April 9th: Birthday of Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the engineer famous for designing bridges, ships and railways, was born on this date in 1806. 

Here are 10 things you may not know about his life and works:

1. He built the Box Tunnel in Wiltshire, which, it is said, is laid out so that the sun’s rays only penetrate it once a year - on his birthday. No-one knows for sure if this is true, although what is known is that this was the longest railway tunnel in the world at the time it was built.
2. He also broke records with bridges. At the time it was built, his Clifton Suspension Bridge was the longest in the world, and the Maidenhead Railway Bridge over the Thames in Berkshire was the flattest, widest brick arch bridge in the world. Both bridges are still used today.
3. One of Brunel's earliest engineering jobs was working for his father on a project to build a tunnel under the river Thames in London.
4. Brunel designed the present Paddington Station in London.
5. He also designed the original Hungerford Bridge, near Charing Cross Station. That bridge was replaced, but the suspension chains were recycled and used to build the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
6. He designed a pre-fabricated military hospital which could be shipped out to Crimea.
7. His ship, the Great Western, was the longest ship in the world in its time (another record!), but missed out on being the first ship to cross the Atlantic powered by steam alone, due to a fire delaying the launch, allowing the Sirius to steam ahead. The Great Western was, however, the first ship to hold the Blue Riband for the fastest Atlantic crossing. It was so successful that a sister ship, the Great Eastern, was commissioned. The mast of that ship is now used as a flagpole at Anfield Football Ground in Liverpool.
8. The first ship made of metal, rather than wood, to cross the Atlantic driven by a propeller and an engine was another of Brunel's designs - the SS Great Britain, which is now a museum in dry dock in Bristol.
9. Swindon became one of the fastest growing towns in the 19th century thanks to Brunel's decision to locate the Great Western railway works there, which meant that housing had to be provided for the workers, which in turn led to the building of facilities for them. "The Railway Village" still stands in Swindon although the railway works have closed.
10. A slightly less successful and enduring project was the atmospheric railway, which operated between Exeter and Newton Abbot, moving trains by means of vacuum pumps. The system needed leather flaps on the pipes, which was not very resistant to wet or cold weather. Coating the flaps in tallow helped, but the tallow made the flaps attractive to rats, so they tended to get eaten. The system was abandoned after less than a year.