‘He was then a young man, but in the school of the Thames Tunnel he had acquired a close acquaintance with all kinds of masons’ and carpenters’ work, the strength and cost of materials, bridge building, and constructions under water, and with the working of the steam engine as it then stood. It happened not unfrequently that it was desirable to accept the tender of some contractor for railway work whose prices upon certain items were too high, and then it became the engineer’s business to go into the details and convince the contractor of his error. On such occasions Brunel would go step by step through the stages of the work, and it was curious to see the surprise of the practical man as he found himself corrected in his own special business by the engineer. Thus, I remember his proving to an eminent brickmaker who had tendered for the Chippenham contract that the bricks could be made much cheaper than he supposed. He knew accurately how much coal would burn so many bricks, what it would cost, what number of bricks could be turned out, what would be the cost of housing the men, what the cartage, and how many men it would require to complete the work in the specified time. The contractor was astonished; asked if Mr. Brunel had ever been in the brick trade, and finally took and made money by the contract at the proposed figure. ‘In the case of the Maidenhead bridge, the contractor being alarmed at learning that the arch was the flattest known in brick, Brunel pointed out to him that the weight which he feared would crush the bricks, would be less than in a wall which he, the contractor, had recently built, and he convinced him by geometry, made easy by diagrams, that the bridge must stand. Knowledge of detail Brunel shared with the carpenter, builder, or contractor for earthwork, and he was their superior in the accuracy and rapidity with which he combined his knowledge, and arrived at correct conclusions as to the cost of the work and the time it would take to execute it. ‘In talking to landowners and others whose opposition it was important to overcome, I have often been struck by your father’s great powers of negotiation. The most absurd objections--and there were many such--were listened to with good humour, and he spared no pains in explaining the real facts, so that it sometimes happened that he converted opponents into supporters of the railway. In the course he took there was much skilful diplomacy, but there was no dishonesty, no humbug. He was very frank and perfectly sincere. His object was to impart his own convictions, and in that he often succeeded.