Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-59), British engineer. Brunel worked with his father, also an engineer, on a number of early experimental projects. His first important achievement was the design for the Clifton suspension bridge (1829) and in 1833 he became chief engineer to the Great Western Railway. He built over 1600 km of track and many notable railway bridges. Also active as a ship designer, Brunel built the Great Western (1837), which provided the first regular transatlantic service, the Great Britain (1843), the first ship to have an iron hull and a screw propeller, and the Great Eastern (1858), which laid the first transatlantic cable.
