24 CARTWRIGHT. 



accomplished, and opened to the public in the year 1843. In the 

 prosecution of this undertaking Sir Isambard derived great assist- 

 ance from his son, the late Mr. I. K. Brunei. 



The shield, as it was termed, under shelter of which the excava- 

 tion beneath the bed of the river was carried forward, required very 

 peculiar contrivances to adapt it to its purpose. It was made in 

 sections or compartments contained in a strong square frame, each 

 section or compartment being moved forward by screws, as the men 

 working in them proceeded with the excavation ; the entire shield 

 was thus enabled to be moved forward, and the brickwork, consist- 

 ing of two tunnels, was built up to the extent that it had been 

 advanced. 



After the completion of the Tunnel, Brunei's health became 

 seriously impaired from the labours he had undergone in its execu- 

 tion, and he was unable to mix in active life ; he expired on the 

 12th of December, 1849, in his eighty-first year, after a long illness. 



He received the honour of Knighthood in 1841, and the order of 

 the Legion of honour in 1829 ; he was also a corresponding member 

 of the French Institute, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a 

 member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, which he joined in 

 the year 1823. Annual Report of the Institution of Civil Engineers. 

 December 17, 1850. Beamish' s Life of Brunei. London, 1862. 



EDMUND CARTWRIGHT, D.D., F.R.S., &c. 



Born April 24, 1743. Died October 30, 1823. 



Dr. Cartwright, whose invention of the power-loom may be con- 

 sidered as one of the valuable elements of our national manufactur- 

 ing superiority, was born at Marnham in Nottinghamshire, and 

 was the youngest of three brothers, all of whom were remarkable 

 men.* He was educated under Dr. Clarke, at the Grammar School 

 of Wakefield, and had he been permitted to follow the bent of his 

 own inclination in the choice of a profession, would have preferred 

 the navy ; but two of his brothers being already designed for that 

 service, it was thought advisable, that Edmund should enter the 

 Church. Dr. Cartwright began his academical studies at University 

 College, Oxford, where he was entered at fourteen years of age, 

 and during the vacations was placed under the private tuition of 

 Dr. Langhorne, the editor of ' Plutarch's Lives.' 



* Dr. Cartwright was the younger brother of Major John Cartwright, the 

 well-known English Kefonner of the reign of George III., to whose memory 

 a bronze statue is erected in Burton Crescent, London. 



