Introduction and History of Engineering - Tom Rebold

Tom Rebold, MSEE

trebold@mpc.edu

Welcome to
ENGR1A

http:tomrebold.com/engr1a


Introduction to Engineering



AGENDA


Class Overview


Purpose and Outcomes


Introductions


History of Engineering




Why Engineering, in a nutshell



The world urgently needs problem solvers


You’ll be paid handsomely


Problem solving is a rush!


You can see the world, and beyond

Dr Mae C Jemison

Timothy
Horiuchi

(above) collaborates with faculty from across disciplines to
develop new engineering systems, including bat
-
inspired navigation devices on
small, unmanned aerial vehicles.

Engineers without Borders

Course Objectives


Understand what engineering is and how it is
practiced.

•
societal context

•
relationships and differences between disciplines

•
relationships to mathematics and the sciences


Develop and apply fundamental engineering skills.

•
problem solving

•
communications

•
computer skills


Support your Academic Goals.

•
Improve study skills

•
Plan coursework to align with academic and transfer goals


Gain practical design experience as part of a
multidisciplinary team.


Class Content


Interactive Lab Activities

•
Design, Problem Solving,
Building


Visiting speakers


Site Tours


Bridge building competition


Assignments (not too many)


4 tests


Final Design Competition


Upon successful completion,
you should



Know whether engineering is the right
choice for you


Have a fairly clear idea which
Engineering field to major in


Comprehend the changes you may
need to make to be successful


Be addicted to problem solving!

Bio
--


Please visit the ENGR1 website:

•
http://tomrebold.com/engr1

•
click on “Tell me about yourself”

•
Enter your info.

My Vital Statistics



Name: Tom
Rebold


Born: Chicago, Illinois


Degree: Master of Science, Electrical Engineering


School: MIT


Places I have worked:

•
MIT Lincoln Laboratory (Research Assistant)

•
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Telecom Engineer)

•
Antarctic Support Associates (Field Engineer)

•
MPC (Chair of Engineering)


Why Engineering?

I love solving problems!


Why MPC?

The sea lions!




The following slides are by my
colleague


Dr. Melissa Hornstein

Chair of Engineering

Hartnell College

A brief history of engineering


Dr. Hornstein


EGN
-
1


Tuesday, February 15, 2012


The beginnings of engineering


•

When engineering first began, there were

no records.


•

Wherever there was an invention or

innovation, engineering was required.


•

Thus engineering really begins with the

first humans.


•

Engineering progress parallels the

progress of mankind.


Why study engineering history?


Why study engineering history?


• To see the progress that we’ve made


• Innovations in history helps you later on


• To not repeat our mistakes


• To see where you’re going you need to


know where you’ve been


• Engineering builds upon itself


• Ideas that they had then, now we have


more technology to create it right this time


Name the earliest engineering


innovation/invention you can think of


• The wheel


• Fire


• A cup


• Bridge


• Clothing


• Hunting tools/weapons


• Shelter/home


• Boat


• Dams


• Roads


10,000 B.C.: Spear thrower


Mechanical


engineering


• The spear thrower effectively lengthens the


arm and gives a greater force to the thrown


spear.


• Why?


10,000 B.C.: Domestication and


early agriculture


Genetic/agricultural


engineering


10,000 B.C.: Domestication and


early agriculture


Genetic/agricultural


engineering


vs.


vs.


vs.


vs.


vs.


vs.


Read more about


this!


Ancient civilizations maps & timeline


Mesopotamia: Sumeria, Babylonia, Assyria,


etc. (5,000 B.C.)


Tigris


river


Euphrates


river


6,000 B.C.: Scratch plow


Mechanical


engineering


• Allowed societies to feed themselves and increase in


population.


• Agricultural surplus created because the scratch plow


brought greater acreage into production than could have

been farmed by humans alone.


• Surplus supported craftspeople, carpenters, potters,


musicians, bakers, and administrators.


6,000 B.C.: Yoke


Mechanical


engineering


• The yoke had to be developed before the

plow could effectively be pulled by oxen.


5,000 B.C.: Loom


• There were not


enough animal skins to


clothe the increased


population so a new

material was created:

cloth.


• Fiber was either


animal hair such as

wool or a vegetable

fiber such as flax

(which is woven into

linen).


Material
3

engineering


000 B.C.: The Bronze Age


• Bronze is made from


copper and tin.


• Bronze has a lower


melting point than


copper, and thus can be

more easily worked, but


is harder than copper.


How was the wheel invented?


Mechanical

engineering


1


3,500 B.C.: Wheeled cart


Roller


Stage one. People placed rollers beneath heavy

objects so that they could be moved easily.


Mechanical

engineering


2


3,500 B.C.: Wheeled cart


Sledge


Stage two. Runners placed under a heavy load,

which they discovered would make it easier for

the load to drag


invention of the sledge.


Mechanical

engineering


3


3,500 B.C.: Wheeled cart


Sledge on roller


Stage three. Combination of the roller and the

sledge. As the sledge moved forward over the

first roller, a second roller was placed under the

front end to carry the load when it moved off


the first roller.


Mechanical

engineering


4


3,500 B.C.: Wheeled cart


Sledge on roller, which has


become grooved with use


Question
: Why

do the grooves

allow you to go

a further


distance?


Stage four. People discovered that the rollers which


carried the sledge became grooved with use. They


soon discovered that these deep grooves actually

allowed the sledge to advance a greater distance


before the next roller was needed to come on!


Mechanical

engineering


5


3,500 B.C.: Wheeled cart


Wheels and axle in one


piece; the axle fixed by pegs


Stage five. The rollers were changed into wheels. In the


process of doing so, wood between the grooves of the


roller were cut away to form an axle and wooden pegs

were fastened to the runners on each side of the axle.

When the wheels turn, the axle turned too in the space


between the pegs. The first wooden cart was thus made.


Mechanical

engineering


6


3,500 B.C.: Wheeled cart


Wheels joined to axle; axle


fixed into crude bearing


Stage six. A slight improvement was made to


the cart. This time, instead of using pegs to join

the wheels to the axle, holes for the axle were

drilled through the frame of the cart. Axle and


wheels were now made separately.


1,850 B.C.: Code of Hammurabi:


Construction


• If a builder build a house for a man


and do not make its construction firm,

and the house which he has built

collapse and cause the death of the

owner of the house, that builder shall

be put to death.


• If it cause the death of a son of the


owner of the house, they shall put to


death a son of that builder.


Engineering ethics


• If it cause death of the slave of the


owner of the house, he shall give to


the owner a slave of equal value.


• If it destroy property, he shall restore


whatever it destroyed, and because


he did not make the house which he

built firm and it collapsed, he shall

rebuild the house which collapsed at

his own expense.


3,000 B.C.: Ziggurat (e.g. Tower of Babel)


Civil


engineering


Ancient Egypt (3150 B.C.)


3,300 B.C.: Irrigation, dykes,


canals, drainage systems


• A great mass of people


populated the narrow fertile

valley of the Nile


• Irrigation works were needed to

maintain the large population


and exploit the skill of agriculture


Desert


Civil/agricultural

engineering


Civil


engineering


2980 B.C.: Pyramids


This is actually six

stacked Mastabas!


200


481 ft.


Mastaba


Zoser’s Step Pyramid

at Saqqara (2610 B.C.)


Great Pyramid of Giza

(2560 B.C.)


Precise and exacting engineering

standards: Set with joints measuring one


ten
-
thousandth of an inch wide!


Building the pyramids


Civil


engineering


Question
: Why

didn’t they use

carts?


• Surveying and excavation


-

Choosing a suitable site,


orienting it and preparing the


foundation


• Obtaining building materials


-

Quarrying rocks or making


huge stones


• Transporting building


materials


-

Transporting from the


quarrying site to the pyramid


• Workforce logistics


-

Finding skilled workers,


feeding them and housing


them


Ancient Greece (600 B.C.)


1,500 B.C.: Minoan ships


• Ancient Greece was made


up of a bunch of islands.


• In order to get around,

they became a sea
-
faring


people.


• They built boats.


• They also needed a place


to park them.


Mechanical

engineering


Materials


engineering


1,200 B.C.: Iron age


• Bronze is an alloy which consists mostly of copper and


also contains tin. (Bronze age began 3300 B.C.).


• A shortage of tin forced people to seek an alternative to


bronze.


• While bronze is harder, iron is more common than


bronze.


• Bronze is easier to get out of its ore than iron (melting


point of 1000

°

C).


• Iron does not melt at the temperatures that can be


reached in a primitive furnace (1600

°

C).


• Once we got good at making bronze, it was easier for us


to extract iron.


400 B.C.: Artificial harbor


Civil/ocean


engineering


• The Greeks built a breakwater, an artificial harbor,

to protect the ships from waves.


• 400 yards long and 120 feet deep!


300 B.C.: First lighthouse in the world


Civil

engineering


• Navigational


aid


• So the ships


don’t get


lost or


wrecked on


the rocks

• Seven


wonders of


the world!


500 B.C.: Tunnel of Eupalinos


(aqueduct)


Constructed from both ends.limestone.
• Engineer Eupalinos from


Megara dug a tunnel


through a mountain to to

supply the ancient capital

of Samos with fresh water.


Civil


engineering


3,300 ft (0.625 miles) long!


• This was of utmost


defensive importance, as

the aqueduct ran


underground it was not


easily found by an enemy


who could otherwise cut

off the water supply.


400 B.C.: Crossbow and catapult


Mechanical


engineering


250 B.C.: Archimedes screw pump


• A machine used to raise


water.


• Can be run continuously.


• Still used today.


-

Used in sewage treatment

plants.


Mechanical


engineering


Ancient Rome (500 B.C.)


300 B.C.: Water wheel


Mechanical


engineering


• A


energy of free
-
flowing or falling water into useful

forms of power.


• Wheels were typically used to grind grain or saw


wood.


Civil

engineering


500 B.C.: Roads


• A deep subbase of stone


followed by a compact base


• This method of construction


allowed for slow wear,


drainage of water, and no


heaving of the road in cold

weather.


• 18,000 miles of roadway


from Turkey to Great Britain

• Military, communication,


and central government


Architecture: Roman arches


Colosseum,


72 A.D.


Civil


engineering


Alcantara bridge built 98 A.D., still


Aqueduct


in use today!


100 B.C.: Roller bearing


• A bearing is a device to allow

constrained relative motion


between two or more parts,


typically rotation or linear

movement.


• Remember that wheeled cart?


A roller bearing can support

the rotating axle to the frame.


Engineering disciplines in history


You might have noticed that

most of the engineering


disciplines mentioned in this


talk have predominantly been


“civil” with a sprinkling of

“mechanical”.


Civil


engineering


The funding of engineering works


came principally from governments,


which were interested in buildings and

bridges and military defensive and


offensive weaponry. This has not

changed significantly in today’s world.


Until the late 1880s,

engineering was


divided into two


branches, military and


civil.


Mechanical


engineering


Electrical engineering

didn’t start until at least the

1800s.


Commonly accepted engineering disciplines. From Honour, E., “Characteristics of


Engineering Disciplines," 13th Int’l Conference on Systems Engineering, 1999.


Engineering disciplines in history


• Many inventions from the Roman Empire were really from


other lands they conquered.


• Despite the many inventions of the Roman Empire, it did not


last and was eventually overrun by what are called the


barbarians. The people were not necessarily barbarians: after

all, which culture was addicted to slavery?


• A puzzling aspect of the Roman era is the unevenness of the


technology. The Romans developed elaborate heating systems

for buildings and developed boilers so people could have hot

water available on tap, but used a primitive bowl of oil with a

wick for lighting. This bowl
-
lamp was used twelve thousand


years before for lighting the caves of nomads.


• It is only with the advent of the industrial age (1800s) that the


use of humans as the primary energy force in construction


projects was diminished.


Why were some
inventions/innovations

not invented by the Romans?


• The bicycle?


1817 German Baron Karl von


Drais invents velocipede


• Drais' interest in finding an alternative to the horse was the starvation and death of


horses caused by crop failure in 1816 following the volcanic eruption of Tambora.


• On his first reported ride from Mannheim on June 12, 1817, he covered eight miles


in less than an hour.


1862 Gatling invents machine gun


Gatling wrote that he created it to reduce the size of armies and so


reduce the number of deaths by combat and disease, and to show how

futile war is.


1863 French metalworker


invents bicycle (with pedals)


Nick
-
named the “boneshaker”


What does it all mean?


Next class



We jump from 1863 to August 2012 and
the landing of Curiosity on Mars!!