This is a two-part cardboard model presenting the tunnelling shield, invented by Marc Brunel in 1818 and used to dig the Thames Tunnel between 1825-43; miners and other workmen engaged in digging; the double-arches made of brickwork; and an engineer and visiting dignitary observing proceedings. The front section of the model depicting the completed brickwork arches can be entirely separated, to enable the tunnelling shield to be viewed in closer detail. The model is encased in the remains of what is assumed to be its original enclosure, with a design which mimics geological strata.
Unlike models submitted either to manufacturers or to patent authorities, which were often unique, this model was produced in a currently unknown number of copies. As far as is known, this is one of only two surviving copies.[1] This model has a unique provenance, being that owned by Marc Brunel himself. It is also the only example which survives in its original case.
It appears these models were produced in a small number for visiting dignitaries and for potential investors. Between autumn 1827 and spring 1828, the Thames Tunnel suffered two devastating floods. This model, which depicts a santised version of the construction site and allows for the operation of the Shield to be considered in detail, was probably intended to shore up investors’ confidence in the project. Summer 1828, indeed, consisted largely of repeated rounds of approaches by the Company in an attempt to secure further financial backing, as demonstrated by this circular requesting investment (LDBRU:2025.19).
Evidence from archival research indicates that this model was likely made in late 1827 or early 1828. The earliest reference to such a model is of that given to Don Miguel of Portugal, a few months before he became king of Portugal, when visiting the Tunnel on 8 January 1828.[2] In August 1828, another model was sent to Brunel’s friend in France.[3]
These models appear immediately to have been recognised as important objects, and were acquired very quickly by public institutions for display. By 1836, curator John Shute Duncan had acquired for the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford one of the cardboard models of the Tunnel and Shield.[4] The United Services Museum acquired one of these models in 1838.[5] In the same year, the Royal Society of Arts appears to have received another directly from the Thames Tunnel Company itself.[6] The London Polytechnic Institution finally likewise held one such model by 1841.[7] It is seems, moreover, that examples of this model were used as explanatory tools, for instance, during visits to the Tunnel.[8]
Comparison with the other extant model shows that the figures on the models are in different positions; whether they were positioned at random by the maker, or positioned by eventual owners as happened in the case of paper peepshows depicting the Tunnel, is unclear.
The models were supplied with a short explanatory booklet.[9] This was printed by the Philanthropic Society, a charity based in Southwark which taught printing to the children of convicts, or children who were themselves convicts. It is therefore likely that this model was also printed and assembled by children working at the Philanthropic Society. The same society produced guidebooks for the Thames Tunnel, suggesting the Thames Tunnel Company had a contract with them.[10]
References
[1] For the other, see Powell-Cotton Museum, Birchington-on-Sea, BICPC.OBJ.T.001.
[2] ‘Visit of Don Miguel to the Thames Tunnel,’ The Times (9 Jan. 1828), p. 3: ‘His Royal Highness [Don Miguel] about to retire, Mr. Brunel rose and presented to him an elegant and admirably arranged model of the undertaking, enclosed in a neat box, covered with morocco and gold, at the ingenuity of which his Royal Highness expressed his admiration.’ See also Andreas Engelhart, Prachtwerke der Unterwelt (Vienna: Franz Ludwig, 1828), p. 188: ‘Herr Brunel überreichte ihm ein zierliches Modell des Werkes, das sich in einer mit Gold verzierten Kapsel von Maroquin befand’ [‘Mr. Brunel presented him with a delicate model of the works in a gold and Morocco leather box’]).
[3] Marc Isambard Brunel to Jacques-Charles Allard, 8 June 1828, Archives Nationales, Paris, AB/XIX/3858, Dossier 3, MS annotation by Allard: ‘écrit le 27 aout [sic] pour le remercier de son envoi d’un modèle en Carton de son Bouclier des Galleries’ (‘wrote on 27 August to thank him for sending a cardboard model of his tunnelling shield’).
[4] A Catalogue of the Ashmolean Museum: Descriptive of the Zoological Specimens, Antiquities, Coins, and Miscellaneous Curiosities (Oxford: S. Collingwood, 1836), p. 148.
[5] The United Service Journal and Naval and Military Magazine (London: Henry Colburn, 1838), p. 423.
[6] Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce During the Sessions 1837-8 (London: James Moyes, 1838), p. 168.
[7] The Royal Polytechnic Institution […] Catalogue for 1841 (London: Reynell and Weight, 1841), p. 96.
[8] Cf. e.g. ‘The Thames Tunnel,’ The Guardian (31 March 1834), p. 3: ‘Mr. Brunel, the engineer (who is one of the Vice-Presidents of the Royal Society), received the Members of that learned body; and the scientific gentlemen who were present minutely examined the drawings, models, &c. connected with the work…’ Reference to the use of ‘models’ during a lecture given by Michael Faraday at the Royal Institution on 15 June 1827 may yet push back dating of these models even further, cf. The Quarterly Journal of Science, Literature, and Art. January to June 1827 (London: Henry Colburn, 1827), p. 466: ‘Mr. Faraday gave an account of the progress and present state of the Thames Tunnel. It was illustrated by many fine drawings from the office of Mr. Brunel; by such parts of the apparatus used as was sufficiently portable; by models, and specimens which had at various times made their way through from the river into the shield’.
[9] Absent from LDBRU:2017.31, but retained in the Powell-Cotton model.
[10] cf. e.g. LDBRU:2002.2.