The history of engineering; a course of lectures to the senior engineering students of the Iowa state college, Ames, Iowa

Preface

Ames, Iowa, January, 1912.

Six years ago it became the duty of the Dean of Engineering to give a course of instruction in the History of Engineering to the Senior Engineering students of Iowa State College. As no text book exists on this subject, it was necessary to employ the lecture method, and the same plan was followed one year later.

As was expected, only a limited portion of the great field of Engineering History could be touched iipon by this method during the time allotted to the lectures, and the lecture notes made by the students themselves were not. iai general, of a very satisfactory nature. The labor of accumulating and studying the great mass of data bearing on the subject progressed so far by 1908. that it seemed best to present their main features in the form of mimeograph notes, as far as time permitted. About ninety pages of such notes were prepared at that time, and used for the classes of 1908 and 1909. This was increased to over 200 pages in 1910. It is now proposed to thoroughly revise and greatly extend these notes on the History of Engineering, and to have them printed instead of mimeographed. It is hoped that in this way a -considerably greater amoiint of ground can be covered, and that the most important features of the lectures can thus be presented in better form for preservation. However, the notes will be supplemented by lectures each week, during which thex'e will be shown a large luuuber of illustrative lantern slide \'iews. Undoubtedly much of the work of the present semester will he presented entirely by lectures, as it will be impossible to complete the printed notes on the entire subject for some time to come. Hence each student will he expected to supplement these notes to the fullest possible extent by his own notes, taken during the lectures. The examinations Avill not be restricted to the printed notes, but will cover the entire subject matter of the lectures.

The writer hopes to be able to continue his study of the History of Enerineering for many years to come, and that he may thereby be able to continue extending and revising these notes until they reach a fairly complete nnd permanent form, amounting eventually to a manuscript text book on the subject.

Chapter I. Introduction

1. The History af Engineering. No liistorj- of engineering has yet been written. It is a subject lying outside of the province of the ordinary historian, Avho is wholly unequipped with the technical knowledge reqnired for its study and elucidation. The subject is also outside the ordinary province of the engineer, for, when written properly, the History of Engineering will be found to consist of much more than a mere chronicle and description of engineering achievements, and to have had a most profound intiuenee upon the history of mankind. Tlie proper Avriting of the history of oar profession will require the searching out of its world-wide relations. It will call for a broad general training, added to tlie highest technical knowledge, and will demand both the ability and the time for many years of patient research into all branches of the development of civilization.

The Avorld-wideness of the subject, its technical nature, the pressing character of an engineer's regular duties, and the short period of time which has elapsed since the recognition of engineering as a profession, fully account for the fact that as yet no attempt has been made to write the history of engineering.

2. Engineering History and the Engineer. Yet. when properly written, the study of engineering history will be most important to the engineer.

For one thing, no calling can be considered worthy to l)e ranked as a profession until it is iml)ued with such real professional spirit and enthusiasm as to know and to take pride in its ancestr.-v.

Besides this, each engineer is rightful heir to the accumulated knowledge and skill of all the generations of his predecessors. He should be familiar with the history of their efforts and achievements, so as to begin his work at the point where they left off, and to be able, in his turn, to do something to increase the heritage of the profession. He should study, not only the details of present practice, but also the stejis liy which that practice has been developed. Thus in his own work lie may be enabled to profit l)y tlie experience of his predecessors, and avoid the mistakes by which they learned^ Engineei-ing history should lie able to tell him whether any new suggestion or invention has or has not already been tried and found wanting.

Fiirthermore a careful .study of engineering in the past may frequently suggest new points of departure for new professional achievements.

Engineering history is also important to the engineer by broadening and enlarging his view of his profession. Xb person can achieve the greatest successes in engineering who is not a man of the broadest character, able to meet a myriad responsibilities of not strictly technical nature. The man who can plan and build a Panama Canal must have a widei- knowledge of the world's commerce than any great merchant; he nuist have the address to convince an entire nation of the con-ectness of his ideas; he must have the business ability to carry out the enterprise against difficulties greater than those ever encountered by a business corpoi-ation. What better study eoidd he take up than that of the history of the canals of the world, and their effect upon the development of commerce and civilization? !^o with other braiu^hes of engineering; their history is linked indissojubly with the history of nuuikind in general, in a myriad ways whose understanding would eontribute invaluably to the proper training of the engineer.

3. Engineering History and General History. The great influence of engineering history upon general history is well illustrated by the fact that archaeology has classified the dift'erent conditions of human culture strictly in accordance with the state of development of engineering industry and invention. Th\is we have the "stone age" (savagism"), in Avhich tools and weapons were made mainly of stone, and the "bronze age" (barbarisnO and the "iron age" (civilization), in which again the principal engineering material for tools and weapons gives its name to the culture period. Tools and other engineering devices are essential to any industrial development. An able writer* on "Mankind in Ancient Times" says ''industry is the foundation and main force of savage eultui'e, " and that the invention of bronze tools "elevated mankind from savagism to barbarism." Archaeology, therefore, gives great prominence to ancient engineering in studying the development of culture and civilization.

Ordinarj' historians, however, have not, as it seems to the writer, given in their study sufficient attention to engineering inventions, processes, materials, and knowledge as most important factors in history. Thus one of the well known historians** of civilization in the ^Middle Ages devotes an entire chapter to a discussion of ""Wliat the Middle Ages Started With," in which he discusses at length literature, art, philosophy, science, law and government. He devotes only a part of the last page of the chapter, however, to the great subject of the industrial and mechanical side of civilization. BQs remarks, will be quoted here verbatim, as illustrating both the very great importanceof the subject, and the naive way in which a good historian can practically ignore some of the most important and fundamental factors affecting history, merely because some special technical knowledge is required for their adequate study and presentation.

"We must remember, however, in closing this chapter, that we have omitted, even from this general sketch, one large side of civilization, to which we can give no adequate treatment here or elsewhere. It is what may be called the economic and mechanical side. There passed over to the Middle Ages from the ancients large gains of this sort. Knowledge of the mechanical arts, acquired skill and inventions; methods of agriciiltui'e and navigation; organized trade and commerce, not all of which disappeared ; accumulations of capital, cleared and improved land, houses, roads and briges, many of which continued in use across the whole of medieval times : administrative methods, both in general and local government : in a word, all sorts of practical knowledge and training, and many mechanical appliances. The economic influence of the Koman Empire affected in many Avays indeed the larger movements of history. The comparative free trade which the empire established, the constitution of the Koman villa, or farm, the l)eginning of the process which transformed the slave into the serf, the forced dependence of the small landholder upon the large one, are important instances. These things constitute together, in some respects, the most primary and fundamental departments of civilization, and must not be forgotten, though, with the exception of a few instances Avhich we shall notice, they demand, like the greater part of political history, special and specific treatment."

If history is to be more than a mere chronicle of events, and is to include as essentially a part of itself adequate discussions and explanations of its great landerlying causes, then it would appear necessary that the history of engineering should be written, for the benefit not only of the engineer, but of mankind in general.

Taking, for example, the history of the marvelous development of our own co\intry, it is granted by every one that it was made possible only by the steamship, the canal, the railroad, the modern bridge, and the telegraph. Without these means of transportation and communication, the vast interior of our continent would have required many centuries for its conquest. Yet in our histories we find but brief and most inade(iuate discussion of these great engineering achievements, each of which has been of far greater importance to the world than any war ever waged. A detailed history of the development of any one of these engineering achievements woidd .show self sacrifice, devotion, energy, persistence, and courage even to death, on the part of many men. Its bare facts would read like the most imaginative romance. The men in the '60 's and '70 's who built our first transcontinental railways across the western plains in spite of deserts and savages, were in

*HittoIl— Vol. I.- p. 325, and Vol. II. p. 12. **Clvilization during the Middle Ages — G. B. Adams.

man J' cases the same who had fought to save the union in the Civil War just preceding, and were doing equally great service for their country. Histoiy should as fully remember the later service as the earlier.

The entire tremendous development of modern civilization which began with the great mechanical inventions of gun powder, the compass and the printing press, has been very largely due throughout to great mechanical inventions and engineering achievements.

Between 1750 and 1815, for example, the invention and development of the spinning jenny, the power loom, the use of coal" in smelting iron, and the steam engine, gave England that world preeminence in industry and commerce which enabled her to conquer India, and to defeat Napoleon's attempt to subjugate Europe. History should adequately describe and discuss these underlying causes of such great events.

Again, in our own country, the invention of the cotton gin and of successful machinery for the manufacture of cotton fabrics, fastened slavery upon us at a time when it wa,s in proces.s of natural extinction, while it was the vast development of the mechanical industries of the northern states which enabled the Union to win in the great struggle for preservation of unity, thereby emancipating the slaves. We have many volumes of history devoted to the great struggle, yet none of them adequately discuss these powerful and foundamental factors.

And just as history seems largely to have overlooked the fact that engineering industrial development may be said to have freed millions of Mack slaves, so it gives little or no discussion of the sewing machine, the self binder, the telephone, and a myriad kindred engineering inventions and processes Avhieh have freed vastly many mow millions of ivliitc slaves, on the farm and in the home, and which haVe fed and clothed the whole world.

We are now reading every day of the men who are risking and devoting their lives to assist in the conquest of the air. There ci\n be no shadow of doubt that this new engineering achievement will continue, in the immediate future, the profound effect of engineering upon history.

4. Antiquity of Engineering. President Eliot, of Harvard, has stated in a public address that the ])rofession of engineering is the oldest known to history. This is undoul)tedly true when we take engineering in the bi'oad sense in which it will be discussed throughout these lectures, and which is indicated by the great definition incorporated since its adoption in the charter of the British Institution of Civil Engineers; viz., "the art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and convenience of man." According to this generally accepted definition, engineering projjcrly includes all utilization by mankind of the materials of construction, and of the mechanical forces and laws of nature.

The magnitude of each engineering nchievoment must be measured l)y its rdaiive importance in the civilization of its own day.

Thus the invention of the first rude tools of stone Avas one of the greatest engineering achievements of mankihd. The fact that man is the only tool inventing animal constitutes one of the principal differences between him and the brutes, and gave him the nuistery of the world. The ever increasing ntilization of physical forces and materials has been one of the most funilamental factors of the development of civilization.

Hence it may be said that engineering is far inore aiu-ient Hum history. At the earliest dawn of recorded history, we find in Ancient Egypt the record of so great an engineering achievement as the actual changing of the course of the river Nile.* an engineering fent so great that it would be difficult even to the engineers of today, and which jiresupposes thousands of years of previous development. Engineering not only antedates history, b\it. in fact, must be considered to be as old as mankind itself.

Yet Avhile the great antiquity of engineering is not to be disputed. Ilu^ recognition of the engineer as a member of a learned jn-ofession has been

■*.V1 .Mcmjihis. s:il(l liv 1 leriiiioliis to liiive bei n acconipH.<i|ioil li\- Jlencs. a kliiK of tlie 1st very reeeut. Not until the first half of the 19th century did such recognition really begin, and not until the last half of that centurj- did it really obtain. Prior to 1800 the engineer (except Avhen devoting himself mainly to architecture) Avas usually regarded as a mere master workman, or mechanic. Law, medicine and theology were the only "learned professions." The engineer had no special schools, no technical societies, no code of ethics or professional organization, and was not held in high popular esteem.

In fact we have the apparent paradox that engineering, is at once the youngest and the oldest of the learned professions.

There are a number of reasons why tlie progress of the recognition of engineering as a most honorable profession was so slow.

In the first place, the engineer, more than any other professional man, has to do in his daily work with absolute truth ; with laws of the universe, which, while difficult to discover and understand, are absolutely rigid and unvarying in their operation. Thus he and his work must be absolutely true and xvapretending, for chicane has never been of the least avail to deceive a physical law, nor has ignorance ever been accepted in excuse of its least infraction. On this account engineering has never been able to advance faster than man's, real scientific IvnoAvledge of the universe would safely warrant. By no amount of hocus pocus is it ever possible for the engineering profession successfully to pretend to mysterious knowledge not really possessed; for a structure or machine not in accordance with true physical law Avill always fail, and thus expose the incompetency of its contriver.

To illustrate, the able theologians who propounded and defended the terrible doctrine of infant damnation, received high honor and respect from their own generation and church, upon which they siicceeded in impressing that hideous mistake by their great ability in argument. Contrast this with the dreadfiil humiliation and reproach wliieh have punished the able and honest engineers who designed the fallen Quel^ec bridge, for having stepped but one pace in advance of the known limits of established engineering knowledge. The comparison will help us to understand why engineering was never able to command equal rank with theology and medicine until the time of the recent Avonderful advances in scientific knowledge.

Again, the laAvyer found it possible in ancient times for governments to compel obedience to the most cruel and unjust laAVS by sheer despotic force, but the engineer has never had at his command any other means for compelling the adoption of his ideas than actual demonstration of their usefulness to mankind. Utility to humanity, the criterion l)y Avliich all professions must be tested and finally ranked, has always been the immediate and rigid rule of judgment of engineering. In all ages tlie main applications of engineering knOAvledge and skill have been to meet the daily needs of the masses of mankind, rather than to aggrandize and glorify engineers. While, therefore, many a king or official has endeavored to claim for himself the credit of some great engineering achievement, the engineer must trace his ancestry among^ the little esteemed multitude of ancient. artisa;ns rather than among those limited classes Avhich Avrung power and fame from the sufferings of the multitude.

To the rigid engineering requirements of exact truth to i)hysical law, and of actual demonstration of utility to humanity, and to the humble ancestry of the engineer, Ave umst attriluite the sIoav recognition of the profession of engineering, Avhich is as old as the human race, and AA'hich in the pyramids of Egypt reared the greatest mass of masonry ever yet consti-ncted, at a time when laAv Avas still largely the arbitrary enforcement of a Pharoah's AA-him, when medicine still struggled to propitiate imaginary demons by its incantations, and Avhen priests still rided nations Ijy superstitious dogma for their OAvn aggrandizement. It should be the pride of engineers that the recognition of our profession did not come until the enlightenment of the present day.

o. An Outline Summary of Engineering History. Engineering is so intimately related to the development of civilization that the most significant classification of engineering history Avill l)e in accordance Avith the culture periods of human development. This classification Avill, therefore, be adopted in preference to a stx'ictly chronological arrangement, though it Jiiaj'- require the pi'esentation of the pyramids of Mexico as really more ancient examples of engineering construction than those built at least 4,000 years eai'lier in Egypt. Following this plan, we shall have the following

CLASSIFICATION OF ENGINEERING HISTORY.

A. Engineering in the Savage Culture Stage, including prehistoric engineering and engineering among savages during the historic period. ^lention will be made of the Pleistocene savages, whose tools and weapons have been found in central Europe in conjunction with geological evidence of extreme antiquity. Of later development in the savage culture state are the Swiss lake villages of Europe, and the mound and pueblo builders of North America. Among modern savages we may still find examples of most stages of development of savage culture.

B. Engineering in the Culture Stage of Barbarism, including engineering in Ancient Mexico. Peru. China, India. Egypt, Chaldaea and Assyria, Asia Minor and Persia.

Note. — jHittell also classifies the ancient Teutons and Celts and modern INIohammedans, as barbarians.

C. Engineering in the Ancient Greek and Roman Civilizations, including a period of about 1,000 years, from, say 600 B. C. to 400 A. D., and in area including all the regions extending from India to the British Islands, but especially the countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea,

D. Engineering in the Middle Ages. This period also includes about 1,000 years, extending from, say 400 A. D. to 1400 A. D. The region is the same as for C above.

Iv Early Modern Engineering, 1400-1750 A. 1). now widens to include practically the entire world.

F. The Steam Age, 1750-1830 A. D.

G. Present Day Engineering, 1850-Present Time. Present day eugiueering is so complex that in addition to a general survey of the sub.ject it is necessary to make a detailed .study of each of its important branches, such as:

1. (Janal Engineering. 19.

2. Road Engineering. 20. :?. Steam Engineering. 21.

4. Railway Engineering. 22.

5. Marine Engineering. 23. (i. Harbor Engine(>ring. 24.

7. Waterways Engineering. 25,

8, Water Power Hngineering. 2fi. f). Irrigation Engineering. 27.

10. l)]-ainage Engineering. 28,

11. Sewerage Kngineering. 20.

12. Water Supply Engineering. 30.

13. 1'unnel Engineering. 31.

14. Bi-idge Engineering, 32,

15. City Engineering. 33, l(i. Street iJailway Engineering, 34,

17, Mining Kngineering. 35.

18. Ceramic Engineeriuii. 36, Etc., etc.

I\Ietallurgical Engineering.

Ii-on and Steel Engineering.

Gas Engineering.

Power Plant Engineering.

Factory Engineering. ]\[anufactures and Arts.

Chemical Engineering.

Agricultural ^lachinery.

Electricity,

Electric Power Engineering.

Electric Light Engineering.

Electric Railway Engineerinj Telegraph Engineering.

Telephone Engineering, ^lilitary Engineering.

Architectural Kngineering, Engineering Societies, Enfrineeritm Education,

We may briefly summarize the lustory of engineering during periods as follows :

rhe above

G. A. Outline of Engineering in the Savage Culture Stage. Tlie duration of the past life of mankind is still uncertain, but a number of good authorities have estimated it at about 200,000 years. The exact length of time is not very material to our discussion of engineering history. Assuming that the estimate of 200,000 years is tipproximately correct it may be said that much the greater part, or about 185,000 to 190,000 years, of the life of mankind have been passed in savagism. Only during the last 8,000 to 12,000 years has a small portion of the human race been in a higher state of culture, rising first from savagism to barbarism. Only 2.500 years ago a still smaller portion of mankind emerged from barbarism to early civilization. At the present time civilized man has conquered the world, and is rapidly spreading civilization over its entire surface, but the savages and barbarians still outnumber the civilized races. Hittell estimates that the present population of the globe includes about 250,000,000 of the black race, 600,000,000 of the yellow race and 550,000,000 Avhites. The blacks are nearly all in savagism„ The yellow race are partly savage, but mostly in the barbaric stage; though 9 the Japanese, the first of any yellow race, have just made good a claim to ' civilization. Not even all of the white race can be classed as civilized.

All but a small fraction, therefore, of the life of mankind has been passed in the savage culture stage. This immense period was one of imperceptibly slow progress in mechanical and other engineering lines, just as in all other culture. Each small advance came as the result of long and painful experience, by which the simplest and most elementary principles had to be learned over and over again, by generation after generation. However, such ]U'inciples, Avhen finally learned, became the permanent property of whole races, and so the foundations i'or mankind's later amazing advances were broadly and surely laid.

A careful enumeration of the achievements of savagism will show that they were many in number, and of the most fundamental importance to humanity. They include, in engineering lines : The discovery of the simple properties of many mateiials of construction, such as stone, wood and earth-, some knowledge of minerals and metals as found in the natural state ; the invention of many simple tools and processes; and the discoveiy of the operation of many elementary physical laws as encountered in every day life. The ])rinciples of the inclined plane, the wedge, the block and tackle, the beam and column are found in use in the savage tribes of the present day.

The arts of dressing leather, of spinning threads, of weaving baskets and cloth, and the manufacture of pottery are achievements of savagism.

Savage races developed land transportation by human labor, and water transportation by canoes and boats, propelled by paddles, oars and finally by sails.

They also invented and developed many ingenious implements and weapons, including the bow aud arrow, and the sling. The prevailing material for implements and Aveapons was stone.

The oldest stone tools and Aveapons found are so rude in nature that the very fact of their really being the ])roduet of human intelligence Avas long disputed. On the otlier hand, the corresponding polished stone implements of the highest savage culture skow. pi-obably. the highest possible development of that material.

In the latest period of the stone age, many savage races have come to fashion part of their ornaments and implements out of native copper, Avhieh is found in many lands, but its softness made the metal inferior to stone for cutting tools. Independently, as their knoAvledge of hoAv to make very hot fires improved, many races have eventually made the discovery that copper could be hardened by the admixture of a comparatively small percentage of tin. This invention of bronze gave a material very much superior to stone for the mannfactiu>e of cutting tools, and lifted men fi-om savagism to barbarism.

7. B. Outline of Engineering in the Barbaric Culture Stage. During the barbaric culture stage, progress in culture became very much more rapid.

The various arts and handicrafts l)ecame the special occupations of organized crafts, by whose agency the knowledge acquired by experience was handed down and improved upon from generation to generation.

The small individual tribes of savagism became welded into great nations, whose organized energies, wielded by despotic governments, could be directed to the accomplishments of great enterprises. To this period of engineering belong those immense pyramids, reared of earth in ilexico, and in Egypt of solid masonry, to be the enduring monuments of religion and ambition. To barbarian nations must also be credited the stupendous irrigation canals of Chaldaea, the Great Wall and the Grand Canal of China, and the two thousand mile roads of Peru, eonstmietiou demanded by the necessities of subsistence, defence and commerce.

Thus to the barriaric culture stage belong some of tlie greatest constructive achievements of engineering, accomplished not by the aid of mysterious mechanical appliances, as sometimes conjectured, but by the concenti'ated efforts of tens of thousands of men, compelled to their tasks by the whips of despotic authority.

In barbaric nations, the instinctive appreciation of art, which crude attempts at its expression show to exist universally, even among the rudest savages, became highly developed, and, when expressed through constructive engineering, gave rise to great architectural monuments, Avhich are still the wonder and the admiration of the world.

Mining engineering developed to the point of operating regular mines for gold, silver, tin, copper, and perhaps certain other minerals, including finally iron.

Marine engineering developed from a very early date. The construction of ships, propelled by both oars and sails, and large enough for ocean service, was undertaken and accomplished. Extensive military and merchant navies were developed by many barbaric nations.

Though the rate of progress in culture in the barbaric stage was still almost imperceptibly slow, as compared with the present, yet it was very i-apid as compared with the savage stage, and in a relatively few thousands of years, artisans learned to make fires in their furnaces hot enough to smelt iron. Soon the mastery of this material was attained to such an extent that it supplanted bronze, which is vastly inferior in utility. The abundant introduction of iron markfd the beginning of the civilized culture stage.

8. C. Outline of Engineering- in the Ancient Greek and Roman Civilization, 600 B. C.-400 A. D. About 2,500 years ago the first civilization was developed, by the ancient Greeks and Romans. The empiric scientific data accumulated during ages of savagism and barbarism, and handed down by the daily practice of thousands of generations, or preserved in royal and priestly libraries, were now collected and discussed by men of genius, whose names are still household woixls in science.

"With the beginning of real science, engineering. undtM' tlie name of ardiiterture, and allied to art, received its fii-st recognition as a profession. There is still extant one of the old Roman books on architecture, in which the union of engineering and architecture in one profession is attested by its chapters on water supply and machinery.

Among the ancient Greeks, art received perhaps the highest devolopmont ever yet known and henc(> their greatest constructive achievements were not utilitarian structures, but those wonderful temples, Avhich i)urely as expressions of art, have never since been equalled in architecture. Alons with the names of her great men in literature, painting and sculpture. Greece was .iustly proud to preserve in history that of the architect of the Parthenon.

The Romans, who finally obtained the ma.stery of iiraclically the entire ancient civilized world, were greatly inferior to the Greeks as artists, but greatly superior as engineers. Grecian architecture, however beautiful, was not well suited to the utilitarian needs of a great empii-e with its many different races ;uu\ climates. Even the Grecian tem])les. thouiih wonderful expressions of art. were not well suited to be the ]ilaces of worship of a deeply religious people, nor at all adapted to rigoro\is clinmtes. Roman architecture, therefore, achieved its triumphs in a great variety of structures devised to meet public needs, rather than in high artistic excellence. It boasts of the basilica, the public baths, the Circus Maximus, the Colosseum aud the triumphal arch, rather than of its temples. It was in the new invention of these structures, in their vast size, in the magnificence of their materials and ornamentations, and in their ingenious engineering details of construction, that Koman architects surpassed the Greek.