Brunel, Isambard Kingdom (1806–1859)

British engineer who pioneered many important construction techniques, designing the Clifton suspension bridge at Bristol, England, laying the Great Western Railway with a controversial 7-foot (1.23-meter) gauge, and building iron-hulled steamship, including the giant Great Eastern.

His father, the French-born British engineer and inventor, Marc Isambard Brunel (1769–1849) built the world's first underwater tunnel (under the River Thames in London) and devised machinery for the mass production of pulley blocks and army boots.

Further biographical details

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born at Portsmouth and, in 1823, after two years spent at the college of Henri Quatre, in Paris, entered his father's office. He helped him in the construction of the Thames Tunnel and, in 1829–31, planned the Clifton Suspension Bridge, work on which began in 1835 and was completed only in 1864. He designed the Great Western (1838), the first steamship built to cross the Atlantic, and the Great Britain (1845), the first ocean screw-steamer. The Great Eastern, the largest ship in the world at that time, was built under his sole direction in 1853–58. In 1833 he was appointed engineer to the Great Western Railway, and designed and oversaw construction of all of the tunnels, bridges, viaducts, and arches on that line. He was also involved in the improvement or construction of docks Bristol, Monkwearmouth, Cardiff, and Milford Haven, among others.

Brunel was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1830. He died suddenly on September 15, 1859.

Related category

• ENGINEERS AND INVENTORS

Also on this site:

Encyclopedia of Alternative Energy & Sustainable Living
Encyclopedia of History

BACK TO TOP