Thursday 19 January 2012

Today's Featured Blue Plaque Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Today's Featured Blue Plaque Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
BRUNEL, Isambard Kingdom (1806-1859) & BRUNEL, Sir Marc Isambard (1769-1849)SIR MARC ISAMBARD BRUNEL 1769-1849 and ISAMBARD KINGDOM BRUNEL 1806-1859 civil engineers lived here
98 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, SW10 0DQ take a walk down a London Street on Street View.



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Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS (9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859), was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges and tunnels. His designs revolutionised public transport and modern engineering.
Though Brunel's projects were not always successful, they often contained innovative solutions to long-standing engineering problems. During his short career, Brunel achieved many engineering "firsts", including assisting in the building of the first tunnel under a navigable river and development of SS Great Britain, the first propeller-driven ocean-going iron ship, which was at the time (1843) also the largest ship ever built.
Brunel set the standard for a very well built railway, using careful surveys to minimise grades and curves. This necessitated expensive construction techniques and new bridges and viaducts, and the two-mile-long Box Tunnel. One controversial feature was the wide gauge, a "broad gauge" of 7 ft 14 in (2,140 mm), instead of what was later to be known as 'standard gauge' of 4 ft 12 in (1,435 mm). The wider gauge added to passenger comfort but made construction much more expensive and caused difficulties when eventually it had to interconnect with other railways using the narrower gauge. As a result of the Railway Regulation (Gauge) Act 1846 (and after Brunel's death) the gauge was changed to standard gauge throughout the GWR network.

Today's Featured Blue Plaque Isambard Kingdom Brunel.