Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Three names. Three people in one. Born in Portsmouth on 9 April 1806 there was Brunel the great engineer who would habitually throw out the rule book of tradition & established practice & start again with a blank sheet of paper taking the technology of the day to its limits
- & then going another mile. Then there was Brunel the visionary who knew that transport technology had the power to change the world & that he had the ability to deliver those changes. Finally there was Brunel the artist
- who rarely saw technology as just functional & strove to entwine the fruits of the Industrial Revolution with the elegance & grace of the neo-classical painter. His bridges tunnels & railway infrastructure have entered a third century of regular use & the beauty of their design & structure has rarely been equalled. The three decades from the 1830s to the 1850s saw an explosion of technical excellence & it was Brunel who in so many cases lit the blue touch paper. He did not always get it right first time & it was left to others to reap the fruits of his many labours. Nevertheless his actions fast-forwarded the march of progress by several decades.