Brunel

The Man Who Built The World.

An illustrated celebration of the life and engineering achievements of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was one of the world's great engineering pioneers and this unique illustrated biography traces the life, times and monumental achievements of this celebrated Victorian showman. The son of an engineer, Brunel was born in Portsmouth, England in 1806. He entered his father's office in 1822 and apprenticed on the construction of the Thames Tunnel. He quickly advanced to the position of Chief Engineer, only for his apprenticeship to be cut short when he was injured in a tunnelling incident. While recovering from injury, Brunel won the commission for one of his most famous structures, the Clifton suspension bridge. His career had truly begun. Aged only 26, he was appointed Chief Engineer to the most ambitious railway of all time - the Great Western Railway. Brunel oversaw every aspect of the railway's design, from the track and its layout, bridges, tunnels, rolling stock, even the lamp posts for the stations. Ever ambitious, he was responsible for a series of great ships, most notably the Great Western, the first steamship to regularly cross the Atlantic, and the Great Eastern, the largest ship ever constructed, which was not surpassed for over 40 years. An engineering genius and one of the great figures of Victorian age, Brunel transformed the face of Britain and the world with his ground-breaking designs and pioneering constructions. Drawing on personal letters, blueprints, diaries, notebooks and rare photography, Dan Cruickshank and a host of expert contributors passionately explore the legacy of Brunel, the man who built the world.