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The Twenty Greatest Engineering Achievements of the Twentieth Century

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Title: The Twenty Greatest Engineering Achievements of the Twentieth Century


1
The Twenty Greatest Engineering Achievements of
the Twentieth Century
  • by
  • National Academy of Engineering
  • 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W.
  • Washington, DC 20418
  • www.nae.edu

2
Background and Introduction
  • Project sponsored by Robert A. Pritzker,
    President and CEO of Colson Assoc. Inc.
  • Coffee Table Book written by George Constable
    and Bob Somerville
  • Book published by National Academies Press
    www.jhpress.org
  • Power point presentation by Bob Koerner of Drexel
    University

3
Selection of Achievements
  • solicitation from consortium of 27 professional
    engineering societies
  • they independently polled their membership
  • AAES and NAE coordinated the effort
  • NAE Committee then narrowed the nominations
  • an important consideration was to emphasize
    positive effects on mankind
  • twenty achievements were eventually selected

4
Power Point Organization
  • each of the 20-achievements has 4-slides
  • bulleted items highlight text in the book
  • photos and sketches taken directly from book
  • goal is to present within a 1-hour class
  • each slide has a brief voice-over which can be
    used, or not, depending on the presenter and
    his/her audience
  • order of achievements is same as the book with
    electrification being top-ranked by all societies

5
1. Electrification
  • 1882 - first power plant by Edison in NYC
  • 1903 - first steam turbine generator by Curtis
  • 1917 - first high voltage transmission line by
    AG E controversy between DC AC current (AC
    and Steinmetz won!)
  • 1930s - dams along with hydroelectric
    turbogenerators spread electrification to the
    Western States
  • 1935 - Rural Electrification Administration by
    Roosevelt eventually reached everyone

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7
Methods of Generating Electricity
  • fossil fuels (coal, oil, and/or gas)
  • hydroelectric via dams and tides
  • wind produced, i.e., wind farms
  • solar energy via solar panels
  • degradation of organic matter (farms, landfills,
    waste products)
  • nuclear (more later)

8
Reliability of Electricity(North American
Reliability Council)
9
2. Automobile
  • 1890 - Ottos first internal combustion engine
  • 1890s - improvements by Daimler and Benz
  • 1901 - Olds produced 425 cars
  • 1905 - shock absorbers by Harock then drum
    brakes by Renault
  • 1908 - Fords Model T (10,660 cars produced)
  • 1911 - Kettering introduced electric starter
  • 1913 - Ford perfected moving assembly line
  • 1922 - 4-wheel hydraulic brakes introduced

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12
Automobiles Critical Role
  • growth of the suburbs
  • malls, factories, schools, etc., followed
  • government regulations introduced, e.g., safety
    and mileage
  • onboard microprocessors reduce pollution
  • new materials save weight and add strength
  • new motive power fuel cells, hybrids,
    all-electric, others (?)
  • ___________
  • Ford said, Everybody wants to be somewhere he
    aint, and as soon as he gets there he wants to
    go right back.

13
3. Airplane
  • 1890s - glider experiments by Lilienthal
  • 1903 - Orville and Wilbur Wright at Kitty Hawk
    competition with Curtis resulted in many
    subsequent legal battles
  • 1914-17 - many improvements during World War I
  • 1918 - postal service provided income
  • 1927 - Lindbergh crosses the Atlantic
  • 1933 - first modern commercial airliner by Boeing
  • 193845 - World War II necessitated and created
    major advancements

14
Orville Wright at controls with Wilbur looking on
at Kitty Hawk, NC on December 17, 1903 for the
first sustained, powered and piloted flight.
15
Advancements-to-Date
  • 1937 - jet engines by Whittle and Ohain
  • 1939 - Sikorsky developed first helicopter
  • 1947 - faster-than-sound by Yeager
  • 1976 - Concorde Supersonic Transport (SST)
    London to New York in 3.5 hours
  • 1986 - carbon composite materials by Rutar
  • 1990s - all composite flying wing that cannot
    be detected by radar
  • 1996 - American-Russian joint research program

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17
4. Water Supply and Distribution The Quality
Issues
  • dysentery, diarrhea, typhoid and cholera were
    deadly especially in 19th Century
  • bad water resulted in major health and disease
    issues
  • Jersey City in 1908 used chlorination
  • Metcalf and Eddys textbook in 1914
  • reversal of Chicago River in 1930
  • U.S. Public Health Service sets water quality
    standards
  • coagulation, sedimentation, filtration and
    chemical disinfection are used in modern systems
    see following

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19
Water Supply and Distribution The Quantity
Issues
  • 1913 - Los Angeles Aqueduct by Mulholland
  • 1915 - Catskill Aqueduct for Manhattan water
  • 1930 - Hardy Cross Method developed for pipe
    distribution system design
  • 1935 - Hoover Dam in 1935
  • 1937 - Delaware Aqueduct System for NYC water
  • 1938 - Colorado River Diversion
  • 1951 - Robbins Tunnel Boring Machine
  • 1960s - Kuwait uses seawater desalination
    technology... many follow

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21
5. Electronics
  • 1904 - Fleming (Marconi Co.) devices an
    oscillation valve in a vacuum bulb
  • 1907 - DeForest develops a vacuum table triode
  • 1941 - ENIAC Computer at Univ. of Penn used to
    predict projectile trajectories
  • 1947 - Bardeen, Brattain, Shockley (Bell Labs)
    build the transistor received the Nobel Prize
  • 1954 - G. Teal at Texas Inst. introduces
    transistor radio
  • 1959 - Kilby and Noyce invent the integrated
    circuit
  • 1967 - Texas Inst. develops the hand-held
    calculator

22
Vacuum Tube-to-Transistor
Intels 1971 Microprocessor (60,000
operations/second)
23
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24
More Recent Developments
  • 1968 - Cho of Bell Labs develops molecular beam
    epitoxy
  • 1970 - Russell of Battelle PNL develops CD-ROM
  • 1971 - Intel develops computer-on-a-chip
  • 1972 - Magnavox develops video game systems
  • 1997 - IBM uses copper to connect transducers in
    chips
  • 1998 - Bell Labs develops printed plastic
    transistors resulting in flexible computer
    screens, smart cards, etc., etc.

25
6. Radio and Television
  • 1900 - Tesla patented an electrical transmitter
  • 1901 - Marconi picks up transmitted signal across
    the Atlantic with a coherer
  • 1904 - Fleming develops diode, i.e., a radio
    receiver
  • 1906 - on Christmas Eve Fessenden transmits the
    voice of music
  • 1912 - Armstrong of Columbia develops AM radio
  • 1920 - Station KDKA in Pittsburgh does
    commercial sending of signals (wireless becomes
    radio and omnidirectional radiation
    becomes broadcasting into space)
  • 1953 - Sarnoff of RCA goes strongly into radio
    development and manufacturing

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27
And Then Came Television
  • 1929 - Zworykin and Farnsworth compete for
    cathode ray versus image dissector cameras
  • 1947 - transistor aids TV development greatly
  • 1954 - Rose Bowl transmitted in color
  • 1962 - Bell Labs develops satellite for first
    transatlantic telecast
  • 1990 - high definition TV (HDTV) introduced
  • 1996 - digital HDTV follows shortly thereafter

28
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7. Agricultural Mechanization
  • 1900 - 38 of workforce were farmers by 2000
  • 3 of workforce were farmers
  • 1902 - first internal combustion engine powers
    a farming tractor
  • 1904 - first crawler tractor appeared
  • 1905 - first agricultural engineering curriculum
    at Iowa State by J. B. Davidson many A M
    Colleges followed
  • 1921 - crop dusting began
  • 1925 - Caterpillar Tractor Co. formed

30
- 1920 -
- 1900 -
- 1940 -
31
Advances Beyond Machinery
  • 1935 - conservation tillage by Dubey and Russell
  • 1935 - FDRs rural electrification program
  • 1948 - Zybachs center pivot irrigation
  • 1956 - Gyral air seeder, i.e., pneumatic seeding
  • 1966 - electronic monitoring devices begin
  • 1994 - precision agriculture begins (water,
    fertilizer, pesticide all together)

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33
8. Computers
  • 1850 - George Boole (British Mathematician)
    devised a two-state form of algebra (on-off,
    or 1-0)
  • 1936 - Shannon of MIT established digital circuit
  • 1939 - ABC System combines binary arithmetic and
    electronic switching
  • 1945 - Von Neumann suggests method for storing
    data and writing programs
  • 1946 - Mauchly and Eckert develop ENIAC
  • 1947 - transistor was developed things got small

34
Penns EINAC weighting 40 tons with 18,000 vacuum
tubes, 6,000 switches and 1,500 relays for
ballistic and projectile calculations
35
Companies are Formed!
  • 1951 - Eckert Mauchly formed company
  • 1957 - FORTRAN developed by IBM
  • 1964 - BASIC developed at Dartmouth
  • 1975 - Altair 8800 developed by Micro Systems
  • 1975 - B. Gates and P. Allen write BASIC for a
    new computer
  • 1975 - Microsoft formed
  • 1977 - S. Jobs and S. Wozniak form Apple Computer
  • 1981 - IBM Personal Computer introduced
  • 1985 - Microsoft releases Windows I
  • 1991 - World Wide Web available to public

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37
9. Telephony
  • 1876 - Bells invention of the telephone
  • 1900 - inductors used to reduce attenuation
  • 1904 - DeForests triode amplifies signals
  • 1915 - transcontinental call from Bell to Watson
  • 1919 - Bell System installs switching system and
    dial phones
  • 1929 - Coaxial cable first used
  • 1949 - Model 500 ringer and handset introduced by
    AT T
  • 1951 - calls made without an operator

38
The telephone, wrote Alexander Graham Bell in
an 1877 prospectus drumming up support for his
new invention, may be briefly described as an
electrical contrivance for reproducing in
distance places the tones and articulations of a
speakers voice.
39
Space and Cell Phones
  • 1962 - Satellite Telstar I transmits telephone
    and data from space
  • 1963 - touch-tone telephone introduced
  • 1973 - first portable cell phone call
  • 1978 - public tests of cellular phone system
  • 1995 - voice-over internet protocols (VoIP)
  • 2000 - growth to 100M cell phones

40
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41
10. Air Conditioning and Refrigeration
  • 1904 - refrigerants (low boiling point) are
    developed which circulate through coils to absorb
    and dissipate heat
  • 1907 - Carrier patents Dew Point Control
  • 1910s - many department stores air conditioned
  • 1914 - Wolff focuses on large buildings
  • 1928 - CFC refrigerants developed
  • 1930s - Carrier, Kelvinotor, General Electric,
    York, Frigidaire, become the major companies in
    air conditioning

42
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43
Related Advances
  • 1916 - Birdseye develops quick-freezing
  • 1923 - ice cream dipping cabinet made by
    Frigidaire
  • 1931 - Southern California Edison introduces heat
    pump air conditioning
  • 1936 - Hence synthesizes refrigerant R-134a to
    replace CFCs
  • 1987 - minimum energy efficiency rules mandated
    by U. S. government

44
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45
11. Highways
  • 1905 - Office of Public Roads established
  • 1910 - Asphalt, a oil-refining byproduct, was
    mixed with sand and gravel for pavements
  • 1913 - First concrete paved highway in Arkansas
  • 1919 - Highway Research Board, under MacDonald,
    was formed
  • 1927 - Holland Tunnel in NYC constructed
  • 1932 - Germanys first Autobahn built
  • 1940 - 470 mile Pennsylvania Turnpike opens

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47
The Interstate System
  • 1944 - city connections are built randomly
  • 1956 - President Dwight D. Eisenhowers actions
  • Major Eisenhower led convoy across country in
    1930s took 3-months
  • He recognized troop mobility of German Autobahns
    during WWII
  • signed Federal Aid Highway Act in 1956
  • 1962 - AASHTO formalized
  • 1964 - Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel
  • 1990s - Bostons Big Dig most expensive to date

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49
12. Spacecraft
  • 1903 - Tsiolkovsky suggests use of liquids fuels
  • 1926 - Goddard launches first rocket
  • 1942 - Braun launches V-2 rockets during WWII
  • 1957 - Russians successfully launch Sputnik I
    (satellite weighs 184 lbs. and one orbit takes 98
    min.)
  • 1958 - USA launches Explorer I
  • 1961 - Russian Yuri Gagarin becomes first
    astronaut completing one orbit of earth
  • 1963 - first communications satellites launched

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51
Space Exploration
  • 1969 - Neil Armstrong walks on the Moon
  • 1971 - Soviets launch first space station
  • 1975 - NASA launches first Mars space probe with
    orbiter and lander
  • 1986 - Space shuttle Challenger is destroyed
    during launch
  • 1990 - Hubble Space Telescope in orbit
  • 1998 - International Space Station joined














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53
13. Internet
  • 1962 - Kleinrock works with queuing theory
  • 1962 - ARPA investigates global interconnectivity
  • 1964 - Baran of RAND divides messages into
    independent segments
  • 1966 - MIT gains ARPANET project
  • 1967 - Davies coins term packet switching
  • 1969 - ARPANET has four nodes in Western U.S.
  • 1969 - ARPANET grows at one new node per month
    also interactive graphics begins
  • 1972 - first e-mail by Tomlinson (_at_-sign begins)





































54
In 1969 ARPENET linked four nodestime-sharing
computer at Stanford, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, and
University of Utahand packets began flowing on
leased telephone lines. By 1977 the network was
a maze of linked computers all over the country
and even across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii.
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Internet-to-World Wide Web
  • 1973 - Kahn and Cerf publish basic design of
    internet and open architecture
  • 1981 - NSF and DARPA establish nodes at several
    Universities
  • 1984 - Domain Name Service introduced
  • 1987 - NSF examines high-speed national research
    network
  • 1992 - Internet Society formed
  • 1998 - U.S. Dept. Commerce gives private sector
    the task of Internet coordination

57
14. Imaging
  • 1890 - Eastmans Kodak Brownie
  • 1913 - Coolidge invents cathode ray tube
  • 1913 - Soloman develops mammography
  • 1915 - Langevin develops radar
  • 1931 - Rusha builds electron microscope
  • 1950s - Franklin uses X-Rays to reveal DNA
  • 1958 - Anger develops medical imaging
  • 1960 - DOE at Brookhaven does nuclear imaging
  • 1972 - Hounsfield Cormack develop CAT-scan

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Meanwhile In Space
  • 1960 s - Apollo 7 traces earths topography
  • 1973 - Skylab does Landsat imagery
  • 1990 - NASAs Hubble space Telescope launched
    into Earth orbit
  • 1990s - NASA launches robotic spacecraft to
    investigate distant planets and moons

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15. Household Appliances
  • 1901 - Booth patents vacuum cleaner
  • 1903 - Richardson introduces lightweight iron
  • 1905 - March patents nichrome (nickel and
    chrome)
  • 1907 - Spangler invents suction sweeper
  • 1909 - Sharlor patents electric toaster
  • 1913 - Wolf invents refrigerator
  • 1913 - Walker Bros. produce electric dishwasher
  • 1919 - Strite invents pop-up toaster
  • 1927 - Hammus develops garbage disposal
  • 1935 - Chamberlain invents dishwasher
  • 1935 - Moore creates first clothes dryer





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After World War II
  • 1947 - Sears Kenmore label begins
  • 1952 - Hobbs invents first automatic coffeepot
  • 1962 - Sunbeam modernizes irons
  • 1963 - General Electric self-cleaning oven
  • 1972 - Sunbeams Mr. Coffee introduced
  • 1978 - Singer introduces electronic sewing
    machine
  • 1997 - Electrolux introduces robotic vacuum
    cleaners

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16. Health Technologies
  • 1895 - Roentgen discovers X-Rays
  • 1903 - Einthoven develops electrocardiographs
  • 1927 - Drinker devises the iron lung
  • 1930s - Hyman invents artificial pacemaker
  • 1933 - Electroshock therapy at John Hopkins
  • 1945 - Kolff invents kidney dialysis machine
  • 1948 - Touhy patents plastic contact lenses
  • 1952 - Zoll develops cardiac pacemaker

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Machines plus Surgery
  • 1954 - Brigham Hospital human kidney transplant
  • 1958 - Charnley develops artificial hip placement
  • 1960 - Greatbatch uses transistors in pacemakers
  • 1972 - Computerized axial tomography (CAT)
    developed
  • 1970s - fiber optics used in surgery
  • 1980s - Langer develops controlled drug delivery
  • 1981 - first MRI developed
  • 1982 - first permanent artificial heart
  • 1985 - implantable defibrillator developed
  • 1987 - Bemahed implants brain electrical
    stimulation
  • 1987 - Troket first laser eye surgery
  • 1990 - Human Genome Project ? DNA !

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17. Petroleum and Petrochemical Technologies
  • 1859 - Drake strikes oil in Titusville, PA (used
    as kerosene for home lighting)
  • 1901 - first oil gusher in Spindletop, Texas
  • 1913 - Standard Oil patents thermal cracking
    (major use is now automobile gasoline)
  • 1921 - Kettering adds lead to gasoline no more
    engine knocking
  • 1928 - Giliasso creates offshore drilling
  • 1936 - Houdry introduces catalytic cracking

70
This heavy work-class subsea robot performs
intricate tasks in water depths down to 10,000
feet or more.
71
After World War II
  • 1947 - Haensel uses platinum catalyst eliminating
    lead additive
  • 1955 - jack-up oil drilling rig introduced
  • 1960s - synthetic oils developed for lubrication
  • 1970s - digital seismology for oil exploration
  • 1980s - remote operated vehicles for subsea work
    and exploration
  • 1990s - new sensors and fracture simulation
  • 2000 - 63,000 ton cassion vessel goes into
    operation in Gulf of Mexico

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18. Lasers and Fiber Optics
  • 1917 - Einstein proposes stimulated emission
    theory photons are hypothesized
  • 1954 - Columbia Professors develop the maser
  • 1958 - Townes and Schawlow publish the concept of
    the laser
  • 1960 - Maiman invents an operable laser
  • 1960 - Gould also develops laser
  • 1960 - Bell Labs invent the gas laser
  • 1962 - gallium arsenide laser developed

74
Fiber optic cable manufacturing and cable laying
across the Atlantic Ocean
Laser Telescope
75
Lasers and Fiber Optics
  • 1966 - optical fibers seen to transmit laser
    signals
  • 1970 - Corning Glass transmit via pure glass
  • 1977 - telephone companies use fiber-optic links
  • 1980 - AT T links major cities
  • 1987 - Payne dopes fibers with erbium
  • 1988 - first transatlantic fiber-optic installed
  • 1991 - optical amplification methods
  • 1996 - all optical-fiber cable across the Pacific

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19. Nuclear Technologies
  • 1905 - Einstein introduces special theory of
    relativity, E mc2
  • 1919 - Rutherford demonstrates protons
  • 1932 - Chadwick discovers the neutron
  • 1932 - Cockcroft and Walton split the atom
  • 1937 - Van de Graaff generator developed
  • 1939 - Hahn and Strassman split uranium atoms
  • 1939 - Manhattan Project of the U.S. Army
  • 1942 - Fermis U. of Chicago low powered reactor
  • 1945 - Oppenheimers team develop atomic bomb

78
Nuclear fission experiment in 1938 by Hahn and
Strassmann
USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered
submarine, enters New York Harbor during routine
training operations.
79
Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy
  • 1948 - Argonne Lab begins commercialization
  • 1951 - Breeder Reactor produces nuclear energy
  • 1954 - Atomic Energy Act licenses private use
  • 1955 - first nuclear powered submarine
  • 1957 - International Atomic Energy Agency formed
    with 18 countries (now 130)
  • 1979 - Three Mile Island failure in Pennsylvania
  • 1986 - Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine
  • 2000 - 100 nuclear power plants in USA

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20. High Performance Materials
  • 1907 - Baekeland creates Bakelite (thermoset
    plastic) the billiard ball challenge!
  • 1913 - Brearley rediscovers stainless steel
  • 1915 - Littleton develops Pyrex
  • 1930 - DuPonts Crothers develops artificial
    rubber calls it Neoprene
  • 1930s - Glass companies develop fiberglass
  • 1933 - low density polyethylene discovered by
    accident
  • 1934 - DuPonts Crothers develops Nylon
  • 1936 - Rohm and Haas develop Plexiglas
  • 1938 - Plunkett discovers Teflon

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More Modern Materials
  • 1945-52 - ceramics developed by many researchers
  • 1953 - Zeigler develops high density polyethylene
  • 1954 - General Electric synthesizes diamonds
  • 1955 - Natta develops polypropylene
  • 1964 - acrylic (water-based) paints developed
  • 1964 - Phillips makes carbon fibers
  • 1977 - electrically conducting organic polymers
    (LEDs) developed
  • 1986 - synthetic skin developed
  • 1990s - nanotechnology begins...

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Epilog
  • What-a-Century of Achievements !!!
  • never has any even approached it
  • perhaps (?) there will never be an equal
  • but, Why the 20th Century?

86
Possible Reasons for Why
  • (i) industrial revolution was well advanced
  • (ii) many scientific achievements were already in
    place but not yet utilized
  • (iii) the time was ripe for implementation
  • (iv) furthermore, Necessity is the Mother of
    Invention
  • the wars (WWI, WWII, etc.)
  • exploding population
  • quest for better life
  • capitalistic drive and incentive
  • (v) engineering R D is fun !

87
Prognosis for the 21st Century
  • smaller, more incremental, advances
  • complexities require team achievements
  • shift to quality-of-life improvements
  • tremendous activity in health care, biomedical
    advancements, and complete understanding of human
    life and how to influence it
  • heavy emphasis on environmental safeguards and
    improvements
  • lets all approach it with energy and optimism...
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