Profession: engineer

Brunel pioneered mass-production methods and revolutionised tunnelling. Monge was among his teachers. Davy and Faraday were Royal Society colleagues — they shared several interests. Babbage was a friend — Brunel was familiar with his Difference Engine, and joined in attempts to get government funding for it. He commisioned Maudslay, a useful colleague, to produce machinery for several projects, and sent his son, the prodigy Isambard Kingdom Brunel, to extend his practical experience in Maudslay’s workshops (before making him chief engineer on his Thames Tunnel venture aged only 20).

Brunel was one of the great innovative engineers of the 19th century. His father Marc employed him in his own firm from age 16, and arranged good mechanical experience with Maudslay. Babbage, a correspondent, did some experiments to help confirm Brunel’s preference for broad-gauge rail track. Murchison, Paxton (whom Brunel admired) and Talbot were also correspondents — Talbot helpfully influential with one project, but disputing his own compensation with another. Mendelssohn and Schinkel visited Brunel at Wapping. Bazalgette was one of his few real friends. So was Stephenson, despite their commercial rivalry; both drove themselves to premature death.

Telford fancied himself as a poet, and left money to his friend Southey, who had dubbed him “the Colossus of Roads.” Telford’s fellow-Scot Adam helped him get an early job in London. He met the penal reformer Howard when renovating a prison. Brewster became a friend — Telford wrote engineering articles for his Edinburgh Encyclopaedia. He worked with Watt on the Glasgow water-supply, and consulted with Stephenson about the Liverpool–Manchester railway. Wilkinson was one of his supporters, and MacNeill his assistant. A classic workaholic, he himself said that he did not make many friends.