Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

English mechanical and civil engineer

Date of Birth: 09-Apr-1806

Place of Birth: Portsmouth, England, United Kingdom

Date of Death: 15-Sep-1859

Profession: architect, engineer, mechanical engineer, civil engineer

Zodiac Sign: Aries


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About Isambard Kingdom Brunel

  • Isambard Kingdom Brunel (; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history", "one of the 19th-century engineering giants", and "one of the greatest figures of the Industrial Revolution, [who] changed the face of the English landscape with his groundbreaking designs and ingenious constructions".
  • Brunel built dockyards, the Great Western Railway, a series of steamships including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship, and numerous important bridges and tunnels.
  • His designs revolutionised public transport and modern engineering. Though Brunel's projects were not always successful, they often contained innovative solutions to long-standing engineering problems.
  • During his career, Brunel achieved many engineering firsts, including assisting in the building of the first tunnel under a navigable river and development of SS Great Britain, the first propeller-driven, ocean-going, iron ship, which, when built in 1843, was the largest ship ever built.Brunel set the standard for a well-built railway, using careful surveys to minimise gradients and curves.
  • This necessitated expensive construction techniques, new bridges, new viaducts, and the two-mile (3.2 km) long Box Tunnel.
  • One controversial feature was the wide gauge, a "broad gauge" of 7 ft 1/4 in (2,140 mm), instead of what was later to be known as "standard gauge" of 4 ft 8 1/2 in (1,435 mm).
  • He astonished Britain by proposing to extend the Great Western Railway westward to North America by building steam-powered, iron-hulled ships.
  • He designed and built three ships that revolutionised naval engineering: the SS Great Western (1838), the SS Great Britain (1843), and the SS Great Eastern (1859). In 2002, Brunel was placed second in a BBC public poll to determine the "100 Greatest Britons".
  • In 2006, the bicentenary of his birth, a major programme of events celebrated his life and work under the name Brunel 200.

Read more at Wikipedia

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