Sir Marc Isambard Brunel's Tunnel Borer

About the Product

Company:
Product Type: Tunnel boring machine

Inspiring Strategy

Head bores through wood: shipworm >

Product or process

Nineteenth-century British engineer Marc Isambard Brunel mimicked the anatomy and wood-boring mechanisms of Teredo in his design of the tunnelling shield used to construct the Thames Tunnel. The shield included a giant steel boring head with a cutting edge around the circumference, an iron frame to support the tunnel as it was being excavated, and compartments housing workmen, who laid a "lining" of bricks at the trailing end of the contraption as it was being jacked forward.