Note 106 — Chapter VII · RAILWAY BRIDGES AND VIADUCTS.

It has of course been impossible to refer to the points on which Mr. Brunel was aided, in his different works, by the suggestions of his assistants; but it may be mentioned here that, as appears from one of Mr. Brunel’s letters, the plan of working under a diving-bell had been proposed by Mr. William Glennie, his assistant, before he knew that Mr. Brunel had decided to adopt it.

Mr. Brunel also mentions in another letter that the ‘very simple and effectual manner’ of applying the pneumatic apparatus, by forming the annular space round the circumference of the bottom of the cylinder, was suggested to him by Mr. Brereton, when the method of constructing the cylinder was being finally settled.