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14 THE EnginEEring BOOK

The Engineering Book

This is a book of engineering milestones—a celebration of engineering, really. We start at the very beginning, back with the first engineered objects that human beings created. And then we move forward through time, watching engineering advance with achievement after achievement (plus a few blunders along the way—even engineers make mistakes).

in each case, the milestone will have a date. There is a little leeway here: Should it be the date of conception? Of the first patent? Of “first flight”? Of the first widespread popularization? i have tried to pick a “best” date when fitting things into the timeline.

Should these engineering achievements be associated with a specific person? i tend to shy away from this idea in most cases, primarily because engineering is a team sport. Take the steam engine as an example. is there any one person we can attribute the steam engine to? if so, is it the first greek who made steam shoot out of a pot? is it the first person to create any useful steam engine? Or the first person to harness high-pressure steam? What about the person who made the most powerful steam engine, or the most popular one? The fact is that the traditional steam engine played a huge role in the advancement of society for about a century, and thousands of engineers contributed to steam’s success. i don’t want to pick any single person out of that crowd. Most engineering achievements work that way—many people contribute to the project, so no single person deserves specific credit.

Finally, you may notice that this timeline is very heavy on the twentieth century. Why is that? it’s because the twentieth century was an amazing time in terms of engineering. Airplanes did not exist prior to the twentieth century. During those hundred years, they went from rickety wooden contraptions flying at walking speed to sleek aluminum jets flying thousands of miles at supersonic speed. And many other technologies followed the same course: cars, spacecraft, air conditioning, computers, networks, skyscrapers, television, nuclear materials, etc. These technologies all sprang into existence in the twentieth century and then advanced with incredible speed. it all leads to the skew; most of the engineering disciplines listed above did not exist until the twentieth century.

it is my hope that, in this book, you discover 250 examples of engineering that amaze you, and that help you see the full gamut of the art, so that you can appreciate everything that engineers do for us as we live our lives. Let’s step into the remarkable world of engineering.

30

312 bce

Roman Aqueduct SystemAppius Claudius Caecus (c. 340 bce–273 bce)

Sometimes a group of people have big, pressing needs that can be solved by engineering. Such was the case in ancient Rome, and the problem was the water supply. The year is approximately 300 bce and Rome is growing. But the water supply stinks. Literally. Water from underground has a bad taste, and water from the Tiber River is loaded with pathogens.

To solve the problem, Roman engineers commissioned by censor Appius Claudius Caecus developed aqueducts. The first one, called Aqua Appia, is a perfect example. The engineers found a large, clean spring about 10 miles (16 km) outside Rome. Located at a higher elevation than Rome, gravity could do the work of moving the water toward the city. Roman engineers cut trenches or dug tunnels (often through solid rock) and then lined them with waterproof mortar. If a valley got in the way, the engineers built a bridge to carry the channel. The channel sloped gently downward all the way to the city.

What to do about mud and sediment in the water? The water flowed slowly through wide, deep pools so particles could settle out. How to maintain the tunnels and clean them out? Vertical shafts connected the tunnels to the surface. What if too much water surged through the system? The tunnels had overflow vents to drain away extra water.

The Aqua Appia aqueduct is thought to have delivered 20 million gallons (76 million liters) of water per day to Rome. Once inside the city, the water from an aqueduct could flow into large, elaborate public fountains, to public baths, into pipe systems to residences, or into the sewer system. The sewers carried waste out of the city and kept Rome remarkably clean.

Even with 20 million gallons of water a day, Rome outgrew the supply. So the engineers built more aqueducts. Over the course of five hundred years, there were eleven aqueducts feeding Rome, the longest one stretching 56 miles (90 km). The entire system brought perhaps 300 million gallons (1.1 billion liters) of water per day to over a million people. It was an amazing achievement and it led to later innovations such as the modern sewer system.

See AlSo Modern Sewer System (1859), Desalination (1959), Stormwater Management (1992).

This ancient aqueduct is now the Pont du Gard Bridge near Remoulins, France.

46

Several walls within what became the Great Wall were being built as early as the seventh century bce.

The Great Wall of ChinaThe Great Pyramid is certainly impressive by any standard, especially given the technology available at the time.

But from the standpoints of engineering, logistics, project management, sheer grandiosity, and persistence, nothing on earth really compares to the Great Wall. It is hard to believe that human beings could ever be organized long enough and well enough to engineer and build something of this scale.

Imagine that we decided to build a wall of stone and brick 20 feet (6 meters) wide and 20 feet high, along with substantially larger watch towers every 1,000 feet (300 meters) or so, from Washington DC to Los Angeles (a distance of approximately 2,600 miles or 4,200 km) and then back again. That is the scale of the Great Wall. By volume of material, the Great Wall might be 100 times larger than the Great Pyramid. It is difficult to know for sure because large sections of the wall have eroded, collapsed, or been dismantled.

The Great Wall, completed in 1600, was built to solve a problem. Various nomadic groups of non-Chinese people, including the Mongols and the Manchus, were trying to invade China. The wall was meant to provide a line of demarcation and defense. It was built over a long period of time—1,000 years or more. The Ming Dynasty, from 1368 through 1644, stands out as a time when the 5,500 miles (8,860 km) was consolidated, linked, reinforced, and standardized to create the wall we know today.

The basic architecture for a wall section is fairly straightforward. Two thick stone or brick walls were built 20 feet apart, and then the gap filled with dirt and rubble. Paving stones or bricks along the top of the wall covered the dirt fill to create a path approximately 17 feet (5 meters) wide.

With anything we build today, we have assistance from machines—bulldozers, tunnel boring machines, tower cranes, dump trucks. The Great Wall will stand out as a singular achievement because, despite its scale, it was built instead by millions of hands.

See AlSo The Great Pyramid (2550 bce), Tunnel Boring Machine (1845), Tower Crane (1949), Burj Khalifa (2010).

1600

364

The launch of the STS-1, the first in a series of shuttle vehicles planned for the Space Transportation System, uses reusable launch and return components.

Space Shuttle OrbiterThe US space shuttle orbiter, first launched in 1981, looks like something from outer space. It has a strange shape. It has rocket engines sticking out the back. The entire midsection has huge doors that cover an immense cargo bay. And the whole thing is covered in very strange ceramic tiles.

Yet at its core, the space shuttle is an airplane. It is made of aluminum using the same techniques that we see in an ordinary passenger jet. Then there are a number of additions that let this airplane orbit the earth in the vacuum of space. It is a great example of engineers taking a list of special requirements and bringing them into reality.

The first thing that makes the orbiter unique is a crew compartment that doubles as a space capsule. It seals tight and has a life support system that replenishes oxygen, removes CO2 and humidity, and maintains the correct pressure.

The second big point of uniqueness is the need to handle reentry heat. A normal aluminum airplane would quickly melt and disintegrate during reentry because temperatures on parts of the orbiter go as high as 1,600°F (3,000°C). So the orbiter has different types of thermal protection for different temperature areas. The nose of the orbiter hits the highest temperatures, so it has a cover made of reinforced carbon-carbon. The underside is the next hottest, so it uses one type of silica tile. Other parts of the orbiter use other types of tiles, or flexible insulation blankets.

The third thing is the rocket engines. The three big ones on the back are used strictly to provide thrust during launch, and are placed there so they can be more easily reused. Smaller engines provide thrust to speed up or slow down the orbiter and also to change its orientation in space.

Other unique systems on the orbiter include a five-way redundant computer system, a space toilet, the massive cargo bay and cargo bay doors for bringing large payloads into orbit, a radiator system built into the cargo doors to dissipate heat in the vacuum, and a robot arm used to manipulate things in the cargo bay.

See alSo Hall-Héroult Process (1889), The Wright Brothers’ Airplane (1903), ENIAC—The First Digital Computer (1946), The Concorde (1976), Low-Flow Toilet (1992).

1981

514

c. 3000

Things We Have Yet to EngineerThis book has covered a wide range of amazing engineering advancements. Some of them started out as science fiction fantasies and became reality. The cell phone, for example, is a lot like the communicator seen in the Star Trek TV series in 1966. It only took 30 years for engineers to create a cheap, pocket-sized communication device.

Lots of other sci-fi ideas await implementation in the real world. Many are stalled right now because we don’t have the fundamental scientific principles to support them, or the money. Here is a list of some of the things that engineers may figure out in the future:

Flying car—stalled by economics, stability, and weight.concerns

Time machine—stalled by fundamental science (SBS), if even possible

Immortality—SBS

Transporter room—may never happen, but virtual reality is the next best thing

Instant healing—long a staple of sci-fi and video games, SBS

Hoverboard—needs repulsorlifts

Easy underwater breathing—SCUBA and artificial gills get partway there

Starships, warp drive—stalled by engine technology, economics, and science

Suspended animation—SBS

Vertebrane—SBS

Space elevator—stalled by materials science and economics

Really good batteries—SBS

End of poverty—stalled by greed, inaction

Solution for global warming—stalled by inaction, economics

Food machine—SBS, but artificial meat is close

Easy interplanetary travel—stalled by engine technology, power sources, economics, gravity issues, radiation concerns, etc.

There are many innovations engineers have no way to start because the science doesn’t exist. For example, the fictional Star Wars universe uses repulsorlifts on speeder bikes, land speeders, hovering robots, and spacecraft. If repulsorlift technology existed, engineers could exploit it in a thousand different ways. So we wait for scientists to deliver the goods. Then engineers will jump into action.

See AlSo Robot (1921), SCUBA (1944), Mobile Phone (1983), Virtual Reality (1985), Lithium Ion Battery (1991).

Conceptual illustration of a futuristic flying car.

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.

May 2015Science & Nature/Science & Technology$29.95 ($33.95 Canada)Hardcover with Jacket7 5⁄16 x 8 7⁄16 • 528 pages (all in color)978-1-4549-0809-8ebook: 978-1-4549-0810-4 • $7.99

DISCLAIMERReviewers are reminded that changes may be made in this uncorrected proof before books are printed. If any material from the book is to be quoted in a review, the quotation should be checked against the final bound book. Dates, prices, and manufacturing details are subject to change or cancellation without notice.

✍ Review copy mailing to trade publications✍ Review copy mailing to engineering, technology, and science publications✍ Author Q&A sheet✍ Outreach to engineering/technology/scientific websites and blogs✍ Social media and digital promotion on author’s platforms✍ Digital advertising on science/engineering special-interest sites✍ Goodreads promotion✍ Author is available for events in Raleigh/Durham, NC

Marshall Brain is the bestselling author of the How Stuff Works series and a professor at the Engineering Entrepreneurs Program at NCSU. He has appeared on Oprah, Dr. Oz, Good Morning America, CNN, and in many other media outlets to apply his signature approach to unraveling the mysteries of life. Brain was also the host of the National Geographic Channel’s The Factory Floor TV show. He lives in NC.

For more information, contact Joshua Glickman at (646) 688-2424 or jglickman@sterlingpublishing.com

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PUB DATE mAy 2015