Marc Isambard Brunel

Sir Marc Isambard Brunel (/bruːˈnɛl/, French: [maʁk izɑ̃baʁ bʁynɛl]; 25 April 1769 – 12 December 1849) was a French-American engineer active in the United States and Britain, most famous for the civil engineering work he did in the latter. He is known for having overseen the process for and construction of the Thames Tunnel, for his work for the Royal Navy, and as father of the British civil and mechanical engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Born in France, Brunel preferred his given name Isambard (but is generally known to history as Marc, to avoid confusion with his famous son). Brunel fled to the United States during the French Revolution, and involved himself in engineering and architectural pursuits, including offering an impressive design for the new United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. After being naturalized in 1796, he was appointed Chief Engineer of New York City, and went on to design military, commercial, and other buildings.

He moved to London in 1799, where he married Sophia Kingdom. In Britain, his work as a mechanical engineer included the design of machinery to automate the production of pulley blocks for the Royal Navy, and he went on to design and patent a "shield" to protect tunneling workers, and to oversee construction of the Thames Tunnel. The tunnel opened on 25 March 1843 (later passing to railway companies and the London Underground), and remains in use today.

The events of Brunel's life spanned from a period of indebtedness and prison over failed business ventures, to his being knighted by the young Queen Victoria (in 1841), in anticipation of his successful completion of the Thames Tunnel, recognition preceded by his being named, in sequence, beginning in 1814, to the Royal Society (Fellow), the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and following the tunnel's completion, his being named an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (in 1845).