaria purely from hospital conditions,
Florence Nightingale sent a plea to
The Times for the government to produce a solution.
Brunel was already working on building the
SS 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 the
Crimea and erected.
In 5 months he'd designed, built and shipped the pre-fabricated wood and canvas buildings that were erected, near Scutari Hospital where Nightingale was based, in the malaria free area of Renkioi.
His designs incorporated the necessity of
hygiene, providing access to
sanitation,
ventilation, drainage and even rudimentary temperature controls. They were feted as a great success, some sources stating that of the 1,300 (approximate) patients treated in the Renkioi temporary hospital, there were only 50 deaths. In the Scutari hospital it replaced, deaths were said to be as many as 10 times this number. Nightingale herself referred to them as "those magnificent huts."
Brunel not only designed the buildings but gave advice as to the location of placing.
The art of using pre-fabricated modules to build hospitals has been carried forward into the present day, with hospitals such as the
Bristol Royal Infirmary being created in this manner.
Illnesses and death of Brunel
In 1843, while performing a
conjuring trick for the amusement of his children, 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 himself to shake it loose.
Eventually, at the suggestion of Sir Marc, Brunel was strapped to a board and turned upside-down, and the coin was jerked free. He convalesced by visiting
Teignmouth and enjoyed the area so much that he purchased an estate at Watcombe in
Torquay,
Devon. Here he designed
Brunel Manor and its gardens to be his retirement home. Unfortunately he never saw the house or gardens finished, as he died before it was completed.
Brunel suffered a
stroke in 1859, just before the
Great Eastern made her first voyage to
New York. He died ten days later at the age of 53 and was buried, like his father, in
Kensal Green Cemetery in London.
He left behind his wife Mary and three children: Isambard Brunel Junior (1837–1902),
Henri Marc Brunel (1842–1903) and Florence Mary Brunel (c.1847–1876). Henri Marc enjoyed some success as a
civil engineer.
Legacy
- Many monuments to Brunel exist. There are statues in London at Temple (pictured) and Brunel University, Bristol, Saltash, Swindon, Milford Haven, Neyland and Paddington station. The flagpole of the Great Eastern is at the entrance to Liverpool FC, and a section of the ship's funnel is at Sutton Poyntz, near Weymouth.
Contemporary locations bear Brunel's name, such as Brunel University in London, and a collection of streets in Exeter: Isambard Terrace, Kingdom Mews, and Brunel Close. A road, car park and school in his home town of Portsmouth are also named in his honour, along with the town's largest pub. Although not of any real architectural merit, the Brunel shopping centre in Bletchley, Milton Keynes is named after him.
Most of Brunel's bridges are still in use. The Thames Tunnel is to become part of the East London Overground Railway System and the Brunel Engine House at Rotherhithe that once housed the steam engines that powered the tunnel pumps still stands, as a museum dedicated to the work and lives of Marc and Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Many of Brunel's original papers and designs are now held in the Brunel collection at the University of Bristol.
The image of Brunel used to illustrate the cover of a children's book, The Life of Isambard Kingdom Brunel published by Heinemann in March 2005, was altered because of fears that the image of Brunel smoking a cigar would provide an unsuitable role model for five to seven year olds and might result in school libraries not buying the book.
Brunel is credited with turning the town of Swindon into one of the largest growing towns in Europe during the 1800s. The siting of the Great Western Railway locomotive sheds here and the need for housing for the workers, gave Brunel the impetus to build hospitals, churches and housing estates in what was termed 'New Swindon' (subsequently swallowed by the rest of the expanding, mainly agricultural, town). This area is known today as the 'Railway Village'. 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 according to some sources. The current hospital in Swindon was named the Great Western Hospital in commemoration, which also contains the 'Brunel Treatment Centre'
In 1975, noted British animator Bob Godfrey was awarded an Oscar for his short film, Great, an irreverent musical look at Brunel and his times.
An opera about him was given a concert performance at the Colston Hall, Bristol on 18 July 1993, the day before the 150th anniversary of the launch of the SS Great Britain. Titled Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and written by Will Todd and Ben Dunwell, The Times noted that it was an "epic tale of passion, wild ambition and insanity." In 1994 Todd wrote the orchestral suite Brunel.
In 2006, the Royal Mint struck a £2 coin to "celebrate the 200th anniversary of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and his achievements." The coin depicts a section of the Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash, along with a portrait of Brunel. The Post Office issued a set of commemorative stamps.
Brunel was placed second of the heavily publicised "100 Greatest Britons" TV poll conducted by the BBC and voted for by the public. In the second round of voting, which concluded on 24 November 2002, Brunel was placed second, behind Winston Churchill. The building of the Great Eastern was dramatised in an episode of the BBC TV series Seven Wonders of the Industrial World (2003).
On 8 April 2006, Bristol celebrated Brunel's 200th birthday with a series of festivities. These included a concert of brass bands, an epic saxophone ensemble, a choral piece and a fireworks display over the Avon Gorge culminating in the switching on of new lighting for the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
In Plymouth, the city of one of Brunel's finest achievements (Royal Albert Bridge), a 2 metre high wooden statue costing £4,500 can be found in the Pennycombequick roundabout, celebrating the major impact he'd on the city and its transport links with the whole of Cornwall.
Brighton & Hove bus company have named one of their buses, a Scania Omnidekka which operates the Metro 49 service from East Moulsecoomb to Portslade Station, after him.
Brunel is remembered at Hockerill Anglo-European College by lending his name to one of the four equipes there.
The bookwright Isambard Kingdom Buñuel in First Among Sequels is named after him.Further Information
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