Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Dude even tried his own hyperloop:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isambard_Kingdom_Brunel#Brunel...

I'm reading Voice Across The Sea now and Arthur C. Clarke called Brunel, "the greatest engineering genius of the Victorian era - perhaps, indeed, the only man in the last five hundred years to come within hailing distance of Leonardo da Vinci."

He was also a fan of L.T.C Rolt's biography: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1828514.Isambard_Kingdom...

His dad was remarkable as well. Brunel cut his teeth on his father's Thames tunnel project (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Tunnel). There is a little Brunel museum on the site of the project's steam engine. Well worth a visit if you are in the area.

Brunel makes occasional appearances along side Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage in Sydney Padua's alternative-history web comic "2D Goggles", which is worth your time...

http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/cast/

#2 on BBC's list of 100 Greatest Britons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Greatest_Britons

The only one in the top 10 I had never heard of before.

For those who watched the London Olympics, this was the figure portrayed by Kenneth Branaugh in the beginning when the Olympic rings were "forged."

I first heard about him from the mini bio in Railroad Tycoon II of all things. Very interesting guy.

Now there was an engineer.

The musical version.[1]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21QqXumEWFU

I hadn't heard of him before I came across him in a novel (http://www.amazon.com/Strange-Affair-Spring-Swinburne-Advent...), and after that I had to read up on him. Quite a remarkable fellow.

Darn, too bad I already named my kids.

I first heard about him from Jeremy Clarkson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwHnVH9jWmU

(punchy or not, clarkson makes great documentaries)

I'm of Bristolian origin, and here's the local hero.