Some old ideas were really good, but we forget about them and the engineers who were responsible for these ideas.
Here are some good “old” ideas.
- Pont du Gard – an ancient Roman aqueduct bridge in southern France. It is part of the Nîmes aqueduct, a 31 mile-long structure that carried water to the fountains, baths and homes of the people of Nîmes.
- step Pyramid of Djoser, columns into architecture
- Antikythera mechanism (video 2:56) epicyclic gearing – Archimedes – The Antikythera Mechanism is the oldest known scientific computer, built in Greece at around 100 BCE. Lost for 2000 years, it was recovered from a shipwreck in 1901. But not until a century later was its purpose understood: an astronomical clock that determines the positions of celestial bodies with extraordinary precision. In 2010, we built a fully-functional replica out of Lego.
- Leonardo DaVinci’s drawings of flying contraptions that would inspire generations of scientists after him.
- first steam engine in 1698. But that idea literally didn’t go anywhere until around 200 years later.
- first electric cell called the Volt.
- bridges, dockyards, and the first major British railway, in addition to steamships and tunnels that revolutionized public transportation
- first web search engine in 1990, bringing the rapid rise of computer technology
Steam engines (video 4:12) – Engine driver David Gates takes us through the workings of a steam engnine to explain how they powered early trains, sewing mills and sewage pumps as well their importance in industry today…
Engineering ideas
- gears, columns, aerodynamics, architecture, steam engine, bridges, tunnels, railway, steamship, public transportation, resistance, computer science, internet
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