SIR ISAMBARD BRUNEL. [From the Times, 14th December, 1849.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 499, 15 May 1850, Page 4

SIR ISAMBARD BRUNEL. [From the Times, 14th December, 1849.]

Our obituary of Tuesday, the 11th instant, recorded the death of this distinguished engineer. By birth he was a Frenchman, but his life and genius were almost wholly devoted to the invention and construction of works of great public utility in this country. Sir I. Brunei was born at Hacqueville, in Normandy, in the year 1769. His family has for many centuries held, and now hold, the estate !on which be was born. He was educated for the church, and was accordingly sent at an early age to the seminary of St. Nicain, at Rouen. But he soon evinced so strong a predilection for the physical sciences, and so great a genius for mathematics, that the superiors of the establishment recommended he I should be educated for some other profession. 1 His father strongly objected to his adopting the profession of an engineer, and he therefore determined that be should be educated for the naval service. At the proper age he entered the royal navy, being indebted lor his appointment to the Mareschal dcs Castries, then the Minister of Marine. On one occasion he surprised his captain by producing a sextant and quadrant of his own construction, and which he used for making observations. He made several voyages to the West Indies, and returned home in 1792. At this time the French revolution was at its height. As Mr. Brunei entertained Royalist opinions, which he was not very careful to suppress, his life was more than once in danger, and he was, like many others at that time, forced to seek safety in flight. He emigrated to the United States, where . necessity fortunately compelled him to follow the natural bent of his mind, and to adopt the profession of a civil engineer. He was first engaged to survey a large tract of land near Lake Erie. He was employed in building the Bowery Theatre, in New York, which not many years ago was burnt down. He furnished plans for canals, and for various machines connected with a cannon foundry then being established in the state of New York. About the year 1799 he had matured his plans for making ship blocks by machinery. The Uniied States was not at that time the field for so inventive a genius, as Brunei's. He determined upon visiting England, and offering his services and plans for this purpose to the British Government. Lord Spencer, then, we believe, First Lord of the Admiralty, became his friend and patron. He became a frequent guest at Spencer House. After much opposition to his plans, he was employed to execute them in Portsmouth dockyard. To perfect his designs, and to erect the machinery, was the arduous labour of many years. With a true discrimination he selected Mr. Henry Maudsley to assist in the execution of the work. The block machinery was finished in 1806, and has continued ever since in full operation, supplying our fleet with blocks of a very superior description to those previously in use, and at a large annual saving to the public. It was estimated at the time that the saving in the first year amounted to £24,000 ; and about two-thirds of that sum were awarded to Mr. Brunei. Even after the lapse of forty years, notwithstanding the marvellously rapid stride we have made in the improvement and construction of machines of all kinds, it remains as effective as it was when first erected, and unaltered. A few years afterwards he was employed by Government to erect saw mills, upon a new principle, in the dockyards of Chatham and Woolwich. Several other inventions were the offspring of his singularly fertile mind about this time : the circular saw, for cutting veneers of valuable woods ; and the beautiful little machine for winding cotton thread into balls, which greatly extended its consumption. About two years before the termination of the war, Mr. Brunei, under the countenance of the Duke of York, invented a machine for making shoes for the army by machinery, the value and cheapness of which were fully appreciated, and they were extensively used; but, the peace of 1815 lessening the demand, the machinery was ultimately laid aside. Steam navigation also at that time attracted his attention. He was engaged in the building of one of the first Ramsgate steamboats, and, we believe, introduced the principle of the double engine for the purpose. He also induced the Admiralty to allow him to build a vessel to try the experiment of towing ships out to sea, the possibility of which was then denied. Many other objects of great public utility occupied his miud, which in this mere outline of a long and active life must be excluded. The visit of the Emperor Alexander to this country, after the peace, led him to submit to the Emperor a plan for making a tunnel under the Neva, where the accumulation of ice, and the suddenness with which it breaks up on the termination of winter, rendered the erection of a bridge a work of great difficulty. This was the origin of his plan

• The Arpad alluded to by Kossuth is the celebrated chief or khan of the Hungarians who, when diven with his tribes from the banks of the Volga, towards the end of the ninth century, settled on the Theiss, and as the ally of the Emperor Arnoul beat the Moravians in the year 895. Under the weak rule of the son of Arnoul, Lewis, surnamed the Child, he became master of Pannonia, which the Hungarians have since then kept possession of. Arpad gave his name to a Hungarian dynasty, which began with St. Stephen in 997, and which kept the throne till the death of Andrew 111., in 1301. This race of kings is known as the Arpades.

for a tunnel under the Thames, which had heen twice before attempted without success. In 1824, however, a company was formed, and supported by the Duke of Wellington, who took from first to last ajdeep interest in the work. The work was commenced in 1824. It was stopped more than once during its progress by the breaking in of the river, and more effectually at last by the exhausted finances of the company, which never extended beyond the command of one hundred and eighty thousand pounds. At length, after the suspension of the work for many years, by a special Act of Parliament a loan was sanctioned ; the Exchequer Loan Commissioners advanced the funds necessary for the completion of the work under the river, and notwithstanding many weighty professional opinions were advanced against the practicability of the work, both from the loose alluvial nature of the soil through which it had to be constructed, and the superincumbent flood of water, it was finished and opened to the public in 1843. In a scientific point of view this work will always be regarded as displaying the highest professional ability, an amount of energy «nd perseverance rarely exceeded, and a fertility of invention and resources under what were deemed insurmountable difficulties, which will always secure to Sir I. Brunei a high place amongst the engineers of this country. During Lord Melbourne's administration Mr. Brunei received the honour of knighthood, on the recommendation of the late Lord Spencer, then Lord Althorp. Sir I. Brunei was a vice-president of the Royal Society, a corresponding membet of the Institute of France, and vice-president of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He was also a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. He was unaffected, simple in his habits, and benevolent, and as ready to do a kind act as he was to forget an injury. He died in his 81st year, after a long illness, which first visited him soon after the completion of the tunnel. The care, anxiety, and constant strain of body and mind, brought on a slight attack of paralysis, from which he never thoroughly recovered. He leaves a widow, Lady Brunei, one son, the eminent engineer, and two daughters, the eldest married to Mr. Hawes, the Under-Secretary for the Colonies, and the youngest to the Rev. Mr. Harrison, the vicar of New Brentford.