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Lot Essay
Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born into a family of engineers, his father Sir Marc Brunel (1769-1849) was a renowned civil engineer. Isambard joined him in 1823 on the Thames Tunnel as the resident engineer. He had a great capacity for hard work, at one time working on the tunnel for ninety-six hours without respite. Perhaps his first great solo piece of work was his design for the proposed bridge across the Clifton gorge in Bristol. Brunel then worked on a number of docks schemes and in 1833, he was appointed an engineer to the Great Western Railway. It was the work he did for the railway which established him in his profession, perhaps most notably the Box tunnel. He also worked on a number of schemes abroad. However, it was the Atmospheric Railway which was nearly his downfall. The system failed and almost ruined Brunel, who was only saved by the intervention of Sir Daniel Gooch. He achieved great fame through his designs for the great ocean-going steam ships such as The Great Western and The Great Britain, launched in 1838 and 1843, respectively. Perhaps his greatest achievement was the design and execution of The Great Eastern, which was in construction from 1853 to 1858. Brunel's health was failing during the construction of The Great Eastern and, although he was present during her first sea trials, he died soon after on 15 September 1859.