Technology and Engineering Atlas
Claims this atlas currently marks as unsettled or as tested and found false. A debated fact is one scholars hold competing positions on; a debunked one has been checked against the record and found not to hold. Both are kept in view rather than quietly smoothed over, with the reasoning that put each one where it stands.
103 statements.
Aerospace Engineering, Origin Year1958
Aerospace Engineering, Fields
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States 1958
Aeronautical engineering, a narrower predecessor concerned only with atmospheric flight, dates to the early 1900s; aerospace engineering, unifying atmospheric and space flight, dates to the late 1950s, alongside the founding of NASA in 1958.
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Aluminum, Origin Year1825
Aluminum, Materials
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States 1825
Hans Christian Orsted produced impure aluminum metal in 1825; Friedrich Wohler produced a purer sample in 1827, and priority for the first true isolation is disputed between the two.
Source A History of Technology, Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Annealing, Origin Year-3000
Annealing, Methods
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States -3000
Ancient metalworkers were annealing copper by around the third millennium BCE to counteract the brittleness cold hammering introduced; a single point of origin is not established.
Source A History of Technology, Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Answering Machine, Year1930
Answering Machine, Inventions
Standing
Concerns Year
Currently States 1930
The invention of the answering machine is genuinely disputed among several claimants: Valdemar Poulsen's magnetic recording principle from 1898, Clarence Hickman's 1934 Bell Laboratories device that AT&T kept confidential, Benjamin Thornton's patent filed 7 April 1930 (US 1,831,331, verified on Google Patents), and competing 1935 and 1931 claims for William Muller and William Schergens. 1930 is recorded here as the year of the earliest verifiable patent filing among these competing claims.
Source Answering Machine (Wikipedia)
Archimedes, Birth Year-287
Archimedes, Engineers
Standing
Concerns Birth Year
Currently States -287
Archimedes birth year is traditionally given as 287 BCE, derived from a note by the Byzantine historian John Tzetzes stating he lived seventy five years and died in 212 BCE. No contemporary record fixes the date directly, so the figure is a widely used scholarly estimate rather than a documented fact.
Source A History of Technology, Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Archimedes' Screw, Year250 BCE
Archimedes' Screw, Inventions
Standing
Concerns Year
Currently States 250 BCE
The earliest mention of the water screw dates to between 250 and 220 BCE. Archimedes of Syracuse is traditionally credited with inventing it, but some historians argue the Egyptians were already using the device before him, so the attribution is debated even though the approximate date is not.
Source Archimedes' Screw (Wikipedia), Wikipedia contributors
Architectural Engineering, Origin Year2003
Architectural Engineering, Fields
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States 2003
Formal architectural engineering education traces to the late 19th century, but sources give no single founding year for the field itself; 2003 is the year the discipline gained a dedicated licensing exam in the United States, the most specific year the record offers.
Source Architectural Engineering (Wikipedia), Wikipedia contributors
Bi Sheng, Birth Year972
Bi Sheng, Engineers
Standing
Concerns Birth Year
Currently States 972
Wikipedia's infobox gives a 972-1051 span, but the precise birth year is not independently attested beyond that inference; only his death year (1051) and the 1039-1048 window for his invention are directly recorded.
Source Bi Sheng (Wikipedia), Wikipedia contributors
Biomedical Engineering, Origin Year1968
Biomedical Engineering, Fields
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States 1968
Dated here to the founding of the Biomedical Engineering Society in 1968, a commonly cited marker; the collaboration between engineers and physicians that produced the field's early devices, such as the cardiac pacemaker in the 1950s, predates any one founding date by more than a decade.
Borosilicate Glass, Origin Year1893
Borosilicate Glass, Materials
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States 1893
Sources place Otto Schott's development in Jena in the late nineteenth century; this Wikipedia source does not state an exact year.
Source Borosilicate Glass (Wikipedia), Wikipedia contributors
Brass, Origin Year-500
Brass, Materials
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States -500
Calamine brass, made by cementing copper with zinc ore, is attested in the Aegean and the Near East from around the mid-first millennium BCE; Roman brass, orichalcum, was in widespread use by around the first century BCE.
Source A History of Technology, Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Bronze, Origin Year-3300
Bronze, Materials
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States -3300
The earliest tin bronze artifacts are attested in the Near East, around Susa in present-day Iran, from roughly the late fourth millennium BCE.
Source A History of Technology, Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Canal Irrigation, Origin Year-6000
Canal Irrigation, Methods
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States -6000
Irrigation canals were developed independently by multiple ancient civilizations rather than invented once; Mesopotamian and Egyptian systems are attested from roughly the sixth millennium BCE, with comparable independent developments in the Indus Valley and in China.
Source A History of Technology, Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Canal Lock Engineering, Origin Year984
Canal Lock Engineering, Methods
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States 984
The earliest attested pound lock was built on the Grand Canal in China around 984 CE; European pound locks developed independently, with the Netherlands Vreeswijk lock dated to 1373.
Source A History of Technology, Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Carbon Fiber, Origin Year1958
Carbon Fiber, Materials
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States 1958
Roger Bacon produced early high-modulus carbon fibers at Union Carbide around 1958; the commercially significant PAN-based process was developed by Akio Shindo in Japan in 1961.
Source A History of Technology, Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Carbon Nanotube, Origin Year1991
Carbon Nanotube, Materials
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States 1991
Widely credited to Sumio Iijima's 1991 paper, but Radushkevich and Lukyanovich published images of similar carbon tubes in 1952 and Morinobu Endo observed hollow graphite tubes in 1976; historians of the material dispute which observation is the true discovery.
Source Carbon Nanotube (Wikipedia)
Cast Iron, Origin Year-500
Cast Iron, Materials
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States -500
Cast iron is attested in China from around the fifth century BCE, using blast furnace technology developed there; cast iron production reached Europe independently, much later, from around the fourteenth century CE.
Source A History of Technology, Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Casting, Origin Year-3700
Casting, Methods
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States -3700
Lost-wax casting is attested in Mesopotamia and the Balkans from roughly the fourth millennium BCE, among the earliest known metal-casting techniques.
Source A History of Technology, Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Cement, Origin Year1824
Cement, Materials
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States 1824
Joseph Aspdin patented modern Portland cement in 1824; hydraulic cements go back much further, including Roman pozzolanic cement from around the second century BCE and John Smeaton hydraulic lime of 1756.
Source A History of Technology, Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Ceramics, Origin Year-25000
Ceramics, Materials
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States -25000
The earliest known fired ceramic object, the Venus of Dolni Vestonice figurine, dates to roughly 25,000 to 29,000 BCE; the earliest ceramic pottery vessels, used for cooking and storage rather than as figurines, are attested later, from around 18,000 BCE in China.
Source A History of Technology, Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors