Talk:History of mechanical engineering

Structure and expansion

So far we have the following sections:

• History
  • Early engineering
  • Renaissance
  • Industrial Revolution
  • Modern Age
• Professional associations
• Education

These are good, but I think we need a few more.

What's "early engineering" and is this too broad? Even pre-historic engineering existed, as there was some metallurgy going on. Then we'd really need to separate the classical Roman / Greek period, early medieval (not much happening), later medieval (mills, timepieces), China (who are getting up to everything) and Islam. The Renaissance. The the Industrial Revolution happened in several stages: the first revolution was in harnessing water power and the economic benefits of grouping into factories. Secondly the use of fossil fuels for both power and iron smelting. Thirdly the increases of manufactured goods. Fourthly the diminuition of distance by both faster transport and communication such as telegraphy.

The Modern Age could also subdivide. This dates from 1600 as a general definition, so maybe it's more about the 19th / 20th centuries? There they see the increased application of mechanical power for tasks such as lifting & shifting, and for machining, which allow engineers to constuct far larger machines. The history of machine tools shouldn't be underestimated as a part of engineering history. Chemistry also emerges as a scientific, engineering and industrial discipline. Then we see really moder developments, such as information dominating over the rearrangement of matter, and the use of robots (from mid-20th century) as a means of automating really massed production. Now engineering is mostly a question of knowledge (doing it is easy, it's knowing what to do that's hard) and increasingly the environmental engineering of considering the resource use and waste implications of each branch. Andy Dingley (talk) 13:38, 7 August 2019 (UTC)

I agree with everything you proposed. The Ancient Engineers seems like a great starting source for pre-middle age engineering and I will begin implementing it as a source. — Preceding unsigned comment added by AttackHelicopter51 (talk • contribs) 17:27, 10 August 2019 (UTC)

Why was the article redirected?

Despite multiple people agreeing the article needed to be created and it being a priority for wikiproject engineering, it was redirected back to a much shorter verison on the main mechE article. I plan on undoing this.

And I do agree with Andy that we should split up modern age and be more precise, my draft that was the original article was only meant as a start.

Andy listed some great sources that we should use in the article: including

• The Ancient Engineers
• Jean Gimpel's The Medieval Machine
• What Engineers Know and How They Know It

• Diderot's Encyclopédie
• Rees's Cyclopædia
• John Farey's, A Treatise on the Steam Engine
• Nicholas Wood's A Practical Treatise on Rail-roads
• Samuel Smiles' Lives of the Engineers

- AH (talk) 12:22, 10 August 2019 (UTC)

I have reverted Polyamorph's redirect. Feel free to discuss redirect vs. article here. ~Kvng (talk) 17:08, 10 August 2019 (UTC)

thanks, I agree with this reversion to allow development of this standalone article to take place. Polyamorph (talk) 17:13, 10 August 2019 (UTC)

I'm glad this was resolved in a good way. - AH (talk) 17:17, 10 August 2019 (UTC)