Page 85 - BBC History The Story of Science & Technology - 2017 UK

IK Brunel built the most ambitious bridges, ships

and railways of the 19th century. He may have been one
of our greatest Britons but, as Steven Brindle reveals,

this engineering genius was far from being

the easiest man to work for

sambard Kingdom Brunel was one of crucial to the success of this remarkable
the great creators of the 19th century. operation. But why this extraordinary
From his office at 18, Duke Street, treatment of an evidently capable and valued
London, he controlled an engineering employee (Pall Mall was no more than
empire: a professional staff that was in a 15-minute walk from Brunel’s office)?
the order of 30 engineers, clerks and The answer is that Brunel, in all his working
I tsmen, usually working on relationships, was a dictator. As we shall see,
draugh
several different railway lines, and other a need to be in complete control emerges
projects, at one time. time and time again, as a theme in his
What was it like to be part of Brunel’s correspondence.
team? Here is the testimony of John Brunton,
then a humble assistant engineer working on Tough schooling
a branch railway line in Dorset. On day in Brunel had been trained in a hard school:
February 1855, he received an abrupt it was a unique education, provided by his
telegram from Duke Street ordering him, brilliant engineer father, Sir Marc Brunel.
without explanation, to present himself there Sir Marc provided him with the best
at 6am the following morning. Brunton mathematical education available at the
packed a case, said goodbye to his wife, and Lycée Henri IV in Paris, then with engineer-
His father Marc, above,
left for town immediately. gave Brunel a rigorous ing apprenticeships in the best workshops of
At six the next morning: “a footman in engineering education the day, those of Louis Breguet in Paris and
livery opened the door, and told me in reply Henry Maudslay in London. But Isambard
to my enquiry that Mr Brunel was in his ISAMBARD was learning much more than just engineer-
office room expecting me. I was ushered into ing: he was learning how precarious life
the room blazing with light, and saw Mr KINGDOM BRUNEL could be, in the turbulent market economy
Brunel sitting writing at his desk. He never (1806–59) of late-Georgian Britain. His father, the
raised his eyes from the paper at my entrance. most brilliant inventor of the age, was alas
I knew his peculiarities, so walked up to his Brunel was one of Britain’s greatest no businessman: several of his ventures
desk and said shortly ‘Mr Brunel, I received 19th-century civil engineers. He spent failed, and in 1821 both Marc and his wife
your telegram and here I am’. ‘Ah’, was his 15 years on the GWR line from London Sophia were imprisoned for three months
reply, ‘here’s a letter to Mr Hawes at the War to Bristol and his superb engineering and in the notorious Marshalsea for debt.
design skills can be seen in the bridges,
Office in Pall Mall, be there with it at ten Isambard, then 16, was at school in Paris.
stations, viaducts and tunnels that he
o’clock.’ He resumed his writing and without Returning to England, Isambard became
built for it. From 1838, his pioneering
a further word I left his office.” his father’s apprentice. In 1827, aged 20, he
steamships ss Great Western, ss Great
The upshot, in fact, was that Brunton was Britain and ss Great Eastern changed the became the resident engineer on Marc’s
sent out to Turkey, to supervise the con- face of transoceanic navigation. His Thames Tunnel, the most daring feat of civil
struction of a prefabricated hospital for works of civil engineering, many of which engineering that had ever been attempted.
British troops, invalids from the Crimean are still in use, included dock improve- A year and a half of backbreaking effort
war, which Brunel was then in the process of ments at Bristol and Sunderland, followed, but Isambard somehow had time
designing. The whole hospital, housing 1,100 innovative iron bridges at Chepstow and to keep a remarkably revealing personal
beds, was designed, built, shipped and Saltash, and the Hungerford Suspension diary. This entry is from October 1827:
Bridge across the Thames. His design for
assembled in less than 10 months. Brunel the Clifton Suspension Bridge was “As to my character. My self-conceit and love
GETTY must have realised that Brunton had great completed after his death, aged just 53. of glory or rather approbation vie with each
organisational abilities, which would be
other which shall govern me… I often do the
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