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Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS (; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859), was an English mechanical and civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history",〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Isambard Kingdom Brunel )〕 "one of the 19th century engineering giants",〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Isambard Kingdom Brunel )〕 and "one of the greatest figures of the Industrial Revolution, () changed the face of the English landscape with his groundbreaking designs and ingenious constructions". Brunel built dockyards, the Great Western Railway, a series of steamships including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship and numerous important bridges and tunnels. His designs revolutionised public transport and modern engineering. Though Brunel's projects were not always successful, they often contained innovative solutions to long-standing engineering problems. During his career, Brunel achieved many engineering "firsts", including assisting in the building of the first tunnel under a navigable river and development of SS ''Great Britain'', the first propeller-driven ocean-going iron ship, which was at the time (1843) also the largest ship ever built.〔Wilson (1994), pp. 202–3.〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Isambard Kingdom Brunel )〕 Brunel set the standard for a well-built railway, using careful surveys to minimise grades and curves. This necessitated expensive construction techniques and new bridges and viaducts, and the two-mile-long Box Tunnel. One controversial feature was the wide gauge, a "broad gauge" of , instead of what was later to be known as 'standard gauge' of . The wider gauge added to passenger comfort but made construction much more expensive and caused difficulties when eventually it had to interconnect with other railways using the narrower gauge. As a result of the Regulating the Gauge of Railways Act 1846, the gauge was changed to standard gauge throughout the GWR network. Brunel astonished Britain by proposing to extend the Great Western Railway ''westward'' to North America by building steam-powered iron-hulled ships. He designed and built three ships that revolutionised naval engineering. In 2002, Brunel was placed second in a BBC public poll to determine the "100 Greatest Britons". In 2006, the bicentenary of his birth, a major programme of events celebrated his life and work under the name ''Brunel 200''.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title= Home )〕 ==Name== Brunel's unique name is an amalgamation of his parents' names. He inherited the family name of his father, and his middle name is his mother's surname. This was a common name construction for the time. Brunel's first name, ''Isambard'', comes from his father's middle name, which was also his father's preferred given name. "Isambard" is a Norman name of Germanic origin, meaning "iron-bright".〔Henry Harrison. ''Surnames of the United Kingdom: A Concise Etymological Dictionary''. p. 230〕 A cognate name is the German surname "Eisenbarth", which can still be found today among Bavarians and German-Americans. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Isambard Kingdom Brunel」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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