Engineering before the Scientific Revolution

The forerunners of engineers, practical artists and craftsmen, proceeded mainly by trial
and error. Yet tinkering combined with imagination produced many marvelous devices.
Many ancient monuments cannot fail to incite admiration. The admiration is embodied
in the name engineer itself. It originated in the eleventh century from the
Latin ingeniator, meaning one with ingenium, the ingenious one. The name, used for
builders of ingenious fortifications or makers of ingenious devices, was closely related to
the notion of ingenuity, which was captured in the old meaning of engine until the
word was taken over by steam engines and its like. Leonardo da Vinci bore the
official title of Ingegnere Generale. His notebooks reveal that some Renaissance engineers
began to ask systematically what works and why.
References
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Gille, B. 1966. Engineers of the Renaissance. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Grafton, A. 2000. Leon Battista Alberti: Master Builder of the Italian Renaissance. New
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Pacey, A. 1974. The Maze of Ingenuity. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Parsons, W. B. 1939. Engineers and Engineering in the Renaissance. Cambridge: MIT
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Engineering the Industrial Revolution

The first phase of modern engineering emerged in the Scientific Revolution.
Galileos Two New Sciences, which seeks systematic explanations and adopts a scientific
approach to practical problems, is a landmark regarded by many engineer historians as
the beginning of structural analysis, the mathematical representation and design of
building structures. This phase of engineering lasted through the First Industrial
Revolution, when machines, increasingly powered by steam engines, started to replace
muscles in most production. While pulling off the revolution, traditional artisans

transformed themselves to modern professionals. The French, more rationalistic

oriented, spearheaded civil engineering with emphasis on mathematics and developed
university engineering education under the sponsorship of their government. The British,
more empirically oriented, pioneered mechanical engineering and autonomous
professional societies under the laissez-faire attitude of their government. Gradually,
practical thinking became scientific in addition to intuitive, as engineers developed
mathematical analysis and controlled experiments. Technical training shifted from
apprenticeship to university education. Information flowed more quickly in organized
meetings and journal publications as professional societies emerged.
References
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Calvert, M. A. 1967. The Mechanical Engineer in America, 1830-1910. Baltimore, MD:
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Shipbuilding in the West of Scotland. London: Heinemann.
Musson, A. E. and Robinson, E. 1969. Science and Technology in the Industrial

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Peters, T. F. 1987. Transitions in Engineering. Basil: Birkhuser Verlag.
Rae, J. B. and Volti, R. 1993. The Engineer in History. New York: Peter Lang.
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Cornell University Press.
Straub, H. 1952. A History of Civil Engineering. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
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Woodbury, R. S. 1972. Studies in the History of Machine Tools. Cambridge: MIT Press.