A brief history of engineering | origin of word 'engineering' | what is engineering

 What is engineering? 

Engineering is the application of scientific and technical knowledge to solve human problems. Engineers use imagination, judgment, reasoning and experience to apply science, technology, mathematics, and practical experience. The result is the design, production, and operation of useful objects or processes.

The history of engineering can be divided into four major areas of development: the pre-scientific revolution, the industrial revolution, the second industrial revolution, and the information age.

Coliseum

Pyramid

The pre-scientific revolution would include construction the pyramids of the Egyptians, the famous structures of the ancient Greek culture such as the Parthenon and Acropolis, and the ancient Roman structures such as the Coliseum, Circus Maximus, Hadrian’s Wall and aqueducts for water transportation. These structures were built using simple machines and tools. They also used a very important geometric formula a squared + b squared = c squared (Pythagorean theorem) developed by the Greek Pythagoras, as the basis for getting structures to be square and true. The ancient civilizations built these structures but did not understand the physics or scientific theory that allowed the structures to stand or for all of the equipment the used to build these structures.

           The forerunners of engineers, practical artists and craftsmen, had to proceed mainly by trial and error.  Yet tinkering combined with imagination produced many marvelous inventions of consequence.  Many ancient monuments are something we should admire for the ability of ancient man to overcome and improvise to create the monuments we view today.  The admiration is embodied in the name “engineer” itself.  The term engineer began to be used in the eleventh century was derived from the Latin ingeniator, meaning one with ingenium, the ingenious one.  Leonardo da Vinci bore the official title of Ingegnere Generale for the ideas he possessed  His notebooks reveal that some Renaissance engineers had begun to ask the question about how to systematically evaluate what works and why.

Steam engine machine

 

Industrial revolution

“The first phase of modern engineering emerged in the Scientific Revolution.  Galileo’s Two New Sciences, which seeks systematic explanations and adopts a scientific approach to practical problems, is a landmark regarded by many engineer historians as the beginning of structural analysis, the mathematical representation and design of building structures. This phase of engineering lasted through the First Industrial Revolution, when machines, increasingly powered by steam engines, started to replace muscles in most production. When Watt improved the steam, people knew what the engine could do, but no one really understood thermodynamic thrust or how it worked, just that it did work. The understanding of the principle would be at least fifty years behind the steam engines use. The skilled people who built these machines were artisans and their skills were paramount to creating the industrial

         While pulling off the revolution, traditional artisans transformed themselves to modern professionals. The French, more rationalistic oriented, spearheaded the development of civil engineering with emphasis on mathematics and developed university engineering education under the sponsorship of their government.  The British, more empirically oriented, pioneered mechanical engineering and autonomous professional societies under the laissez-faire attitude of their government.  Gradually, practical thinking became scientific in addition to intuitive, as engineers developed mathematical analysis and controlled experiments.  Technical training shifted from apprenticeship to university education.  Information flowed more quickly in organized meetings and journal publications as professional engineering societies emerged.” http://www.creatingtechnology.org/history.htm

A factory

The military academy at West Point was a direct result of George Washington’s recommendation to Congress. The first schools in the United States to offer an engineering education were the United States Military Academy (West Point) in 1817, an institution now known as Norwich Univ. in 1819, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1825. An engineering education is based on a strong foundation in mathematics and science; this is followed by courses emphasizing the application of this knowledge to a specific field and studies in the social sciences and humanities to give the engineer a broader education. The broader based education helps the engineer to understand how what he does affects the world around him or her. http://www.answers.com/topic/engineering

Military engineers

Until the Industrial Revolution there were only two kinds of engineers. The military engineers built such things as fortifications, catapults, and, later, cannons. The civil engineers built bridges, harbors, aqueducts, buildings, and other structures. During the early 19th century in England mechanical engineering developed as a separate field to provide manufacturing machines and the engines to power them. The first British professional society of civil engineers was formed in 1818; that for mechanical engineers followed in 1847. In the United States, the order of growth of the different branches of engineering, measured by the date a professional society was formed, is civil engineering (1852), mining and metallurgical engineering (1871), mechanical engineering (1880), electrical engineering (1884), and chemical engineering (1908). Aeronautical engineering, industrial engineering, and genetic engineering are more modern developments having their development in the Twentieth Century.

The second industrial revolution occurred during the historical period from the 1840’s to the 1930’s when the science base engineering fields came into existence. The areas of chemical engineering, electrical engineering, and other science-based fields of engineering developed electricity, telecommunications, airplanes, and mass production causing many changes in the world as the engineer knew it. The changes also changed the product people used and the way technological advancement was perceived.

Modern electronics

 

Burj Khalif

The information age has produced many more changes in the fields of engineering. The field of engineering has matured as telecommunications, microelectronics and computers have caused us to forge ahead into the field of information technology. Today the field of engineering is second only in size to teaching.  The field that in the 1700’s had two major fields today had listed on one website over eighty different majors for the field of engineering (http://www.answers.com/topic/fields-of-engineering). The fields ranged from the traditional civil and mechanical fields to nano-engineering and environmental engineering. The changes have occurred since the rapid changes in technology have caused a need for engineers to create products to handle a wide range of different problems in these new technologies. The fields of engineering are growing as the technology of society changes to meet the needs of society.

 

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