Introduction
In the frontispiece of his book on Brunel, Peter Hay quotes from Nicholson's British Encyclopaedia of 1909 as follows:
'Engineers are extremely necessary for these purposes; wherefore it is requisite that, besides being ingenious, they should be brave in proportion.'
Thus we are advised that engineers must not only be smart, they must also have nerve. By and large, engineers are a conservative lot. And let me hasten to add, this is only as it should be. In all engineering works, the safety of the public has to be uppermost, and engineers avoid taking unnecessary chances. But sometimes, the need to be sure gets in the way of the essential spark of engineering, the drive to innovate. Whatever else we may think of him, Isambard Kingdom Brunel had that visionary drive.
His father, Sir Marc Isambard Brunel (1769-1849), was himself a famous engineer, of French parents. He eventually settled in Britain and married Sophia Kingdom, an English woman whom he had known in France in earlier days. Their only son Isambard was born on 9 April, 1806. He was sent to France at the age of 14 to study mathematics and science and was only 16 when he returned to England to work with his father. Sir Marc was then building his famous tunnel under the River Thames. Isambard was recuperating near Bristol from injuries received in a tunnel cave-in when he became involved with his own first major project.
A Suspension Bridge on the Avon Gorge
'The technical challenges of this engineering project were immense...'
The span of Brunel's bridge was over 700ft, longer than any existing when it was designed, and the height above water about 245ft. The technical challenges of this engineering project were immense, and Brunel dealt with them with his usual thoroughness and ingenuity. But it is also interesting to look at how Brunel handled the other side of the engineering business: selling his ideas.
Two design competitions were held, and the great bridge designer Thomas Telford was the committee's expert. Brunel presented four designs. He went beyond technicalities to include arguments based on, among other things, the grace of his tower design. He wrote to his politician brother-in-law (Benjamin Hawes) as follows:
'...of all the wonderful feats I have performed, since I have been in this part of the world, I think yesterday I performed the most wonderful. I produced unanimity among 15 men who were all quarrelling about that most ticklish subject - taste.'
Unfortunately, he only got so far as to put up the end piers in his lifetime. The Clifton Suspension Bridge was completed in his honour by his engineering friends in 1864, and is still in use.
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