Particularize Out Of Books Isambard Kingdom Brunel: a graphic biography

Title	:	Isambard Kingdom Brunel: a graphic biography
Author	:	Eugene Byrne
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Special Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 98 pages
Published	:	2006 by brunel200
Categories	:	Transport. Railways. Biography. Childrens. History

Isambard Kingdom Brunel: a graphic biography Paperback | Pages: 98 pages

Relation Concering Books Isambard Kingdom Brunel: a graphic biography

One of my all-time Victorian heroes, Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a workaholic, a man well ahead of his time and one who changed the face of engineering for ever. Tunnels, bridges, railways, ships, nothing was beyond his capabilities, even if at the beginning of a project he was not an expert in the subject. He was not without his failures but they were far fewer than his successes.

He was born on 9 April 1806 and from a young age he was determined to be not just an engineer, but the best engineer. He was educated in England and France, his father Marc was a Frenchman, and at the age of 20 Isambard was called on to literally dig his father out of a hole. Marc was constructing a tunnel under the Thames from Wapping to Rotherhithe but the roof kept leaking raw sewage and Marc was taken ill. Young Isambard took over as resident engineer and carried on the work for 18 months but then disaster struck, he was almost drowned in a catastrophic flood.

He spent almost a year recovering during which time he moved to Bristol where he was subsequently to dredge the floating harbour, design the Clifton Suspension Bridge and build three ships, each bigger than the one before. His original design for the Clifton Suspension Bridge was rejected along with every other design submitted but when the competition was revived to design such a bridge, he was there again with an updated design that was ultimately accepted. Unfortunately it did not get finished in his lifetime but after his death it was completed and still stands as a testimony to his greatness.

The tunnel under the Thames was eventually completed some years later and a modification of the tunnelling mole that Brunel used is still in use today. His Great Western Railway line from Bristol to London was so flat that it was nicknamed 'Brunel's billiard table'; if there was a small hill in the way he would dig and blast a path through it, if there was a big hill in the way he would tunnel through it (the tunnel at Box in Wiltshire is a shining example) and he would only go round such a hill if it proved too expensive to tunnel.

His amazing Wharncliffe Viaduct at Hanwell, west London, is still in use today as is his two-brick arch bridge across the Thames at Maidenhead, at the time the widest and flattest such bridge in the world. It was built in 1838 and many critics said that it would collapse, so when it was completed Brunel played a joke on the critics and left the scaffolding up around the bridge long after it was finished, pretending that he was worried that it might fall down.

He did lose money, and was ridiculed, on his idea of an atmospheric railway in which air would be pumped through a tube to suck the train along the line (although some of the pumping stations still remain as a tribute to Victorian architecture) and his wide gauge line on the GWR had eventually to be changed to fall in line with the ubiquitous narrow gauge in use everywhere else in the country. And his final and largest ship the SS Great Eastern proved to be something of a disaster in that it was too large to be launched traditionally on the Thames at Millwall. Alternative arrangements had to be made and even they initially failed with a fatality to one of the men involved in the launch. And once afloat the ship was not the success that was expected of it but it does have some claim to fame in that it laid the first part of the trans-Atlantic cable that made communication between Britain and the United States.

While all these major projects were being dealt with he was also involved in dozens of other projects around the country and it was no surprise that eventually his workload, and his heavy cigar smoking, had an effect on his health. And on 15 September 1859 he died; his collaborator and great friend Daniel Gooch said of him, 'On 15th September I lost my oldest and best friend ... By his death the greatest of England#'s engineers was lost, the man with the greatest originality of thought and power of execution, bold in his plans but right. The commercial world thought him extravagant; but although he was so, great things are not done by those who sit down and count the cost of every thought and act.' And Brunel certainly didn't.

This book, written in a style that will equally appeal to the younger generation as well as the older, presents a different approach in that it is cartoon based but it is still a fitting tribute to the man whose 53 years were filled with invention and great deeds.

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Original Title:	Isambard Kingdom Brunel: a graphic biography
Edition Language:	English

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Ratings: 4.25 From 12 Users | 2 Reviews

Evaluate Out Of Books Isambard Kingdom Brunel: a graphic biography

One of my all-time Victorian heroes, Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a workaholic, a man well ahead of his time and one who changed the face of engineering for ever. Tunnels, bridges, railways, ships, nothing was beyond his capabilities, even if at the beginning of a project he was not an expert in the subject. He was not without his failures but they were far fewer than his successes.He was born on 9 April 1806 and from a young age he was determined to be not just an engineer, but the best

A famous engineers life is detailed.Some of the facts were very interesting and I would have rated it 4 stars, except that in a few places the text was hard to read.

One of my all-time Victorian heroes, Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a workaholic, a man well ahead of his time and one who changed the face of engineering for ever. Tunnels, bridges, railways, ships, nothing was beyond his capabilities, even if at the beginning of a project he was not an expert in the subject. He was not without his failures but they were far fewer than his successes.He was born on 9 April 1806 and from a young age he was determined to be not just an engineer, but the best