The Problem of Policy Accumulation
The growth of policies, rules, and regulations
“No man, however bold or however high he may stand in his profession, can resist the benumbing effect of rules laid down by authority” — Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel came of age as Britain’s railway age accelerated. During the 1830s and 1840s, competing companies laid new lines across the country, forcing engineers to rethink gradients, bridges, tunnels, stations and the relationship between speed and distance.
As chief engineer of the Great Western Railway, Brunel pursued a remarkably direct route from London toward Bristol, employing major works such as the Box Tunnel and adopting his controversial broad gauge.
Railway expansion encouraged his characteristic systems thinking: rather than accepting inherited constraints, Brunel reconsidered the railway—track, structures, vehicles and connections—as an integrated technological system capable of being redesigned.
Continuabitur
