Engineering genius Isambard Kingdom Brunel built modern marvels of the 19th century, powered by a deep personal drive.

At the beginning of the ambitious Victorian era in England, he envisioned newfangled train systems and steamships that could slice travel time, and meticulously planned how to build them. Seeing his enthusiasm and expertise, others quickly got on board with his grand ideas.

"He was entrusted with building the Great Western Railway, one of the biggest construction projects of its time, without having built a railway before," said Andrew Kelly, director of Brunel 200, a project that last year commemorated the bicentennial of Brunel's birthday. "He said he really wanted to change things. He wanted to build castles in the sky."

It helped that Brunel (1806-59) was the son of an accomplished engineer, Frenchman Marc Brunel, known best for constructing the tunnel under the River Thames in London. The elder Brunel was an attentive tutor who recognized his son's potential.

"He's sort of a child prodigy. . . . As a 6-, 7-, 8-year-old kid he's very good at geometry," said Richard Jensen, a retired professor of history at the University of Illinois, Chicago. "He's the only son, and his father's his real teacher."

As a teen, Brunel traveled from his home in Britain to France for advanced schooling at Caen College and Lycee Henri IV. He served as an apprentice to the watchmaker Le Breguet and then came back to work on his father's project, the Thames Tunnel. At age 20, he earned the title of resident engineer on the project.

Following Father

"He started so young because his father was a great engineer," said Colin Brown, director of engineering at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London. "Sort of the greatest thing about him is he didn't know any barrier, he didn't know any resistance to achievement."

Brown says Brunel showed natural leadership in the way he operated. The young man would labor with tunnel workers cutting soil and laying brick, seeking very little sleep. When a flood rushed through the tunnel under construction, Brunel slid down an iron rod to rescue a struggling worker with rope.

In a later tunnel flood in 1828, Brunel himself was badly hurt. Though he suffered hemorrhaging, had to convalesce for months and suffered long-lasting effects, the setback didn't stop him. He'd chosen the personal motto en avant — forward — and lived up to it.

After his injury, Brunel was sent to recover in Bristol, west of London. There he met area business leaders and entered a competition to design a bridge across a gorge. He ultimately won the appointment to build what became the celebrated Clifton Suspension Bridge. "He makes a stunning success in Bristol," Jensen said. "Bristol is an old town, and the city fathers have money and want to get into this industrial era fast — and suddenly they've got a superstar engineer. . . . The city found a star and they knew it."

The business community fell in love with Brunel, Jensen says. Especially with his enthusiasm. He jazzed up proposals by making elegant drawings of them.

"People were taken along, I think, with the vision and almost dreamlike approach to what was possible," Kelly said. "I think he would've been a great what we'd call today marketer, lobbyist, showman. When he did launches of these projects, they were always huge events."

On the heels of starting his bridge project, Brunel talked with Bristol business leaders about trying a first — a train system connecting the city with other regions. Just two limited-use railroads had been built farther north in England.

City leaders "decided they needed a railway between Bristol and London — about 110 miles," Jensen said. "It took them maybe four days by boat and overland to get to London. Brunel promises a railroad will do it in five hours."

What Brunel embarked on became the Great Western Railway. Because locomotives were not very powerful, going uphill was hard. So Brunel designed a system that had as few curves and hills as possible.

"That means you've got to build a lot of bridges, and he does, and tunnels," Jensen said.

The layout included what was then the world's longest man-made tunnel, two miles long.

"The idea of a railroad station is a new thing," Jensen said. "He builds the signaling system. . . . Most of it is innovative."

Innovation was a Brunel hallmark. After working on the railroad, he switched to ships. "He announces he's going to extend the Great Western covering most of southwest England to New York City, and he's going to do it by building spectacular steamships," Jensen said. "The second half of his career is building steamships even better."

Brunel's first was the Great Western sailing paddle-wheeler, at the time the biggest steamship in the world. It was a success partly due to Brunel's shrewd deductions.

"Sailing ships take five weeks to get to New York, and paddle boats will take two weeks. The problem is, (the existing) paddle boats can't carry enough coal to make the whole trip," Jensen said. "Brunel uses the cube factor; he doubles the size of the ship, so it takes four times as much coal but has eight times as much space, and that's the secret."

Not all of Brunel's innovations were successes. Notable failures included his plans to transport trains uphill using vacuum pressure, something that researchers say would be possible with today's materials.

He also wanted a wider track for a more comfortable train ride, but eventually the Great Western was scaled down onto smaller-gauge tracks to fit with other railways.

One ship he built was too large to move nimbly enough in storms.

One innovation that Brunel made was the iron ship, whose success amazed onlookers.

"It turns out that iron ships are lighter than wooden ships, and that turns out to be a big surprise," Jensen said. "The iron plates are much thinner than wooden panels, but the iron is so strong, a big ship doesn't need thick panels."

Cutting Edge

Brunel's engineering marvels were not known as stunning financial successes, but they pushed the technology envelope.

"I think he was that rare combination of a great visionary in terms of seeing what's possible, he was incredibly hands-on in his approach to work, and was a great partnership and network builder," Kelly said.

In a paper on management lessons from Brunel's leadership, Kelly writes that Brunel was a risk taker who concentrated on bold plans, with nine factors leading to his success: timing, family, mentors and partners, education, vision, leadership, marketing, ideas and a commitment to quality.

"The timing was right for someone like Brunel," Kelly said. "The industrial revolution was beginning to be at its height, and he had this incredible background, (plus) worked with his father and talented people of his generation. He learned from many people."

BY DONNA HOWELL