ENGLISH V UNIT 1

ENGINEERING IN HISTORY. THE HISTORY OF ENGINEERING

UNIT I - MODULE III - WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

The essay An essay is a short piece of paper which often depicts the authors standpoint and it is not easy to give a 100 percent accurate definition for the essay as they might be overlapping with those of an article or short story. Nowadays, essays are very common in formal education and students learn how to write essays in a very structured way. Universities also use the essays in selecting applicants. Defining the genre in which an essay might fall, could be elusive as it is a short piece likely impossible to give all things full play within the limits of a single essay. As a pedagogical tool, students are assigned essays as a way to get them to synthesize what they have read or seen. It is also paramount for them to improve their writing skills. Sometimes these essays may be called papers and they may be as long as 2000 or 5000 words on academic speaking terms but longer essays may also contain an introductory page in which words and phrases from the title are tightly. Quotations for all substantial facts or referenced may be required by institutions as well. The academic essay tests the student s ability to present their thoughts in an organized way and tests their intellectual capabilities. There may be universities which have a distinction between research papers and discussion papers. The difference might be that a research paper is intended to uncover a wide variety of sources on a given topic. As such, research papers tend to be longer and more inclusive in their scope and with the amount of information they

deal with. While discussion papers also include research, they tend to be shorter and more selective in their approach...and more analytical and critical . Whereas a research paper would typically quote a wide variety of sources , a discussion paper aims to integrate the material in a broader fashion. Sometimes students wont do their essays but go somewhere else to get them from an essay mill or paper mill. This is called plagiarism and it is a form of academic dishonesty or fraud. Fortunately, universities have some kind of software which can detect students essays from those purchased from these paper mill services so students will have second thoughts about using this dishonest service. BIBLIOGRAPHY: http://www.creatingtechnology.org/history_htm http://www.new-sng.com/history.cfm

Engineering in History

There is a certain beauty to the term engineering sciences. There are, however, many differences between them and it would be impossible to talk about any one of them without talking about the engineer. The first engineers were military men. Today, military engineers continue to be very important to armed forces all around the world. The term engineer comes from the engines used in medieval wars. Fortunately many of the discoveries first conceived for military purposes have found a place in civil society and today there is little difference between military engineering and the other branches in the field. Nevertheless, one cannot speak about engineers without taking into account people responsible for helping them bring their ideas to life, such as scientists, technicians, and craftsmen. Some of the fields that engineers work in include: developing systems for the administration, transportation, and preservation of raw and processed materials, systems managing the transformation, transmission, and control of electricity, systems acquiring, transmitting, processing information and systems which manage and improve organizations. Participation in such a wide variety of fields requires that engineers conduct research, involve themselves in design and development, construction, operation, and administration of a variety of systems. It also requires that they participate in marketing, administration, teaching, and assessment their performance in all of these fields. Engineers are, therefore, required to understand and make optimum use of and transform it. They may also use natural resources available in order to produce goods and services. When facing scarcity of resources and a growing demand of them, they should, based on technical and economical guidelines, obtain maximum performance at a minimum cost while keeping in mind their responsibility to preserving the natural environment. Above all, engineers are creators who interpret and assimilate new scientific discoveries in order to develop projects, designs, and techniques for executing a task. In addition to working with the technology which has been already created, they should also perform as technicians, builders, producers, and ultimately as makers.

Some of the engineers responsibilities, in all of the branches of engineering sciences include, in ascending order, to be a researchers, developers, designers, builders, producers, operators, and trial managers, to work in education, maintenance, service, marketing, and administration. Engineers must be updated in their field; otherwise, they will move down the aforementioned list and their roles will begin to be different , for example rather than being researchers, activities at the top of the list, they will start performing as administrators. There are differences among engineers and therefore differences among the different branches of engineering by which we mean the different but related fields. The four basic fields of engineering are: civil, mechanical, electrical, and chemical, but there are other branches which derive from these. One of these offshoots is industrial engineering. In this field, engineers of a given company get together to accomplish a functional or organizational task, or to work on individual tasks or projects. There are also engineers who run their own companies which offer products or services. These type of engineers often works as a consultant to others by providing technical advice or services. When speaking about the different types of engineers, we should mention civil engineers. Under this heading, we would group other kinds of engineering such as those dealing with: construction, the environment, geotechnical matters, water resources, land management, structural concerns, and transportation. A civil engineers performance can be divided into three areas: the field work necessary for construction, the research taking place during the construction (including conversation with clients and other engineers, consultants and contractors) and the necessary surveys once construction has been completed. Mechanical engineers are responsible for the development and use of equipment and materials, especially those involving computers. They are also responsible for the development of processes and machinery which produce low emissions and for developing techniques and machines which can reduce or remove harmful emissions from the atmosphere. Mechanical engineering works with energy production and development; for this reason. they must be involved with the development and design of systems parts or whole systems, their design, their planning, and their corresponding processes for manufacturing, operating, and maintaining said systems. They should also be able to participate in consulting, researching, developing, administrating sales, and the training for said systems. Electrical engineering is responsible for the generation, transmission, and distribution of energy, construction of electrical equipment, construction and maintenance of

industrial plants. Contractors that provide services related to the assembly or installation of electrical grids in general, also fall under the auspices of electrical engineers. Electrical engineers must design new products, define their requirements, their performance, design maintenance schedules, test equipment, solve operational difficulties, and provide time and cost estimates for electrical engineering projects. They must also work as consultants, researchers, developers, planners, oversee maintenance, construction, and sales. The chemical engineering branch conducts research in the area of application, development, and manufacturing processes. These processes create products and services, both industrial and commercial by altering the physical composition and characteristics of raw materials. Chemical engineers are responsible for producing costly products from raw material through chemical and biological processes which limit the waste of material and energy. They are involved in all aspects of design, trials, operation, control, and the optimal use of resources. They are also responsible for distillation, filtration, mixing, and other biological processes. Some other branches related to the aforementioned are: agricultural, electronic, industrial, computer, materials, telecommunications, environmental, geological, mining, and nutritional engineering. As we have noticed, there is a broad range of engineering sciences and consequently of engineers. Each has its own complexities and beauty and when their capacity to understand our natural world reaches its limit, they for sure will give way to new branches. This leads us to ask then, what engineering sciences will the future bring? And will the engineer of the future have the same responsibilities that he does now?

Answer the following questions based on this reading

1. According to the text, there is no difference in military engineering and todays engineering because a. engineering is actually used. b. it is currently used. c it has been used ever since.

2. According to the text, engineers have to deal with.

a. different professions b. politicians c. people.

3. According to the reading, in relation to what engineers do, all of the following are true, EXCEPT a. material acquisition system b. energy systems. c. information systems.

4. According to the reading, in relation to engineers participation, all of the following are true, EXCEPT a. teaching and self evaluate their performance b. marketing. c. sales assistant.

5. Which of the following can be inferred about why engineers need to know the use of natural resources? a. To clean the environment. b. To produce goods and services. c. To help to pollute the planet.

6. According to the reading, when should engineers obtain maximum performance at a minimum cost? a. Sometimes if they can.

b. When facing with scarcity c. When they are told to do so

7. The word a maker in the passage is closest in meaning to a. A person who designs old things and machines. b. A person who fixes things which are out of order. c. A person who makes and helps out to bring an idea to life.

8. According to the passage, what can be inferred about education in the

engineers responsibilities? a. Education is very important for the country. b. If teachers do not catch up, students will always be behind. c. It is a noble and humble job to be done.

9. According to the passage, what can be inferred about industrial engineering? a. It is a career which does not design either machines or devices b. It is a more modern career than the others. c. None of those above.

The History of Engineering

Engineering is as old as man himself, and regardless of how we define it has its history because it has evolved alongside man and his activities. It is one of mans most important achievements. This achievement ranks alongside others such as, the revolution in the production of food (6000- 3000 BC), the creation of urban societies, the birth of Greek science, the revolution in transportation (medieval age), the birth of modern Greek science, steam power and the Industrial Revolution, electricity, the thermonuclear revolution, electronics, and the revolution in information technologies. It is believed that engineering had its beginnings in Asia Minor or Africa some 8000 years ago when man began to farm, to domesticate animals, and to live in large communities. Once the revolution in farming was firmly established, there came new discoveries which allowed man to work more efficiently. This is the way how engineering began, by changing the means of production and the way in which goods were distributed. There were various important discoveries during this time including: control over fire, the smelting of certain metals in order to produce copper and bronze, the invention of the axis and the wheel, the invention of written symbols for communication, standardization of weight and measures, and the invention of calculus and arithmetic. Around 3000 BC, structural engineering changed from being strictly functional to architectural. Up to this time, most buildings were modest and designed as dwellings, afterwards, great palaces and temples were built for kings and priests. Great amounts of wealth and religious rituals led to the construction of impressive monuments and tombs like the pyramids of Egypt. In Egypt, around 3500 BC, the engineer Imhotep was elevated to the status of a god as a result of his work on the step pyramid of Saqqarah. Engineers in Greece and Rome, like their Egyptian counterparts, were also capable of great feats. The buildings which were commissioned by Maecenas involved the use of stones weighing as much as 120 tons. They also became masters of the arch and vault which were used to build underground tombs, buildings, bridges, and aqueducts. History recognizes Pytheos as the first engineer in history. He built the Halicarnaso Mausoleum in 355 AC which combines three different architectural elements, a pedestal held up by a column, a Greek temple and an Egyptian tomb. He was also the first to train his apprentices and to draw up guidelines for future builders. The best engineers in antiquity, however, were the Romans who incorporated ideas from the lands they conquered and then used them for their own military and civil purposes. One historian states that very much like our own cities, Roman cities had water and

sewer systems, heating, paved streets, fish and meat markets, and public baths. Roman engineering also focused on military and maritime problems such as building ports and bays for shipping, both of which required the use of machines and materials and the development of processes. It was during the Middle Ages that the word engineering was first used. History tells us that around 200 AD. (the middle ages are generally understood to be from 400 to 1500 AD), the word engine or invention was used to describe a kind of catapult used in the siege of walled cities. During this time power was primarily derived from water, wind, and draft animals. This power moved carriages and carts, water turbines, windmills, and sails. Other technical advances included the use of carbon and air injected furnaces to smelt iron. Some innovations came from abroad. Gunpowder, paper, advances in the use of optics, and chemistry arrived from China and the Middle East. Without a doubt, however, it was the use of paper and the invention of the printing press and the compass what allowed knowledge to be disseminated broadly. Roads, bridges, canals, tunnels, dikes, ports, piers, and machines built in the Middle Ages were possible thanks to a broad understanding of the principles of mathematics, geometry, the natural sciences, and craftsmanship. The 17th century is widely recognized for engineers of that epoch such as Leonardo Da Vinci who is responsible for the invention of the gas turbine, the machine gun, the camera and the helicopter. (Da Vinci, lived and died before the 17th century, 1452-1519). Galileo was another important individual; one who contributed to the development of the scientific method. (Galileo lived half of the 16th century and one parte of the 17th, 1564-1642). Other names that can be added to this list of prominent men are Newton, Pascal, Fermat, Descartes, Boyle, Hooke, Huygens, and Leibniz. The invention of the steam engine, the process for refining iron discovered by Henry Ford, and Watts invention were extremely important because they increased the availability of iron used to build machines and for those electrical plants needed to power these machines. The industrial revolution came about as a result of the teaching of engineering, the fusion between science and technology, the invention of steamships and steam trains, and a general boom in industrial development. In those days all engineers were military engineers and John Smeaton (1724- 1792) was the first to distinguish himself as a civil engineer. Previously, engineering had not been defined as a profession. In the 17th century, France was the first nation to recognize engineering as a profession, yet the first school for civil engineering was

not established in that country until 1747. That school was La Ecole des Ponts et Chausses. After everything that has been said, it is clear that without engineering sciences it would have been impossible for humans to make the great strides that it has made. Engineering sciences will remain dynamic and evolving, they are here to stay because only they can open the doors to new worlds, spaces, and unknown realms. Answer the following questions based on the reading the History of Engineering 1. Engineering is mentioned as a great achievement alongside others except: a. the creation of urban societies. b. the revolution in transportation. c. the revolution in the production of food d. the revolution of the car. 2. Which of the following is not true about the beginnings of engineering?. a. It might have been in Asia b. It might have been in Africa. c. It might have been some 8000 years ago. d. People are certain about when it began. 3. According to the paragraph, engineering began when a. man began to see the need of creating solutions in large communities. b. man began to understand the nature. c. man began to have some free time to think. d. man began to see that it might be a very lucrative business. 4. According to the paragraph, which of the following discoveries were not in the beginning? a. Control over fire. b. The invention of the axis. c. The invention of the tire. d. The invention of Calculus. 5. According to the passage, it can be inferred that engineers were elevated to the status of gods and impressive monuments were built because.

a. There were a lot of people around. b. There was a lot of wealth around. c. There were a lot of engineers around. d. There were a lot of kings around who needed their palaces. 6. According to the passage, the words arch and vault are used in a. mechanical engineering. b. industrial engineering. c. civil engineering. d. construction engineering. 7. According to the passage, it can be inferred that the mother of engineering is Is: a. Mechanical engineering. b. Construction engineering. c. Electronic engineering. d. None of those mentioned above. 8. According to the passage, the word engine in paragraph 7 is closest in meaning to a. a motor. b. a machine. c. an invention. d. a carriage. 9. It can be inferred that due to the invention of paper and printing it was possible a. to stop memorizing books. b. for the education to start. c. to learn easier, faster and in different places. d. to create new machines. 10. As a result of understanding mathematics and natural sciences, it can be inferred that a. the creation of the wheel was feasible. b. engineering made headways. c. new sciences did not exist. d. men would continue being empirical.