Author: L. Sprague De Camp
Publisher: Barnes & Noble Publishing
ISBN: 9780880294560
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 436
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Book Description
Describes methods used by early irrigators, architects, and military engineers to build and maintain structures to serve their ruler's wants.
Author: Cesare Rossi
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9048122538
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 340
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Book Description
We live in an age in which one can easily think that our generation has invented and discovered almost everything; but the truth is quite the opposite. Progress cannot be considered as sudden unexpected spurts of individual brains: such a genius, the inventor of everything, has never existed in the history of humanity. What did exist was a limitless procession of experiments made by men who did not waver when faced with defeat, but were inspired by the rare successes that have led to our modern comfortable reality. And that continue to do so with the same enthusiasm. The study of the History of Engineering is valuable for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that it can help us to understand the genius of the scientists, engineers and craftsmen who existed centuries and millenniums before us; who solved problems using the devices of their era, making machinery and equipment whose concept is of such a surprising modernity that we must rethink our image of the past.
Author: John Gray Landels
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520034297
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 228
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Book Description
The Greeks and Romans were considerable engineers. They made many remarkable machines, which where not betttered until the Industrial Revolution. Landels shows how these machines were developed and made. He draws together evidence from archaeological discoveries and from literary sources.
Author: Henry Hodges
Publisher: Barnes & Noble Publishing
ISBN: 9780880298933
Category : Ancient world
Languages : en
Pages : 334
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Book Description
Author: Samuel C. Florman
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1466842369
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 271
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Book Description
A classic examination of how engineers think and feel about their profession and its philosophy. “A useful read for engineers given to self-scrutiny, and a stimulating one for the layman interested in the ancient schism between machines and men’s souls.” —Time Humans have always sought to change their environment, building houses, monuments, temples, and roads. In the process, they have remade the fabric of the world into newly functional objects that are also works of art to be admired. Now as engineering plays an increasingly important role in the world while coming under attack for all manner of sins, one must wonder about the nature of the engineering experience in our time. In this, the second edition of his popular Existential Pleasures of Engineering, Samuel Florman perceptively explores how engineers think and feel about their profession. Dispelling the myth that engineering is cold and passionless, Florman celebrates it as something vital and alive. He views engineering as a response to some of our deepest impulses, rich in spiritual and sensual rewards. Opposing the “antitechnology” stance, Florman brilliantly emerges with a more practical, creative, and fun philosophy of engineering that boasts pride in his craft. First published in 1976, this classic book is essential reading for anyone curious about what wonders we have wrought. “Gracefully written . . . refreshing and highly infectious enthusiasm . . . imaginatively engineered.” —The New York Times Book Review
Author: L. A. Hamey
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521225113
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 48
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Book Description
Three areas of engineering in which the Romans excelled--aqueducts, roads and bridges--are studied after the role of the engineer in Roman society is introduced.
Author: Simon Winchester
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062652575
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 545
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Book Description
“Another gem from one of the world’s justly celebrated historians specializing in unusual and always fascinating subjects and people.” — Booklist (starred review) The revered New York Times bestselling author traces the development of technology from the Industrial Age to the Digital Age to explore the single component crucial to advancement—precision—in a superb history that is both an homage and a warning for our future. The rise of manufacturing could not have happened without an attention to precision. At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in eighteenth-century England, standards of measurement were established, giving way to the development of machine tools—machines that make machines. Eventually, the application of precision tools and methods resulted in the creation and mass production of items from guns and glass to mirrors, lenses, and cameras—and eventually gave way to further breakthroughs, including gene splicing, microchips, and the Hadron Collider. Simon Winchester takes us back to origins of the Industrial Age, to England where he introduces the scientific minds that helped usher in modern production: John Wilkinson, Henry Maudslay, Joseph Bramah, Jesse Ramsden, and Joseph Whitworth. It was Thomas Jefferson who later exported their discoveries to the fledgling United States, setting the nation on its course to become a manufacturing titan. Winchester moves forward through time, to today’s cutting-edge developments occurring around the world, from America to Western Europe to Asia. As he introduces the minds and methods that have changed the modern world, Winchester explores fundamental questions. Why is precision important? What are the different tools we use to measure it? Who has invented and perfected it? Has the pursuit of the ultra-precise in so many facets of human life blinded us to other things of equal value, such as an appreciation for the age-old traditions of craftsmanship, art, and high culture? Are we missing something that reflects the world as it is, rather than the world as we think we would wish it to be? And can the precise and the natural co-exist in society?
Author: Pierre-Louis Viollet
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 0203375319
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 336
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Book Description
This new book offers an engineer's perspective on the history of water technology and its impact on the development of civilisation. A Second Edition and translation into English of the French book "L'Hydraulique dans les Civilisations Anciennes".Water professionals, engineers, scientists, and students will find this book fascinating and invaluable
Author: Charles R. Ortloff
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199239096
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 433
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Book Description
Charles Ortloff provides a new perspective on archaeological studies of the urban and agricultural water supply and distribution systems of the major ancient civilizations of South America, the Middle East, and South-East Asia, by using modern computer analysis methods to extract the true hydraulic/hydrological knowledge base available to these peoples. His many new revelations about the capabilities and innovations of ancient water engineers force us to re-evaluate what was knownand practised in the hydraulic sciences in ancient times. Given our current concerns about global warming and its effect on economic stability, it is fascinating to observe how some ancient civilizations successfully coped with major climate change events by devising defensive agricultural survivalstrategies, while others, which did not innovate, failed to survive.
Author: Adam Hart-Davis
Publisher: Dorling Kindersley Ltd
ISBN: 1409322246
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 362
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Book Description
Full of great tales of achievement and ingenuity, Engineers celebrates 80 of the greatest engineers that ever lived and the stamp they have left on the world. Learn all about how their projects have changed the course of history and added to human progress from the men who built the Great Pyramid in Egypt to the Industrial Revolution and the impressive structures of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and on to the pioneers of space travel and the computer scientists of today. From initial concepts to prototypes and finished designs, Engineers is full to bursting with technical drawings, specially commissioned artworks, blueprints and virtual tours that help bring the structures, inventions and technological breakthroughs to life. Engineers is for anyone who is intrigued by the power of the pioneering mind.
