In 1818 he patented the tunneling shield, a device that made it possible to tunnel safely through waterbearing strata.
The tunneling shield invented by Marc Isambard Brunel and used to build the Thames Tunnel was large and unwieldy.
The tunneling had begun a quarter century earlier, under DeWitt Clinton Haskin.
But Mr. Stickler said the machine had since been fixed and the tunneling continued.
Most of the tunneling machines here were made by Herrenknecht of Germany.
While this benefits the tunneling, dropping the water table increases the loading on deeper soil layers.
The tunneling weakens roadways, sometimes causing them to buckle, and puts buildings at risk.
"So far, the tunneling has not succeeded to the point that the American technology couldn't get to it," he contended.
The scanning tunneling microscope uses the tunneling of electrons to create direct images of the atomic structure of surfaces.
To drive his heading, Brunel invented the tunneling shield, one of the basic tools of modern civil engineering.
Such commitments have been made before, most recently in the 1960's, when some of the tunneling was done, only be to reneged on when money got tight.
