BRUNEL, MARK ISAMBERT. So long as engineering genius and mechanical inven tion are honoured, so long will the name of Brunel occnpy a niche among the worthies of industry.
The late Sir M. I. Brunel was born at Hue qneville in Normandy, in 1768. He studied first for the church, and then for the navy ; but the natural bent of his mind marked out another career for him. He was obliged to flee to the United States during the French Revolution, and here he commenced his en gineering career ; but feeling that England was a better sphere for him, he crossed the Atlantic about the year 1800, and devoted the rest of his life to mechanism and engineering in the country of his adoption. His first great work was the Block Machinery at Portsmouth, which occupied him till 1806. [BLOCK MA Jie next constructed the Royal Saw Mills at Chatham and Woolwich. Soon after this be invented a beautiful little ma chine for winding cotton thread into balls. In 1813 he contrived an extensive series of ma chines for making shoes for the army ; but these machines have not been used since the war. He was engaged in building one of the
early steamboats, and introduced many im provements in marine engines. After nume rous minor works he projected the Thames Tunnel : having previously proposed to the Emperor Alexander the construction of a tun. nel under the Neva at St. Petersburg, to ob viate the evils occasioned by the freezing of the river in winter. The Thames Tunnel was commenced in 1824, but was not finished (so far even as it may yet be deemed finished) unti11813, under an amount of difficulty which would have crushed any but an indomitable mind. [THAMES TUNNEL.] During the later years of his life, Sir Mark (who received the honour of knighthood du ring the Melbourne administration) did not engage in any great enterprizes, but lived quietly and respected to a good old age. He died in Dec. 1849 ; leaving a worthy successor in his son, the present Mr. I. K. Brunel, en gineer of the Great Western Railway and of other extensive works.