The first theatre at New York (subsequently burned down) was erected by him, and it has been described as a masterpiece of symmetry and elegance.
But a new field of constructive engineering opened to him. With the drawings and working model of machinery for the manufacture of blocks, he found his way to England in 1800, impelled thither not only by respect for the liberal institutions and nautical character of the country, but by an attachment which he had early formed for Miss Kingdom, an English lady, while she was at school in Rouen. The patent of Mr. Walter Taylor of Southampton had come into operation in 1781; contracts had been made, to disturb which was held to be impossible. After many vexations and disappointments, Brunel was installed at Portsmouth in 1804; but it was not until 1808 that the whole system was, by the ingenious and indefatigable inventor, considered complete. From that time to the present, during a period of the most unprecedented advancement in the mechanical arts, no improvement has been either made, or even suggested, in the block machinery at Portsmouth; and it may be further added, that to the mechanical appliances then first introduced, is the mechanical world indebted for much of its present precision and economy. It is computed that, to complete the shells of blocks, four men can now accomplish what required fifty men by the old method; that to prepare the sheaves, six men can now do the work of sixty; and thus, that ten men can with ease, uniformity, and celerity, do that which demanded the uncertain labour of one hundred and ten. As a remuneration for his success in this unparalleled work, Brunel asked the saving of one year, £20,000. He received two-thirds. Besides the circular saw, Brunel now introduced the circular knife, increasing thereby many fold the economy of veneer-cutting. But he met here with most violent and successful opposition from the trade. Amongst other works of a less striking character, yet sufficient to have raised any other man to the highest position in his profession, may be enumerated a suspension bridge, so admirably constructed as to resist the hurricanes of the east; the application of condensed carbonic acid gas as a moving power; the construction of an arch of large span without centering; the introduction of those strong, light, and economical roofs now common at our railway stations; and the masterly arrangement at Chatham for the preparation of timber for the construction and repair of shipping. This beautiful arrangement displays in a remarkable manner that singular comprehensiveness and simplicity of design, with elaborateness of detail, which so strongly characterize all Brunel's labours. It may be noted, that so confident was he in the completeness of his instructions and in his resident engineer, Mr. Elcum, that he scarcely visited the works until they were to be reported upon as finished. The first double-acting marine steam-engine was Brunel's invention—an engine which gave such umbrage to the good people of Margate in 1816, upon the occasion of the first trial trip, that common civility was denied to all connected with the vessel, and a night's lodging absolutely refused to the ingenious Inventor at the hotel. Of all his labours, however, the one which has most excited the attention, not only of this country, but of civilized Europe, is the Thames tunnel. The project for connecting the shores of the Thames below London bridge, so as to avoid any interference with the navigation, had long been considered an important commercial desideratum. A company was formed in 1825, and the works were commenced by sinking a shaft fifty feet in diameter, from whence the horizontal excavation was opened by means of a shield in iron of singular and beautiful construction, thirty-six feet wide and twenty-two feet high, allowing a double arched roadway to follow, in brick and Roman cement. In the spring of 1843 this work, which thirty-four years before, had been pronounced by the highest scientific and practical authorities impracticable, was completed. The history of the Thames tunnel—the last, and, as its gifted architect always considered it, the greatest of his mechanical conceptions, and to which he devoted the latter years of his valuable and fruitful life—has yet to be written. In its progress an unusual variety of engineering resources were developed; an amount of energy, courage, and endurance exhibited, never before demanded in the execution of any work of peace.
In his person Brunel was below the middle size, more actively than strongly formed, and of a nervous lymphatic temperament. His countenance and head were striking; the latter of unusual development both in the reflective and knowing faculties. In his disposition he was peculiarly social and unaffected; less remarkable for dignity, perhaps, than for amiability: had he not been a great mechanist, he would probably have proved a distinguished philanthropist. Strongly attached to free institutions, Brunel resisted every temptation held out by other governments, and more particularly by that of Russia, to increase his wealth at the sacrifice of his independence. He died in London on the 12th December, 1849, in his eighty-first year, vice-president of the Royal Society, and corresponding member of the Institute of France, leaving two daughters and one son.—R. B.
BRUNEL, Isambard Kingdom, C.E., F.R.S., son of Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, and, like his father, one of the most eminent engineers of the present century, was born in 1806 at Portsmouth, where Sir Marc was then engaged in erecting the famous block-factory. The bent of his mind towards the same pursuits as the elder Brunel had followed with European renown, was marked at an early age by the intelligent interest which he manifested in all his father's plans and occupations; by his enthusiastic love of drawing; and by the ease and rapidity with which he mastered difficult problems in mechanical science. Art from the period of his boyhood was a passion with him, and to the last he had the keenest relish for everything connected with it. When he was about fourteen years of age he was sent to Paris, and after going through a course of preparatory studies under the care of M. Masson, was placed for two years in the college of Henri Quatre. This discipline, following upon the anxious tutelage of his father, who was no doubt his best as well as his earliest instructor, qualified him for taking an important part in the great undertakings of Sir Marc; and on his return to England he entered his father's office, to be immediately engaged in such works as the Thames tunnel (see preceding memoir). This magnificent enterprise was commenced in 1825, when the younger Brunel was in his twentieth year. By this time his great capabilities as an engineer were manifest to all with whom he came in contact. At the foundation of these, it was observed, lay his determination to master completely the details of whatever subject engrossed his attention. Drawing, modelling, and description of plans, were all easy to him, because his plans were the offspring of a mind which no labour or difficulty daunted, and which could only rest in the most thorough conception and mastery of any given problem. It is said that if he had failed in the pursuits he had chosen, he would have had no lack of chances of pre-eminent distinction as a workman. And while his skill in mechanical science was gradually obtaining the recognition it merited, he was giving abundant proof that his energy and enterprise were inferior only, and perhaps not inferior, to those of his father. Throughout the period in which Sir Marc was employed in the construction of the Thames tunnel, the younger Brunel underwent, in connection with the work, an amount of fatigue and anxiety which seriously impaired his health for the rest of his life. From such difficulties as attended its execution, men of only ordinary physical and mental energy would have shrunk, but both father and son had in them a Norman hardihood of disposition, which in the face of difficulties rose into a kind of heroism, and would not be baulked of its purpose. In 1828, when an irruption of the river put a period temporarily to the works under the Thames, the younger Brunel undertook the construction of docks at Sunderland and Bristol. These, and works of a similar kind at various seaports, are among the best monuments of his genius. About the same period he offered a design for a bridge across the Avon at Clifton, which Telford recommended should be adopted; but the work was not completed. In consequence, however, of the merit of this design, Brunel's name became favourably known in Bristol; and, on its being proposed to form a railway between London and that city, Brunel was appointed engineer. By this appointment, and his former connection with iron roads, as engineer to the Bristol and Gloucestershire and the Merthyr and Cardiff tramways, his attention was powerfully directed to the construction of railways, and the results were such as to bring his name before the public in the most prominent manner. As engineer of the Great Western Railway Company, it is well known that he introduced, in the face of much uncivil opposition, what is popularly called the broad gauge. The controversy to which it gave rise has still an interest for the professional man, but this is not the place to enter into details. Apart, however, from this feature of the Great Western, its construction was such as to enhance prodigiously the fame of Brunel. The viaduct at Han-
