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.
Chemical Engineering, Origin Year1888
Chemical Engineering, Fields
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States 1888
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology introduced the first dedicated course of study in chemical engineering in 1888; the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the discipline first professional body, followed in 1908.
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Civil Engineering, Origin Year1768
Civil Engineering, Fields
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States 1768
John Smeaton styled himself the first self-described civil engineer in Britain around 1768, to distinguish civilian construction work from military engineering; the first dedicated professional body, the Institution of Civil Engineers, followed only in 1818.
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Computer Engineering, Origin Year1971
Computer Engineering, Fields
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States 1971
Case Western Reserve University is widely credited with establishing the first computer engineering degree program in the United States in 1971.
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Concrete, Origin Year-300
Concrete, Materials
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States -300
Roman concrete, opus caementicium, was in wide structural use from around the third century BCE; still older Nabataean hydraulic-cement-like materials are attested from roughly 6500 BCE, and the modern Portland cement that underlies most concrete poured today dates only to 1824.
Source A History of Technology, Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Copper, Origin Year-9000
Copper, Materials
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States -9000
Worked native copper ornaments are attested at Anatolian sites such as Cayonu from roughly the ninth millennium BCE; copper smelting from ore came later, from around the fifth millennium BCE.
Source A History of Technology, Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Electric Arc Furnace, Year1888
Electric Arc Furnace, Inventions
Standing
Concerns Year
Currently States 1888
Wikipedia's own article marks this Readman claim as failed verification. Paul Heroult's furnace, recorded as a second claim on this same key, carries the cleaner sourcing.
Source Electric Arc Furnace (Wikipedia), Wikipedia contributors
Electric Arc Furnace, Year1900
Electric Arc Furnace, Inventions
Standing
Concerns Year
Currently States 1900
Second claim alongside the Readman 1888 and 1889 claim on this same key. Heroult's furnace reached commercial steelmaking use in the United States in 1907.
Source Paul Heroult (Wikipedia), Wikipedia contributors
Electric Arc Furnace, Patent or First-Use Date1889-01-01
Electric Arc Furnace, Inventions
Standing
Concerns Patent or First-Use Date
Currently States 1889-01-01
Year-only precision. Tied to the Readman claim above, itself flagged failed verification on Wikipedia; recorded as the best dated patent found pending better sourcing.
Source Electric Arc Furnace (Wikipedia), Wikipedia contributors
Electrical Engineering, Origin Year1871
Electrical Engineering, Fields
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States 1871
The Society of Telegraph Engineers, founded in Britain in 1871 and later renamed the Institution of Electrical Engineers, is generally credited as the first dedicated professional body for the discipline; the American Institute of Electrical Engineers followed in 1884.
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Energy Engineering, Origin Year1973
Energy Engineering, Fields
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States 1973
The article traces the field's formalization to the industrial revolution and its acceleration to the mid-20th century, with no single founding year given; 1973 marks the oil crisis the source credits with driving the field's modern government programs and industry standards, the most specific year the record offers.
Source Energy Engineering (Wikipedia), Wikipedia contributors
Environmental Engineering, Origin Year1955
Environmental Engineering, Fields
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States 1955
1955 marks the founding of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers, the field's first dedicated professional certifying body; its practice descends directly from nineteenth century sanitary engineering, whose own origin is harder to date to a single year.
Escapement, Year723
Escapement, Inventions
Standing
Concerns Year
Currently States 723
The earliest known clockwork escapement was built in Tang dynasty China by the Buddhist monk Yi Xing and government official Liang Lingzan in 723 or 725 AD, for a water-powered armillary sphere. It did not lead directly to the European mechanical clock; the escapement usually credited with that development, the verge escapement, was invented independently in medieval Europe during the 13th century, with the earliest firmly dated written description a Spanish document for Alfonso X in 1277.
Source Escapement (Wikipedia), Wikipedia contributors
Forging, Origin Year-3000
Forging, Methods
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States -3000
Bronze Age smiths were forging metal by around the third millennium BCE; 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
Gauge Block, Patent or First-Use Date1901-05-02
Gauge Block, Inventions
Standing
Concerns Patent or First-Use Date
Currently States 1901-05-02
Another source states the same Swedish patent 17,017 was instead granted January 30, 1904, not May 2, 1901
Source Carl Edvard Johansson
Geological Engineering, Origin Year1936
Geological Engineering, Fields
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States 1936
The term geological engineering was not coined until the 19th century and courses have been offered since the early 1900s, per its own Wikipedia article, which names no single founding year for the field itself; 1936 marks the founding of the Colorado School of Mines program, the earliest-dated ABET-accredited North American geological engineering degree program the article names (every other listed program is 1941 or later), the most specific year the record offers.
Source Geological Engineering (Wikipedia), Wikipedia contributors
Glass, Origin Year-3500
Glass, Materials
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States -3500
The earliest deliberately manufactured glass objects are attested in Mesopotamia and Egypt from roughly the mid-fourth millennium BCE; naturally occurring volcanic glass, obsidian, was worked far earlier but is not man-made.
Source A History of Technology, Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Imhotep, Birth Year-2655
Imhotep, Engineers
Standing
Concerns Birth Year
Currently States -2655
No birth record survives. The year is a scholarly estimate backed into from his known service under Pharaoh Djoser, whose Third Dynasty reign is placed around the twenty-seventh century BCE, and from the working life a chief architect of the Step Pyramid would need to have had by that point.
Source A History of Technology, Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Imhotep, Death Year-2600
Imhotep, Engineers
Standing
Concerns Death Year
Currently States -2600
No death record survives. The year is a scholarly estimate consistent with the end of Djoser reign and the span of Imhotep known career.
Source A History of Technology, Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Industrial Engineering, Origin Year1911
Industrial Engineering, Fields
Standing
Concerns Origin Year
Currently States 1911
1911 marks the publication of Taylor's The Principles of Scientific Management, the work most often credited with founding the discipline; its first dedicated professional society, the American Institute of Industrial Engineers, was not founded until 1948.
Johannes Gutenberg, Birth Year1400
Johannes Gutenberg, Engineers
Standing
Concerns Birth Year
Currently States 1400
Gutenberg's exact birth year is not recorded; 1400 is the conventionally cited estimate based on guild registration records.
Source A History of Technology, Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors