History of Engineering

What is Engineering?

Engineers use their knowledge of math and natural sciences to create, using the
materials and forces of nature, solutions to problems that affect mankind

What problems did the first “engineers” solve?

◼Safety
◼Fortifications

◼Walls

◼Water
◼Wells

◼Canals

◼Food
◼Canals

◼Irrigation

Earliest Engineers?
3300 b.c. -Egyptians develop dikes and canals. Archeological records show the builders
used primitive surveying instruments to lay out the canals.

Next, the King’s Monuments!

◼2700 b.c. -Imhotep builds first pyramid at Sakkara

◼2500 b.c. -Great Pyramids built at Giza

◼Depends heavily on labor -time is not a concern

The People’s Comfort

◼2000 b.c.-Sumerian builders develop canals, temples, city walls

◼1800 b.c.-Hammarubi develops first building code in Babylonia

◼700 b.c.-Assyrians develop the first public water supply -30 miles of canals to feed
Ninevah. (First use of concrete!)

◼200 b.c.-Water supply to Pergamum includes an elevated reservoir, line pressure over
300 psi.

Trade!
◼450 b.c. -Greek architectons build harbor at Samos

◼200 b.c. -3300 foot long tunnel through solid limestone at Samos

◼Ship building, light houses, etc.

Conquest!
◼312 b.c. -Romans build Appian Way

◼214 b.c. Chinese build 1700 mile long wall

◼Conquest of other lands leads to sharing of knowledge

◼Moors in Spain

◼Roman influence throughout the west

Roman Creations
◼312 b.c. -Appian Way, Aqua Appius

◼17 b.c. -Aggripa builds Pantheon

◼98 a.d. -Alcantra bridge in Spain

◼175 feet high, 600 feet long

◼dry masonry construction

◼122 a.d. -Hadrian’s Wall

◼Roman cities were planned, developed to fit the surrounding environment

Other Cultures
◼Mayan: 12,000 B.C. to 1600 AD

◼Teotihuacan in central Mexico had a population of 200,000 in 350 AD.

◼Calendars, roads, temples, chariots

◼Chinese: 21,000 B.C. to present

◼Shang Dynasty: 1700 BC –writing

◼Han Dynasty: 200 BC –universities

◼Silk, paper, gunpowder, printing

Western Development
◼500 -1300 a.d. -Middle Ages

◼Little development

◼Castles, windmills, ship building

◼Cathedrals

◼1100 -1200 a.d. -Term engineer arises

◼Based on “in generare” -to create

◼Often built “engines of war”

◼1300 -1750 a.d. -Great scientific advances

◼Previous -trial & error

◼Sometimes ran afoul of the church

◼1747 -French build first Engineering school

◼1771 -the term “Civil Engineering” is used

◼1780 -James Watt builds practical steam engine -Mechanical Engineering

◼1800 (?) -Eli Whitney introduces mass production in factories -beginnings of Industrial
Engineering

◼1844 -Samuel Morse invents the telegraph -Electrical Engineering

◼1885 -Karl Benz begins production of gasoline driven automobiles.

◼1903 -Wright Brother fly at Kitty Hawk

◼1917 -Commercial air-mail service

◼1930 –43 Airlines in the US

◼1957 –Sputnik

◼1961 –Manned space flight

◼1969 –Moon landing!

Why Study History?

◼Keeps our perspective on the “impossible”.

◼Avoid repeating mistakes.

◼Shows us the importance of “mundane” developments.

◼Helps us see how historical cultural differences may impact modern solutions.

“Its all been done”

In the late 1800’s, the head of the U.S. Patent Office appealed to Congress to close his
office, saying “Everything that can ever be invented, has been.”

Lesson from the Past

◼Ankor Wat built by Suryavarman II (1113-c. 1150)

◼Most visible remnant of a highly productive society

◼May have been wiped out buy Malaria

Who stopped “the Plague”

City life in England in 1842

◼Shift from agricultural to industrial production

◼Overcrowding rampant

◼Child laborers

◼Average age of death

◼Gentry -43

◼Tradesman -30

◼Laborers 22
◼For every death by old age or violence, 8 died from disease

Sanitary Conditions
◼People living in basements, streets.

◼Water from public wells or pumped from river to shared standpipes.

◼Sewage, trash thrown into gutters.

◼In London the Thames began to stink.

A New Plague Arrives

◼Cholera arrives from India.

◼In Paris, 7000 die in 18 days.

◼Britain's industrialized cities lose 22,000.

◼Doctors disagree on treatment.

◼Under medical care, 25%-59% of patients died.

The Plague Ends

◼Insurance Actuaries determine that the closer you live to the Thames, the higher your
risk of dying.

◼Laws forbid pumping drinking water from the Thames.

◼New sewers.

◼The plague ends!