Marc Isambard Brunel - England

England

Whilst Brunel had been in America, Sophia Kingdom had remained in Rouen and during the Reign of Terror, she was arrested as an English spy and daily expected to be executed. She was only saved by the fall of Robespierre in June 1794. In April 1795 Sophia was able to leave France and travel to London.

When Brunel arrived from America he immediately travelled to London and made contact with Sophia. They were married on 1 November 1799 at St Andrew, Holborn. In 1802 Sophia gave birth to their first child, a daughter, Sophie. In 1804 Sophia gave birth to another daughter, Emma. Finally, on 9 April 1806, Sophia gave birth to a son, christened Isambard Kingdom, who was destined to be one of the world's greatest engineers.

During the summer of 1799 Brunel was introduced to Henry Maudslay, a talented engineer who had worked for Joseph Bramah, and had recently started his own business. Maudslay made working models of the machines for making pulley blocks, and Brunel approached Samuel Bentham, the Inspector General of Naval Works. In April 1802 Bentham recommended the installation of Brunel's block-making machinery at Portsmouth Block Mills. Brunel's machine could be operated by unskilled workers, at ten times the previous rate of production. Altogether 45 machines were installed at Portsmouth, and by 1808 the plant was producing 130,000 blocks per year. Unfortunately for Brunel, the Admiralty vacillated over payment, despite that fact that Brunel had spent more than £2,000 of his own money on the project. In August 1808 they agreed to pay £1,000 on account, and two years later they consented to a payment of just over £17,000.

Brunel was a talented mechanical engineer, and did much to develop sawmill machinery, undertaking contracts for the British Government at Chatham and Woolwich dockyards, building on his experience at the Portsmouth Block Mills. He built a sawmill at Battersea, London (burnt down in 1814 and rebuilt by 1816), which was designed to produce veneers, and he also designed sawmills for entrepreneurs. He also developed machinery for mass producing soldiers' boots, but before this could reach full production, demand ceased due to the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Brunel was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1814. In 1828, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. In 1845 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.