Engineering in

the Industrial
Revolution
At the close of the 18th century,
the first stirrings of the Industrial
Revolution were beginning to be
felt. In England, earlier than in the
rest of Western Europe, the
transition from an agrarian,
handcraft-based economy to a
machine-dominated economy was
underway.
 The trend had earlier roots, but
mechanized labor, inanimate
power— particularly steam—and
inexpensive raw materials
accelerated dramatic changes.
Workers were moving away from
home-based (cottage) industry
and shops to mills and factories.
In England the countryside was
under assault as scores of towns
emerged around country plants
making anything from cast iron to
cotton cloth.
Up until the late 18th century, military
engineers had undertaken the
construction of public infrastructure in
support of expanding industry. However,
in 1768, an Englishman named John
Smeaton is credited with being the first
person to call himself a civil engineer.
By describing himself as a “civil
engineer” Smeaton identified a new and
distinct profession that encompassed all
nonmilitary engineering.
Smeaton‘s work was backed by
thorough research, and he became a
member of the prestigious Royal
Academy of Engineering. In 1771, he
founded the Society of Civil Engineers
(now known as the Smeatonian Society).
His objective was to bring together
engineers, entrepreneurs, and lawyers
to promote the building of large public
works, such as canals (and later
railways). These new professionals also
recognized that they needed to obtain
parliamentary approval necessary to
execute their schemes.
The Industrial Revolution
brought with it new
materials and methods
for producing and using
them. Cast and wrought
iron are good examples.
As early as 1780, cast
iron columns began to
be substituted for wood
posts supporting the
roofs of cotton mills in
England.
Bricks and timber (lumber)
were produced using
industrial methods and glass
began to replace oiled paper
as window coverings.

Structural innovations
accompanied these
developments enabling
spectacular early applications
in bridges and railroad tracks.
Iron Bridge, designed by Thomas
Farnolls Pritchard, is an outstanding
monument to civil engineering and the
Industrial Revolution.
In 1779, the Iron Bridge, the world‘s
first cast iron bridge, opened for traffic
over the River Severn in
Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, England.
The bridge was cast in the local
foundries by Abraham Darby III.
His grandfather, Abraham Darby, was
the first to use less expensive iron,
rather than brass, to cast strong thin
pots for the poor. Under his son and
grandson, the Coalbrookdale foundry
flourished. In 1777, Abraham Darby III
began erecting 378 tons of cast iron to
build the bridge, which spans 100 feet
(30 meters).
For a time, a Scottish named Thomas Telford became the first president of the Institution
of Civil Engineers (ICE) in the United Kingdom and lived near the Iron Bridge; he must have
been fascinated by what he saw.
He later used cast iron in many innovative bridge designs, including a chain suspension
bridge over the Menai Straight in Wales.
A few common
mechanical properties for
cast iron include:
Hardness – material's
resistance to deformation
due to other actions, such
as abrasion.
Toughness – the ability of
a metal to absorb energy
before it fractures or fails
Ductility – material's ability
to deform without fracture
French immigrant to the United Kingdom, Marc
Brunnel, and his son, Isambard Kingdom
Brunnel, also pushed the limits of civil
engineering design and construction with projects
such as the first tunnel under the River Thames
for the new underground rail system in London.
Isambard Kingdom Brunnel went on to design
railroads, bridges, train stations, and a ship—he
also owned the Great Western Railroad. Brunnel‘s
design for Paddington Station in London (1849 -
1854) resulted in a flexible covered space without
columns. New railways were regarded as sources
of future prosperity for provincial cities and towns,
and the public took intense interest in Brunnel‘s
daring schemes.
 The development of mills and factories in the countryside
attracted workers by tens of thousands. Because good roads and
rail systems did not yet exist, canals connecting locks, piers,
boatyards, and warehouses were constructed at a frantic pace.
The first public railroad opened in 1825.
The use of iron and glass
continued to shake up
traditional construction
methods.

According to Spiro Kostof (an

architectural historian), not
since the Roman invention of
concrete had a building
technology so radicalized
architecture.
‘‘Actually, Kostof continues to say
that architects were not so thrilled
about the appearance of cast iron
and tended to conceal or
decorate it in the sort of public
buildings they specialized in
designing. Its characteristics,
however, were impossible not to
appreciate.
Iron was less expensive than stone
and possessed exciting mechanical
properties: It withstood fire better
than wood and it could be
prefabricated, shipped to the site,
and assembled with relative ease.”
As early as 1813 an iron
and glass dome was built
over a granary in Paris.
Fifteen years later iron and
glass roofs were used to
span commercial arcades
and shopping streets for
Parisian pedestrians.

England‘s most innovative

uses of iron were railroad
stations and bridges. Civil
engineers embraced these
new materials and created
magnificent, awe-inspiring
new structural forms.
 As the Industrial Revolution rolled
along, many social changes were
taking place. One significant
development was the rise of the
professions.
The following years are important in
the development of civil engineering
and architecture as professions:
Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) –
launched 1818, Royal Institute of
British Architects (RIBA) – launched
1834, American Society of Civil
Engineers (ASCE) – launched 1852,
American Institute of Architects (AIA)
– launched 1857
In the United States, other civil
engineers were designing and building
canals, railroads, municipal water
systems, and bridges.
The Croton Aqueduct was a 41-mile
(66-kilometer) water distribution
system constructed for New York City
between 1837 and 1842.
It brought water from the Croton River
into reservoirs in Manhattan. During
the 1830s, New York City desperately
needed a fresh water supply to combat
both disease and fire. After numerous
proposals and a plan abandoned after
two years, construction began in 1837
under the expertise of John Bloomfield
Jervis.
The field of civil engineering grew with
the times. A German immigrant to the
United States, John Roebling, designed
the first suspension bridge using steel
cables—the Brooklyn Bridge. Planning
for the bridge began in 1867 and
construction was completed in 1883.
The Brooklyn Bridge stretches 5,989 feet
(1,825 meters) over the East River and
connects the New York City boroughs of
Manhattan and Brooklyn. At the time of
its completion, it was the longest
suspension bridge in the world.