X-Nico

2 unusual facts about Marc Isambard Brunel


Cricket bat

The current design of a cane handle spliced into a willow blade through a tapered splice was the invention in the 1880s of Charles Richardson, a pupil of Brunel and the first chief engineer of the Severn railway tunnel.

Wapping railway station

The station occupies the north end of the former Thames foot tunnel built by Marc Isambard Brunel between 1825–1843, and subsequently adapted for railway traffic.


Cellular manufacturing

By 1808, using machinery designed by Marc Isambard Brunel and constructed by Henry Maudslay, the Block Mills were producing 130,000 blocks (pulleys) for the Royal Navy per year in single unit lots, with 10 men operating 42 machines arranged in three production flow lines.

Dumpy level

In 1832, English civil engineer William Gravatt, who had worked with Marc Isambard Brunel and his son Isambard on the Thames Tunnel, was commissioned by Mr. H.R. Palmer to examine a scheme for the South Eastern Railway's route from London to Dover.

English system of manufacturing

Mass production using interchangeable parts was first achieved in 1803 by Marc Isambard Brunel in cooperation with Henry Maudslay, and Simon Goodrich, under the management of (with contributions by) Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Bentham the Inspector General of Naval Works at Portsmouth Block Mills at Portsmouth Dockyard for the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic War.

Lübeck-Büchen Railway Company

Marc Isambard Brunel and his son Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the designer of London's Thames Tunnel (1825–1843) also offered their services to Müller.


see also