Richard Tames. Isambard Kingdom Brunel (2004)

     Richard Tames. Isambard Kingdom Brunel (2004) Brunel is one of my heroes: an engineer of vision, daring, imagination, skill, and leadership. Relative to what had been done and what was deemed possible in his day, his projects were on a scale that have been equalled but not surpassed. He showed what engineers could do, and he did it mostly with the help of raw human and animal power. He led his workers by example, risking his own life along with theirs, suffering injury and barely escaping with his life when workings collapsed or were flooded.
    Brunel failed as often as he succeeded, but by showing how to plan and organise the construction of very large structures, he led the way to the kind of mega-projects that we take for granted these days. Administrative and financial difficulties played as large a role in success and failure then as now.  So did ego, and Brunel’s ego was huge. He was driven as much by a desire for worldly success and acclamation as by artistic ambition. His life was one of overwork in all ways; we know little of his family life, but indirect evidence suggests that he was at best a competent father and husband. His children did as well as children of the gentry would. His friends were few, drawn primarily from his family and from professional rivals. Brunel died of nephritis, not a pleasant way to go, leaving several projects to be completed by others. The civil engineering works designed for the Great Western Railway are his most enduring monuments.
     Tames has written short but well written sketch of Brunel’s life. He has the knack for the telling detail, such as Brunel’s comment on how well he got on with Robert Stephenson despite their intense rivalry as engineers. *** (2006)