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Ref NoDM1306/11/1/2/folio 246-251
TitleLetter from Isambard Kingdom Brunel to John Scott Russell
DescriptionWritten from 18 Duke Street, Westminster, London. The letter warns Russell against deceiving himself into adding extra work to the ship and entreats him to accept Brunel's interpretation of the original contract as final and explains that Brunel carefully considered the original contract in his previous letter to Russell discussing the need for Brunel to know the exact weight of all the parts of the ship. Brunel explains that he does not wish to find fault but that he is concerned with the apparent lack of care shown by Russell's employees about the importance of estimating the weight of the ship and wants an immediate change in attitude and increased care taken with the calculations of weight since Brunel's estimate of the ship's weight is almost 800 tons greater than Russell's. Brunel reminds Russell of the wording of his previous letter and hopes that in future Russell will not mind if Brunel clearly differentiates between the work included in the original contract for work and the extra work and lists the extra work that Brunel may be prepared to order from Russell. The letter hopes that these arrangements will not affect the future working relationships between Brunel and Russell and suggests that Russell try and find someone as efficient as Brunel's own assistant William Jacomb. The letter also comments on the potential disparity between Brunel's estimates of the iron delivered to Russell for the big ship and that of Russell's storekeepers.
Date27 September 1855
FormatManuscript volume
Extent6 pages
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