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Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Engineering genius, technical innovator and one of the greatest figures of the Industrial Revolution, Isambard Kingdom Brunel changed the face of the English landscape with his groundbreaking designs and ingenious constructions. L. T. C. Rolt's masterly biography is the definitive work on Brunel, tracing the life, times and monumental achievements of the man who helped to build modern Britain.
464 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1957
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About the author
L.T.C. Rolt
76 books10 followersLionel Thomas Caswall Rolt (usually abbreviated to Tom Rolt or L.T.C. Rolt) was a prolific English writer and the biographer of major civil engineering figures including Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Thomas Telford. He is also regarded as one of the pioneers of the leisure cruising industry on Britain's inland waterways, and as an enthusiast for both vintage cars and heritage railways.
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October 19, 2017This is an entertaining if uncritical biography of Brunel's working life written by the irrepressible Tom Rolt who for much of his life was involved in Britain's inland waterways and railway heritage.
It is , comparatively speaking since this is a book about an engineering life, a book full of adventures. The river burst down into the early tunnel dug under the Thames and the holes were plugged from above by dropping bags of clay from a row boat. Brunel dashed between London and Bristol during the construction of the Great western Railway in his "Flying Coffin" - a peculiarly shaped horse drawn mobile office and was subjected to one of the perils of British rail journeys once it was completed writing to a concessionary words to the effect of Sir, I did not say it was the worse cup of coffee I had ever ever drunk, rather that it was the worst cup of burnt barley that it had ever been my misfortune to imbibe. Attention is also paid to the Clifton Suspension Bridge, the SS Great Britain and Brunel woeful attempts at designing locomotives to run on his wide gauge railways.
Rolt's personal engineering interests do not dominate the text. Some context is provided for Brunel's activities - but given the amount and scale of civil engineering projects going on at the time this is fairly limited. A very entertaining biography.
It is , comparatively speaking since this is a book about an engineering life, a book full of adventures. The river burst down into the early tunnel dug under the Thames and the holes were plugged from above by dropping bags of clay from a row boat. Brunel dashed between London and Bristol during the construction of the Great western Railway in his "Flying Coffin" - a peculiarly shaped horse drawn mobile office and was subjected to one of the perils of British rail journeys once it was completed writing to a concessionary words to the effect of Sir, I did not say it was the worse cup of coffee I had ever ever drunk, rather that it was the worst cup of burnt barley that it had ever been my misfortune to imbibe. Attention is also paid to the Clifton Suspension Bridge, the SS Great Britain and Brunel woeful attempts at designing locomotives to run on his wide gauge railways.
Rolt's personal engineering interests do not dominate the text. Some context is provided for Brunel's activities - but given the amount and scale of civil engineering projects going on at the time this is fairly limited. A very entertaining biography.
July 5, 2012
I think the author is a little bit in love with IKB - but by the end of the book I think I was as well.
December 20, 2015
This is a fascinating biography of one of the main engineers that brought the Industrial Revolution to fruition in England. Although I had never heard of Isambard Kingdom Brunel in any of my formal American education, apparently he's a big deal still in the UK.
From railways and tunnels to bridges and ships, Brunel was an absolute prolific polymath. His grasp of such an incredible range of engineering topics makes Rolt correct in calling him the last true figure of the European Renaissance.
What was most incredible to me was how actively involved Brunel seemed to be in both the engineering and business sides of each of his ventures. From board meetings to inspections/improvements of the tiniest engineering details, he was involved in all aspects of these massive engineering projects. In a sense, he's functioned a lot like the big military-industrial systems-integrators of our present day - designing the overall project vision, getting it funded, farming out work to contractors, and overseeing the overall integration of the project. Brunel really seems to stand on the boundary between modernity and the past - really a remarkable man (although not a commercial success!).
This biography in particular is very well done. It combines enough historical perspective and technical detail to understand the context in which Brunel was working, while also including excerpts from a number of privately-held primary sources that reveal how Brunel dealt with the strain of his rollercoaster ride through life. However, Rolt is clearly too deeply enamored with Brunel to give a truly objective account... but at least he's clear about that from the beginning.
Some of my favorite quotes below.
################################
Whereas the names of James Watt, Trevithick, Telford, the Rennies, the Stephensons, and the Brunels have become household words, insufficient credit has been given to the great mechanics, to the men who supplied the practical "know-how", who designed and built the machines and evolved the workshop techniques without which the schemes of the engineers could never have taken workable shape... it is Maudslay and not Bramah who deserves to be known as the father of the modern machine shop... because they were self-propagating they initiated a process of improvement and ever-increasing precision which has continued down to the present day.
For in these momentous years the map of that system which was to bring about the greatest social and economic revolution which the world had ever known was being determined by chance introductions and by small informal gatherings in tavern or coffee house.
Brunel's character was of that finely tempered, resilient quality which flexes easily under misfortune but never breaks. He could, and undoubtedly did during thee years of difficulty and repeated disappointment when fate seemed implacably against him, plumb depths of despondency unknown to less sensitive, self-conscious and artistic natures. Yet he never lost faith in himself. Once one project on which he had pinned his hopes had failed he would rapidly recover from the blow, dismiss it from his mind and concentrate upon the next with undiminished energy. This unshakeable faith in himself... contributed more than anything else to his ultimate success. Moreover, pride and ambition never drove him to make the fatal mistake of refusing any commission as too humble for his notice or because it appeared to be a blind alley offering no opportunities for advancement. Thanks to those acute powers of observation which he acquired under his father's tutelage, everything he undertook contributed something of value to that store of experience which was the secret of his versatility.
Brunel took stock of his gloomy situation - "So many irons and none of them hot"
"I have a fine traveling carriage... I have a cab & horse, I have a secretary - in fact I am now somebody. Everything has prospered, everything at this moment is sunshine. I don't like it - it can't last - bad weather must surely come. Let me see the storm in time to gather in my sails."
"My profession is after all my only fit wife" were probably some of the truest words he ever wrote. For it seems clear that the severance of his long relationship with Ellen Hulme marked that critical moment in his life which decided his future course. He determined then to make perfection of his work the supreme goal and from that resolve he never subsequently wavered.
It was during one of these nursery entertainments that there occurred the only incident to ruffle seriously the ordered calm of Duke Street. In performing one of his tricks, Brunel accidentally swallowed a half-sovereign which lodged in his wind-pipe and placed him in imminent danger of choking to death.
The luxury and order of Duke Street over which Mary presided so efficiently and with such beauty and grace undoubtedly gave Brunel intense satisfaction. It was not only the symbol of his success but the one stable thing in his restless, hectic life. Yet to the question... "Will marriage make me happier?" it is difficult to make an answer. It is doubtful. To the relentless pursuit of perfection in his work, to the realization of his lofty ambitions... it would seem that he deliberately sacrificed the quest for a relationship which might have changed the direction of his life and brought to it fresh meaning and purpose.
For it was an inviolable rule of Brunel's that he would never, under any circumstances, accept an appointment which involved divided responsibility. In any work upon which he engaged there could be only one engineer and he must have the full responsibility for the work and for the conduct of his staff.
Even in an age of individualism, Brunel's public life was remarkable for his roundly expressed hatred of government officials, and of any law, rule or regulation which interfered with individual responsibility or initiative. The Patent Laws were one of his anathemas, for it was his belief that, by enabling astute firms or individuals to take out patents of principle, they stifled invention instead of encouraging it. He himself obstinately refused to protect any of his ideas.
There existed no problem in architecture, in civil or in mechanical engineering which his mind was not eager to confront and to conquer. It was precisely because Brunel displayed this astonishing versatility to such a degree that he was able to impart that tremendous impetus to the momentum of the industrial revolution which ensured he could have no successors. He and his generation bequeathed a sum of knowledge which, like his great ship, had become too large and too complicated to be mastered any longer by one mind. Consequently, all scientific and technical development thereafter depended upon specialization to an ever increasing extent. The result has been that while the collective sum of knowledge has continued to increase at a prodigious rate the individual sum has so seriously diminished that, to paraphrase Goldsmith, while machines have multiplied, men have decayed. For just as the machines, by carrying too far the principle of division of labour, degraded the craftsman to a machine minder, so, just as surely and far more subtly, the process of specialization has by perpetual reduction destroyed that catholicity of intellect without which civilization cannot survive.
Yet the historian of the future will assuredly see Isambard Brunel as the key character of his century, the archetype of the heroic age of the engineer and the last great figure to appear in this, the twilight of the European Renaissance.
From railways and tunnels to bridges and ships, Brunel was an absolute prolific polymath. His grasp of such an incredible range of engineering topics makes Rolt correct in calling him the last true figure of the European Renaissance.
What was most incredible to me was how actively involved Brunel seemed to be in both the engineering and business sides of each of his ventures. From board meetings to inspections/improvements of the tiniest engineering details, he was involved in all aspects of these massive engineering projects. In a sense, he's functioned a lot like the big military-industrial systems-integrators of our present day - designing the overall project vision, getting it funded, farming out work to contractors, and overseeing the overall integration of the project. Brunel really seems to stand on the boundary between modernity and the past - really a remarkable man (although not a commercial success!).
This biography in particular is very well done. It combines enough historical perspective and technical detail to understand the context in which Brunel was working, while also including excerpts from a number of privately-held primary sources that reveal how Brunel dealt with the strain of his rollercoaster ride through life. However, Rolt is clearly too deeply enamored with Brunel to give a truly objective account... but at least he's clear about that from the beginning.
Some of my favorite quotes below.
################################
Whereas the names of James Watt, Trevithick, Telford, the Rennies, the Stephensons, and the Brunels have become household words, insufficient credit has been given to the great mechanics, to the men who supplied the practical "know-how", who designed and built the machines and evolved the workshop techniques without which the schemes of the engineers could never have taken workable shape... it is Maudslay and not Bramah who deserves to be known as the father of the modern machine shop... because they were self-propagating they initiated a process of improvement and ever-increasing precision which has continued down to the present day.
For in these momentous years the map of that system which was to bring about the greatest social and economic revolution which the world had ever known was being determined by chance introductions and by small informal gatherings in tavern or coffee house.
Brunel's character was of that finely tempered, resilient quality which flexes easily under misfortune but never breaks. He could, and undoubtedly did during thee years of difficulty and repeated disappointment when fate seemed implacably against him, plumb depths of despondency unknown to less sensitive, self-conscious and artistic natures. Yet he never lost faith in himself. Once one project on which he had pinned his hopes had failed he would rapidly recover from the blow, dismiss it from his mind and concentrate upon the next with undiminished energy. This unshakeable faith in himself... contributed more than anything else to his ultimate success. Moreover, pride and ambition never drove him to make the fatal mistake of refusing any commission as too humble for his notice or because it appeared to be a blind alley offering no opportunities for advancement. Thanks to those acute powers of observation which he acquired under his father's tutelage, everything he undertook contributed something of value to that store of experience which was the secret of his versatility.
Brunel took stock of his gloomy situation - "So many irons and none of them hot"
"I have a fine traveling carriage... I have a cab & horse, I have a secretary - in fact I am now somebody. Everything has prospered, everything at this moment is sunshine. I don't like it - it can't last - bad weather must surely come. Let me see the storm in time to gather in my sails."
"My profession is after all my only fit wife" were probably some of the truest words he ever wrote. For it seems clear that the severance of his long relationship with Ellen Hulme marked that critical moment in his life which decided his future course. He determined then to make perfection of his work the supreme goal and from that resolve he never subsequently wavered.
It was during one of these nursery entertainments that there occurred the only incident to ruffle seriously the ordered calm of Duke Street. In performing one of his tricks, Brunel accidentally swallowed a half-sovereign which lodged in his wind-pipe and placed him in imminent danger of choking to death.
The luxury and order of Duke Street over which Mary presided so efficiently and with such beauty and grace undoubtedly gave Brunel intense satisfaction. It was not only the symbol of his success but the one stable thing in his restless, hectic life. Yet to the question... "Will marriage make me happier?" it is difficult to make an answer. It is doubtful. To the relentless pursuit of perfection in his work, to the realization of his lofty ambitions... it would seem that he deliberately sacrificed the quest for a relationship which might have changed the direction of his life and brought to it fresh meaning and purpose.
For it was an inviolable rule of Brunel's that he would never, under any circumstances, accept an appointment which involved divided responsibility. In any work upon which he engaged there could be only one engineer and he must have the full responsibility for the work and for the conduct of his staff.
Even in an age of individualism, Brunel's public life was remarkable for his roundly expressed hatred of government officials, and of any law, rule or regulation which interfered with individual responsibility or initiative. The Patent Laws were one of his anathemas, for it was his belief that, by enabling astute firms or individuals to take out patents of principle, they stifled invention instead of encouraging it. He himself obstinately refused to protect any of his ideas.
There existed no problem in architecture, in civil or in mechanical engineering which his mind was not eager to confront and to conquer. It was precisely because Brunel displayed this astonishing versatility to such a degree that he was able to impart that tremendous impetus to the momentum of the industrial revolution which ensured he could have no successors. He and his generation bequeathed a sum of knowledge which, like his great ship, had become too large and too complicated to be mastered any longer by one mind. Consequently, all scientific and technical development thereafter depended upon specialization to an ever increasing extent. The result has been that while the collective sum of knowledge has continued to increase at a prodigious rate the individual sum has so seriously diminished that, to paraphrase Goldsmith, while machines have multiplied, men have decayed. For just as the machines, by carrying too far the principle of division of labour, degraded the craftsman to a machine minder, so, just as surely and far more subtly, the process of specialization has by perpetual reduction destroyed that catholicity of intellect without which civilization cannot survive.
Yet the historian of the future will assuredly see Isambard Brunel as the key character of his century, the archetype of the heroic age of the engineer and the last great figure to appear in this, the twilight of the European Renaissance.
March 11, 2013
This could be a great book, written about a great person however it is written with too many references to technical matters which are difficult for me as a lay person.
June 10, 2023
The edition I have from this book is much older, and not even a Penguin. It’s got a decaying paper sleeve in faded orange and gray with a steampunkish train passing a bridge witht the name of the builder on it, I. K. Brunei.
There’s magnificence even in the name, Isambard _and_ Kingdom. Plus Brunel. To be honest, I had a vague idea of the person, something about him being an engineer and having named an university (or college, not really sure about it). Also, steampunk characters have a tendency to be called Isambard, and he might even have been featured as such in some story or novel. But his life does not need a lot of romance to entertain, and the author does a great job about it, narrating the biography of Brunel through his great works, because there were no other kind. He started to work with his father, also an engineer, on the Thames Tunnel, continuing, still in his youth age, to build the Great Eastern Railway, including bridges and the railway. And when I say build, it does seems that he did; engineers on those days, early 19th century, did have to design from the tracks to the locomotives. And, indeed, there’s a whole chapter devoted to describing the “gauge war”, where Brunel supported, and indeed used, 7 feet, while the rest went for lesser (which I can’t remember precisely, 5 and 7/8 or the like).
The book delves into technical details to a depth that I could really live without; there’s scarcely anything about his personal life (other than a bit on his marriage on his first chapters) or any other thing that was not work; not that there was a lot of that, because like a rock star, or star engineer, he lived fast (fastest trains on those times, fastest ships too) and died (relatively) young without seeing his last creation, the great Great Eastern, sailing.
The author doesn’t shy away from shooting broadsides on Brunel’s enemies, of which there were quite a few, but none worse than Russell, whose attitude and actions on the Great Eastern possibly carried Brunel to his tomb earlier than Nature intended.
Anyway, an interesting read, with nice insights on the work of engineers, and a good historic narration of the inception of engineering as we know it today.
There’s magnificence even in the name, Isambard _and_ Kingdom. Plus Brunel. To be honest, I had a vague idea of the person, something about him being an engineer and having named an university (or college, not really sure about it). Also, steampunk characters have a tendency to be called Isambard, and he might even have been featured as such in some story or novel. But his life does not need a lot of romance to entertain, and the author does a great job about it, narrating the biography of Brunel through his great works, because there were no other kind. He started to work with his father, also an engineer, on the Thames Tunnel, continuing, still in his youth age, to build the Great Eastern Railway, including bridges and the railway. And when I say build, it does seems that he did; engineers on those days, early 19th century, did have to design from the tracks to the locomotives. And, indeed, there’s a whole chapter devoted to describing the “gauge war”, where Brunel supported, and indeed used, 7 feet, while the rest went for lesser (which I can’t remember precisely, 5 and 7/8 or the like).
The book delves into technical details to a depth that I could really live without; there’s scarcely anything about his personal life (other than a bit on his marriage on his first chapters) or any other thing that was not work; not that there was a lot of that, because like a rock star, or star engineer, he lived fast (fastest trains on those times, fastest ships too) and died (relatively) young without seeing his last creation, the great Great Eastern, sailing.
The author doesn’t shy away from shooting broadsides on Brunel’s enemies, of which there were quite a few, but none worse than Russell, whose attitude and actions on the Great Eastern possibly carried Brunel to his tomb earlier than Nature intended.
Anyway, an interesting read, with nice insights on the work of engineers, and a good historic narration of the inception of engineering as we know it today.
July 10, 2024
This had the potential to be so dry, so academic, and turned out to be anything but.
It is plain that Rolt loves his subject, yet it is not a blind love: he knows not everything IKB did or said was exemplary, advisable, or even quite sane... but he believes most things were. Brunel was, in fact, a genius, a leader of men, and possessed of astounding vision. That Rolt very quickly has his readers thinking along the same lines is testament to the power of his enthralling biography.
IKB: designer and builder of tunnels, railways, engines, bridges, modular hospitals, and transatlantic steam liners, and huge part of what once made Britain worthy of its title. L. T. C. Rolt: his eminently suitable biographer. Recommended.
It is plain that Rolt loves his subject, yet it is not a blind love: he knows not everything IKB did or said was exemplary, advisable, or even quite sane... but he believes most things were. Brunel was, in fact, a genius, a leader of men, and possessed of astounding vision. That Rolt very quickly has his readers thinking along the same lines is testament to the power of his enthralling biography.
IKB: designer and builder of tunnels, railways, engines, bridges, modular hospitals, and transatlantic steam liners, and huge part of what once made Britain worthy of its title. L. T. C. Rolt: his eminently suitable biographer. Recommended.
November 22, 2019
I've always been interested in IKB, and needed to refer to this book when preparing material on the Atmospheric Railways.
Now I've read all of it: Holt has done a very good job on taking us back to primary sources and I learned quite a bit about the whole tribe of Vistorian engineers and thir rivalries: but far too often he is let down by turning it into a hagiography.
You can almost hear the capitals when he talks about the great man.
3 stars is harsh, but I seek a more balanced account.
Now I've read all of it: Holt has done a very good job on taking us back to primary sources and I learned quite a bit about the whole tribe of Vistorian engineers and thir rivalries: but far too often he is let down by turning it into a hagiography.
You can almost hear the capitals when he talks about the great man.
3 stars is harsh, but I seek a more balanced account.
December 29, 2018
an instructive read about a talented engineer
April 15, 2021
Pretty solid biography for its age. As another reviewer put it, it’s definitely “uncritical,” but entertaining and interesting.
May 18, 2023
Despite being written in the 50s by ISK greatest fan it is a riveting read.
January 29, 2025
An artistic sculptor of premodern civilization.
February 25, 2016
A sympathetic, fairly technical biography. This is a book about Brunel's work more than his life. After the section on his marrying, hardly a mention is made of Brunel's family life, leaving us to wonder if he had one at all.
The author fairly craftily throws John Scott Russell under the bus - perhaps fairly given the huge quantities of missing iron and other objective claims, and certainly the writing is accomplished, but nevertheless less than impartial. At the same time he largely glosses over what comes across as Brunel's micromanagement in matters he was not experienced with. A mention is once made about Great Eastern's disappointing top speed but the link is not explicitly drawn to the low pressure specified for her engines and the weak performance of engines constructed to Brunel's spec for the Great Western Railway. Perhaps Brunel was a better builder of railway lines and bridges than of moving things but such analysis is missing.
As an aside, caution is required when reading this book in bed. Brunel's portrait on the cover is close enough to life size and look that putting away the book on the pillow face up and then glancing over a few minutes later will give you a memorable impression there is a Brunel in your bed.
The author fairly craftily throws John Scott Russell under the bus - perhaps fairly given the huge quantities of missing iron and other objective claims, and certainly the writing is accomplished, but nevertheless less than impartial. At the same time he largely glosses over what comes across as Brunel's micromanagement in matters he was not experienced with. A mention is once made about Great Eastern's disappointing top speed but the link is not explicitly drawn to the low pressure specified for her engines and the weak performance of engines constructed to Brunel's spec for the Great Western Railway. Perhaps Brunel was a better builder of railway lines and bridges than of moving things but such analysis is missing.
As an aside, caution is required when reading this book in bed. Brunel's portrait on the cover is close enough to life size and look that putting away the book on the pillow face up and then glancing over a few minutes later will give you a memorable impression there is a Brunel in your bed.
November 19, 2019
An interesting book about an interesting man, but written more than 50 years ago it now seems very dated, both in style, attitudes and in terms of subsequent research into the man and the period. Partly as a result of Rolt's work Brunel is now generally regarded as the greatest engineer of all time. But I remain unconvinced. Too often Brunel's reach exceeded his grasp, and his designs could not be accomplished with the technology of the day.
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