Engineering

Part 4 - Engineers 2

This chapter mention a few of the many thousands of engineers who changed the course of history. Others are mentioned in later books and chapters on specific technologies.

Thomas Newcomen invented the first commercially successful steam engine in 1712. This condensed steam drawn into the cylinder to create a partial vacuum. Hundreds were used throughout Britain and Europe in the 18th century mainly to pump water out of mines.

James Watt was a Scottish mechanical engineer who modified many Newcomen engines with the addition of a separate steam condenser that doubled fuel efficiency. His first engine design was an improved version of the Newcomen engine and by 1800, Boulton and Watt had built 451 engines of which 268 were rotative. By the end of 19th century, the steam engine had become the main source of power for industry.

In the process Watt developed many ways to measure the efficiency of steam engines while develop the machine tools necessary to make the high pressure compound steam engines.

Thomas Young described the elastic property of a material, later known as Young's modulus (E or Y), in 1807. Although, Giordano Riccati had experimented with the concept in 1782 and it had been first mentioned by Leonhard Euler in 1727.

Stress = E × strain, where stress is measured by applying an axial load to a sample of the material over a known area and strain is the elastic change in the length of the sample. For example, Young's modulus of elasticity for structural steel is 210 000 Mpa (30 000 000 pound/square inch). For aluminum it is 70 000 Mpa (10 000 pound/square inch) which means that an aluminum rod will stretch (or deflect) 3 times more than a steel rod of the same size under the same tensile load.

In 1709, Abraham Darby built a coke-fired blast furnace to produce cast iron and in 1768, John Wilkinson built an oven to efficiently convert coal into coke.

In 1784, Henry Cort devised a puddling process to make high quality wrought iron. This was improved by ironmasters Crawshay and Homfray at Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, and, by 1860, there were more than 3000 puddling furnaces in Britain.

In 1856, Henry Bessemer developed a converter that allowed oxygen to be blown through molten cast iron to make almost pure iron. Robert Mushet used manganese to remove excess oxygen from the molten iron and, in 1876, Sidney Thomas added limestone to remove phosphorus.

In Britain, pig iron production grew from 1.3 million tons in 1840 to 6.7 million in 1870 and 10.4 million in 1913. The USA production grew from 0.3 million tons in 1840, to 1.7 million in 1870, and 31.5 million in 1913. (Currently China, Japan and the USA produce 2600 million tons of pig iron and 2300 million tons of steel each year).

George Stephenson and his son, Robert, built the first practical locomotive and the first public inter-city railway line between Liverpool and Manchester in 1830. They also built several large bridges including the Victoria Bridge in Montreal, Canada in 1849.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a prolific British engineer of the 19th century, building the Great Western Railway and designing several bridges including the iconic 1864 Clifton Suspension Bridge spanning the Avon river in Bristol, Britain.

James Clerk Maxwell, formulated the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation. It was the first time electricity, magnetism, and light were connected in a unified explanation. He is also considered to be the founder of modern electrical engineering.

Nikolaus Otto developed the compressed charge internal combustion engines fuelled by petroleum gas.

Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler was a pioneer of internal-combustion engines and automobile development.

The Scottish-born, Canadian engineer, Alexander Graham Bell, patented the first practical telephone.

Guglielmo Marconi successfully managed to send wireless signals over a distance of miles. He later took his experimental apparatus to England in 1896 and was granted the first patent for wireless telegraphy.

Orville and Wilbur Wright focussed on the aerodynamic design, instead of propulsion, allowing them to develop the shape of the modern aircraft wing and patent the three-axis control system for steering in flight.

Nikola Tesla invented the modern alternating current electrical supply system and also made significant contributions to modern radio, X-ray, and the induction motor.

Charles Babbage was a mathematician and mechanical engineer best known for his concept of a programmable computer.

George Westinghouse Jr., invented the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry.

Thomas Alva Edison is famous for the first practical long-lasting, incandescent light bulb using tungsten filaments and a high vacuum. He also developed an integrated system of electric lighting and many devices including the phonograph and the motion picture camera.

Henry Ford, is best known for developing the assembly line method of automobile production greatly reducing costs.

Lee de Forest was a pioneer in the development of FM radio and sound-on-film recording used for motion pictures.