Happy Birthday Isambard!

Today marks the 219th anniversary of the birth of one of our favourite characters – Isambard Kingdom Brunel – engineer par excellence. In his short 53 year life Brunel achieved so much and put his engineering skills to the design and construction of objects as diverse as steam ships (e.g. SS Great Britain), railway stations (e.g. London Paddington) and even prefabricated hospitals for the Crimean War (the so-called Renkioi hospital – designed in just 6 days!). Brunel is also rightly famous for the Great Western Railway and the many railway tunnels along that route.

Here at Geoptic Infrastructure Investigations Limited we’ve spent a lot of time in Brunel’s tunnels in 2025. We’ve been applying our novel and innovative approach to infrastructure asset management which uses cosmic ray muons to non-invasively image what is above the tunnel lining. This enables asset managers to develop a better understanding of the condition of the tunnel’s overburden. A great example of 21st century innovation meeting 19th century innovation!

Happy Birthday Isambard!