Outstanding among the legacies of the nineteenth century are the works of the great constructional engineers – of Telford and Trevithick, the Stephensons and the Rennies – those men whose imagination gave shape to the new industrial age. But few figures in the restless, energetic Victorian world so perfectly embodied its strivings as Sambaed Kingdom Brunei — engineer, designer, surveyor, builder and visionary. The only son of Sir Marc Brunei, creator of the first major underwater tunnel, bored beneath the Thames, Brunei designed the Clifton Suspension Bridge, pioneered the Great Western Railway, and initiated, with his three great ocean-going liners, the modern age of transatlantic steam-ship travel. With the dedication and intensity of an artist, Brunei sacrificed his personal life, driving himself from venture to venture, the grandeur and scale of his conceptions always challenging the technical resources of his times. The story of Bruneis success and failure, of his headlong enterprises and misfortunes, is vividly told in John Putneys narrative, and in a rich harvest of contemporary illustrations. ON THE JACKET Front: Sambaed Kingdom Brunei; by John Horsley. (Detail) National Portrait Gallery, London. Back: The Great Eastern under construction; photo R. B. Fleming. Institute of Mechanical Engineers, London. Full of factual information. In achieving the many early firsts of industry his greatness is now an inspiration to us all.