The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-17 00:00:00

DRAM OF H.R. B.RUNEL, C.E.

It is with no common regret that we announce
the decease of the eminent engineer whose last
important work, the Great Eastern steam-ship, has
lately occupied so prominent a place in public at-
tention. Mr. Brunel was carried to his residence in
Duke-street, Westminster, from the Great Eastern
ship, at midday on the sth inst., in a very alarming
condition, having been seized with paralysis, in-
duced, it was believed, by over mental anxiety. In
spite of the most skilful medical attention, he con-
tinued to sink, and at half-past 10 on Thursday night
he expired, at the comparatively early age of 54.
The deceased was the only son of the late Sir Mark
Isambard Brunel, who for his many public works re-
ceived the honour of knighthood from her Majesty
in 1841. The following outline of Mr. Brunel's
public career is taken from " Charles Knight's
English Cyclopuedia of Biography :"
" Isambard Kingdom Brunel, son of the con-
structor of the Thames Tunnel, was born at Ports-
mouth, in 1806, when his father was engaged in
erecting the block machinery for the dockyard.
He was taken while quite young to France, and
finished his education at the College Henri IV., at
Caen. He commenced practical engineering in
1826, under his father, at the Thames Tunnel, of
which work he was resident engineer. Being the
last to quit his post, he was more than once in
danger from the frequent breaking-in of water
during the progress of the excavations, and only
saved himself by swimming. The final irruption
of 1828, when one man was drowned, surprised
him 600 feet from the end of the tunnel ; be was
borne along by the stream, and rose to the surface
near the top of the shaft.
" Mechanical and railway engineering, and the
construction of machinery for locomotives and steam
navigation, have been the special objects of Mr.
Brunel's study. For ten years he laboured in the
experiments instituted by his father to employ
carbonic acid gas as a motive power. He was de-
signer and civil engineer of the Great Western, the
first steamship built to cross the Atlantic; of the
Great Britain; of other large vessels; and of the
huge iron ship now being built at Millwall for the
Eastern Steam Navigation Company. He has been
engaged on the docks at some of our outports ;
among which the most important arc the improve-
ment of Bristol-docks, Cardiff, and the construction
of the Old North Sunderland-dock.

" Mr. Brunel was appointed engineer to the Great
Western Railway in 1833 ; and under his direc-
tion haVe all the tunnels, bridges, and other works
been constructed on that line and its branches and
connections—including the Bristol and Exeter,
South Devon, West Cornwall, Birmingham and Ox-
ford, and others. Noticeable among the bridges on
these lints are that across the Thames at Maiden-
head, for the largest and flattest of brick arches—
.

that at Chepstow- for the great difficulties overcome
in crossing the Wye—and the bridge of the Corn-
wall railway now in course of erection over the
Tamar, which is as near as may be, fro,n coin-
cidence of natural causes, of the same span and
height as the Britannia-bridge, and has a central
pier, rising from a depth of 80 feet of water ; the
deepest yet encountered in railway engineering.
"The Hungerford Suspension foot-bridge across
the Thames at London was also erected by Mr.
Brunel. It has the longest span in England. He
took part in the floating and raising of the Conway
and Britannia tubular bridges; operations not less
remarkable for their novelty and magnitude than
for the friendly co-operation of engineers by whom
they were successfully accomplished. He set out
and conducted the works of the Tuscan portion of
the Sardinian railway ; and had the entire charge
of establishing and fitting the Renkioi hospitals on
the Dardanelles. necessitated by the late war with
Russia. These hospitals will accommodate 3,000
patients ; and as regards comfort, artificial venti-
lation, warming, baths, &c., and special adaptation
to their purpose, they are not excelled by the best
London hospitals. An abundant supply of water
is laid on from the hills, and railways afford easy
carriage from the landing-places on the shore into
the several wards. , .

" Mr. Brunel was elected a Fellow of the Royal
Society in 1830, and was chosen on the council in
1844. He is a vice-president of the Institution of
Civil Engineers and of the Society of Arts ; a
Fellow of the Astronomical, Geological, and Geo-
graphical Societies; and Chevalier of the Legion
of Honour."
The death of Mr. Brunel is an event that demands
from the public press something beyond a mere
notice of his demise. A little over fifty years of
age, he is taken from us, leaving behind him a
European and world-wide fame. Of his works as
a railroad engineer, his gunge, his bridges, but little
need be said. Every one has heard of the Great
Western Railway, of the Chepstow, the Saltash, and
other bridges; and all the world is aware of the
mighty stride he has made in navigation by the
creation of the Great Eastern steam ship, upon
whose recent mishap an inquest is sitting while we
indite these lines to his memory. It is his connec-
tion with steam navigation, indeed, to which we
would now direct attention. Mr. Brunel first
directed his mind to the subject of steam navigation
as far back as 1835, when, at his instigation, the
directors of the Great Western Railway resolved to
combine ocean navigation with their system of
locomotion. At that time tho main promoters of
the seheme were Bristol people, albeit it was well
upheld in London by gentlemen of eminence in the
mercantile world. The Great Western steam-
ship Company was, however, got up at Bristol,
and under Mr. Brunel's auspices the first ship
was built by Patterson, of that city, and the engines
were made by Maudslay and Field, also under Mr.
Brunel's supervision. To oppose her, or to run away
if they could with the, merit of being first to
cross the Atlantic, an inefficient steamer was
started from Cork eight days before her, but the
absurdity was soon made apparent by the two vessels
arriving on the same day. The supply of fuel on
board the Cork steamer was exhausted, while the
Great Western, notwithstanding the predictions of
Dr. Lardner, had coals enough left to steam four
days longer at her full rate of consumption. All
this is matter of history. A few years after the ,
same company resolved to build a ship of larger
capacity, and the Great Britain was the next ship
laid down, of no less than 3,600 tons, Mr. Brunel
being still the consulting engineer, and Mr. Pat-
terson the builder, under him. This ship was laid
down for paddles, but the success, as an experiment,
of the little Archimedes, induced Mr. Brunel to ad-
vise the directors to adopt the screw, and for the
screw she was altered. The Archimedes was lent
to the company, and over a dozen experiments with
different modifications of screws were tried upon
her by Mr. Brunel or his assistants. Not being
sufficiently large, Mr. Brunel urged upon the Ad-
miralty of that day the building a vessel of 800
tons and 200-horse power no.ninal ; and the engines
were put into his hands and the ship ordered to be
built under his directions. Curiously enough the
etgines were ready for delivery, made by Maudslay
and Field, before the ship was even laid down. A
change in the Admiralty having taken place, and
Lord Haddington being the chief, minutes were
consulted, and Mr. Brunel stated that he never
could get any information as to the where-
abouts of his ship. The fact is, at that time the
Surveyor of the Navy was dead against the adop-
tion of the screw. Inquiry ensued, and with all
possible despatch a vessel ready for her paddles
was altered for the screw; but every impediment
was put in Mr. Brunel's way. Nevertheless the
Rattler came out, and was successful, and up to
this moment is a pattern name in screw naviga-
tion. True, her lines were not correct, but they
would have been had the board's orders been fol-
lowed out to the letter. The Great Britain, although
meeting with several mishaps and breaking her
screw, was, and still is, an eminent success, and
' even when in Dundrum Bay she proved the accu-
racy of all Mr. Brunel's calculations. She was re-
ported as back-broken and a wreck; but on being
examined by Mr. Brunel, he declared herlines to be
unaltered, Afterwards, under his instructions, she
came off Dundrum Sands at the end of 11 months'
battering, and is to this day the largest and finest
ship in regular work, She is several feet wider
than the Himalaya or the Persia, although shorter
by about what it takes to run out a long figure
head and supports of 30 or 40 feet. The Great
Eastern was the next class of ship to which Mr.
Brunel turned his stupendous talents ; and, what-
ever the merits or the pretentions of others may be,
she was as much his creation as were the Great
Western and the Great Britain. His health gave
way under the trials, physical and mental, which
be went through from the time she was laid down
to the day of her floating. There are those who
know well the trials he encountered from the time
of his leaving for Egypt to the time of his return,
when he found himself named engineer to an entirely
new company, which had been formed without his
knowledge, and which had made a contract in-
creasing in a thousand ways the difficulties of his
position.
11l able as was Mr. Brunel to superintend the
work he still devoted himself to the task of getting
the ship completed as far as he could. The day
before the Great Eastern was to leave the Thames
he came on board in the afternoon, with the in-
tention of remaining the night, hut almost at that
moment symptoms of paralysis exhibited themselves
—he was hurried home, and laid on the bed from
which he never again rose.
It was only on Tuesday last that the news of the
exp!osion on board the Great Eastern was made
known to him. From that time he gradually sank,
and on Thursday night expired. A man of large
heart, of vast conceptions, and of ability to apply
them practically, has been removed from amongst
us at a moment when his greatest work was on the