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MEMOIR OF THE LIFE OF SIR MARC ISAMBAED BRUNEL CIVIL ENGINEER
VICE-PRESIDENT OP THE ROYAL SOCIETY
CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OP PRANCE
BY RICHARD BEAMISH, F.R.S.
SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED
LONDON
LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTIS 1862
, NOV 27 1968
TO LADY HAWES
THESE MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OS HER FATHER ARE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
BY HER OBLIGED AND SINCERE FRIEND
THE AUTHOR
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
The favourable reception which this Memoir has met with from the public, and the kindness and forbearance with which its defects have been treated by the press, have induced me to subject the whole to a careful revision, in the hope that it may be found worthy of a permanent place in the biographical literature of the country.
2 Suffolk Square, Cheltenham
April 1862.
PREFACE TO THE FIKST EDITION.
In undertaking to place on record the leading events in the life of one of the greatest mechanists of the age, I am fully sensible of the difficulties to be over-come, and of the delicacy with which many passages in such a life must be approached ; and it is only because no one else has sought to secure some of those fleeting notices of a personal nature, which time only too soon obliterates, that I have drawn up this Memoir of one to whom England stands largely in- debted for her progress in the mechanical arts.
True, on the one hand, our great moralist has laid it down, that " they only who live with a man can
write his life with any genuine exactness and discrimination ; " and from the long intimacy which I was permitted to enjoy with Sir Isambard Brunei, I am enabled so far to fulfil the condition required. But, on the other hand, when I call to mind that the same authority has also declared, " that few people who have lived with a man know what to remark about him," I should have been tempted to abandon my task, had not the too flattering confidence of the surviving relations of my esteemed friend placed at my disposal all the documents which they have been enabled to collect calculated to throw light upon his distinguished career. Whatever opinion may be adopted, I should not feel justified in declining to accept the duty which has been thus assigned me.
Amongst the manuscripts placed in my hands I find two short memoirs, one by the late M. de St.
Amand, the other by the late Mr. Carlisle, librarian to George IV. ; together with the published " Notice Historique" of M. Edouard Frere, addressed, "Atr Academic des Sciences de Rouen."
Between M. de St. Amand and the Brunel family there had existed a long and intimate friendship, cemented not only by a common sympathy of loyalty, but by that love for mechanical and scientific pursuits for which both were distinguished. Both were in the service of their unhappy king, Louis XVI., at the period of that fearful convulsion which tore France to pieces, and shook the whole fabric of European governments ; both fled from the horrors enacted in the name of liberty : Brunei to America, in the full enjoyment of health and strength, and supported by hopeful anticipations of the future ; M. de St. Amand to England, under circumstances of unusual difficulty, danger and despondency. He had received a severe wound on that memorable 5th of October, 1789, when, as one of the king's body-guard, he was hunted through the palace of Versailles. Having made his escape to the wood of Montmorenci, which could only afford temporary shelter, he dragged his disabled limbs to the coast, and ultimately succeeded in reaching this country. Here, by a virtuous struggle against fallen circumstances and an enfeebled constitution, he maintained a position amongst the good and great, alike honourable to his intellectual attainments and to his moral worth.
I may further add, that amongst many mechanical inventions of M. de St. Amand, an instrument for
determining a ship's course is said to have possessed great merit, and to have deserved a better fate than room to moulder in the archives of the Admiralty. We may well understand with what deep interest M. de St. Amand's enthusiastic and sympathetic mind followed the development of Brunel's genius, and made him naturally solicitous to place upon record the successes which his friend had achieved.
For many of the anecdotes relating to Brunel's early life and social character I am, however, mainly indebted to notes made by his daughter, Lady Hawes ; to the valuable journal of theRev. H. T. Ellacombe; to circumstantial and detailed notices by his own pen ; and to communications with which he, from time to time, favoured me during the daily, often hourly, confidential intercourse subsisting between us during the progress of the Thames Tunnel.
To Mr. James Forest, Secretary to the Institution of Civil Engineers, I desire also to express my thanks for some interesting corroborative facts.
2 Suffolk Square, Cheltenham :
March 1862.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
BIRTH AND YOUTH, 1769-1786.
Sent to Gisors — Story of Dog — Punishment — Story of Portrait — Sent to St. Nicaise, Rouen — Dannecker — Talent for Drawing and Construction — Early Admiration of England — Constructs an
Organ — Studies for the Navy — Constructs a Quadrant — Enters the Navy Page 1
CHAPTER II. 1786-1793.
Peril at Paris — Miss Kingdom — Disturbances at Rouen — Quits France — Passport — Insurrection in St. Domingo — Lands at New York — Connection with M. Pharoux . . . .14
CHAPTER III. 1793-1799.
Miss Kingdom imprisoned — Travelling in America in 1793 — French emigrant Family — Ojibbeway Chief — Mr. Thurman — Engineering Talent — Plans for Senate House, Washington —
Park Theatre, New York — Locomotive Windmill — Cannon Foundry — Death of M. Pharoux — Admitted Citizen of New York — Declines to return to France — Naval Successes of Eng-
land — Block Machinery first suggested .
CHAPTER IV. 1799-1801.
Quits America — Duke of Orleans — Lands at Falmouth — Prejudice against Foreigners — John Feltham — Machine for twisting Cotton and forming it into Balls — Machine, for hemming and stitching — Machine for Card-shuffling — Designs for a Block Machinery — Edward, Lord Dudley — Slide Rest — Maudslay — Designs offered to Mr. Taylor — Rejected — Increase of the Navy — Sir Samuel Bentham
CHAPTER V.
Brunel's Claims to be the Author of the Block Machinery vindicated
CHAPTER VI. 1802-1803.
Designs for Block Machinery adopted by Government — Question of Remuneration— Referred to Sir Samuel Bentham — Accepted by the Admiralty
CHAPTER VII. 1802-1810.
Difficulties in finding Workmen, 1802-5 — General Bentham sent to Russia, 1805 — Quantity of Timber required to construct a Seventy- four — Impediments to the Operations of the Machinery, 1807 — Machinery capable of supplying all the Blocks for the British Navy — Remuneration postponed — Nervous Fever, 1808 — Amount of Remuneration determined, 1810 — Letter from Lord St. Vincent, 1810 — Performance of the Block Machinery — Present Condition of the Machinery, March 1861 . .
CHAPTER VIII. 1805-1816.
Apparatus for bending Timber, 1805 — Machinery for sawing Timber, 1805-1808 — Birth of a Son, 1806 — Machine for cutting Staves, 1807 — Works at Woolwich, 1808 — The Saw — Sketch of its History — Saw-mills, Battersea — Veneer Engine — Hat and Pill Boxes, 1808 — Improvements in Motive Power, 1810 — Comparison of Cost of sawing by Machinery and by Hand, 1811 — Designs for Chatham, 1812 — Difficulties — Description of Machinery — Bacon — Mr. Ellacombe, 1816 —
Present State of the Works, March 1861 . . . .
CONTENTS XV
CHAPTER IX. 1809-1814.
Origin of the Shoe Machinery, 1809 — Neglected Condition of the British Army and Navy — Description of Shoe Machinery — Encouraged to establish a Manufactory of Shoes — Termination
of the War, and Loss incurred, 1814 — Letter to Mr. Vansittart, 1819
CHAPTER X. 1814-1819.
Fellow of the Royal Society, 1814 — Double-acting Marine Engine — Reception at Margate, 1814 — Mr. Hyde — Plan for towing Vessels, 1816— Knitting Machine, 1816 — Tin foil, 1818— Connection with Mr. Shaw — Stereotype Printing, 1819 — Retrospect of the Art of Printing — Brunei's Improvements in the Printing Machine, 1819 140
CHAPTER XL 1821-1831.
Marriage of his eldest Daughter, 1820 — Machine for copying Letters, 1820 — Plans for a Bridge at Rouen, 1820 — Municipal System of England and France contrasted — Visit of the Emperor of Russia to Portsmouth — Plan for a Timber Bridge 880 feet Span for St. Petersburg, 1821 — Why it was not erected — Autocratic and constitutional Governments contrasted in regard to commercial Improvements . . . .
CHAPTER XII. 1814-1821.
Saw-mills at Battersea — Burnt down, 1814 — Difficulties — Mr. Sansom — Arrested for Debt, 1821 — Efforts of influential Friends to obtain Relief — Government Assistance .
CHAPTER XIII. 1821-1826.
Supervision of the Works at Chatham, 1821 — Saw-mills for Trinidad and Berbice, 1821-4 — Suspension Bridges for the Isle of Bourbon, 1821-3 — Difficulties with Contractors — Marine Steam Engine, 1822 — Improvements of Paddle-wheel, 1823 — Liverpool Docks, 1823 — Carbonic Acid Gas Engine, 1824 — Failure — Opinion on Transatlantic Steam Navigation — Isthmus of Panama, 1824 — South London Docks, 1824 — Railways in France, 1825 — Chester Bridge, Rubble Building, 1825— Fowey and Padstow Canal, 1825— Bridge at Totness, 1825 — Vigo Bay, 1825 — Liverpool Floating Pier, 1826 .
CHAPTER XIV. 1824-1825.
Thames Tunnel — Early Attempts— -Dodd, 1798— Vazie, 1802 — Trevithick, 1807 — Hawkins — Teredo Navalis — Origin of the Shield — Formation of the Thames Tunnel Company, 1824 — Appointed Engineer — Construction of the Shaft, 1825 — Description of Shield — Nature of the Bed of the River . .
CHAPTER XV. 1825-1827.
Shield in Place, 1825 — Piece-work — Isambard Brunei — Example of Difficulties — Hostility of the Chairman — Mr. Gravatt and Mr. Riley appointed Assistants — Panics — Strike — Difficulties increase — Death of Mr. Riley —First Irruption of the River, May 18th, 1827
CHAPTER XVI. 1827-1828.
Means used to fill the Cavity in the Bed of the River — 111 Effects of Raft — Return to the Shield — Attempt of two Directors to visit the Shield — Melancholy Result — Fitzgerald's Dream — Increased Hostility of the Chairman — Effect on Brunei — Illness general, September 1827— Dinner in the Tunnel, November 1827 — Meeting of Proprietors, November 20th, 1827 — Mr. Giles's Proposition -r- Visit of Don Miguel — Second Irruption, 12th January, 1828 —Melancholy Results — General Meeting of Proprietors — Works stopped — Frames blocked up, August 1828
CONTENTS XVll
CHAPTER XVII. 1829-1831.
Returns to the general Practice of his Profession — Honours — Conduct of the Directors— -A new Plan entertained, 1829 — The Duke of Wellington's Opinion — Comparative Cost of Driftway and Thames Tunnel — New Plans referred to Professor Barlow, James "Walker, and Tierney Clark for Opinion, 1830 — Chairman's continued Hostility — Brunel resigns his Appointment, 1831— Effects on his Health . . .
CHAPTER XVIII 1831-1843.
Clifton Bridge, 1830-32 — Death of Dr. Wollaston, 1831 — Experimental Arch, 1832 — Anniversary of his 65th Birthday, 1834 — Treasury grants Funds for the Completion of the Tunnel on
Brunel's Plan, 1834 — Visit to Hacqueville — Passage of the River Nile — Works of the Tunnel resumed, 1835 — Stringent Conditions of the Treasury Minute — Removal of old and Erection of new Shield — Difficulties presented by the Ground — Mr. Page — Third Irruption of the River, August 23rd, 1837 — Fourth Irruption, November 3rd, 1837 — Fifth Irruption, March 21st, 1838 — Sulphuretted Hydrogen Gas — Injurious Effects — Extraordinary Subsidence of the Ground over Shield — Sinking of the North Shaft at Wapping — Difficulties presented — Knighthood — Junction of Shaft and Tunnel, 1842 — Attacked by Paralysis — Recovers — Tunnel opened to the Public, March 25th, 1843
CHAPTER XIX.
Personal, Domestic, and Social Qualities — Flexibility of Joints — Religious Sentiments — Simplicity — Love of Children — M. de C . — Dr. Spurzheim on the Development of his Son
— M. Breguet's Opinion — His Son's Talent for Drawing — Admiration of Nature — Benevolence — Pump at Youghal — Sufferings of Mail-coach Horses — Augustus Pugin — Inventors
— Schemers — Heathcote — Babbage — Facility of Reply - a Miniature Painting — Accuracy of Designing — General Charge of Departure from original Estimate unjust — Confidence in the Value of Lines — Examples — Takes Charge of the Dover Packet in a Storm — Presence of Mind — Examples — Illustration of the Superiority of the Moderns over the Ancients — Knowledge of the
Value of manufactured Work — Absence of Mind — Elasticity of Spirit — Summary by M. E. Frere — Unaffected Piety
CHAPTER XX. 1843-1849.
CONCLUSION.
Professional Career terminated — Stacking Timber in Dockyards — Successes of his Son — Her Majesty's Visit to the Tunnel — Society of his Grandchildren — Second Attack of Paralysis, 1845
— Equanimity and Cheerfulness under physical Suffering — Death, 12th of December, 1849
SIR MARC ISAMBARD BRUNEL
CHAPTER I. BIRTH AND YOUTH, 1769-1786.
SENT TO GISORS — STORY OF DOG PUNISHMENT - STORY OF PORTRAIT- SENT TO ST. NICAISE -, ROUEN DANNECKER -TALENT FOR DRAWING AND CONSTRUCTION- EARLY ADMIRATION OF ENGLAND -CONSTRUCTS AN ORGAN- STUDIES FOR THE NAVY CONSTRUCTS A QUADRANT - ENTERS THE NAVY.
MARC ISAMBARD BRUNEL, the subject of this emoir, was born at Hacqueville on the 25th of
April, 1769.
Hacqueville is situated near Gisors, in that part of Normandy formerly called the "Vexin," but which has since the revolution received the appellation of " the department of the Eure." The name of Brunel is found from an early date in the ancient records of the province. The privilege of Maitre des Postes of the district seems to have been an inheritance of the family.
But the Brunels may claim a higher honour as having given to their country an unusual number of men remarkable for their piety and learning. They may also reckon among their distinguished members the greatest painter which France has produced. Not far from Hacqueville, at Les Andelys, is the birth-place of Mcolas Poussin, whose mother was of the family of Brunel. The father of Sir Isambard was held in high esteem not only for the simplicity and openness of his character, but for the honourable frugality with which he dispensed a narrow income, and for the prudence, tenderness, and diligence with which he educated a family of three children, viz., two sons, of whom Marc Isambard was the second, and one daughter. M. Flahaut, in an address to the civil engineers at Paris, speaks of the Brunels, Sir Isambard and his son, as having sprung from the working classes : " Sortis de la classe des artisans, ou meme des ouvriers, ils n'ont di qu'k eux-memes ce qu'ils ont appris."
This is an error : although we can find few things more gratifying or more instructive than the successful struggles of self-taught men of humble origin, yet we should be scarcely justified in excluding from the catalogue of fame, those who have had the moral courage to resist the enervating
influences which a recognised social position only too readily produces.
Of the mother of Brunei, whose maiden name was Lefevre, I have been able to learn little. That her early loss was long and severely felt, there seems to be no doubt. An attempt was made at the earliest period to impress on Marc Isambard the necessity of giving his mind to the acquirement of classical knowledge, as he was destined to succeed to a living in the gift of the family, which would have secured to him a sure, though comparatively humble provision. Accordingly, he was sent soon after his mother's death, in his eighth year, to the College of Gisors, but neither grammar nor rhetoric possessed any charm for his tastes ; they therefore retained no hold on his affections. No efforts on the part of his teachers at school, no punishments inflicted by his father at home, could insure one half the attention to his classical studies that he bestowed upon the carpenter's shop and the wheelwright's yard in his native village.
An event may here be related which occurred during his school-days at Gisors, and which threatened to impugn his moral character at the very outset of life.
His father accompanied him to the school, after one of his vacations, taking with him the amount of the previous quarterly fees in crown pieces. The canvas bag was emptied upon the table, and the money counted to the master in presence of the boy. A receipt was given in due form ; but the money was not removed from the table until the father had taken his leave. When, however, the master, before placing it in his strong box, again counted it, some of the pieces were missing. Young Brunel was questioned, but he stoutly denied all knowledge of the missing money — suggesting, at the same time, that Flore might have taken them.
Now Flore was a little dog belonging to the Brunels, which had been taught many accomplishments, and which had accompanied the boy and his father to Gisors. " A dog to take money," exclaimed the master, " c'est un peu trop fort ! " Crown pieces, he thought, were as little capable of being swallowed as the fanciful statement of the boy. " Non, non, mon enfant, il n'est pas possible." Still the boy persisted in denying any knowledge of the money, and begged that his father might be written to, and that he should be requested to bring Flore. At length, with some reluctance on the part of the master, a letter was despatched to Hacqueville, and in due course, father and dog made their appearance. The reason for the summons having been explained, they were shown into the room where the money had been counted on the previous day. Flore was now observed to drop her tail, and to betray symptoms of embarrassment. " Cherche, Flore — cherche, cherche ! " cried papa ; but Flore would not comply. The master remained suspicious. The boy looked anxious ; the father a little angry. At length Flore seemed to relent ; her tail no longer drooped, — her eye brightened, and she began to seek in earnest. The master was in amazement — the boy regained his confidence — the father his good humour, when Flore, producing the missing coins from the corner in which she had hidden them, solved the mystery, and at once vindicated the integrity of the boy, which her clever feat had so nearly compromised.
The holidays were devoted to drawing and carpentry. The old chateau, for centuries in the possession of the family, and the Chateau Gaillard, built by Eichard Coeur- de-Lion, as a frontier defence against Philip Augustus, in the neighbourhood of Les Andelys, were the favourite subjects of his pencil. This early exhibition of artistic and mechanical talent is, perhaps, only equalled by our own Smeaton, to whose mechanical aptitude the fish in the small ponds at Ansthorpe, his father's residence, not unfrequently fell victims ; the water being experimentally transferred from one pond to another for the gratification of the embryo engineer. For Smeaton mechanical design and the construction of models had also more interest than the drawing of deeds, or the engrossment of parchment, to which he had been destined by his father.
Less disposed to be guided by circumstances than the elder Smeaton had been, the father of Brunei sought to compel obedience to his wishes by the infliction of various punishments, solitary confinement being most often employed. Of one room, selected for that purpose, the boy entertained a horror. On the walls of that room hung several family portraits. Amongst them was one of a grim old gentleman, the eyes of which appeared to be always turned towards him with a stern and forbidding frown. 'No matter in what part of the room he took shelter, those angry eyes still rested upon him. Indignant at this imaginary persecution, he one day determined to put an end to it ; and, contriving to place a chair upon the table which stood immediately beneath the picture, he climbed upon it, and by the help of his pocket-knife carefully cut out the eyes from the canvas, delighted at thus freeing himself from their stern watchfulness.
The early life of Dannecker, the celebrated sculptor, offers a similar example of the fruitless attempt to check, if not destroy, the early impulses of genius. With Dannecker it was not the wheelwright's, but the stone-mason's yard that proved the attraction. This yard was contiguous to his father's house, and there it was certain he would be found chipping stones when missed either from home, or from the stables of the Duke of Wurtemberg, in which he was employed under his father. Punishment followed punishment to no purpose. Solitary confinement was resorted to with as little success as with Brunel. It is related that, one morning, having made his escape through the window of his prison, he presented himself, with four companions, before the duke, and prayed that they might be permitted to enter a school which the duke had recently established for the benefit of the children of his servants, and in which drawing and music, as well as the ordinary elements of knowledge, were taught free of cost. To Dannecker's inexpressible joy, his prayer was heard, and he was at once relieved from parental tyranny and ignorance, which, although powerless to destroy the instinct of the boy, might have been productive of years of pain and sorrow to his ardent and sensitive nature.
Less fortunate than Dannecker, Brunel continued to be subjected to every repressing influence. At eleven years of age he was sent to the seminary of St. Mcaise, at Rouen — one of the numerous establishments connected with the large ecclesiastical college of that town, — still with the hope of securing him for the church.
But nature was not to be- turned from her course. So strongly did his taste for drawing continue to exhibit itself, that the superior was unwilling to deprive him of the advantage of a master. His first lessons were directed to the delineation of the human figure, — and more particularly of the human countenance. But, unable to endure the tedium of repetition, and the routine of copying each feature in detail, he produced one morning — no less to the astonishment of his master than the admiration of the superior — a finished portrait of a well-known person, in which the distinguishing traits were said to be admirably expressed.
In this early effort will be recognized the leading characteristics of Brunel's mind, — largeness, and comprehensiveness of conception, combined with the utmost accuracy of detail. The several features, upon which routine would have pondered for weeks, as distinct and isolated facts, were at once combined, and made to serve the general purposes of a portrait, which the young artist presented to his master, as the best vindication he could offer for detuning any further instruction at his hands.
His sources of amusement differed widely from those of other children of the same age. At a time when most children can scarcely manage an ordinary knife, young Brunei was familiar with the use of the greater part of the tools found in a carpenter's shop ; and so great was his love of such tools, that he has been known to pawn his hat to gain possession of one newly exhibited in a cutler's window at Rouen, though at the time he scarcely knew its special use. At the age of twelve he constructed various articles with the precision and elegance of a regularly educated workman. Every day showed the rapidity with which Brunei could seize upon all combinations of material forms, and exhibited some new feature in his aptitude for mechanical pursuits. The construction, the rigging, and the motive power of vessels early attracted his attention ; and the drawings of them which he executed at this period are said to have been perfect in form and detail.
Of all the mechanical operations which he witnessed in those early days, the one which excited the largest amount of interest, was the manner in which the tire of a wheel was fixed to its rim or felloe ; indeed, a carriage wheel seemed, to the latest period of his life, to excite in Brunei renewed delight. Its simplicity, beauty, and perfect mechanical adaptation, always called forth his unqualified admiration.
About this time, in one of his daily visits to the quay at Rouen, his attention was more than usually excited by two cast-iron cylinders which had been just landed, and which, when compared with his own height (for he always formed a mental scale), seemed to him gigantic. What was their use ? Whence had they come ? Whither were they going ? These were questions to which for
some time he in vain sought an answer. At length, a boatman alongside the quay, interested in the lad's eagerness, beckoned to him and promised to give him the wished-for explanation.
It may well be conceived with what alacrity the invitation was accepted, and with what earnestness he listened to the explanations of the friendly boatman, how those cylinders were part of a fire engine (then so called) for the purpose of raising water ; that they had just arrived from England, where many such things were made. " Oh ! " exclaimed Brunei, " quand je serai grand, j'irai voir ce pays-Ik."
On another occasion the superiority of the workmanship of the different parts of a carriage also recently landed from England attracted his observation. " Ah ! " he exclaimed, " qu'ils sont habiles dans ce pays-la ; j'irai le voir quand je serai grand."
With a mind so much active to everything into which construction entered, it was no wonder that
Brunel's imagination should have been aroused by the mechanical arrangements of musical instruments. Having taught himself the flute and the construction of the harpsichord, he conceived it to be possible to combine the effects of both in one mechanical arrangement, and this, without any knowledge of the laws of sound, or the rules of art. He thus, unconsciously, rivalled the ingenious inventions of Vaucanson, of whose name and success he was equally ignorant, and of the self-taught peasant who erected, at Mosliuus in Norway, an organ, described by Sir A. de Capell Brook as " perfect in its parts, and with a variety of stops."
Our own Watt, in the early part of his career, and without any knowledge of the science of music, or
correct appreciation of musical intervals, turned his mechanical skill in a similar direction. " He constructed guitars, flutes and violins, and proposed a mode of playing on the musical glasses which should be independent of the wetted finger. In organ building, also, Watt introduced many valuable improvements, such as delicate indicators and regulators of the strength of the blast ; and ultimately he was enabled to establish the theory of Daniel Bernouilli relative to the mechanism of the vibration of musical chords, and which explains the harmonious sounds that accompany all full musical notes ." *
Brunei, though he did not aspire to the construction of an organ, nor to the attainment of a knowledge
of the theory of music nor of the principles of harmony, yet accomplished what was, perhaps, a more
wonderful feat (considering that he was then only eleven years of age) than even that which had been
performed by Watt in his twenty-third year, after long experience as a professed mechanist. Unfortunately, this interesting model of Brunel's musical machine no longer exists, and therefore there are no means of determining how far it resembled the ingenious instrument known as the barrel organ. But these exhibitions of mechanical precocity afforded little consolation to a parent whose mind was occupied with the hope of seeing the family living held by a Brunei. " Ah ! mon cher Isambard," he used to say, " si tu prends ce parti-la, tu vegeteras toute ta vie."
It must, however, be remembered that, at the period of which we speak, there was nothing to suggest the changes about to take place in the industrial arts ; nothing to indicate that rapid development which the application of steam, as a motive power, was destined to produce. In Rouen there did
not exist one cotton spinning-machine. The only one to be found in the country was at Louvers, although indeed it is recorded by Dr. Doyle, in his " Productive Resources of India," that theRev. W. Lee, of St. John's College, Cambridge, the inventor of a machine for knitting and weaving stockings, was induced by Henry IV., just 200 years before, to establish himself at Rouen, because he received no encouragement at home. The populace of Rouen had, however, in their ignorance and blindness, opposed every attempt to introduce spinning-machines, or to erect manufactories for muslin or muslinette. So late as 1787 cotton was spun by the hand in Rouen, and throughout the province! In 1789 some speculative persons ventured to import machinery from England, but it was quickly demolished by the artisans.*
* The rude self-protection which urged the natives of Rouen to raise their hands against machinery which they believed was destined to rob them of their " bread, can be better understood, and more
readily justified, than the intolerance and learned bigotry of men claiming the highest social position and authority, in enlightened Scotland, in the early part of the eighteenth century. Amongst other examples of the profound ignorance of art, and the fierce religious fanaticism which characterised that period, Mr. Robert Chambers {Domestic Annals of Scotland) notices the manner in which the inventor of the first agricultural machine was received in 1737. It was denounced as the " new-fangled machine for fighting
No wonder that a father, entirely ignorant of the value of mechanical appliances, which were then, and long continued to be, unappreciated either by society or by government, but who was perfectly alive to the secular as well as spiritual power of the clergy, should witness, with profound disappointment, the growing tendencies of his child.
The efforts of his father, aided by zealous and accomplished teachers, failed, however, to wean the young artist from his mechanical pursuits. The superiors of the seminary, perceiving and fully appreciating the strong bent of his genius, recommended his father to choose some other profession for him. To his own expressed wish, " Faites-moi ingenieur," the reply was that he would only benefit the world and starve himself.
The navy was then the only profession suited to his genius, and, with the object of preparing for it, he
was sent to visit his relation, M. Carpentier, at Rouen, where he began systematically to study drawing and perspective, as well as hydrography. He often spoke in after life of the relief which the new course of study afforded him. Under M, Dulagne of Rouen, the learned author of a treatise on hydrography, which forms a supplement to those of MM. Bouguer and De la Caille, the propositions of Euchd had only to be stated to be understood : demonstration was neither asked for nor required. After the third lesson in trigonometry he proposed to his astonished and delighted master to determine the height of the spire of the cathedral.
" I'admit," says Brunel in a letter to a friend ; " je fis de suite un instrument, assez grossier k la verite, mais assez juste, pour confirmer la theorie et la pratique."
"the corn from the chaff; thus impiously thwarting the will o' Divine Providence by raising wind by human art instead of soliciting it by prayer, or patiently waiting for whatever dispensation of wind Providence was pleased to send upon the shielding hill."
His love for construction still continued to afford him the highest gratification in his leisure hours, and the models of vessels which he produced are said to have possessed singular beauty of form and finish.
His industry, his intelligence, the integrity of his mind, and the sweetness and loyalty of his disposition, endeared him to all with whom he became associated. So conscious was M. Dulagne of his pupil's superiority, that he joyfully seized the opportunity to procure for him the notice of the Minister of Marine, the amiable Marechal de Castries, who visited Rouen in the suite of Louis XVI., on his return from Cherbourg. Brunel made so favourable an impression upon the marshal, that he was induced to nominate him " Volontaire d'honneur,'' before the usual time, to the corvette " Le Marechal de Castries." However painful the feeling of disappointment to his father may have been at the failure of his favourite project to secure so much talent to the church, that regret must have been greatly modified in receiving from M. de Castries an assurance of protection for his child, and in knowing that the honour conferred upon him had only once before been granted, and that to M. de Bougainville, the celebrated circumnavigator.
As an illustration of the accuracy of the observing and constructive powers of Brunei at this early period, it may be here further stated that, when he was introduced to the captain of the vessel in which he was to sail, an instrument on the table attracted his attention. This was a Hadley's quadrant. He had never seen one before, and was now simply told its use. He did not touch it, but, walking round the table, carefully examined it. In a few days he produced an instrument of his own construction, " assez grossier, k la verite," as he used to say, "mais assez juste;" his only theoretical guide being a description of the instrument, in a work on navigation, supplied to him by his master. But this first attempt only stimulated the young mechanist to further efforts, and, with the aid of a few crowns grudgingly given by his father, he executed another quadrant in ebony with so much accuracy that, during the whole period of his connection with the navy, he required no other. "When it is remembered that this instrument demands in the constructor a knowledge not only of geometry, trigonometry, and mechanics, but of optics, one is filled with astonishment at the intuitive sagacity which brought all this knowledge to bear upon so delicate and complicated a construction.
When about to embark in the new career which his conduct and his talents had opened to him, Brunei was attacked with small-pox. His illness caused no further mischief than the delay of a few months ; and on his recovery, probably under the same favourable auspices, he joined his vessel, which was destined for the West Indies.
CHAPTER II. 1786-1793.
PERIL AT PARIS — MISS KINGDOM DISTURBANCES AT ROUEN
QUITS FRANCE FORGES PASSPORT INSURRECTION IN ST.
DOMINGO — LANDS AT NEW YORK — CONNECTION WITH M. PlIAROUX.
THE marine of France had attained to an unprecedented pitch of efficiency and power under the
fostering care of Louis XVI. Her flourishing colonies in the Antilles still afforded a valuable nursery for her seamen. For although, of all her great possessions in the West, there remained at the close of the war of independence (1763), only the Island of St. Domingo, and a few of the smaller islands, yet in value they equalled, if they did not exceed, the colonial possessions of all other nations taken together.
From 1786 to 1792 Brunei seems to have been actively engaged in his profession ; and from his intelligence, gaiety, amiability, and general refinement, to have endeared himself, as well to his superior officers as to his ruder companions. It is much to be regretted that there remains no record of the impressions which the susceptible mind of Brunei received of those countries which he visited and the people with whom he must have been brought into contact during the six years of his naval service. One memorial only has been found of his constructive talent : this is a drawing of a machine for husking coffee, dated Guadaloupe, 1790. In January, 1793, we find him in Paris, his ship being paid off. There, events were succeeding each other with a rapidity and violence unparalleled, perhaps, in the annals of human passion ; and, on the very day when the Convention pronounced sentence
against the unfortunate Louis XYI., Brunel was found defending his own loyal opinions in the colonnade of the Cafe de Vechelle little conscious of the risk to which he subjected himself. In the heat of discussion, and in reply to some ferocious expressions of an ultra repubhcan, he exclaimed, more boldly than prudently, " Vous aurez bientot h invoquer, comme autrefois, la protection de la Ste Yierge, ' A furore Normannorum libera nos, Doniine.' " *
Fortunately for our young loyalist, M. Taillefer, a member of the Assembly, by committing an act of
greater indiscretion, turned the attention of the by- standers upon himself, and, in the confusion which ensued, Brunel was enabled to effect his escape. That night lie slept at the Petit Gaillard-bois next door, and the following morning at an early hour quitted Paris.
At Rouen, where his family had been known to entertain moderate views, Brunel was enabled to remain for a while undisturbed ; but at a time when every species of despotism was exercised without a despot being acknowledged, and when "to stifle every emotion of sensibility " was, according to Robespierre, the greatest proof which a man could give of devotion to his country, it was not possible that France could any longer offer Brunel a home. And though the death of Louis XVI., which took place four days after Brunei's escape from Paris (January 21st, 1793), was quickly followed by indiscriminate massacres of the judges and executioners of that ill-fated prince, yet there was no safety, either for the loyalist or the constitutionalist, under the jealous and unprincipled government then existing.
At Rouen, Brunel again availed himself of the protection of his relative, M. Carpentier, and it was under his hospitable roof that an event occurred which exercised a marked influence upon Brunel's future career. In that house, for the first time, he met a young English lady, of the name of Kingdom, gifted with no ordinary personal attractions.
This lady was the youngest of sixteen children, nine of whom only reached maturity.
Her father, who had been an army and navy agent at Plymouth, was dead, and her mother, supported by the active interest of the member for Plymouth, who had been left guardian to her children, was enabled to secure provision for her sons in the navy office.
Anxious to obtain every advantage for her favourite daughter Sophia, who had just attained her sixteenth year, she was induced, at the invitation of some West India friends, M. and Madame de Longuemar, to permit the young lady to accompany them to Rouen, that she might acquire a practical knowledge of the French language. We might be surprised that Miss Kingdom should have been permitted by her friends to enter France at all when (1792) everything was tending so rapidly to a political crisis, if we were not aware how little was generally known in England as to the condition
of political parties in France. Already the King and his family were prisoners, and the most fearful cruelties were being committed in the name of liberty. Circulars had been addressed by the municipality of Paris to the other cities of France, inviting them to imitate the massacres of the capital.
At Rouen two young ladies, known to M. and Madame de Longuemar,were dragged into the street by the mob, and with shouts of " k la lanterne " were actually murdered, because they had been heard to play a loyalist air on their pianoforte. The alarm thus created in Rouen hastened the departure of M. and Madame de Longuemar for the West Indies. Miss Kingdom would gladly have accompanied them, but a severe illness rendered her unable to encounter a sea voyage, and she was in consequence left under the care of M. Carpentier, the American consul, an intimate friend of the Longuemars,
who was himself married to an English lady, and was also, as we have seen, the relative and tried friend of Brunel. Here, then, it was that Brunei became acquainted with Miss Kingdom. Opportunities were not wanting for the cultivation of an acquaintance in which mutual sympathy awakened mutual admiration. For Brunel beauty of form possessed an irresistible attraction. One day, while the young lady was admiring his first attempt at oil paintings — still in existence, — and, in her graceful and winning manner, pointing out what parts pleased her most, he turned to Madame
Carpentier, and whispered, " Ah I ma cousine, quelle belle mam !" " Oui," she replied, " mais elle n'est pas pour toi."
Not long after this little event, an emeute of the republican party called out the royalists to suppress it Brunel amongst the number. The excitement was tremendous — the danger great. It was no wonder, therefore, that love should take the place of admiration and sympathy. When all the houses of the respectable inhabitants had to be barricaded against the intrusion of the sans-culottes or bonnets rouges — when the distant roll of the drum roused mysterious forebodings of some popular paroxysm, or the clang of the tocsin summoned the loyal and well-disposed to protect their property and their life, — the thoughts of these two loving hearts would necessarily be concentrated each upon the other, and impressions would be received which nothing could ever efface.
Young Brunei's position now became daily more critical ; a longer delay in Rouen might be dangerous. Already a new phase in the revolution had presented itself. Provisions and public money, destined for the army, had been intercepted, and everything portended another fearful catastrophe. The Jacobins had prevailed — the reign of terror had commenced — the Convention was overthrown.
Its power had passed to the committee of public safety — to Robespierre, St. Just, Couthon, Collot, and "to the ignoble, sanguinary, and depraved Barere."
A column of Federalists had issued from Brittany and Normandy, with the view of marching upon Paris, while other columns from Bordeaux, and the basin of the Loire, — from Avignon and Languedoc, Grenoble, the Ain, and the Jura, were pressing forward towards the same point, with the avowed object of rescuing the republic from the sanguinary tyranny of its own children.
Upon the plea that he was engaged to purchase corn and flour for the army, Brunel with difficulty obtained a passport to America, its operation being limited to one year.
No time was to be lost. On the 7th July, 1793, he bade adieu to his native country; not, as we may well believe, without feelings of deep and heartfelt sorrow. But his loyal spirit could never have allied itself with men whose hands were imbrued in the blood of their sovereign, and he had no reasonable prospect of obtaining employment at home in any other career than that of war. Thus did the iniquity of her government deprive France of the services of one of her most gifted sons. •
The attachment, also, which Brunei had formed, while it tended still farther to embitter his farewell,
must yet be regarded as adding another motive for entering upon the struggle for independence, and as offering a new and powerful stimulant to the exercise of faculties which he must have felt conscious of possessing, in the hope of winning a prize upon which his imagination and his affections had set the highest value.
That Miss Kingdom was strongly impressed with the devotion which she had inspired, her constancy
and fortitude, through many years of trial, afford the most unequivocal testimony.
At Havre, Brunei found an American vessel called "Liberty," in which he secured a passage for the
United States. Scarcely had he congratulated himself upon his escape from tyranny and oppression,
when he discovered that the passport, to obtain which he had devoted many anxious hours, had been forgotten. After the first moment of disappointment, no time was given to vain regret ; a mind so full of resource as that of Brunei, could scarcely fail to find some means to supply a loss which, to any other, would have been irreparable, and might have proved fatal.
Having borrowed a passport from one of his fellow passengers, he soon produced a copy, so admirably executed in every minute detail, even to the seal, that it was deemed proof against all scrutiny.
To his calligraphic skill he was now indebted for freedom, and perhaps for life. Scarcely was the ink dry, when a French frigate hove in sight. A signal was soon after made for all the passengers on board the American vessel to parade on deck, that their passports might be examined. The detection of any
irregularity would have subjected Brunei to arrest, and an immediate transmission back to France as suspect. Confiding in his artistic skill, and feeling the importance of suppressing all appearance of hesitation or misgiving, he was the first to present his bold but well simulated document, of which he received the necessary confirmation without having aroused the slightest suspicion as to its authenticity.
Without farther let or hindrance, he landed in safety at New York on the 6th September, 1793. There,
to his dismay, he found the French squadron which had conveyed all those who had been so fortunate as to escape the fearful massacre at St. Domingo.
It will be remembered that, in 1790, the Constituent Assembly had empowered each colony belonging to the republic to make known its wants on the subject of a constitution, through an assembly which was to be elected by its own citizens. The mulatto population of St. Domingo naturally claimed to participate, as citizens, in the privilege thus heedlessly decreed, and their claim was as naturally resisted by the whites, who, as the largest proprietors in the island, and the inheritors ot the wealth, the luxury, and the prejudices of their fathers, felt their dignity compromised and their power endangered by this decision of the Assembly.
Though inferior in point of wealth, the mulattos were far superior in point of numbers, and under the
name of Petit Blancs, were rising into social importance ; they therefore rejoiced in the opportunity now afforded them to secure political position also.
Absorbed by class and personal contentions and animosities, they entirely overlooked the condition of the slave population.' The effect of the energetic and active Jacobin missionaries upon the minds of the negroes was not appreciated. More circumspect than had been their countrymen of Jamaica, when, in 1760, they sought to cast off the British yoke, the negroes of St. Domingo, under their able chiefs Brass on, Toussaint, and Hyacinth, successfully accomplished their project, and in June, 1793, after a series of atrocious cruelties. Cape Town, the last stronghold of the planters, was reduced to ashes, while the whites and mulattos were actually engaged in civil contention upon a question of
privilege and caste. "
Thus fell the Queen of the Antilles," says Alison {History of Europe)^ " the most stately monument of European opulence that had yet arisen in the New World ; and thus democratic France,
by an improvident and reckless encouragement of freedom, lost her most valuable West Indian possessions, as constitutional England lost her American colonies by an equally wilful, intolerant, and perverse legislation."
The greater part of the fugitives from that devoted country had sought shelter in the United States; but, however ready our young émigré may have been to sympathise with their fallen fortune, his own personal safety called for all his attention and care.
The crews of the French vessels Brunel used to describe as so many sets of banditti. Many of them came to witness the landing of their exiled countrymen, and with coarse jests and imprecations,
threatened to hang them all as a cargo of royalists ; and as Brunel was personally known to many of the officers of the squadron, there was the further apprehension that he might be recognised, treated as a deserter, and compelled, perhaps, to return to the country from which he had with so much difficulty succeeded in escaping.
Having found temporary protection in the lodging- house of " one Wilson," in Hanover Place, New York, Brunel lost no time in making his arrangements for quitting the city.
A stranger in the land, he knew not where to direct his steps. In his dilemma he fortunately called to mind that two of his companions de voyage, M. Pharoux and M. Desjardins, had gone to Albany, for the purpose of organising, on the part of a French company, the survey of a large tract of land near Lake Ontario, lying between the 44th parallel of latitude, and the course of the Black River ; and comprehending upwards of 220,000 acres. Brunel resolved to seek them, in a vague hope that he might be permitted to bear a part in an expedition which promised abundant exercise for his enterprising spirit, and an ample field for his genius : whilst it held out some prospect, if not of immediate remuneration, yet of enabling him to husband his little store of money for future emergencies.
M. Pharoux, the director of the expedition, an architect and surveyor of considerable repute, received
our adventurous émigré with all the courtesy of a kind and generous nature. During the voyage he had marked the originality of thought and amiability of character which distinguished Brunel, and he at once secured the co-operation of one to whom difficulties and dangers promised to be only incentives to exertion, and the means of drawing forth natural resources of no ordinary kind.
Accompanied by four Indians, supplied with two tents, a few axes, and fowling-pieces, these three enterprising French gentlemen entered upon the arduous task, not only of exploring, but of actually mapping a region hitherto scarcely known — a region where nature had for ages put forth unrestrained her power and her beauty. The glories of the physical world were appreciated by Brunei in their widest extent, and the impressions made by the richness, variety and magnitude of the vegetation in those primeval forests was ever remembered by him with pleasure, mingled with
a certain awe, when he called to mind the perils by which his path had been so often compassed.
CHAPTER III.
1793-1799.
MISS KINGDOM IMPRISONED TRAVELLING IN AMERICA, 1793
— FRENCH EMIGRANT FAMILY OJIBBEWAY CHIEF MR. THUR-
. MAN ENGINEERING TALENT PLANS FOR SENATE HOUSE,
WASHINGTON PARK THEATRE, NEW YORK LOCOMOTIVE
WINDMILL CANNON FOUNDRY DEATH OF M. PHAROUX
ADMITTED CITIZEN OF NEW YORK DECLINES TO RETURN TO
FRANCE NAVAL SUCCESSES OF ENGLAND BLOCK MACHINERY
FIRST SUGGESTED.
No sooner had England entered into the coalition with the continental powers against France, than
all communication between France and England was at once cut off, and the English then found on French soil were, without regard to sex or age, hurried away to prison. At Rouen, the house of the American consul was found to be no protection.
Fortunately for Miss Kingdom, the prisons were already full to overflowing ; she was, therefore, with
some others, conveyed to a convent, and placed under the surveillance of the nuns. The fare was wretched, and the lodging miserable. Black bread of the coarsest kind, with pieces of straw mixed with the dough, constituted the principal food ; while • the beds were formed of boards, with a billet of wood for a pillow. Still, the sympathy and kindness exhibited by the poor nuns, and the relief which she experienced in having companions of her own sex, offered some compensation to Miss Kingdom for so much physical discomfort and privation. The little luxuries, also, which the friends of the nuns would, from time to time, convey within the walls, were received with no ordinary thankfulness.
The little cream jug, filled, whenever opportunity offered, by the trusty old servant of the Macnamara family in the neighbourhood, is still retained as a memorial of the sufferings and the sympathies of that fearful time.
Many of the hours not devoted to religious observances were employed by the nuns in the cultivation
of the arts ; and Miss Kingdom was indebted to instructions obtained in this convent for her skill in making artificial flowers.
During her imprisonment. Miss Kingdom, not knowing when her own turn might arrive, had frequently to witness the loss of some of her companions, who were condemned to the guillotine. At length the hope of rescue died out ; death was casting his dark shadow before him, and the small remnant of her companions were in despair, when behold, one morning in July 1794, the doors of the convent were thrown open, and they were declared free to depart whither they would.
Stunned by so unlooked-for a reprieve, they were for a time utterly unable to realise the fact that the arch tyrant of the revolution no longer lived, and that the reign of terror had ceased. The joy of M. and Madame Carpentier was unbounded. With open arms they received their young friend, and, as the best service which they could now render, lost no time in obtaining for her a passport to her own country.
Brunei, happily unconscious of what was passing in France, continued to devote himself to the duties of his profession, supported by the hope of one day placing himself in a condition to claim the object of his affections, for whose sake he desired to consecrate
" In worthy deeds each moment that is told."
Unfortunately, I have been unable to obtain any notes or correspondence relative to the eventful coup d'essai of his engineering life.
Communications with Europe were difficult, tedious, and expensive. I have, however, often heard Brunel speak of his sojourn in America as a period of pleasurable excitement, enhanced, perhaps, by dangers as well as difficulties.
The only channels of communication which at that time existed between New York and its northern and eastern frontier, were by Lakes Champlain and George ; and by the Mohawk and Wood's Creek Rivers, the Oneida Lake, and the Onondaga River, to Fort Oswego, on Lake Ontario.
At Albany, a hundred and forty-five miles from New York, the difficulties commenced. A waggon road for sixteen miles brought the traveller to Schenectady. From thence up the Mohawk River to the little falls, a distance of sixty-five miles was performed in bateaux — light flat-bottomed boats, pointed at the ends, weighing about fifteen hundred-weight each, and worked by two men with paddles and setting poles. At the little falls occurred the first portage, or land-carriage, which led over a marsh for about a mile. To accomplish this, the bateau was landed and placed on a sort of sledge — devised by German colonists — and so drawn beyond the falls, where the water-carriage was again
resumed for about fifty miles, when another portage of six to eight miles, according to the season, .occurred. This brought the traveller to the Wood's Creek River, where the labour of transport ceased for a time.
For a distance of forty miles, this beautiful river pursues its gentle course to the Lake Oneida, from the eastern end of which the turbulent Onondaga breaks its way, for about thirty miles, over rapids and rocky falls to Fort Oswego, on the Lake Ontario. This fort was one of a chain of forts extending from the source of the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi, by which the French had, at one period, sought to deprive the English colonists of half their possessions. We have the testimony also of two English travellers, as to the condition of the public thoroughfares about this period, south and north of New York.
Mr. Francis Baily, one of the distinguished founders, if not the originator of the Royal Astronomical Society, describes in his journal, 1796-7, a journey from Baltimore to Philadelphia, in company with Mr. Elhcot, the government surveyor of the United States.
The public conveyances seem to have been very similar in character to the char-a-banc of the present
day. " An open coach on springs, with leather curtains, fitted up with four seats placed one before the
other, suspended from the top, capable of being raised or lowered, and each seat capable of accommodating four persons ; so that the whole of the passengers face the horses." The roads were almost impassable.
" We did manage," says Mr. Baily, " to get twelve miles before breakfast ; about thirteen miles between breakfast and dinner; and about twelve more miles- before supper ; having walked nearly half the way, up to our ankles in mud." Occasionally the coach was fairly " bogged," and left for the night.
Mr. Isaac Weld also, who travelled through the States in 1795-6-7, describes his journey from Albany to Lake Champlain, called by the Indians Caniad-eri Quarante, mouth, or door of the country.
The carriage, which after much difficult negotiation Mr. Weld and his companion were enabled to obtain, and which the proprietor boasted " was the very best in Albany," had no springs, and was little better than a common waggon. The traces frequently broke, and the bridles as frequently slipped off the horses' heads. In traversing one causeway, near Fort Edward, the animals were unable, without assistance, to extricate the wheels of the vehicle from between the partially decayed trees, of which the road was formed.
From Albany to Skenesborough, a distance of forty miles occupied twelve hours, and the last twelve miles no less than five hours. Well may Mr. Weld speak of the contemplated connection of Lake Champlain with the north, or Hudson River, by the improvement of the navigation of Wood's-Creek River, already suggested by MM. Pharoux, Desjardins and Brunel, as the most important project of the day.
If, then, the ordinary route presented difficulties, those which were to be overcome in the progress of
exploration may be partially conceived. By indefatigable perseverance, and the display of no common resources on the part of their young assistant, the object of MM. Pharoux and Desjardins was accomplished.
During this exploration, an incident occurred which made a lively impression upon the mind of Brunel, and of which he never afterwards spoke but with emotion.
As the party were rounding, in their canoe, a small creek on the Black River where the rich foliage
kissed the surface of the water, and entirely shut out the banks from view, children's voices were distinctly audible, " Yiens papa — viens maman, voilk un bateau." Who shall describe the effect of these simple sounds upon the hearts of the exiled travellers, as they broke the silence of an American desert ? There, in the backwoods, was a family which had fled, as they had, from the horrors of the revolution, supporting themselves by the work of their own hands, and indebted to the forbearance and kindness of wild and lawless Indians for that life and peace which had been denied to them at home. Brunel and his companion were, in their turn, able to give pleasure by imparting more recent news of their country.
The same confidence, with which this family had been treated by the Indians, was extended to Brunel and his companions. The friendly character of this intercourse was curiously illustrated, so lately as 1845, upon the visit of some of those people to England ; when Lady Hawes (Sir Isambard's eldest daughter) took the opportunity of inquiring of a young Ojibbeway chief (who visited England on a mission for the establishment of an Indian settlement) whether he had ever heard of a white man called Brunel, who visited his country long ago. "No," he replied, "but I have heard my grandfather talk, with pleasure, of a wonderful white man called Bru-ne." As these people always drop the final consonant, the name would appear to be identical.
Returning to Albany, the party took their passage on board a sloop for New York. The vessel was run
upon a sand-bank, and detained two tides. When about to resume her voyage, " un homme sage," as
Brunel described Mr. Thurman, an American loyalist and a merchant of New York, came on board.
This gentleman had always exhibited a strong sympathy for the loyalists of France ; often solacing them in their sorrows, and ministering to their wants. With M. Pharoux and young Brunei he readily fraternised ; and before the voyage to New York was ended, he had engaged them to survey a line for a canal to connect the River Hudson with Lake Champlain.
The engagement with Mr. Thurman became, therefore, the turning-point of Brunel's life. He had intended to return to his own country, if tranquillity should be restored, and a constitutional government established ; but the fortuitous connection with this " homme sage," determined his destiny. France, and her brilliant naval service, was abandoned for America, and the humble profession of a civil engineer.
The name of Thurman is still remembered with reverence in New York, as that of one who, by promoting internal communications, tended best to develop the resources of his country.
To M. Pharoux was confided the conduct of the operations ; but as difficulties increased, the superiority of Brunel's genius became so apparent, that M. Pharoux did not hesitate to resign the command into the hands of his more gifted companion ; and thus was Brunel, by the force of his character and the influence of circumstances, placed in the position best calculated to promote his own happiness, and to confer lasting benefit upon his kind.
His attention was now directed, not only to the projection of canals, but to the improvement of the navigation of rivers. His ingenuity soon suggested the means of freeing the beds from masses of rock and embedded trees ; and, by lateral cuts, of evading falls and cataracts, which rendered navigation not only dangerous but often impracticable. He may therefore be considered as the pioneer of those great inland communications, which have tended so largely to promote the commercial prosperity of the States.
The connection so auspiciously formed with Mr. Thurman, opened to Brunel other and more brilliant
opportunities for the exhibition of his constructive powers. Success attended all his efforts ; and thus, in the course of less than twelve months, he had achieved a name and secured an independence.
The building which served as the great council- chamber of the nation at Washington possessed neither the accommodation which the business of the States required, nor the architectural dignity which the majesty of Congress demanded. It was therefore resolved that architects should be invited to send in plans for a new structure. Amongst the competitors appeared Brunei and his friend M. Pharoux, an architect, it must be remembered, by profession ; but so superior in arrangement, elegance, and grandeur of design were the plans of Brunel, that the judges were relieved
from all difficulty of selection. Principles of economy, however, interfered ; and while they robbed the nation of a noble structure worthy of its greatness, they also deprived Brunel of that honour and those emoluments to which his attainments and his skill entitled him.
Fortunately the time and talents which he had displayed in this new field of art were not suffered to be lost. Plans were soon after demanded for a theatre in New York. With considerable modifications of the former design, Brunei's were accepted.
M. Pharoux again competed ; but so far from feeling the slightest jealousy or ill-will, he was amongst the first to offer his congratulations to Brunei, and to solicit as a favour that some of the decorative portion of the work might be accorded to him; not only that their friendship might be perpetuated, but that he might also secure the privilege of " free admission." Brunel and Pharoux were not the only '' émigrés''' who contributed to the éclat of the Park Theatre. A French nobleman, the Baron de Estaing, and a barrister, M. Savarin, were enabled to turn to account, both on the stage and in the orchestra, talents which in early life they had cultivated only as sources of private gratification and amusement.
An anecdote is related of the young architect during his connection with the theatre, illustrative not only of his ingenuity, but of his love of a joke. At a grand public masquerade given on the opening, an elegantly constructed locomotive windmill made its appearance on the stage, the only apparent opening to which was a window near the top. The singularity of the construction excited, naturally, a surprise which was increased to astonishment, when a voice was heard to issue from the machine, uttering a variety of political as well as personal satires which exhibited an intimate acquaintance with the social condition of New York. This could not be long endured. A call was made for the Thersites of the mill to show himself, under a loud threat of summary chastisement by the demolition of the machine and the exposure of the frondeur,
When the excitement was at its height, and the destruction of the windmill seemed inevitable, the
machine was gradually brought over one of the trapdoors on the stage. Brunel, and the companion whose wit had caused this uproar, allowed themselves to drop gently through, and thus to effect their escape from the theatre undiscovered. The disappointment of those who had already breathed a vow of vengeance may be well conceived when the machine was found to be empty ; and as Brunel and his friend left New York that night for Philadelphia, the mystery was not explained.
However fit the designs for this theatre may have been to exhibit an unusual amount of talent and resource, and to whatever extent the execution of them may have served as an introduction to more general architectural practice, the work failed to procure Brunel any direct pecuniary benefit. Unfortunately this building was burnt down in 1821, and there remain no authenticated drawings to show the peculiarities of its construction. The cupola by which it was surmounted is said to have resembled that over the Corn Market in Paris ; while in the boldness of its projection and the rightness of its construction it was far superior.
So high had Brunei's talents raised him in the estimation of the citizens of 'New York, that they resolved to appoint him their Chief Engineer. In that capacity he was soon called upon to prepare designs for a cannon foundry. Before his time no establishment of that kind existed in the State ; nor does it appear that Brunel had ever directed his attention to that branch of engineering. At Douai, Euelle, and Strasburg, the old method of loam-moulds, and partially hollow castings, with the subsequent application of the cutters, or alloirs^ for boring, still prevailed ; but of this method Brunei had no practical knowledge, any more than of the improvements introduced into England, where, at that time, about 27,000 tons* of iron were being annually converted into cannons, mortars, carronades, shot and shells.
If, however, the want of precedent made a greater demand on his invention, it also relieved him from the paralysing influence of authority. Left free to solve the problems presented to him, he very soon organised an establishment for casting and boring ordnance, which, from its novelty, practicability and beauty, was considered, at that time, unrivalled ; and which in itself was sufficient to place its originator in the foremost rank of mechanical engineers.
Shortly after the completion of the theatre at New York, Brunel had to mourn the loss of his
enlightened patron and liberal friend, M. Pharoux. He had returned to his hydraulic undertakings on the Black River, one of the most turbulent of the northern streams. This river takes its rise on the western declivity of the Essex Mountains, and after a course of about 120 miles, sometimes interrupted by cataracts, and sometimes hurried onward by rapids, it discharges its waters
into Lake Ontario, at Sacket's Harbour. In his attempt to cross the great falls of this river, M. Pharoux, and seven of his companions, perished ; a fate to which Brunelmight have been also exposed,
had not a protecting Providence opened to him another and a safer path.
New York seems to have been, at this time, considerably indebted to French genius for many of its
most important works.
The defence of the entrance to its land-locked bay had long been in contemplation. Between Staten
Island and Long Island the bay contracts to the width of a mile, and receives the name of " Narrows." To a French officer of talent and experience. Major L'Enfant, was entrusted the task of preparing designs for the defence of this channel ; but the evidences which now attested Brunel's engineering qualifications scarcely justified the citizens in neglecting to secure his opinion and assistance. Accordingly, other designs were obtained from him, which seem to have been those ultimately adopted.
In 1796, we find Brunel admitted to the privileges of a citizen of New York. (See Appendix A.)
Of the amount and variety of his labours, and the difficulties against which he had to struggle
during his residence in that city, there remain, unfortunately, no records. We have, however, incidental testimony that his genius received but inadequate reward in America; still he resolutely
declined to entertain urgent and repeated invitations to return to his own country. France had now entered upon a new phase of her political existence. She had shaken off the yoke of the sanguinary monsters of the Revolution, and had established an Executive Directory which afforded some guarantee for good order and wise polity, while her arms were everywhere triumphant. Holland, under the title of the Batavian Republic, had become her ally ; Russia had deserted her coalition with Austria ; and Austria herself, by the Treaty of Campo Formio (October 17, 1797) had been compelled to acknowledge the power of France. Not-withstanding all this, Brunel felt that his country offered no real security, either for personal or political freedom. He still doubted whether the leaders of the revolution understood the true principles for which they were contending, and were likely, there-
fore, to use with discretion the power with which they might become invested. He had learnt to think that freedom was of progressive growth, and that France, which had been so long deprived of
the first elements of liberty, could not suddenly be brought to walk in the steps of America, without a
Washington to guide her councils.
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