Background
Marc was born on 25 April in 1769 in Hacqueville, Normandy, France.
Marc was born on 25 April in 1769 in Hacqueville, Normandy, France.
At the age of eleven, Marc was sent to a seminary in Rouen. The superior of the seminary allowed him to learn carpentry, and he soon achieved the standards of a cabinetmaker.
In 1786, as a result of this tuition, Marc became a naval cadet on a French frigate and during his service visited the West Indies several times. During Brunel's service abroad, the French Revolution began, in 1789. In January 1792, Brunel's frigate paid off its crew, and Brunel returned to live with his relatives in Rouen.
Brunel arrived in New York on 6 September 1793, and he subsequently traveled to Philadelphia and Albany. He got involved in a scheme to link the Hudson River by canal with Lake Champlain, and also submitted a design for the new Capitol building to be built in Washington. The judges were very impressed with the design, but it was not selected.
In 1796, after taking American citizenship, Brunel was appointed Chief Engineer of the city of New York. He designed various houses, docks, commercial buildings, an arsenal, and a cannon factory.
Later he was occupied in devising improved machines for sawing and bending timber, and in 1811 and 1812 he was employed by the government in erecting saw-mills at Woolwich and Chatham, carrying out at the latter dockyard a complete reorganization of the system for handling timber.
About 1812 he devised machinery for making boots which were adopted for the purposes of the army, but abandoned a few years later when owing to the cessation of war, the demand became less and the supply of manual labor cheaper.
In 1814 he succeeded in persuading the Admiralty to try steam-tugs for towing warships out to sea.
The experiments were made at his own expense, for a few months after undertaking to contribute to the cost the admiralty revoked its promise on the ground that the attempt was " too chimerical to be seriously entertained. "
Another vain enterprise on which he wasted much time and money was an attempt to use liquefied gases as a source of motive power.
In 1820 he had prepared plans of bridges for erection in Rouen and St Petersburg and in the island of Bourbon.
In 1823 he designed swing-bridges, and in 1826 floating landing-stages, for the port of Liverpool.
A company, which was supported by the Duke of Wellington, was formed in 1824 to carry out his scheme for boring a tunnel under the Thames between Wapping and Rotherhithe.
Many difficulties were encountered.
The river broke through the roof of the tunnel in 1827, and after the second irruption in 1828 work was discontinued for lack of funds.
Seven years later it was resumed with the aid of money advanced by the government, and after three more irruptions the tunnel was completed and opened in 1843.