The engineering book : from the catapult to the Curiosity Rover : 250 milestones in the history of engineering

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Title:

Author:

Brain, Marshall, author.

ISBN:

9781454908098

Personal Author:

Brain, Marshall, author.

Physical Description:

527 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 23 cm.

Series:

Sterling milestones series

Sterling Milestones series.

Abstract:

Engineering is where human knowledge meets real-world problems--and solves them. It's the source of some of our greatest inventions, from the catapult to the jet engine, from the cell phone to the Large Hadron Collider. Marshall Brain, creator of the How Stuff Works series, provides a detailed look at 250 milestones in aerospace, architecture, chemistry, computer engineering, and more, from ancient history to the present.

Contents:

Introduction -- 30,000 BCE: Bow and arrow -- 3300 BCE: Hunter/gatherer tools -- 2550 BCE: Great Pyramid -- 2000 BCE: Inuit technology -- 1400 BCE: Concrete -- 625 BCE: Asphalt -- 438 BCE: Parthenon -- 312 BCE: Roman aqueduct system -- 100 BCE: Waterwheel -- 79: Pompeii -- 1040: Compass -- 1144: Basilica of Saint Denis -- 1300: Catapult -- 1372: Leaning Tower of Pisa -- 1492: Square-rigged wooden sailboats -- 1600: Great Wall of China -- 1620: Gunter's chain -- 1670: Mechanical pendulum clock -- 1750: Simple machines at Yates Mill -- 1773: Building implosions -- 1784: Power Loom -- 1790: Cotton Mill -- 1794: Cotton Gin -- 1800: High-pressure steam engine -- 1823: Truss bridge -- 1824: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute -- 1825: Erie Canal -- 1830: Tom Thumb Steam Locomotive -- 1835: Combine Harvester -- 1837: Telegraph system -- 1845: Mass production -- 1845: Tunnel boring machine -- 1846: Sewing machine -- 1851: America's Cup -- 1854: Water treatment -- 1855: Bessemer process -- 1856: Plastic -- 1858: Big Ben -- 1859: Oil well -- 1859: Modern sewer system -- 1860: Louisville Water Tower -- 1861: Wamsutta Oil Refinery -- 1861: Elevator -- 1869: Transcontinental Railroad -- 1873: Cable Cars -- 1876: Telephone -- 1878: Power Grid -- 1879: Carbon fiber -- 1885: Supercharger and Turbocharger -- 1885: Washington Monument -- 1886: Statue of Liberty -- 1889: Eiffel Tower -- 1889: Hall-Heroult Process -- 1890: Steam Turbine -- 1891: Carnegie Hall -- 1891: Zuiderzee Works -- 1893: Two-Stroke Diesel Engine -- 1893: Ferris Wheel -- 1897: Diesel Locomotive -- 1899: Defibrillator -- 1902: Air Conditioning -- 1903: EKG/ECG -- 1903: Wright Brothers' Airplane -- 1905: Engineered lumber -- 1907: Professional Engineer Licensing -- 1908: Internal Combustion Engine -- 1910: Laparoscopic surgery -- 1912: Titanic -- 1913: Woolworth Building -- 1914: Panama Canal -- 1917: Laser -- 1917: Hooker Telescope -- 1919: Women's Engineering Society -- 1919: Under Friction Roller Coaster -- 1920: Kinsol Trestle Bridge -- 1920: Radio Station -- 1921: Robot -- 1926: Heart-Lung Machine -- 1927: Electric Refrigeration -- 1931: Empire State Building -- 1935: Tape Recording -- 1936: Hoover Dam -- 1937: Golden Gate Bridge -- 1937: Hindenburg -- 1937: Turbojet Engine -- 1937: Magnetically Levitated Train -- 1938: Formula One Car -- 1939: Norden Bombsight -- 1939: Color Television -- 1940: Tacoma Narrows Bridge -- 1940: Radar -- 1940: Titanium -- 1941: Doped Silicon -- 1942: Spread Spectrum -- 1943: Dialysis Machine -- 1943: SCUBA -- 1944: Helicopter -- 1945: Uranium Enrichment -- 1945: Trinity Nuclear Bomb -- 1946: ENIAC: First Digital Computer -- 1946: Top-Loading Washing Machine -- 1946: Microwave Oven -- 1946: Light Water Reactor -- 1947: AK-47 -- 1947: Transistor -- 1948: Cable TV -- 1949: Tower Crane -- 1949: Atomic Clock -- 1949: Integrated Circuit -- 1950: Chess Computer -- 1951: Jet Engine Testing -- 1952: Center-Pivot Irrigation -- 1952: 3D Glasses -- 1952: Ivy Mike Hydrogen Bomb -- 1953: Automobile Airbag -- 1956: Hard Disk -- 1956: TAT-1 Undersea Cable -- 1957: Frozen Pizza -- 1957: Space Satellite -- 1958: Cabin Pressurization -- 1959: Desalination -- 1960: Cleanroom -- 1961: Tl Line -- 1961: Green Revolution -- 1962: SR-71 -- 1962: Atomic Clock Radio Station -- 1963: Retractable Stadium Roof -- 1963: Irradiated Food -- 1964: Top Fuel Dragster -- 1964: Drip Irrigation -- 1964: Natural Gas Tanker -- 1964: Bullet Train -- 1965: Gateway Arch in St Louis -- 1965: Cluster Munition -- 1966: Compound Bow -- 1966: Parafoil -- 1966: Pebble Bed Nuclear Reactor -- 1966: Dynamic RAM -- 1967: Automotive Emission Controls -- 1967: Apollo 1 -- 1967: Saturn V Rocket -- 1968: C-5 Super Galaxy -- 1968: Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet -- 1969: Lunar Landing -- 1969: ARPANET -- 1969: Space Suit -- 1970: LCD Screen -- 1970: Apollo 13 -- 1970: Fiber Optic Communication -- 1971: Anti-Lock Brakes -- 1971: Lunar Rover -- 1971: Microprocessor -- 1971: CANDU Reactor -- 1971: CT Scan -- 1971:

Power Plant Scrubber -- 1971: Kevlar -- 1972: Genetic Engineering -- 1973: World Trade Center -- 1975: Router -- 1976: Concorde -- 1976: CN Tower -- 1976: VHS Videotape -- 1977: Human-Powered Airplane -- 1977: Tuned Mass Damper -- 1977: Voyager Spacecraft -- 1977: Trans-Alaska Pipeline -- 1977: MRI -- 1978: Nitrous Oxide Engine -- 1978: Bagger 288 -- 1979: Seawise Giant Supertanker -- 1980: Flash Memory -- 1980: Ml Tank -- 1980: Stadium TV Screen -- 1981: Bigfoot Monster Truck -- 1981: Space Shuttle Orbiter -- 1981: V-22 Osprey -- 1982: Artificial Heart -- 1982: Neodymium Magnet -- 1983: RFID Tag -- 1983: F-117 Stealth Fighter -- 1983: Mobile Phone -- 1983: Gimli Glider -- 1983: Ethernet -- 1984: 3D Printer -- 1984: Domain Name Service (DNS) -- 1984: Surgical Robot -- 1984: Container Shipping -- 1984: Itaipu Dam -- 1985: Bath County Pumped Storage -- 1985: International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) -- 1985: Virtual Reality -- 1986: Chernobyl -- 1986: Apache Helicopter -- 1990: World Wide Web -- 1990: Hubble Space Telescope -- 1991: Lithium Ion Battery -- 1991: Biosphere 2 -- 1992: Low-Flow Toilet -- 1992: Stormwater Management -- 1993: Keck Telescope -- 1993: Doom Engine -- 1994: Channel Tunnel -- 1994: Digital Camera -- 1994: Global Positioning System (GPS) -- 1994: Kansai International Airport -- 1995: Toy Story Animated Movie -- 1996: Ariel Atom -- 1996: HDTV -- 1997: Prius Hybrid Car -- 1998: International Space Station -- 1998: Large Hadron Collider -- 1998: Smart Grid -- 1998: Iridium Satellite System -- 1999: Wi-Fi -- 2001: Segway -- 2003: Century of Innovation -- 2004: Millau Viaduct -- 2005: Bugatti Veyron -- 2005: Georgia Aquarium -- 2006: Palm Islands -- 2006: AMOLED Screen -- 2007: Smart Phone -- 2008: Quadrotor -- 2008: Carbon Sequestration -- 2008: Engineering Grand Challenges -- 2008: Martin Jet Pack -- 2008: Three Gorges Dam -- 2009: National Ignition Facility -- 2009: Earthquake-Safe Buildings -- 2009: US President's Limousine -- 2010: Solar Impulse Airplane -- 2010: BP Blowout Preventer Failure -- 2010: Burj Khalifa -- 2010: Harry Potter Forbidden Journey Ride -- 2010: Alta Wind Energy Center -- 2010: Tablet Computer -- 2010: X2 and X3 Helicopters -- 2011: Fukushima Disaster -- 2011: Self-Driving Car -- 2011: Instant Skyscraper -- 2011: Watson -- 2012: Curiosity Rover -- 2012: Human-Powered Helicopter -- 2013: NCSU BookBot -- 2014: Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System -- 2016: Venice Flood System -- c-2020: Vactrains -- c-2024: Brain Replication -- c-2030: Mars Colony -- c-3000: Things we have yet to engineer -- Notes and further reading -- Index -- Photo credits.

Subject Term:

Engineering -- Popular works.

Technological innovations -- History.

Engineering -- History.

Technology and civilization -- History.

Civilization, Western -- History.

Inventions -- History.

Genetic engineering -- History.

Civilization, Western. (OCoLC)fst00863138

Engineering. (OCoLC)fst00910312

Technological innovations. (OCoLC)fst01145002

Technology and civilization. (OCoLC)fst01145253

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Library	Material Type	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
Searching... Sugar Grove - Todd Library	Book	TA15 .B73 2015	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

Engineering is where human knowledge meets real-world problems--and solves them. It's the source of some of our greatest inventions, from the catapult to the jet engine. Marshall Brain, creator of the How Stuff Works series and a professor at the Engineering Entrepreneurs Program at NCSU, provides a detailed look at 250 milestones in the discipline. He covers the various areas, including chemical, aerospace, and computer engineering, from ancient history to the present. The topics include architectural wonders like the Acropolis, the Great Wall of China, and the Eiffel Tower; transportation advances such as the high-speed bullet train; medical innovations, including the artificial heart and kidney dialysis; developments in communications, such as the cell phone; as well as air conditioning, Wi-Fi, the Large Hadron Collider, the self-driving car, and more.

Reviews (2)

Booklist Review

This chronologically arranged volume on engineering begins with the bow and arrow, circa 30,000 BCE, and ends with a glimpse into the future (Things We Have Yet to Engineer). Entries consist of a few paragraphs on one page, with a photo or illustration on the facing page. Sample entries include concepts (Professional engineer licensing, Laparoscopic surgery, Green Revolution) as well as items (Leaning Tower of Pisa, Elevator, Parafoil, Hard disk, Frozen pizza). Handy see also references appear at the end of each article. There is a brief bibliography for each entry located at the back of the book, and a thorough index leads browsers directly to key people and specific inventions. As with others in the series (including The Drug Book, 2013), this is not a comprehensive reference book, but it would make an excellent starting point for student researchers and is very browsable for the general reader. Visual appeal, easily digested information, and an excellent price point make this entire series highly recommended for most public libraries.--Vnuk, Rebecca Copyright 2010 Booklist

Library Journal Review

Brain (founder of HowStuffWorks.com; How Stuff Works) describes here 250 engineering marvels, focusing not on how they operate but the performance requirements needed to achieve functionality. A book that proposes to introduce engineering feats across time is a daunting task, and readers will see quickly the errors of omissions that such a work inevitably entails. Most of the focus is on the 20th century, and inventions from Muslim lands are starkly absent. Each marvel is covered on a spread. One page describes the accomplishment, while the other provides a relevant full-color picture. The last half-dozen innovations listed toward the end-including brain replication and colonies on Mars-are yet to be achieved. No more than a couple of sources per venture are included in the bibliography. VERDICT Despite some problems, this book is a solid introduction to its topic and can serve to generate interest in the applied sciences and engineering. For report use, however, it lacks the depth that high-school students and older readers would expect, thus it's recommended for middle schoolers only.-Muhammed Hassanali, Shaker Heights, OH © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.