Term: Engineering
**1. Definition and History of Engineering:**
– Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to solve technical problems and improve systems.
– Modern engineering encompasses subfields like infrastructure, machinery, vehicles, electronics, materials, and energy systems.
– The term ‘engineering’ is derived from Latin words meaning cleverness and to contrive or devise.
– Engineering dates back to ancient times with inventions like the wedge, lever, wheel, and pulley.
– The term ‘engineer’ originated in the 14th century, referring to constructors of military engines.
– Notable ancient engineering achievements include aqueducts, pyramids, ziggurats, and temples.
**2. Engineering in Ancient Civilizations:**
– Ancient Romans built aqueducts for water supply, while Egyptians constructed pyramids using simple machines.
– The earliest evidence of pulleys, screws, and water-powered machines dates back to ancient civilizations.
– Imhotep, an ancient civil engineer, designed the Pyramid of Djoser in Egypt.
– Ancient Greek engineering included the Antikythera mechanism and inventions by Archimedes.
– Military machines like artillery, triremes, and catapults were developed in ancient times.
**3. Engineering in the Middle Ages:**
– Windmills and wind pumps were invented in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age.
– The earliest steam-powered machine was described in Ottoman Egypt in 1551.
– Inventions like the cotton gin, spinning wheel, and spinning jenny were crucial for industrial growth.
– The Muslim world developed the earliest programmable machines, including a music sequencer and automaton musicians.
– Al-Jazari invented programmable automata/robots in 1206, including a water-powered mine hoist.
**4. Innovations in Modern Engineering:**
– Steam engine application allowed coke in iron making.
– Classical mechanics formed the basis of modern engineering.
– Rise of engineering as a profession in the 18th century.
– Canal building importance in the Industrial Revolution.
– John Smeaton’s contributions to civil engineering.
**5. Developments in Iron Production, Machine Tools, and Education:**
– Steam-powered blowing cylinders increased iron production.
– Puddling process by Henry Cort produced wrought iron.
– Hot blast by James Neilson lowered fuel needed for iron smelting.
– Machine tools like boring machines, lathes, milling machines, and metal planers revolutionized precision machining.
– Educational growth in engineering saw the establishment of technical universities, chairs of engineering at prestigious institutions, and the foundations of electrical engineering laid by key figures in the 1800s.
Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to solve technical problems, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve systems. Modern engineering comprises many subfields which include designing and improving infrastructure, machinery, vehicles, electronics, materials, and energy systems.
The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more specialized fields of engineering, each with a more specific emphasis on particular areas of applied mathematics, applied science, and types of application. See glossary of engineering.
The term engineering is derived from the Latin ingenium, meaning "cleverness" and ingeniare, meaning "to contrive, devise".