BRUNEL, SIR MARC ISAMBARD in ventor and engineer, was born at Hacqueville, Normandy, on April 25, 17 69. He served for six years in the navy. When his ship was paid off in 1792 and he returned to France, he found the Revolution at its height, and owing to his pronounced royalist opinions he was obliged to leave the country. Reaching New York in Sept. 1793 he began to practise as an architect and civil engineer. He designed and superintended the construction of the Bowery theatre, New York, burnt down in 1821. He fitted novel and ingenious machinery in the arsenal and cannon factory which he was commissioned to erect in New York. In 1799 he sailed for England to submit to the British government his plans for the mechanical production of ships' blocks in substi tution for the manual processes then employed. After the usual difficulties and delays his proposals were adopted, largely through the recommendation of Sir Samuel Bentham, and about 1803 the erection of his machines was begun at Portsmouth dockyard. They formed one of the earliest examples of a complete range of machine tools, each performing its part in a long series of operations. Brunel devised improved machines for sawing and bending timber, and in the years 181I and 1812 he was employed by the government in erecting saw-mills at Woolwich and Chatham. He also interested himself in steam navigation on the Thames between London and Ramsgate, and spent much time and money in an attempt to use liquefied gases as a source of motive-power. His round stocking-frame or tricoteur was pat ented in 1816, and among his other inventions were machines for winding cotton-thread into balls, for copying drawings, for making small wooden boxes such as are used by druggists, and for the manufacture of nails, together with processes of preparing tinfoil for decorative purposes and improvements in stereotype plates for printing.
In 1821 he had financial difficulties and was thrown into prison for debt, only regaining his freedom through a grant of 15.000 which his friends obtained for him from the government. In 182o he had prepared plans of bridges for erection in Rouen and St. Petersburg and in the island of Bourbon. In 1823 he designed swing-bridges, and in 1826 floating landing-stages, for the port of Liverpool. A company was formed in 1824 to carry out his scheme for boring a tunnel under the Thames between Wapping and Rotherhithe. The work was completed in 1843. Brunel died in London on Dec. 12, 1849. He received the order of the Legion of Honour in 1829 and was knighted in 184I.