Page 88 - BBC History The Story of Science & Technology - 2017 UK

People & Personalities / Brunel

appointed was his chief clerk, Joseph
Brunel’s office at his home in Duke
Bennett, who remained with him for the rest Street, London was the busy centre of his
of his life. Draughtsmen, clerks, engineers, web of engineering projects
all had to be taken on.
After 1833, Brunel was too busy ever to
keep a regular personal diary again: instead
we have the office diaries, covering much of
the 1840s and 1850s. They reveal a barely
believable timetable. During the planning of
the GWR in 1834, Brunel had confided to his
first senior assistant, John Hammond:
“between ourselves it is harder work than
I like. I am rarely much under 20 hours a day
at it.” The office diaries suggest that, even so,
Brunel worked at least 16 hours a day,
six days a week, for the rest of his life. From
early in the morning until well into the
evening, he was engaged in meetings, or
visiting his works in progress, or appearing
before parliamentary committees. Where,
then, did he find time for the vast quantities
of writing and design work, for which we
have clear evidence in the shape of his
immense personal archive? they turned the designs into reality. necessity of informing you that I do not
Another assistant, GT Clark, left this His need for control, which emerges in his consider you to discharge efficiently the
account: “I never met his equal for sustained correspondence, was fundamental. Here he duties of assistant engineer and consequent-
power of work. After a hard day spent in is, in 1851, on his conception of his own role: ly, as I informed you yesterday, your
preparing and delivering evidence, and a “I never connect myself with an engineering appointment is rescinded from this day.
hasty dinner, he would attend consultations work except as the Directing Engineer who, A great want of industry is that of which
till a late hour; and then, secure against under the Directors, has the sole responsibil- I principally complain, and thus it is entirely
interruption, sit down to his papers, and ity and control of the engineering, and is within your power to redeem the situation.”
draw specifications, write letters or reports, therefore ‘The Engineer’.” And here he is, Brunel offered Harrison a further period of
or make calculations all through the night. in June 1836, writing to William Glennie, employment “on trial”, but on the same day,
If at all pressed for time he slept in his on the latter’s application for a post as Harrison had forwarded the bill for a
armchair for two or three hours, and at early assistant engineer with responsibility for ‘circumferentor’ (a kind of theodolite),
dawn he was ready for the work of the day. the Box Tunnel: “what I offer now must not which Brunel had ordered him to buy.
When he travelled he usually started about be a certain or permanent position. My Harrison had misunderstood Brunel’s
four or five in the morning, so as to reach his responsibility is too great to allow of my instruction, thinking that he wanted the
ground by daylight… This power of work retaining… anyone who may appear to instrument to be bought for the company.
was no doubt aided by the abstemiousness of me to be inefficient… it is an understood Brunel re-opened the above letter, and added
habits, and by his light and joyous tempera- thing that all under me are subject to the following note: “You have acted with
ment. One luxury, tobacco, he indulged in to immediate dismissal at my pleasure. It is reference to this in a manner I do not choose
excess, and probably to his injury.” for you to decide if you are likely to proceed to pass over. It indicates a temper of mind
satisfactorily, and whether the chance is which excludes all hope of your profiting
In total control sufficient inducement”. from the new trial I had proposed. You will
Did Brunel really need to work so hard ? Brunel, evidently, was not a man to please consider yourself dismissed from the
The reason he did was that he was not at all tolerate slackness in his employees, and Company’s service on receipt of this letter.”
good at delegating, or even at collaborating. where he detected it, he was merciless.
His friend and rival, Robert Stephenson, the In 1836, he wrote to a young engineer called Praise where it’s due
only one of his contemporaries whose Harrison, working on the Wharncliffe Yet Brunel, for all his apparent harshness,
achievements could really be said to match Viaduct at the London end of the line: was capable of appreciating loyal service.
his, found it natural to collaborate with “My Dear Sir, I am very sorry to be under the His trusted assistant, Robert Pearson
others over design issues, or delegate Brereton, was sent in 1844 to be Brunel’s
important pieces of work to members of his man on the spot in designing the new
team: Brunel could not, or at any rate did Brunel became Piedmont Railway. Italian officialdom
not, do this. proved impossible to work with, and Brunel
The 50-odd volumes of his sketchbooks, notorious for wrote to the minister responsible: “My
now in Bristol University Library, prove assistant, a peculiarly energetic, persevering
beyond doubt that he was ultimately his insistence young man, writes to me declining to
responsible for most of the real design work remain as feeling entirely disheartened at the
on his railways: his staff were there to take on exceptionally constant interference with every detail – and
measurements, provide data, work his high standards at the entire absence of confidence.” Brunel
sketches up, and oversee the contractors as was also perfectly capable of appreciating

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