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Isambard Kingdom Brunel FRS (1806–1859) was a British civil engineer ...
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Isambard Kingdom Brunel FRS (1806–1859) was a British civil engineer who is
considered "one of the most ingenious & prolific figures in engineering history", "one of the 19th-century engineering giants", & "one of the greatest figures of the Industrial Revolution, [who] changed the face of the English landscape with his groundbreaking designs & ingenious constructions". Brunel built dockyards, the Great Western Railway, a series of steamships including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship, & numerous important bridges & tunnels. His designs revolutionised public transport & modern engineering.
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 & development of SS Great Britain, the
first propeller-driven, ocean-going, iron ship, which, when built in 1843, was
the largest ship ever built.
Brunel set the standard for a well-built railway, using careful surveys to
minimise gradients & curves. This necessitated expensive construction techniques, new bridges, new viaducts, & the two-mile long Box Tunnel. One controversial feature was the wide gauge, a "broad gauge" of 7 ft 1⁄4 in, instead of what was later to be known as "standard gauge" of 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in. He astonished Britain by proposing to extend the Great Western Railway westward to North America by building steam-powered, iron-hulled ships. He designed & built 3 ships that revolutionised naval engineering: the SS Great Western (1838), the SS Great Britain (1843), & 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 & work under the name Brunel 200.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born on 9 April 1806 in Britain Street, Portsea,
Portsmouth, Hampshire, where his father was working on block-making machinery. He was named Isambard after his father, the French civil engineer Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, & Kingdom after his English mother, Sophia Kingdom.
He had two older sisters, Sophia, the oldest child, & 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 & observational
techniques from the age of four & Brunel had learned Euclidean geometry by eight. During this time he also learned fluent French and the basic principles of engineering. He was encouraged to draw interesting buildings & identify any
faults in their structure.
When Brunel was eight he was sent to Dr Morrell's boarding school in Hove, where
he learned the 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 Univ of Caen Normandy, then at Lycée Henri-IV in Paris.
When Brunel was 15, his father Marc, who had accumulated debts of over £5,000,
was sent to a debtors' prison. After 3 months went by with no prospect of
release, Marc let it be known that he was considering an offer from the Tsar of
Russia. In Aug 1821, facing the prospect of losing a prominent engineer, the govt relented and issued Marc £5,000 to clear his debts in exchange for his promise to remain in Britain.
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 & horologist Abraham-Louis Breguet, who praised Brunel's potential in letters to his father. In late 1822, having completed his apprenticeship, Brunel returned to England.
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 & 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 & Brunel's father, Marc, was the chief engineer. The
American Naturalist said "It is stated also that the operations of the Teredo
[Shipworm] suggested to Mr. Brunel his method of tunneling the Thames."
The composition of the riverbed at Rotherhithe was often little more than
waterlogged sediment & loose gravel. An ingenious tunnelling shield designed by
Marc Brunel helped protect workers from cave-ins, but two incidents of severe
flooding halted work for long periods, killing several workers & badly injuring
the younger Brunel. The latter incident, in 1828, killed the two most senior
miners, & Brunel himself narrowly escaped death. He was seriously injured, &
spent six months recuperating. The event stopped work on the tunnel for several
years.
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, & was intended to develop into an engine that
ran on power generated from alternately heating & 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, & were discontinued after 1834.
In 1865, the East London Railway Company purchased the Thames Tunnel for
£200,000, & four years later the first trains passed thru it. Subsequently, the
tunnel became part of the London Underground system, & remains in use today,
originally as part of the East London Line now incorporated into the London
Overground.
Bridges
Brunel is perhaps best remembered for designs for the Clifton Suspension Bridge
in Bristol. The bridge was built to designs based on Brunel's, but with
significant changes. Spanning over 702 ft, & nominally 249 ft 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, 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.
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".
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, & construction ceased.
Brunel did not live to see the bridge finished, although his colleagues &
admirers at the Institution of Civil Engineers felt it would be a fitting
memorial, & started to raise new funds & to amend the design. Work recommenced in 1862 & was completed in 1864, five years after Brunel's death. In 2011, it was suggested, by historian & biographer Adrian Vaughan, that Brunel did not design the bridge, as eventually built, as the later changes to its design were
substantial. His views reflected a sentiment stated 52 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.
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, & its cost was £106,000. It was replaced by a new railway bridge in 1859, & the
suspension chains were used to complete the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
The Clifton Suspension Bridge still stands, & over 4 million vehicles traverse it every year.
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), the Windsor Railway
Bridge, & the Maidenhead Railway Bridge over the Thames in Berkshire. This last
was the flattest, widest brick arch bridge in the world & is still carrying main
line trains to the west, even though today's trains are about ten times heavier
than in Brunel's time.
Throughout his railway building career, but particularly on the South Devon &
Cornwall Railways where economy was needed & 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 as their primary material, Kyanised
Baltic Pine, became uneconomical to obtain.
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 & Lynher. The bridge (of bowstring girder or
tied arch construction) consists of two main spans of 455 ft, 100 ft 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.
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.
Brunel's last major undertaking was the unique Three Bridges, London. Work began
in 1856, & was completed in 1859.
The three bridges in question are a clever arrangement allowing the routes of the Grand Junction Canal, Great Western & Brentford Railway, & Windmill Lane to cross each other.
Great Western Railway
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.
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 & later Exeter. The company was founded at a
public meeting in Bristol in 1833, & 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 & travel from London to New York, changing from the Great Western Railway to the Great Western steamship at the terminus in Neyland, West Wales. He surveyed the entire length of the route between London & 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.
Brunel made two controversial decisions: to use a broad gauge of 7 ft 1⁄4 in for
the track, which he believed would offer superior running at high speeds; & to
take a route that passed north of the Marlborough Downs—an area with no
significant towns, though it offered potential connections to Oxford &
Gloucester—& 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 thru both calculation & a series of trials that his broader gauge was the optimum size for providing both higher speeds & a stable & comfortable ride to passengers. In addition the wider gauge allowed for larger goods wagons and thus greater freight capacity.
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, & vast tunnels including the Box Tunnel, which was the longest railway tunnel in the world at that time. There is an anecdote that the Box Tunnel may have been deliberately aligned so that the
rising sun shines all the way thru it on Brunel's birthday.
The initial group of locomotives ordered by Brunel to his own specs proved
unsatisfactory, apart from the North Star locomotive, & 20-year-old Daniel Gooch
(later Sir Daniel) was appointed as Superintendent of Locomotive Engines. Brunel
& 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, & he soon became quite notable 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. 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, & a number of info 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.
The present London Paddington station was designed by Brunel & opened in 1854.
Examples of his designs for smaller stations on the Great Western & associated
lines which survive in good condition include Mortimer, Charlbury & Bridgend (all Italianate) & Culham (Tudorbethan). Surviving examples of wooden train sheds in his style are at Frome & Kingswear.
The great achievement that was the Great Western Railway has been immortalised at Swindon Steam Railway Museum & the Didcot Railway Centre. The Didcot Railway
Centre is notable for having a reconstructed segment of 7 ft 1⁄4 in Brunel gauge track, as well as a very rare working steam locomotive in the same gauge.
Parts of society viewed the railways more negatively. Some landowners felt the
railways were a threat to amenities or property values & others requested tunnels on their land so the railway could not be seen.
Brunel's "atmospheric caper"
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 & Samuda's patented system of atmospheric (vacuum) traction, whereby stationary pumps sucked air from a pipe placed in the centre of the track.
The section from Exeter to Newton (now Newton Abbot) was completed on this
principle, & trains ran at approx 68 mph. Pumping stations with distinctive
square chimneys were sited at two-mile intervals. 15-inch pipes were used on the
level portions, & 22-inch pipes were intended for the steeper gradients.
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 & 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, & vacuum operation lasted less than a year, from 1847 (experimental service began in Sept; operations from Feb 1848) to 10 Sept 1848.
Deterioration of the valve due to the reaction of tannin & 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, & the estimated replacement cost of £25,000 was considered prohibitive.
The system never managed to prove itself. The accounts of the SDR for 1848
suggest that atmospheric traction cost 3s 1d (3 shillings & 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). A number of South Devon Railway engine houses still stand, including that at Totnes (scheduled as a grade II listed monument in 2007) and at Starcross.
Transatlantic shipping
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 & have room for a commercial cargo.
Brunel applied the experimental evidence of Beaufoy & 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 only increased by a square of its dimensions. 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 & entrusted him with designing its first ship, the Great Western.
When it was built, the Great Western was the longest ship in the world at 236 ft
with a 250-foot keel. The ship was constructed mainly from wood, but Brunel added bolts & 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 of coal, cargo & 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 title as the first ship to cross the Atlantic under steam power alone. Even with a 4-day head start, the competing Sirius arrived only one day earlier & its crew was forced to burn cabin furniture, spare yards & one mast for fuel.
In contrast, the Great Western crossing of the Atlantic took 15 days & five
hours, & 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 & New York from 1838 to 1846. She made 64 crossings, & was the
first ship to hold the Blue Riband with a crossing time of 13 days westbound & 12 days 6 hours eastbound. The service was commercially successful enough for a
sister ship to be required, which Brunel was asked to design.
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 Great Britain, which was launched in 1843. Great Britain is considered
the first modern ship, being built of metal rather than wood, powered by an
engine rather than wind or oars, & driven by propeller rather than paddle wheel.
She was the first iron-hulled, propeller-driven ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Her maiden voyage was made in Aug & Sept 1845, from Liverpool to New York. In 1846, she was run aground at Dundrum, County Down. She was salvaged & employed in the Australian service. She is currently fully preserved & open to the public in Bristol, UK.
In 1852 Brunel turned to a third ship, larger than her predecessors, intended for voyages to India & Australia. The Great Eastern (originally dubbed Leviathan) was cutting-edge tech for her time: almost 700 ft long, fitted out with the most luxurious appointments, & capable of carrying over 4,000 passengers. Great Eastern was designed to cruise non-stop from London to Sydney & back (since engineers of the time mistakenly believed that Australia had no coal reserves), & 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 & behind schedule in the face of a series of technical problems. 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. His vision & engineering innovations made the building of large-scale, propeller-driven, all-metal steamships a practical reality, but the prevailing economic & 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, & after
two trial trips in 1859, set forth 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. Under
Capt Sir James Anderson, the Great Eastern played a significant role in laying
the first lasting transatlantic telegraph cable, which enabled telecommunication
between Europe & North America.
Renkioi Hospital
Britain entered into the Crimean War during 1854 & an old Turkish barracks became the British Army Hospital in Scutari. Injured men contracted a variety of
illnesses—including cholera, dysentery, typhoid & malaria—due to poor conditions
there, & Florence Nightingale sent a plea to The Times for the govt to produce a
solution.
Brunel was working on the Great Eastern amongst other projects, but accepted the
task in Feb 1855 of designing & building the War Office requirement of a
temporary, pre-fab hospital that could be shipped to Crimea & erected there. In 5 months the team he had assembled designed, built, and shipped pre-fabricated wood & canvas buildings, providing them complete with advice on transportation &
positioning of the facilities.
Brunel had been working with Gloucester Docks-based William Eassie on the
launching stage for the Great Eastern; Eassie had designed & built wooden
prefab huts used in both the Australian gold rush, as well as by the
British & French Armies in the Crimea. Using wood supplied by timber importers
Price & Co., Eassie fabricated 18 of the two-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.
His designs incorporated the necessities of hygiene: access to sanitation,
ventilation, drainage, & even rudimentary temperature controls. They were feted
as a great success, with some sources stating that of the approx 1,300 patients
treated in the 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
referred to them as "those magnificent huts". The practice of building hospitals
from pre-fab modules survives today, with hospitals such as the Bristol Royal
Infirmary being created in this manner.
Personal life
Brunel married Mary Elizabeth Horsley (b. 1813) on 5 July 1836. She came from an
accomplished musical & artistic family, being the eldest daughter of composer &
organist William Horsley. They established a home at Duke Street, Westminster, in 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 & turned upside-down, & the coin was jerked free. He recuperated at Teignmouth, & enjoyed the area so much that he purchased an estate at Watcombe in Torquay, Devon. Here he commissioned William Burn to design Brunel Manor & its gardens to be his country home. He never saw the house or gardens finished, as he died before it was completed.
Brunel, a heavy smoker, who had been diagnosed with Bright's disease (nephritis), suffered a stroke on 5 Sep 1859, just before the Great Eastern made her first voyage to New York. He died ten days later at the age of 53 & was buried, like his father, in Kensal Green Cemetery in London.
He left behind his wife Mary & 3 children: Isambard Brunel Junior (1837–1902),
Henry Marc Brunel (1842–1903) & Florence Mary Brunel (1847–1876). Henry Marc
followed his pa & grandpa in becoming a successful civil engineer.
Legacy
A celebrated engineer in his era, Brunel remains revered today, as evidenced by
numerous monuments to him. There are statues in London at Temple, Brunel Univ &
Paddington sta., & in Bristol, Plymouth, Swindon, Milford Haven & Saltash. A
statue in Neyland in Pembrokeshire in Wales was stolen in Aug 2010. The topmast
of the Great Eastern is used as a flagpole at the entrance to Anfield, Liverpool
Football Club's ground. Contemporary locations bear Brunel's name, such as Brunel Univ in London, shopping centres in Swindon & also Bletchley, Milton Keynes, & a collection of streets in Exeter: Isambard Terrace, Kingdom Mews, & Brunel Close. A road, car park, & school in his home city of Portsmouth are also named in his honour, along with one of the city's largest public houses. There is an engineering lab building at the Univ of Plymouth named in his honour.
A public poll conducted by the BBC in 2001 to select the 100 Greatest Britons,
Brunel was placed second, behind Winston Churchill. Brunel's life and works have
been depicted in numerous books, films & TV programs. The 2003 book & 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 & Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Many of Brunel's original papers &
designs are now held in the Brunel Institute alongside the SS Great Britain in
Bristol, and are freely available for researchers and visitors.
Brunel is credited with turning the town of Swindon into one of the fastest
growing towns in Europe during the 19th century. 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'. 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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isambard_Kingdom_Brunel
considered "one of the most ingenious & prolific figures in engineering history", "one of the 19th-century engineering giants", & "one of the greatest figures of the Industrial Revolution, [who] changed the face of the English landscape with his groundbreaking designs & ingenious constructions". Brunel built dockyards, the Great Western Railway, a series of steamships including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship, & numerous important bridges & tunnels. His designs revolutionised public transport & modern engineering.
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 & development of SS Great Britain, the
first propeller-driven, ocean-going, iron ship, which, when built in 1843, was
the largest ship ever built.
Brunel set the standard for a well-built railway, using careful surveys to
minimise gradients & curves. This necessitated expensive construction techniques, new bridges, new viaducts, & the two-mile long Box Tunnel. One controversial feature was the wide gauge, a "broad gauge" of 7 ft 1⁄4 in, instead of what was later to be known as "standard gauge" of 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in. He astonished Britain by proposing to extend the Great Western Railway westward to North America by building steam-powered, iron-hulled ships. He designed & built 3 ships that revolutionised naval engineering: the SS Great Western (1838), the SS Great Britain (1843), & 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 & work under the name Brunel 200.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born on 9 April 1806 in Britain Street, Portsea,
Portsmouth, Hampshire, where his father was working on block-making machinery. He was named Isambard after his father, the French civil engineer Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, & Kingdom after his English mother, Sophia Kingdom.
He had two older sisters, Sophia, the oldest child, & 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 & observational
techniques from the age of four & Brunel had learned Euclidean geometry by eight. During this time he also learned fluent French and the basic principles of engineering. He was encouraged to draw interesting buildings & identify any
faults in their structure.
When Brunel was eight he was sent to Dr Morrell's boarding school in Hove, where
he learned the 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 Univ of Caen Normandy, then at Lycée Henri-IV in Paris.
When Brunel was 15, his father Marc, who had accumulated debts of over £5,000,
was sent to a debtors' prison. After 3 months went by with no prospect of
release, Marc let it be known that he was considering an offer from the Tsar of
Russia. In Aug 1821, facing the prospect of losing a prominent engineer, the govt relented and issued Marc £5,000 to clear his debts in exchange for his promise to remain in Britain.
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 & horologist Abraham-Louis Breguet, who praised Brunel's potential in letters to his father. In late 1822, having completed his apprenticeship, Brunel returned to England.
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 & 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 & Brunel's father, Marc, was the chief engineer. The
American Naturalist said "It is stated also that the operations of the Teredo
[Shipworm] suggested to Mr. Brunel his method of tunneling the Thames."
The composition of the riverbed at Rotherhithe was often little more than
waterlogged sediment & loose gravel. An ingenious tunnelling shield designed by
Marc Brunel helped protect workers from cave-ins, but two incidents of severe
flooding halted work for long periods, killing several workers & badly injuring
the younger Brunel. The latter incident, in 1828, killed the two most senior
miners, & Brunel himself narrowly escaped death. He was seriously injured, &
spent six months recuperating. The event stopped work on the tunnel for several
years.
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, & was intended to develop into an engine that
ran on power generated from alternately heating & 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, & were discontinued after 1834.
In 1865, the East London Railway Company purchased the Thames Tunnel for
£200,000, & four years later the first trains passed thru it. Subsequently, the
tunnel became part of the London Underground system, & remains in use today,
originally as part of the East London Line now incorporated into the London
Overground.
Bridges
Brunel is perhaps best remembered for designs for the Clifton Suspension Bridge
in Bristol. The bridge was built to designs based on Brunel's, but with
significant changes. Spanning over 702 ft, & nominally 249 ft 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, 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.
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".
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, & construction ceased.
Brunel did not live to see the bridge finished, although his colleagues &
admirers at the Institution of Civil Engineers felt it would be a fitting
memorial, & started to raise new funds & to amend the design. Work recommenced in 1862 & was completed in 1864, five years after Brunel's death. In 2011, it was suggested, by historian & biographer Adrian Vaughan, that Brunel did not design the bridge, as eventually built, as the later changes to its design were
substantial. His views reflected a sentiment stated 52 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.
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, & its cost was £106,000. It was replaced by a new railway bridge in 1859, & the
suspension chains were used to complete the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
The Clifton Suspension Bridge still stands, & over 4 million vehicles traverse it every year.
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), the Windsor Railway
Bridge, & the Maidenhead Railway Bridge over the Thames in Berkshire. This last
was the flattest, widest brick arch bridge in the world & is still carrying main
line trains to the west, even though today's trains are about ten times heavier
than in Brunel's time.
Throughout his railway building career, but particularly on the South Devon &
Cornwall Railways where economy was needed & 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 as their primary material, Kyanised
Baltic Pine, became uneconomical to obtain.
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 & Lynher. The bridge (of bowstring girder or
tied arch construction) consists of two main spans of 455 ft, 100 ft 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.
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.
Brunel's last major undertaking was the unique Three Bridges, London. Work began
in 1856, & was completed in 1859.
The three bridges in question are a clever arrangement allowing the routes of the Grand Junction Canal, Great Western & Brentford Railway, & Windmill Lane to cross each other.
Great Western Railway
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.
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 & later Exeter. The company was founded at a
public meeting in Bristol in 1833, & 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 & travel from London to New York, changing from the Great Western Railway to the Great Western steamship at the terminus in Neyland, West Wales. He surveyed the entire length of the route between London & 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.
Brunel made two controversial decisions: to use a broad gauge of 7 ft 1⁄4 in for
the track, which he believed would offer superior running at high speeds; & to
take a route that passed north of the Marlborough Downs—an area with no
significant towns, though it offered potential connections to Oxford &
Gloucester—& 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 thru both calculation & a series of trials that his broader gauge was the optimum size for providing both higher speeds & a stable & comfortable ride to passengers. In addition the wider gauge allowed for larger goods wagons and thus greater freight capacity.
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, & vast tunnels including the Box Tunnel, which was the longest railway tunnel in the world at that time. There is an anecdote that the Box Tunnel may have been deliberately aligned so that the
rising sun shines all the way thru it on Brunel's birthday.
The initial group of locomotives ordered by Brunel to his own specs proved
unsatisfactory, apart from the North Star locomotive, & 20-year-old Daniel Gooch
(later Sir Daniel) was appointed as Superintendent of Locomotive Engines. Brunel
& 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, & he soon became quite notable 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. 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, & a number of info 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.
The present London Paddington station was designed by Brunel & opened in 1854.
Examples of his designs for smaller stations on the Great Western & associated
lines which survive in good condition include Mortimer, Charlbury & Bridgend (all Italianate) & Culham (Tudorbethan). Surviving examples of wooden train sheds in his style are at Frome & Kingswear.
The great achievement that was the Great Western Railway has been immortalised at Swindon Steam Railway Museum & the Didcot Railway Centre. The Didcot Railway
Centre is notable for having a reconstructed segment of 7 ft 1⁄4 in Brunel gauge track, as well as a very rare working steam locomotive in the same gauge.
Parts of society viewed the railways more negatively. Some landowners felt the
railways were a threat to amenities or property values & others requested tunnels on their land so the railway could not be seen.
Brunel's "atmospheric caper"
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 & Samuda's patented system of atmospheric (vacuum) traction, whereby stationary pumps sucked air from a pipe placed in the centre of the track.
The section from Exeter to Newton (now Newton Abbot) was completed on this
principle, & trains ran at approx 68 mph. Pumping stations with distinctive
square chimneys were sited at two-mile intervals. 15-inch pipes were used on the
level portions, & 22-inch pipes were intended for the steeper gradients.
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 & 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, & vacuum operation lasted less than a year, from 1847 (experimental service began in Sept; operations from Feb 1848) to 10 Sept 1848.
Deterioration of the valve due to the reaction of tannin & 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, & the estimated replacement cost of £25,000 was considered prohibitive.
The system never managed to prove itself. The accounts of the SDR for 1848
suggest that atmospheric traction cost 3s 1d (3 shillings & 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). A number of South Devon Railway engine houses still stand, including that at Totnes (scheduled as a grade II listed monument in 2007) and at Starcross.
Transatlantic shipping
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 & have room for a commercial cargo.
Brunel applied the experimental evidence of Beaufoy & 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 only increased by a square of its dimensions. 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 & entrusted him with designing its first ship, the Great Western.
When it was built, the Great Western was the longest ship in the world at 236 ft
with a 250-foot keel. The ship was constructed mainly from wood, but Brunel added bolts & 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 of coal, cargo & 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 title as the first ship to cross the Atlantic under steam power alone. Even with a 4-day head start, the competing Sirius arrived only one day earlier & its crew was forced to burn cabin furniture, spare yards & one mast for fuel.
In contrast, the Great Western crossing of the Atlantic took 15 days & five
hours, & 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 & New York from 1838 to 1846. She made 64 crossings, & was the
first ship to hold the Blue Riband with a crossing time of 13 days westbound & 12 days 6 hours eastbound. The service was commercially successful enough for a
sister ship to be required, which Brunel was asked to design.
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 Great Britain, which was launched in 1843. Great Britain is considered
the first modern ship, being built of metal rather than wood, powered by an
engine rather than wind or oars, & driven by propeller rather than paddle wheel.
She was the first iron-hulled, propeller-driven ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Her maiden voyage was made in Aug & Sept 1845, from Liverpool to New York. In 1846, she was run aground at Dundrum, County Down. She was salvaged & employed in the Australian service. She is currently fully preserved & open to the public in Bristol, UK.
In 1852 Brunel turned to a third ship, larger than her predecessors, intended for voyages to India & Australia. The Great Eastern (originally dubbed Leviathan) was cutting-edge tech for her time: almost 700 ft long, fitted out with the most luxurious appointments, & capable of carrying over 4,000 passengers. Great Eastern was designed to cruise non-stop from London to Sydney & back (since engineers of the time mistakenly believed that Australia had no coal reserves), & 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 & behind schedule in the face of a series of technical problems. 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. His vision & engineering innovations made the building of large-scale, propeller-driven, all-metal steamships a practical reality, but the prevailing economic & 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, & after
two trial trips in 1859, set forth 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. Under
Capt Sir James Anderson, the Great Eastern played a significant role in laying
the first lasting transatlantic telegraph cable, which enabled telecommunication
between Europe & North America.
Renkioi Hospital
Britain entered into the Crimean War during 1854 & an old Turkish barracks became the British Army Hospital in Scutari. Injured men contracted a variety of
illnesses—including cholera, dysentery, typhoid & malaria—due to poor conditions
there, & Florence Nightingale sent a plea to The Times for the govt to produce a
solution.
Brunel was working on the Great Eastern amongst other projects, but accepted the
task in Feb 1855 of designing & building the War Office requirement of a
temporary, pre-fab hospital that could be shipped to Crimea & erected there. In 5 months the team he had assembled designed, built, and shipped pre-fabricated wood & canvas buildings, providing them complete with advice on transportation &
positioning of the facilities.
Brunel had been working with Gloucester Docks-based William Eassie on the
launching stage for the Great Eastern; Eassie had designed & built wooden
prefab huts used in both the Australian gold rush, as well as by the
British & French Armies in the Crimea. Using wood supplied by timber importers
Price & Co., Eassie fabricated 18 of the two-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.
His designs incorporated the necessities of hygiene: access to sanitation,
ventilation, drainage, & even rudimentary temperature controls. They were feted
as a great success, with some sources stating that of the approx 1,300 patients
treated in the 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
referred to them as "those magnificent huts". The practice of building hospitals
from pre-fab modules survives today, with hospitals such as the Bristol Royal
Infirmary being created in this manner.
Personal life
Brunel married Mary Elizabeth Horsley (b. 1813) on 5 July 1836. She came from an
accomplished musical & artistic family, being the eldest daughter of composer &
organist William Horsley. They established a home at Duke Street, Westminster, in 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 & turned upside-down, & the coin was jerked free. He recuperated at Teignmouth, & enjoyed the area so much that he purchased an estate at Watcombe in Torquay, Devon. Here he commissioned William Burn to design Brunel Manor & its gardens to be his country home. He never saw the house or gardens finished, as he died before it was completed.
Brunel, a heavy smoker, who had been diagnosed with Bright's disease (nephritis), suffered a stroke on 5 Sep 1859, just before the Great Eastern made her first voyage to New York. He died ten days later at the age of 53 & was buried, like his father, in Kensal Green Cemetery in London.
He left behind his wife Mary & 3 children: Isambard Brunel Junior (1837–1902),
Henry Marc Brunel (1842–1903) & Florence Mary Brunel (1847–1876). Henry Marc
followed his pa & grandpa in becoming a successful civil engineer.
Legacy
A celebrated engineer in his era, Brunel remains revered today, as evidenced by
numerous monuments to him. There are statues in London at Temple, Brunel Univ &
Paddington sta., & in Bristol, Plymouth, Swindon, Milford Haven & Saltash. A
statue in Neyland in Pembrokeshire in Wales was stolen in Aug 2010. The topmast
of the Great Eastern is used as a flagpole at the entrance to Anfield, Liverpool
Football Club's ground. Contemporary locations bear Brunel's name, such as Brunel Univ in London, shopping centres in Swindon & also Bletchley, Milton Keynes, & a collection of streets in Exeter: Isambard Terrace, Kingdom Mews, & Brunel Close. A road, car park, & school in his home city of Portsmouth are also named in his honour, along with one of the city's largest public houses. There is an engineering lab building at the Univ of Plymouth named in his honour.
A public poll conducted by the BBC in 2001 to select the 100 Greatest Britons,
Brunel was placed second, behind Winston Churchill. Brunel's life and works have
been depicted in numerous books, films & TV programs. The 2003 book & 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 & Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Many of Brunel's original papers &
designs are now held in the Brunel Institute alongside the SS Great Britain in
Bristol, and are freely available for researchers and visitors.
Brunel is credited with turning the town of Swindon into one of the fastest
growing towns in Europe during the 19th century. 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'. 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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isambard_Kingdom_Brunel
a425couple
Feb 27, 2020, 9:15:12 PM2/27/20
to
On 2/27/2020 1:05 PM, David P wrote:
> Isambard Kingdom Brunel FRS (1806–1859) was a British civil engineer who is
> considered "one of the most ingenious & prolific figures in engineering history", "one of the 19th-century engineering giants", & "one of the greatest figures of the Industrial Revolution, [who] changed the face of the English landscape with his groundbreaking designs & ingenious constructions". Brunel built dockyards, the Great Western Railway, a series of steamships including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship, & numerous important bridges & tunnels. His designs revolutionised public transport & modern engineering.
>
> 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 & development of SS Great Britain, the
> first propeller-driven, ocean-going, iron ship, which, when built in 1843, was
> the largest ship ever built.
>
> Brunel set the standard for a well-built railway,
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isambard_Kingdom_Brunel
> Isambard Kingdom Brunel FRS (1806–1859) was a British civil engineer who is
> considered "one of the most ingenious & prolific figures in engineering history", "one of the 19th-century engineering giants", & "one of the greatest figures of the Industrial Revolution, [who] changed the face of the English landscape with his groundbreaking designs & ingenious constructions". Brunel built dockyards, the Great Western Railway, a series of steamships including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship, & numerous important bridges & tunnels. His designs revolutionised public transport & modern engineering.
>
> 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 & development of SS Great Britain, the
> first propeller-driven, ocean-going, iron ship, which, when built in 1843, was
> the largest ship ever built.
>
> Brunel set the standard for a well-built railway,
>
Very interesting man.
He is perhaps better known than he would otherwise be, by the
fact that Arthur C. Clarke discussed him some in his great
Sci-fi book, "The Fountains of Paradise".
Clarke's modern engineer tried to improve on Brunel, by building
the bridge over Gibraltar and the space elevator (from earth to
geosynchronous orbit, 22,000 miles up!).
Interesting that he never got directly involved in the
building of any warship, although many of his breakthrough
ideas were certainly used.
Johnny Tindalos
Feb 28, 2020, 9:30:14 AM2/28/20
to
a425couple <a425c...@hotmail.com> wrote in
news:r39t1...@news3.newsguy.com:
There's a short punk rock song about him, _Brunel_ by a band called The Men Who
Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing (no connection to Saucy Jack afaict).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21QqXumEWFU
It amused me, but then simple things often do.
news:r39t1...@news3.newsguy.com:
Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing (no connection to Saucy Jack afaict).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21QqXumEWFU
It amused me, but then simple things often do.
Dean Markley
Feb 28, 2020, 11:07:27 AM2/28/20
to
Byker
Feb 28, 2020, 1:57:05 PM2/28/20
to
"David P" wrote in message
news:4378f847-f4a6-43aa...@googlegroups.com...
years. Too bad it was too far ahead of its time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ki6yvb79lg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Great_Eastern
In the days before cutting torches, the breakers must have had some real fun
trying to take it apart with chisels and hacksaws when the time came to
scrap it...
news:4378f847-f4a6-43aa...@googlegroups.com...
>
> Isambard Kingdom Brunel FRS (1806–1859) was a British civil engineer who
> is considered "one of the most ingenious & prolific figures in engineering
> history", "one of the 19th-century engineering giants", & "one of the
> greatest figures of the Industrial Revolution, [who] changed the face of
> the English landscape with his groundbreaking designs & ingenious
> constructions". Brunel built dockyards, the Great Western Railway, a
> series of steamships including the first propeller-driven transatlantic
> steamship, & numerous important bridges & tunnels. His designs
> revolutionised public transport & modern engineering.
>
> 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 & development of
> SS Great Britain, the first propeller-driven, ocean-going, iron ship,
> which, when built in 1843, was the largest ship ever built.
Followed by the Great Eastern, a behemoth not to be surpassed in size for 40
> Isambard Kingdom Brunel FRS (1806–1859) was a British civil engineer who
> is considered "one of the most ingenious & prolific figures in engineering
> history", "one of the 19th-century engineering giants", & "one of the
> greatest figures of the Industrial Revolution, [who] changed the face of
> the English landscape with his groundbreaking designs & ingenious
> constructions". Brunel built dockyards, the Great Western Railway, a
> series of steamships including the first propeller-driven transatlantic
> steamship, & numerous important bridges & tunnels. His designs
> revolutionised public transport & modern engineering.
>
> 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 & development of
> SS Great Britain, the first propeller-driven, ocean-going, iron ship,
> which, when built in 1843, was the largest ship ever built.
years. Too bad it was too far ahead of its time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ki6yvb79lg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Great_Eastern
In the days before cutting torches, the breakers must have had some real fun
trying to take it apart with chisels and hacksaws when the time came to
scrap it...
George
Feb 28, 2020, 2:23:20 PM2/28/20
to
On Fri, 28 Feb 2020 12:56:58 -0600
"Byker" <byker@do~rag.net> wrote:
> Followed by the Great Eastern, a behemoth not to be surpassed in size
> for 40 years. Too bad it was too far ahead of its time:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ki6yvb79lg
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Great_Eastern
>
> In the days before cutting torches, the breakers must have had some
> real fun trying to take it apart with chisels and hacksaws when the
> time came to scrap it...
>
Sorry to ruin your dream but ----
"Byker" <byker@do~rag.net> wrote:
> Followed by the Great Eastern, a behemoth not to be surpassed in size
> for 40 years. Too bad it was too far ahead of its time:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ki6yvb79lg
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Great_Eastern
>
> In the days before cutting torches, the breakers must have had some
> real fun trying to take it apart with chisels and hacksaws when the
> time came to scrap it...
>
They just knocked the rivets out and craned the plates away.
--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
Dorothy J Heydt
Feb 28, 2020, 4:35:01 PM2/28/20
to
In article <XnsAB719396DC38Ja...@144.76.35.198>,
And way back in the seventies, there was a short film called
_Great_ about Brunel, slightly tongue-in-cheek, verging on NSFW
(depending on the mood of your workplace). It won Best Short
Film at the 1976 Oscars, and appeared on a PBS series called
Academy Leaders. There's a mere fragment of it here...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy4nhVslcq0
I had it on a increasingly-failing Betamax tape for years.
--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/
_Great_ about Brunel, slightly tongue-in-cheek, verging on NSFW
(depending on the mood of your workplace). It won Best Short
Film at the 1976 Oscars, and appeared on a PBS series called
Academy Leaders. There's a mere fragment of it here...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy4nhVslcq0
I had it on a increasingly-failing Betamax tape for years.
--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/
Johnny Tindalos
Feb 28, 2020, 7:06:57 PM2/28/20
to
djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) wrote in
news:q6FKL...@kithrup.com:
> And way back in the seventies, there was a short film called
> _Great_ about Brunel, slightly tongue-in-cheek, verging on NSFW
> (depending on the mood of your workplace). It won Best Short
> Film at the 1976 Oscars, and appeared on a PBS series called
> Academy Leaders. There's a mere fragment of it here...
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy4nhVslcq0
>
> I had it on a increasingly-failing Betamax tape for years.
>
That was amusing! Liked the play on the (late 40s?) advertising slogan "if you want
to get ahead, get a hat". Will add it to my list of things to check out if ever
encountered!
news:q6FKL...@kithrup.com:
> And way back in the seventies, there was a short film called
> _Great_ about Brunel, slightly tongue-in-cheek, verging on NSFW
> (depending on the mood of your workplace). It won Best Short
> Film at the 1976 Oscars, and appeared on a PBS series called
> Academy Leaders. There's a mere fragment of it here...
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy4nhVslcq0
>
> I had it on a increasingly-failing Betamax tape for years.
>
to get ahead, get a hat". Will add it to my list of things to check out if ever
encountered!
a425couple
Feb 28, 2020, 7:48:49 PM2/28/20
to
On 2/28/2020 8:07 AM, Dean Markley wrote:
> On Thursday, February 27, 2020 at 4:05:52 PM UTC-5, David P wrote:
>> Isambard Kingdom Brunel FRS (1806–1859) was a British civil engineer
who is
>> considered "one of the most ingenious & prolific figures in
engineering history", "one of the 19th-century engineering giants", &
"one of the greatest figures of the Industrial Revolution, [who] changed
the face of the English landscape with his groundbreaking designs &
ingenious constructions". Brunel built dockyards, the Great Western
Railway, a series of steamships including the first propeller-driven
transatlantic steamship, & numerous important bridges & tunnels. His
designs revolutionised public transport & modern engineering.
>> ----
> On Thursday, February 27, 2020 at 4:05:52 PM UTC-5, David P wrote:
>> Isambard Kingdom Brunel FRS (1806–1859) was a British civil engineer
who is
>> considered "one of the most ingenious & prolific figures in
engineering history", "one of the 19th-century engineering giants", &
"one of the greatest figures of the Industrial Revolution, [who] changed
the face of the English landscape with his groundbreaking designs &
ingenious constructions". Brunel built dockyards, the Great Western
Railway, a series of steamships including the first propeller-driven
transatlantic steamship, & numerous important bridges & tunnels. His
designs revolutionised public transport & modern engineering.
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isambard_Kingdom_Brunel
>
> Now I am curious as to why The Great Eastern was a commercial failure
but succeeded at laying cable?
>
It was huge. Much larger than passenger needs of the time.
>
> Now I am curious as to why The Great Eastern was a commercial failure
but succeeded at laying cable?
>
Getting 4,000 people together & committed for one trip from London
to India was not that likely.
Kind of like jet planes that could hold 800 people are possible,
but not economically viable for most routes.
Byker
Feb 28, 2020, 7:54:26 PM2/28/20
to
"George" wrote in message news:20200229082...@hnpl.net...
allegedly sealed up inside the double hull, to die of hunger and thirst,
whose ghostly hammerings supposedly cursed the ship. Curiously there are no
contemporary accounts appearing in any of the major newspapers during the
time of ship's break-up. The double hull was not sealed at the time of the
construction -- the inspection hatches were not closed until later, so there
was means of egress.
A similar story about the Titanic has also been floated around (pun
intended): https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hull-of-a-way-to-die/
>
> Sorry to ruin your dream but ----
> They just knocked the rivets out and craned the plates away.
Sorry to ruin some folklore about the skeleton of a riveter who was
> Sorry to ruin your dream but ----
> They just knocked the rivets out and craned the plates away.
allegedly sealed up inside the double hull, to die of hunger and thirst,
whose ghostly hammerings supposedly cursed the ship. Curiously there are no
contemporary accounts appearing in any of the major newspapers during the
time of ship's break-up. The double hull was not sealed at the time of the
construction -- the inspection hatches were not closed until later, so there
was means of egress.
A similar story about the Titanic has also been floated around (pun
intended): https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hull-of-a-way-to-die/
Dorothy J Heydt
Feb 29, 2020, 1:36:00 AM2/29/20
to
In article <XnsAB7213A0453FJa...@144.76.35.198>,
Oh, if you ever find a link to the whole thing, please please let
me know.
The film begins with two sign painters (I think they were), up on
a scaffold against a wall, and one starts telling the other all
about Brunel and his many works.
SPOILER
At the end of the tale, Brunel dies, and we return to the guys on
the scaffold. One says (Scottish accent) with a tear, "'Scuse
me. I would have preferred a happy ending."
"Right you are, one happy ending coming up!"
And it goes into a great rollicking song-and-dance number.
Lovely piece.
me know.
The film begins with two sign painters (I think they were), up on
a scaffold against a wall, and one starts telling the other all
about Brunel and his many works.
SPOILER
At the end of the tale, Brunel dies, and we return to the guys on
the scaffold. One says (Scottish accent) with a tear, "'Scuse
me. I would have preferred a happy ending."
"Right you are, one happy ending coming up!"
And it goes into a great rollicking song-and-dance number.
Lovely piece.
Jerry Brown
Feb 29, 2020, 3:53:29 AM2/29/20
to
On Fri, 28 Feb 2020 21:20:13 GMT, djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J
Heydt) wrote:
<snip>
>And way back in the seventies, there was a short film called
>_Great_ about Brunel, slightly tongue-in-cheek, verging on NSFW
>(depending on the mood of your workplace). It won Best Short
>Film at the 1976 Oscars, and appeared on a PBS series called
>Academy Leaders. There's a mere fragment of it here...
>
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy4nhVslcq0
>
>I had it on a increasingly-failing Betamax tape for years.
By the late Bob Godfrey, who made a number of hilarious saucy adult
short animated films before moving onto kids' cartoons in the late
seventies. My favourite of the adult shorts had to be his take on the
French film "The Red Balloon" about the loving relationship between a
little boy and his semi-sentient balloon; Godfrey's version
substituted an old man and an inflatable sex doll, and stil managed to
make the finale just as moving as the original.
There was an evening devoted to him and his work on BBC2 which I still
have on VHS and must get round to copying to DVD.
--
Jerry Brown
A cat may look at a king
(but probably won't bother)
Heydt) wrote:
<snip>
>And way back in the seventies, there was a short film called
>_Great_ about Brunel, slightly tongue-in-cheek, verging on NSFW
>(depending on the mood of your workplace). It won Best Short
>Film at the 1976 Oscars, and appeared on a PBS series called
>Academy Leaders. There's a mere fragment of it here...
>
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy4nhVslcq0
>
>I had it on a increasingly-failing Betamax tape for years.
short animated films before moving onto kids' cartoons in the late
seventies. My favourite of the adult shorts had to be his take on the
French film "The Red Balloon" about the loving relationship between a
little boy and his semi-sentient balloon; Godfrey's version
substituted an old man and an inflatable sex doll, and stil managed to
make the finale just as moving as the original.
There was an evening devoted to him and his work on BBC2 which I still
have on VHS and must get round to copying to DVD.
--
Jerry Brown
A cat may look at a king
(but probably won't bother)
Johnny Tindalos
Feb 29, 2020, 7:49:51 AM2/29/20
to
djh...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) wrote in
news:q6G9K...@kithrup.com:
> Oh, if you ever find a link to the whole thing, please please let
> me know.
> "Right you are, one happy ending coming up!"
>
> And it goes into a great rollicking song-and-dance number.
> Lovely piece.
>
Johnny Tindalos
Feb 29, 2020, 8:15:15 AM2/29/20
to
Jerry Brown <je...@jwbrown.co.uk.invalid> wrote in
news:tr8k5fpf1til8oqe3...@jwbrown.co.uk:
> By the late Bob Godfrey, who made a number of hilarious saucy adult
> short animated films before moving onto kids' cartoons in the late
> seventies.
I wonder which cartoons they were, as surely, being a wee one back then...**checks**
oh dear. Have indeed seen them. Flamethrower please! Or napalm. Napalm would do!
(He managed to be responsible for both the cartoons that I disliked the most, but
at least had nothing to do with _The Devil and Daniel Mouse_, which flat-out
terrified me both times I saw it. Partly because I was ill fairly often as a kid
and given a high enough temperature would reliably hallucinate Satan. I see that's
also on Youtube; hey you ole Devil, I ain't 'fraid a' you...)
> My favourite of the adult shorts had to be his take on the
> French film "The Red Balloon" about the loving relationship between a
> little boy and his semi-sentient balloon; Godfrey's version
> substituted an old man and an inflatable sex doll, and stil managed to
> make the finale just as moving as the original.
Balloons (of which inflatable dolls must be a subset) seem destined for sorrow.
Eeyore (in the books, at least) had a sensible solution to this.
> There was an evening devoted to him and his work on BBC2 which I still
> have on VHS and must get round to copying to DVD.
>
From Wikipedia I see he was an advisor on _Yellow Submarine_ and made animations
based on Steve Bell's work. Will hope to catch a repeat sometime!
news:tr8k5fpf1til8oqe3...@jwbrown.co.uk:
> By the late Bob Godfrey, who made a number of hilarious saucy adult
> short animated films before moving onto kids' cartoons in the late
> seventies.
oh dear. Have indeed seen them. Flamethrower please! Or napalm. Napalm would do!
(He managed to be responsible for both the cartoons that I disliked the most, but
at least had nothing to do with _The Devil and Daniel Mouse_, which flat-out
terrified me both times I saw it. Partly because I was ill fairly often as a kid
and given a high enough temperature would reliably hallucinate Satan. I see that's
also on Youtube; hey you ole Devil, I ain't 'fraid a' you...)
> My favourite of the adult shorts had to be his take on the
> French film "The Red Balloon" about the loving relationship between a
> little boy and his semi-sentient balloon; Godfrey's version
> substituted an old man and an inflatable sex doll, and stil managed to
> make the finale just as moving as the original.
Eeyore (in the books, at least) had a sensible solution to this.
> There was an evening devoted to him and his work on BBC2 which I still
> have on VHS and must get round to copying to DVD.
>
based on Steve Bell's work. Will hope to catch a repeat sometime!
George
Feb 29, 2020, 2:11:00 PM2/29/20
to
go with cleaning gear. These are dirty, small and dark.
And why you never hear of them outside a stokers mess :)
George
Feb 29, 2020, 2:13:47 PM2/29/20
to
O
One of my greatest OE experiences was in Bristol where an old mate
showed me around the Bridge, the Great Britain and the floating harbour.
Brunel was a genius
One of my greatest OE experiences was in Bristol where an old mate
showed me around the Bridge, the Great Britain and the floating harbour.
Brunel was a genius
Byker
Feb 29, 2020, 2:38:49 PM2/29/20
to
"George" wrote in message news:20200301081...@hnpl.net...
them off, considering the crude state of metallurgy back then. Even those on
the Titanic fifty years later were unsatisfactory:
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/science/15titanic.html
https://www.heraldtribune.com/article/LK/20080415/News/605212529/SH
Poor-quality iron was also held partly responsible for the Tay Bridge
disaster in 1871: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_Bridge_disaster
Had Brunel designed it, it's doubtful that this would have happened...
>
> Even today there are 'engineering spaces' where stokers are required to
> go with cleaning gear. These are dirty, small and dark.
> And why you never hear of them outside a stokers mess :)
Getting back to the rivets, the scrappers must have had an easy time popping
> Even today there are 'engineering spaces' where stokers are required to
> go with cleaning gear. These are dirty, small and dark.
> And why you never hear of them outside a stokers mess :)
them off, considering the crude state of metallurgy back then. Even those on
the Titanic fifty years later were unsatisfactory:
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/science/15titanic.html
https://www.heraldtribune.com/article/LK/20080415/News/605212529/SH
Poor-quality iron was also held partly responsible for the Tay Bridge
disaster in 1871: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_Bridge_disaster
Had Brunel designed it, it's doubtful that this would have happened...
Peter Skelton
Feb 29, 2020, 5:58:48 PM2/29/20
to
Keith Willshaw
Mar 3, 2020, 9:10:59 AM3/3/20
to
the Atmospheric Railway and the Greast Eastern steam ship. Ultimately
his broad gauge lost out to Stephenson's Narrow gause and it was George
Stephenson who designed and built the first Intercity Railway between
Liverpool and Manchester as well as the engine - The Rocket.
George Stephenson was a remarkable man. The son of illiterate parents in
a working class family he spent his first wages on learning how to read
and write and when he was acting as brakesman on the winding gear at the
local colliery invented an improvement that saved the mine owners
serious money. The owners appointed him as the enginewright for all
their collieries. When in that post he invented his own design of safety
lamp for the local mines.
He built his first steam locomotive, The Blucher in 1814 when he was 33
years old, In total he built 16 engines between 1814 and 1820, selected
what is now standard gauge and set up a foundty to produce iron rails in
place of the old wooden rails and converted the Killingworth collieries
lines to steam power in place of horse power by 1820. He built the first
locomotive depot in history at Shildon before building the first steam
powered public railway (the Stockton and Darlington - which is still
open) in 1825. It reached the unheard of speed of 25 mph while hauling
80 tons of coal. In fact we are currently planning the celebration of
the 200 hundred year anniversary in what is today Middlesbrough but was
then called Port Stockton.
The rest as they say is history, as an old and very wealthy man he had
his own train but always preferred to ride on the footplate and chat to
and the driver and fireman. He also had the ear of the great men of the
the day including the Prime Minister - the Duke of Wellington. Not bad
for a 19th working class Geordie lad in a clsss ridden society buth then
another working class lad from the North East had already blazed a
trail. Captain James Cook RN, discoverer of Australia was born the sone
of a farm labourer in a cottage half a mile from where I live.
George's son Robert was a very good engineer indeed and worked with many
other railway pioneers including Brunel and built some of the first
railways in South America.
Marland
Mar 3, 2020, 3:46:38 PM3/3/20
to
dismantling site when the tide is out,
A more recognisable relic is the top part of one of her masts that was
purchased by Everton Soccer club and installed at their Anfield ground,
Everton later moved and the ground taken over by Liverpool
Soccer club who still use the pole to fly their flag.
https://goo.gl/maps/iPzdKQF2FGhkzTYK9
Building works in London a few years back exposed some of the timbers she
was built on .
Her whistle also survives and can be seen in Bristol as part of the SS
Great Britain exhibition.
GH
Byker
Mar 3, 2020, 3:58:46 PM3/3/20
to
Peter Skelton <skelto...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Saturday, 29 February 2020 14:38:49 UTC-5, Byker wrote:
>> "George" wrote in message news:20200301081...@hnpl.net...
>>>
>>> Even today there are 'engineering spaces' where stokers are required to
>>> go with cleaning gear. These are dirty, small and dark.
>>> And why you never hear of them outside a stokers mess :)
>>
>> Getting back to the rivets, the scrappers must have had an easy time
>> popping
>> them off, considering the crude state of metallurgy back then. Even those
>> on
>> the Titanic fifty years later were unsatisfactory:
>> https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/science/15titanic.html
>> https://www.heraldtribune.com/article/LK/20080415/News/605212529/SH
>>
>> Poor-quality iron was also held partly responsible for the Tay Bridge
>> disaster in 1871: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_Bridge_disaster
>>
>> Had Brunel designed it, it's doubtful that this would have happened...
>
> They used a wrecking ball to smash her into manageable chunks, the
> process took years. (It was before torches but after pneumatic chisels.)
Even after being bought for scrap, it STILL lost money...
> On Saturday, 29 February 2020 14:38:49 UTC-5, Byker wrote:
>> "George" wrote in message news:20200301081...@hnpl.net...
>>>
>>> Even today there are 'engineering spaces' where stokers are required to
>>> go with cleaning gear. These are dirty, small and dark.
>>> And why you never hear of them outside a stokers mess :)
>>
>> Getting back to the rivets, the scrappers must have had an easy time
>> popping
>> them off, considering the crude state of metallurgy back then. Even those
>> on
>> the Titanic fifty years later were unsatisfactory:
>> https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/science/15titanic.html
>> https://www.heraldtribune.com/article/LK/20080415/News/605212529/SH
>>
>> Poor-quality iron was also held partly responsible for the Tay Bridge
>> disaster in 1871: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_Bridge_disaster
>>
>> Had Brunel designed it, it's doubtful that this would have happened...
>
> They used a wrecking ball to smash her into manageable chunks, the
> process took years. (It was before torches but after pneumatic chisels.)
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