Marc Isambard Brunel

Father of Isambard Kingdom, this extraordinary engineer arrived in England in 1799 having been the Chief Engineer of New York at the age of 28. He brought with him knowledge of how to mechanise block making which the admiralty officials hoped to capitalise upon. It took him ten years to introduce his now famous block-making machines in a factory in Portsmouth Dockyard, but they were to revolutionise the work and remained in operation for over 100 years.