Isambard Kingdom Brunel (April 9, 1806 – September 15, 1859), FRS was a British engineer. Voted the second greatest Briton of all time in a 2002 BBC poll (after Winston Churchill), he is best known for the creation of the Great Western Railway, a series of famous steamships, and numerous important bridges. Though his projects were not always successful, they often contained innovative solutions to long-standing engineering problems. During his short career, Brunel achieved many engineering "firsts", including the building of the first tunnel under a navigable river and development of the first propeller-driven steamship, which was at the time also the largest ship ever built. Brunel was a heavy cigar smoker and suffered several years of ill health with kidney problems, before succumbing to a stroke at the age of fifty-three.
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