FAMOUS CIVIL

ENGINEERS
AROUND THE
WORLD

REPORTERS:
BUENAVISTA, KEVINLEE M.
TAMPIOC, CRIS MARK H.
PITOGO, JOHN PAUL D.

ENGINEERING ORIENTATION
1. Archimedes of Syracuse (287-212 BC)
Archimedes, (born c. 287 BCE, Syracuse, Sicily [Italy]—died
212/211 BCE, Syracuse), the most-famous mathematician and
inventor in ancient Greece.

He played an important role in the defense of Syracuse against

The siege which was laid by the Romans in 213 BCE, by
constructing war machines so effective that they long delayed the
capture of the City.

Archimedes Screw
-Is a machine used for transferring water
from a low-lying body of water into
irrigation ditches.
-Water is pumped by turning a screw-
shaped surface inside a pipe. Archimedes
screws are also used for materials such as
powders and grains.
-Although commonly attributed
to Archimedes, there is some evidence
that the device had been used in Ancient
Egypt long before his time.

Archimedes Principle

There once was a fellow named Archimedes. He was born in 287 BC in the city of
Syracuse in Sicily. He was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor and
astronomer. One day Archimedes was summoned by the King of Sicily to investigate
if he had been cheated by a goldsmith. The King said he had given a goldsmith the
exact amount of gold needed to make a crown however when the crown was ready,
the King suspected that the goldsmith cheated and slipped some silver into the crown
keeping some of the gold for himself. The king asked Archimedes to solve the
problem without damaging the crown. One day while taking his bath, Archimedes
noticed that the water level in the bathtub rose and overflowed as he immersed
himself into the tub. He suddenly realized that how much water was displaced
depended on how much of his body was immersed. This discovery excited him so
much that he jumped out of the tub and ran through the streets naked shouting
“Eureka! Eureka!” means “I found it! I found it!” He found a way to solve the King’s
problem. Archimedes needed to check the crown’s density to see if it was the same as
the density of pure gold. (Density is the measure of an object’s mass divided by its
volume) Pure gold is very dense while silver is less dense so if there was silver in the
crown it would be less dense than if it were made of pure gold but no matter what it

ENGINEERING ORIENTATION
was made of, the crown would be the same shape which means the same volume so if
Archimedes could measure the mass of the crown first and then measure its volume,
he could find out how dense it was but because of the irregular shape of the crown it
is difficult to get the volume of it. The solution, Archimedes realized was to give the
crown a bath by placing it in the water and seeing how much water was displaced, he
could measure the volume. They need to calculate the density of the crown, if the
crown is less dense than pure gold then the goldsmith most definitely cheated the
King. When Archimedes went back to the King and did his test, the story says he
found that the Goldsmith had indeed cheated the King and slipped some silver in it.

Using the way an object displaced water to measure volume is called Archimedes
Principle.

PRINCIPLE OF BUOYANCY
-states that the buoyant force
acting on an object placed in a
fluid is equal to the weight of the
fluid displaced by the object.
-The weight of that volume of
displaced fluid is the buoyant
force acting on the object.

SIMPLE MACHINES

1. Lever

Archimedes once said, “Give

me a place to stand and I shall
move the Earth” The idea of a
person moving such a huge
mass on their own is
unbelievable, but chances are
we’ve seen it in our everyday
life. One of the best examples is
the seesaw. If both person
weights the same, they can totter
back and fort easily but what if the
other person weights more? Possibly you’ll stuck up in the air. But if you move back
on the seesaw, you’ll be able to lift the other person. This lever is one type of simple
machine. Every lever composed of three components, the effort arm, the resistance
arm and the fulcrum. In this case, your weight is the effort force, while on the other
hand, is the resistance force. Archimedes actually highlight the relationship between
the magnitudes of these forces and their distances from the fulcrum. The lever is
balance if the product of the effort force and the length of the effort arm equals to the
product of the resistance force and the length of the resistance arm in relation to the
basic laws of physics, which states that work in joules is equal to force applied over a
distance. A lever can’t reduce the amount of work needed to lift something, but it

ENGINEERING ORIENTATION
does give a trade-off. Increase the distance so that you can apply less force. The lever
makes it easier to lift rather than trying to lift it directly. So for example, if your friend
weights twice as much as you, you need to sit twice as far from the center in order to
lift him. Same goes to a person who weights only a quarter of yours could lift you by
sitting 4 times as far as you.

So what about Archimedes famous saying? Its possible hypothetically. As we all

know, the earth weights 6x10^24 kg. and the moon which is about 384,400
kilometers away can be a great fulcrum. So as what he said, all he needs to lift the
earth is a lever with a length of about a quadrillion light year, it is 1.5 billion times the
distance to the andromeda galaxy and a place to stand and will move the Earth. So
with that simple machine, you can do a lot.

2. Wedge
A wedge is a triangular shaped tool, and is a portable inclined plane, and one of the
six classical simple machines. It can be used to separate two objects or portions of an
object, lift up an object, or hold an object in place. It functions by converting
a force applied to its blunt end into forces perpendicular (normal) to its inclined
surfaces. The mechanical advantage of a wedge is given by the ratio of the length of
its slope to its width.[1][2] Although a short wedge with a wide angle may do a job
faster, it requires more force than a long wedge with a narrow angle.

3. Pulley
A pulley is a wheel on an axle or shaft that is designed to support movement
and change of direction of a taut cable or belt, or transfer of power between
the shaft and cable or belt. In the case of a pulley supported by a frame or shell
that does not transfer power to a shaft, but is used to guide the cable or exert a
force, the supporting shell is called a block, and the pulley may be called a
sheave.
A pulley may have a groove or grooves between flanges around its circumference to
locate the cable or belt. The drive element of a pulley system can be
a rope, cable, belt, or chain.

ENGINEERING ORIENTATION
 4. Wheel and Axle

The wheel and axle is a machine consisting of a wheel attached to a smaller axle so
that these two parts rotate together in which a force is transferred from one to the
other.The wheel and axle can be viewed as a version of the lever, with a drive force
applied tangentially to the perimeter of the wheel and a load force applied to the axle,
respectively, that are balanced around the hinge which is the fulcrum.

5. Inclined plane

An inclined plane, also known as a ramp, is a flat supporting surface tilted at an

angle, with one end higher than the other, used as an aid for raising or lowering a
load.[1][2][3] The inclined plane is one of the six classical simple machines defined by
Renaissance scientists. Inclined planes are widely used to move heavy loads over
vertical obstacles; examples vary from a ramp used to load goods into a truck, to a
person walking up a pedestrian ramp, to an automobile or railroad train climbing a
grade.

ENGINEERING ORIENTATION
2. John Smeaton
An English civil engineer responsible for the bridges
canals, harbours and lighthouses. Also a capable
mechanical engineer and an eminent physicist.
Smeaton was the first self-proclaimed "civil engineer",
and is often regarded as the "father of civil
engineering".
He pioneered the use of hydraulic lime in concrete,
using pebbles and powdered brick as aggregate.
Smeaton is important in the history, rediscovery of, and development of
modern cement, identifying the compositional requirements needed to obtain
"hydraulicity" in lime; work which led ultimately to the invention of Portland cement.
Portland cement led to the re-emergence of concrete as a modern building material,
largely due to Smeaton's influence.

Recommended by the Royal Society, Smeaton designed the third Eddystone

Lighthouse (1755–59).[12] He pioneered the use of 'hydraulic lime' (a form
of mortar that will set under water) and developed a technique
involving dovetailed blocks of granite in the building of the lighthouse. His lighthouse
remained in use until 1877 when the rock underlying the structure's foundations had
begun to erode; it was dismantled and partially rebuilt at Plymouth Hoe where it is
known as Smeaton's Tower.[13]

EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE
Smeaton designed the third Eddystone
Lighthouse (1755–59).
He pioneered the use of 'hydraulic lime' (a form
of mortar that will set under water) and developed a
technique involving dovetailed blocks of granite in
the building of the lighthouse.
His lighthouse remained in use until 1877 when the
rock underlying the structure's foundations had
begun to erode; it was dismantled and partially rebuilt
at Plymouth Hoe where it is known as Smeaton's Tower.

The tale of the structure begins at England’s Eddystone Rocks

in the late 17th century. It started with a problem. The rocks, off the coast of Cornwall
were causing lots of shipwrecks. Henry Winstanley who was a painter, builder and

ENGINEERING ORIENTATION
merchant who lost two ships on these rocks. He built a lighthouse on them. It was
octagonal, made of wood but lasted for few years until a storm can through and
destroyed it. But another builder soon constructed a second lighthouse, also made of
oak wood and metal. This one lasted for around 50 years, but was then burned to the
ground from the spark of a candle, a reminder of how much susceptible wooden
structure are to fire.
The wood wasn’t working for this lighthouse, so a new generation of engineers had to
do something different. That’s where John Smeaton came in. Instead of wood, he
began building a lighthouse in 1756 made from hydraulic lime, a type of concrete that
sets under water. It last for more than 120 years until 1877, when it was dismantled
because the rocks beneath the tower were beginning to destabilize.

FORTH AND CLYDE CANAL

The canal was designed by John Smeaton.
Construction started in 1768 and after delays due
to funding problems was completed in 1790.
The geologist James Hutton became very
involved in the canal between 1767 and 1774; he
contributed his geological knowledge, made
extended site inspections, and acted both as a
shareholder and as a member of the management
committee.
The Forth and Clyde Canal is a canal crossing
central Scotland; it provided a route for the
seagoing vessels of the day between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde at the
narrowest part of the Scottish Lowlands.
3. Benjamin Wright
In 1969, the American Society of Civil Engineers declared him
the "Father of American Civil Engineering".
Wright was born in Wethersfield, Connecticut, to Ebenezer
Wright and Grace Butler. In 1789, at age 19, he moved with his
family to Fort Stanwix (now Rome, New York), where he
became a land surveyor.
In the next decennia, he worked as a land surveyor and
engineer, especially on the construction of the Erie Canal and

ENGINEERING ORIENTATION
later on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. In addition to his engineering work, Wright
was also elected to the New York State Legislature in 1794 and was appointed a New
York county judge.
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal is a canal in New York that is part of
the east–west, cross-state route of the New York State
Canal System (formerly known as the New York State
Barge Canal).
It originally ran 363 miles (584 km) from the Hudson
River in Albany to Lake Erie in Buffalo. It was built to
create a navigable water route from New York City and
the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes.
It was completed in 1825 and was the second longest
canal in the world (after the Grand Canal in China), and
it greatly enhanced the development and economy of New
York, New York City, and the United States.

Chesapeake and Ohio Canal

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated

as the C&O Canal and occasionally called the
"Grand Old Ditch”, operated from 1831 until
1924 along the Potomac River from
Washington, D.C., to Cumberland, Maryland.
The canal's principal cargo was coal from
the Allegheny Mountains.

Construction on the 184.5-mile

(296.9 km) canal began in 1828 and ended in
1850 with the completion of a 50-mile (80 km)
stretch to Cumberland. Rising and falling over an elevation change of 605 feet (184
meters), it required the construction of 74 canal locks, 11 aqueducts to cross major
streams, more than 240 culverts to cross smaller streams, and the 3,118 ft
(950 m) Paw Paw Tunnel. A planned section to the Ohio River at Pittsburgh was
never built.

ENGINEERING ORIENTATION
The canal way is now maintained as the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National
Historical Park, with a trail that follows the old towpath.

4. Squire Whipple
-Born on September 16, 1804 – died on March 15, 1888.
-In 1840 he invented a lock for weighing canal boats.
-In 1853 he completed an iron railroad bridge of 146-foot (44
metre) span near West Troy (now Watervliet), N.Y.
-In the following year appeared his Work On Bridge Building, the
first significant attempt to supply a theoretical means for
calculating stresses in place of the rule-of-thumb method then in
general practice.

ENGINEERING ORIENTATION
IRON TRUSS BRIDGE

5.Isambard Kingdom Brunel

○ Born on April 9, 1806 and died on September 15, 1859.

○ The only son of the engineer and inventor Sir Marc
Isambard Brunel.
○ One of the most versatile civil engineer in history.
○ He became famous for designing tunnels, railroad lines,
bridges, and ships.
○ His well known accomplishment was creating the network
tunnels, viaducts and bridges for the Great Western
Railway that linked London to Bristol.
○ He is responsible for building more than 1,000 miles
(1,600 km) of railway in the west country, the Midlands,
South Wales and Ireland.

Clifton Suspension Bridge

○ The bridge was constructed in
1830 and finished in 1863.
○ The Clifton Suspension Bridge
crosses the 702-foot wide and
250-foot deep.
○ Designed with Egyptian-themed
pylons complete with sphinx.
○ It is made up of 3500 load
bearing bolts and giant chains
that stretch 20 miles
underground.

MAIDENHEAD: BRUNEL RAILWAY

BRIDGE

ENGINEERING ORIENTATION
 ○ The Maidenhead Bridge had the flattest brick arch in the world.
○ Use of compressed- air caisson to sink the pier foundation for the bridge
helped gain acceptance of compressed- air techniques in underwater and
underground construction.

○ The bridge carries the railway across the river on a deck supported by pair of
elliptical brick arches.
○ Each arch has a span of 128 feet (39 meters), combined with a rise of only 24
feet (7meters).

GREAT EASTERN
○ The British steamship Great Eastern,
designed by Brunel for the India Trade, was
the largest ship afloat as its launching in
1858.
○ Great Eastern was propelled by both paddles
and screw and was the first ship to utilize a
double iron hull.
○ The Great Eastern was not a success as a
passenger ship but achieved fame by laying the
first successful transatlantic cable.

6. Henry Bessemer

○ Born on January 19, 1813 and died on March 15, 1898.

○ Credited for inventing the first- mass producing steel
process that led to the development of modern
skyscraper.
○ He patented a de- carbonization process that utilized blast
of air in 1855, and he was later knighted for his
contribution to the scientific community.

BULK STEEL PRODUCTION

○ Bulk steel production was made possible by Henry Bessemer in 1855
○ Bessemer process – blowing air through melted
cast iron not only purified the iron but also
heated if further, allowing the purified iron to
be easily poured. This heating effect is caused
by the reaction of oxygen with the carbon and
silicon in the iron.
○ Bessemer Process was the first inexpensive
industrial process for the mass- production from
molten pig iron prior to the open hearth furnace.

ENGINEERING ORIENTATION
 7. Arthur Casagrande
○ Born on August 28, 1902 and died on September 6,
1981.
○ Developed the design principles used in construction
of earth and rock dams throughout the World.
○ While working as a consultant to the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, he contributed to theoretical work
in the field of soil behaviour and the construction of
many dams around the world.
○ Renowned for his ingenious designs of soil testing
apparatus and fundamental research on seepage and
soil liquefaction.
○ Credited for developing the soil mechanics teaching
programme at Harvard University during the early 1930s that has since been
modelled in many universities around the world.

SOIL TESTING APPARATUS

8. John A. Roebling
-German-born American engineer, was born in
Germany, on June 12, 1806.

ENGINEERING ORIENTATION
He obtained an excellent formal education, graduating from the Royal Polytechnic
Institute at Berlin in 1826 with a degree in civil engineering.

After working for 3 years on government road-building projects, In 1831 Roebling

and his brother, Karl, led a group of emigrants to the United States, where they
established an agricultural community.

○ He observed the difficulties involved in hauling bisected canal boats up and

down the inclined planes.
○ Roebling suggested using wire rope for hauling.
○ He had read of experiments in Germany with ropes made of twisted wire but
had not seen any.
○ Eventually convinced the state Board of Public Works to test his idea;
consequently, in 1841 Roebling manufactured the first wire cable in America.
○ He was noted for introducing the manufacture of wire rope to America and for
constructing magnificent suspension bridges.

ROEBLING’S DELAWARE
AQUEDUCT

○ The aqueducts before mainly

convey water across places,
Roebling’s Delaware aqueduct is
special because it carry’s 2000 tons
of water and canal boats loaded
with coal.

○ Pennsylvania Coal Company

expanded, leading to accept the offer of Roebling, creating the aqueduct in
order to the coal company to deliver smoothly.
○ These iron cables are what set Roebling’s design apart. During the time when
the Delaware Aqueduct was built, suspension bridges, or bridges in which the
deck (load-bearing surface) is suspended below support cables, commonly
used open link chains.

BROOKLYN BRIDGE

○ The Brooklyn Bridge, Roebling’s

last and greatest achievement,
spans New York’s East River to
connect Manhattan with Brooklyn.

ENGINEERING ORIENTATION
 ○ When completed in 1883, the bridge, with its massive stone towers and a main
span of 1,595.5 feet, was by far the longest suspension bridge in the world
before.
○ Main materials used: limestone, cement, granite and wire rope.
○ It was his last project because he died in the accident, so his son Washington
Roebling continued his work as chief engineer.

9. Gustave Eiffel

○ He was a French civil engineer, born in France on

1832.
○ Interested in construction at an early age, he attended
and graduated in College of Arts and Manufacturing in
Paris.
○ He was specialized on constructing bridges and other
structures using metal.
○ After several years of working, in 1864 he started his
own business, a business that is specialized in metal
structural work
○ In the last 30 years of his life, he devoted as scientist,
studying and experimental research.

MARIA PIA BRIDGE

○ Maria Pia Bridge ( Ponte Dona Maria)

○ One of his most famous work. The
railway bridge was made in simple
need, because they needed a bridge to
cross the Douro river in Portugal.
○ Resting on a parabolic arch spanning
160 meters, the Ponte Maria Pia was the
longest iron arch bridge in the world at the time of its construction.
○ The railway line had to be brought across the river Douro and it was
impossible to build piers on the river bed.

STATUE OF LIBERTY

○ The Statue of Liberty was a symbol of

freedom placed in New York.
○ Eugene, the initial internal engineer of the
statue died and wasn’t able to finish the
statue of Liberty. Eiffel was chosen to be
the second internal engineer to finish the
statue.
○ He created a new support system for the
statue that would rely on a skeletal

ENGINEERING ORIENTATION
 structure. The total height of the statue is 93 meters, weighing around 120-170
tons.
○ Eiffel and his team built the statue from the ground to up and then dismantled
it for its journey to New York.
○ The common materials used was steel, iron and cement.

EIFFEL TOWER

○ The tower was named after the, Gustave

Eiffel.
○ When the French government organized
the International Exposition of 1889, to
celebrate the 100th anniversary of French
Revolution, and because of that
competition rises.
○ Almost 107 projects submitted to the
event, but Eiffel’s plan was chosen.
○ The height of the tower measure’s about
324 meters(1063 ft).
○ It had almost 18,063 iron parts, 2,500
rivets, having a total weight of 10,100 tons,
150 to 300 workers on the construction site and 50 engineers and designers
who assisted in constructing the tower.
○ Before the end of the construction, many people argued and criticized the
tower, but many years has past they acknowledge it as work of an art.

10. George Stephenson

○ He was a English civil engineer and mechanical

engineer, born in England on 1781
○ At an early age of 19, he was working on engines
without formal school.
○ He had only a most elementary education and
seemingly lacked the capacity to grasp concepts.
○ Before he became civil engineer, he had several
works done, including blutcher, locomotive steam
engines, safety lamps and etc.
○ Stephenson was a pioneering railway engineer and
inventor of the 'Rocket', the most famous early
railway locomotive.

SANKEY VIADUCT

ENGINEERING ORIENTATION
 ○ Described as "the earliest major railway viaduct in the world".
○ The viaduct was built between 1828 and 1830 by George Stephenson for the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company.
○ The railway that crosses the Sankey canal.
○ Constructed from yellow sandstone and red brick, the viaduct consists of nine
round-headed arches carried on by piers.
○ The railway has 183 meters long, it’s arch has 15meters span and 21 meter
high.

STEPHENON’S SKEW BRIDGE

○ George Stephenson’s "Skew

Bridge", a sandstone
construction, that takes the
main road over the railway.
○ It takes its name from the
unusual diagonal angle at which
the railway passes under the
bridge and is the world's first
bridge to go over a railway at
an angle.
○ A grade II listed structure

ENGINEERING ORIENTATION