Part 1 (1/2)

The life of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Civil Engineer.

by Isambard Brunel.

PREFACE.

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-s.h.i.+p, 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 a.s.sistance 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 a.s.sistance 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 compa.s.s 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.

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 s.h.i.+ELD--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.

ISAMBARD KINGDOM BRUNEL was born on the ninth day of April, 1806, at Portsmouth, and was the only son of Sir Marc Isambard Brunel.[1]

Most biographies commence with an account of the parentage of the person whose life is about to be written. If this be permitted in any case, no apology can be needed for prefixing to a Life of Mr. Brunel some particulars of his father's career, since he was indebted to him, not only for the inheritance of many natural gifts, and for a professional education such as few have been able to procure, but also for a bright example of the cultivation of those habits of forethought and perseverance, which alone can ensure the successful accomplishment of great designs.

Sir Marc Isambard Brunel was a native of Hacqueville, a village in Normandy, where his family had been settled for several generations. He was originally intended for the priesthood; but, as he showed no inclination for that calling, and a very decided talent for mechanical pursuits, he was permitted to enter the French Navy; and he served in the West Indies for six years, namely, from 1786 to 1792. On his return home, at the expiration of his term of service, his strong Royalist sympathies made it unsafe for him to remain in France, and with great difficulty he managed to escape to America. He landed at New York in September 1793, and soon obtained employment as a civil engineer. A few years afterwards he was appointed engineer to the State of New York; and, while holding that office, he designed a cannon foundry and other important public works.

In January 1799, when Sir Isambard was in his thirtieth year, he came over to England, and shortly after his arrival married Miss Sophia Kingdom, a lady for whom he had formed an attachment some years before.[2]