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Mechanical Engineering

Also Known As ME Standard academic/industry abbreviation.
Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical engineering is the branch of engineering concerned with the design, construction and operation of machines, dealing with forces, motion and the transfer of energy through mechanisms such as gears, levers, engines and turbines. It is one of the oldest engineering disciplines, tracing continuous practice from ancient siege engines and water mills through the steam engine and the internal combustion engine to the automobile, the machine tool and the industrial robot. The field took its modern, taught shape during the Industrial Revolution in eighteenth-century Europe, and mechanical engineers today extend its original core of gears, engines and machine tools into composites, mechatronics and nanotechnology.

Facts
Core Concern
Forces, motion and energy transfer through machines and mechanisms. Core areas span mechanics, dynamics, thermodynamics, structural analysis and electronics, applied to systems from motor vehicles and aircraft to robotics and medical devices. 1
Core Principle
Mechanical engineering combines engineering physics, mathematics and materials science to design, analyze, manufacture and maintain physical machines and mechanisms that involve force and movement. 2
Disputed
Origin Year
1880 1
Practices recognizable as mechanical engineering predate this by millennia; 1880 marks the founding of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the first dedicated professional body for the discipline in the United States.
Connections

Associated With

Additive Manufacturing, Methods
Agricultural Engineering, Fields
Air Conditioning, Inventions
Alphonse Beau de Rochas, Engineers

Described the four-stroke engine cycle later realized by Otto.

Architectural Engineering, Fields
Bartolomeo Cristofori, Engineers

Built the mechanism that made the pianos dynamic hammer action possible.

Christopher Latham Sholes, Engineers

Built the first commercially successful typewriter mechanism.

Chuck Hull, Engineers

Invented stereolithography, the founding additive-manufacturing process.

CNC Machining, Methods
Computer-Aided Design, Methods
Elevator, Inventions
Elisha Otis, Engineers

Invented the safety elevator brake that made tall buildings practical.

Energy Engineering, Fields
Firearm, Inventions
Gottlieb Daimler, Engineers

Developed an early high-speed internal combustion engine used in automobiles.

Hiram Stevens Maxim, Engineers

Invented the first automatic machine gun, a landmark of mechanical engineering design.

Injection Molding, Methods
Internal Combustion Engine, Inventions

Field-to-technology association verified live; FROM end owned by fields section

James Watt, Engineers
Johannes Gutenberg, Engineers

Developed the movable-type printing press mechanism that mechanized text reproduction.

John H. Hall, Engineers

Pioneered interchangeable-parts manufacturing of firearms at Harpers Ferry Armory.

Karl Benz, Engineers

Built the first practical automobile powered by an internal combustion engine.

Machine Gun, Inventions
Marine Engineering, Fields

Marine engineering draws on mechanical engineering for propulsion plants and machinery.

Source Marine Engineering (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Mechatronics Engineering, Fields
Military Engineering, Fields
Movable Type Printing, Inventions
Nikolaus Otto, Engineers

Built the first practical four-stroke internal combustion engine.

Nuclear Engineering, Fields

Reactor cooling systems, turbines and containment structures are mechanical engineering concerns.

Source American Nuclear Society, About (ans.org)American Nuclear Society
Petroleum Engineering, Fields

Drilling rigs and pumping equipment are principally mechanical engineering hardware.

Piano, Inventions
Refrigerator, Inventions
Reverse Engineering, Methods
Robotics Engineering, Fields

A robot physical structure, actuators and manipulators are principally mechanical engineering design problems.

Screw, Inventions
Simeon North, Engineers

Pioneered interchangeable-parts manufacturing of firearms under U.S. government contract.

Steam Turbine, Inventions

Field-to-technology association verified live; FROM end owned by fields section

Textile Engineering, Fields
The Automobile, Inventions
The Internal Combustion Engine, Inventions
The Mechanical Clock, Inventions
The Printing Press, Inventions
The Steam Engine, Inventions
Thomas Newcomen, Engineers

Built the first practical steam engine used for pumping.

Thomas Savery, Engineers

Patented an early steam-powered pump, a precursor of the practical steam engine.

Typewriter, Inventions
Washing Machine, Inventions
Willis Carrier, Engineers

Built the first modern electrical air conditioning unit.

Includes

Archimedes, Engineers
Source A History of TechnologyCharles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Casting, Methods
CNC Machining, Methods
Forging, Methods
Injection Molding, Methods
James Watt, Engineers
Source A History of TechnologyCharles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Johannes Gutenberg, Engineers
Source A History of TechnologyCharles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
John H. Hall, Engineers
Mass Production, Methods
Source Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica editors
Simeon North, Engineers
Steel, Materials
Source A History of TechnologyCharles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
The Analytical Engine, Inventions
Source Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica editors
The Assembly Line, Methods
Source Technology: A World HistoryDaniel R. Headrick
The Automobile, Inventions
Source Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica editors
The Internal Combustion Engine, Inventions
Source Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica editors
The Mechanical Clock, Inventions
The Printing Press, Inventions
Source A History of TechnologyCharles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
The Steam Engine, Inventions
Source A History of TechnologyCharles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
The Wheel, Inventions
Source A History of TechnologyCharles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Thomas Newcomen, Engineers
Source A History of TechnologyCharles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Tungsten Carbide, Materials
Welding, Methods
Source Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica editors

Open Questions

Who deserves credit for inventing the four-stroke internal combustion engine cycle: Alphonse Beau de Rochas, who patented the concept in 1862 without building an engine, or Nikolaus Otto, who built the first working four-stroke engine in 1876?, Open Questions
Source Nikolaus Otto (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.View the Source
2. Mechanical Engineering (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia Foundation
  • Introductory paragraph
    It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, and maintain mechanical systems.
  • Lead section, opening definition of mechanical engineering
    Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanisms that may involve force and movement.
  • Lead section, Industrial Revolution paragraph
    Mechanical engineering emerged as a field during the Industrial Revolution in Europe in the 18th century; however, its development can be traced back several thousand years around the world.
  • Lead section, core areas paragraph
    Mechanical engineering requires an understanding of core areas including mechanics, dynamics, thermodynamics, materials science, design, structural analysis, electronics, and electricity.
View the Source
A History of Technology
Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors, Oxford University Press, 1954
  • Includes: The Wheel
  • Includes: The Printing Press
  • Includes: The Steam Engine
  • Includes: Archimedes
  • Includes: Steel
  • Includes: Thomas Newcomen
  • Includes: James Watt
  • Includes: Johannes Gutenberg
View the Source
Technology: A World History
Daniel R. Headrick, Oxford University Press, 2009Includes: The Assembly LineView the Source
Marine Engineering (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Marine EngineeringView the Source
American Nuclear Society, About (ans.org)
American Nuclear Society, American Nuclear SocietyAssociated With: Nuclear EngineeringView the Source
Open Questions (1 open question)
Who deserves credit for inventing the four-stroke internal combustion engine cycle: Alphonse Beau de Rochas, who patented the concept in 1862 without building an engine, or Nikolaus Otto, who built the first working four-stroke engine in 1876?

Alphonse Beau de Rochas, a French engineer, patented the theoretical concept of the four-stroke engine cycle in 1862 but never built a working engine. Nikolaus Otto built and commercialized the first successful four-stroke engine in 1876, unaware of the Rochas patent, and only lost part of his own German patent years later when Gottlieb Daimler's lawyer discovered Rochas's earlier description while searching for a way around royalty payments.

What would resolve this A settled historiographical consensus on whether conceiving and patenting an unbuilt idea, or independently engineering and commercializing the same idea, carries the primary credit for founding the discipline; historians of technology continue to credit both figures for different reasons.
History of TechnologyWikipedia contributors, Nikolaus Otto (Wikipedia)
Frequently Asked Questions

Why is mechanical engineering considered one of the oldest engineering disciplines?

Mechanical engineering formalized as its own profession in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries alongside the steam engine and the broader Industrial Revolution, when designing and building machines that convert energy into useful motion became a specialized trade distinct from general mechanics or civil works. Its core subjects, forces, motion, energy transfer and the machines that harness them, cover such a wide range of applications, from engines to manufacturing equipment to robotics, that many later engineering disciplines, including aerospace, automotive and industrial engineering, grew out of it or share its foundational coursework.
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