The life of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Civil Engineer

I have not attempted to describe the events of my father’s life in chronological order beyond the end of Chapter III., which brings down the narrative to the close of 1835, the year in which the Act was obtained for the Great Western Railway.

Chapter IV. contains a general account of my father’s railway works, with the exception of the Bridges, which are described in Chapter VII. The history of the Broad Gauge and of the trial of the Atmospheric System on the South Devon Railway is given in Chapters V. and VI.

Chapters VIII.--XIII. contain an account of my father’s labours for the advancement of Ocean Steam Navigation. It will be noted that these chapters cover the same period as Chapters IV.--VII., namely, from 1835, the year of the commencement of the Great Western Railway and the ‘Great Western’ Steam-ship, to 1859, the year of his death, in which the Saltash Bridge and the ‘Great Eastern’ were both completed.

Chapters VII. (on the Bridges) and XIV. (on the Docks) have been written by Mr. William Bell, for many years a member of my father’s engineering staff; and in regard to Chapter V. (on the Broad Gauge), I have to acknowledge assistance rendered me by Mr. William Pole, F.R.S.

For the Note on the Carbonic Acid Gas Engine which follows Chapter I., I am indebted to Mr. William Hawes; and for Chapter VI. (on the Atmospheric System) to Mr. Froude, F.R.S.

I have also printed letters, written to me at my request, relating to various incidents in my father’s life.

The assistance I received in the preparation of the chapters on Steam Navigation from my friend the late Captain Claxton, R.N., has been referred to in the note to p. 234.

I have throughout availed myself of my brother’s professional knowledge.

I have been compelled, in order to bring the work within the compass of a single volume, to omit much that would otherwise have been inserted, and I must therefore be held responsible for the general arrangement of those parts which have been contributed by others, as well as for the chapters which I have written myself.

Lastly, I desire gratefully to thank those friends who, by supplying me with materials and revising the proof sheets, have helped me in my endeavour to make this book, as far as possible, an accurate record of my father’s life, written in the spirit of which he would have approved.

I. B.

18 DUKE STREET, WESTMINSTER:

November, 1870.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

LIST OF REPORTS AND OTHER ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS xvii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxvii

CHAPTER I.

EARLY LIFE.

A.D. 1806--1828.

Birth of Mr. Brunel, April 9, 1806--Sir Marc Isambard Brunel--The Block Machinery--Mr. Brunel’s School Life--The Thames Tunnel--Sinking of the Rotherhithe Shaft--Description of the Shield--Extracts from Sir Isambard Brunel’s Journals from the Commencement of the Thames Tunnel to the date of the Second Irruption of the River, January 12, 1828--Note A: The Bourbon Suspension Bridges--Note B: Experiments with Carbonic Acid Gas......1

CHAPTER II.

THE CLIFTON SUSPENSION BRIDGE.

A.D. 1829--1853. ÆTATIS 24--48.

Origin of the Undertaking--The First Competition, November 1829--Description of Mr. Brunel’s Plans--Mr. Telford’s Decision as Umpire--Mr. Telford’s Design--The Second Competition--Mr. Brunel appointed Engineer, March 1831--Commencement of the Works, August 1836--Description of the Design--Abandonment of the Works, 1853--Formation of a New Company and Completion of the Bridge, 1864--Note: The Hungerford Suspension Bridge.....46

CHAPTER III.

EARLY HISTORY OF THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.

A.D. 1833--1835. ÆTATIS 27--30.