The modern engineer works in a vast diversity of different disciplines, but most with one key underlying role – to improve the quality of life of fellow humans. From the nuclear engineer that harnesses the tremendous power of radioactive materials to the aerospace engineer that is on a constant quest to make flying by plane more economical, faster, and more comfortable, the work of engineers has transformed our modern world.
Today, more gadgets than ever enhance both our work and social lives. Indeed, the pace of innovation through the last fifty or so years has been nothing short of remarkable – and is now being aided in no small part by emerging technologies and smart computer systems. However, it wasn’t always this way, and many of the tools and platforms we take for granted today took years – even decades – to come to fruition.
The significance of good management and learning from others
In almost all cases, the products listed below were not the work of just one individual or even one team but are rather the result of the concerted and determined efforts of multiple parties conducted over many years. Indeed, the inventors commonly accredited with many of the world’s greatest innovations stand, in a very real sense, on the shoulders of giants and owe much of their success and fame to the work of others preceding them.
That said, good management has been key in the majority of these (and other) discoveries – the ability to study the previous work of others, come up with a new hypothesis, and coordinate a new direction. Good management also gives a job focus and helps keep a project on track – which is particularly important when it comes to the seemingly endless possibilities involved when you’re trying to invent something completely new.
Incidentally, these points are worth bearing in mind if you’re considering starting your own research or looking at developing a novel product. It’s important to realize that few of the skills that are an inherent requirement of engineering management come naturally to most people – so you would likely benefit from taking a course to hone these abilities. A masters in operations online will cover all bases and help you learn the skills required for engineering management, so you stand the greatest chances of success.
Some of humankind’s greatest engineering feats
Below are just a few of the more remarkable inventions, and innovations dreamed up by engineers around the globe that have changed our lives forever – so much so that it would be almost impossible to imagine modern life without them.
Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone
The invention of the telephone is just one of countless examples of an innovation that’s been accredited to just one person (Alexander Graham Bell) despite the fact others were working on a very similar technology at the same time. Historians suggest the reason Bell is commonly cited as being the inventor is he lodged a patent for the technology first – ahead of other scientists, including Elisha Gray and Antonio Meucci.
Bell patented the telephone on February 14th, 1876, and, despite various evidence claiming he wasn’t the first in developing the technology – plus legal cases and accusations of wrongdoings – today, he remains largely renowned as the inventor.
Nonetheless, no matter how you look at it, the advent of the telephone marked a seismic shift in global communications and served to make the world a much smaller place. Indeed, the humble phone has very much stood the passage of time – even though traditional dial-up and fixed-line systems have increasingly been usurped in recent years by mobile connections and smartphones.
James Watt’s steam engine
The steam engine is yet another example of an innovative product that has largely been accredited to just one person when, in fact, it was the result of years of trial and error experimentation. Most historians consider Thomas Savery to be the inventor of steam-powered devices back in 1698. However, there is also evidence that humans were attempting to harness the power of steam as far back as the ancient Greeks when an inventor, Hero, created the world’s first, most primitive steam-powered turbine.
Over time, countless others would look to refine the stream pressure models, including an English inventor Thomas Newcomen. However, it would take until 1765 and the work of Scottish instrument maker, James Watt, to seal the fortunes of the steam engine and make it one of the fundamental driving tools that drove change through the industrial revolution. Watt saw flaws in the Newcomen model and refined them to make what has become known as the first functional steam engine – hence him being accredited with the invention.
However, as is so often the case when it comes to inventions, Watt gained fame and fortune largely on the back of work done by countless other people before him – just he made the first successful and widely-used model.
The automobile
The automobile is another invention with a similar story featuring many inventors working on competing systems at the same time, yet just one being largely accredited with the glory.
Even as recently as the early 1900s, the primary method of transport was by horse – yet try and imagine a modern world without the car. Today, cars offer freedom and liberation to countless millions around the world – yet it would take the work of one man to kickstart the development of automobiles and make them a viable and affordable option for the man on the street.
In 1672, Ferdinand Verbeist invented the first steam-powered vehicle, but it would take the work of Karl Benz to come up with what could be considered the first automobile with his invention of a four-stroke gasoline engine. Nonetheless, if you ask many people who they think invented the automobile, don’t be surprised to get the reply, Henry Ford.
Ford’s work pushed the automobile into the mainstream and gave birth to the Ford Motor Company and its now-famous and revered assembly line system. This style of manufacturing slashed both production time and costs, finally making automobiles affordable for the masses.
Indeed, it could be argued that Ford’s greatest achievement wasn’t so much the vehicles he produced but more how he produced them.
The airplane
Speak to pretty much anyone and ask them who invented the plane, and you will almost undoubtedly get the same answer – the Wright Brothers. However, the story of the plane goes back centuries, with many a tragic tale of inventors believing they could emulate birds and achieve flight.
Today, we largely take speedy air travel for granted, but at the turn of the 1900s, the only options for traveling to foreign climes involved lengthy journeys that could take weeks or even months.
While many inventors were making pioneering headway in flying vehicles, most historians agree the earliest pivotal work was performed by Sir George Cayley, who successfully achieved a form of flight with gliders. This early work would provide a great platform for Otto Lilienthal, who refined Cayley’s work to allow for a longer time in the sky and, in turn, the ability to fly longer distances.
Taking both Cayley’s early and Lilienthal’s work, Samuel Langley would then add steam motors to his model, but it was the Wright brothers who successfully launched the first power flight on December 17th, 1903 – a feat that would go on to transform the modern world and change our perceptions of foreign travel forever.
Computers
Many would argue the computer is possibly the greatest invention in history, yet it is another area that has taken years to develop and has been the cumulative work of countless inventors, scientists, and engineers. Certainly, when you consider the offshoots that came as a result of computers (the web, e-commerce, cloud computing, etc.), it’s fair to say that tech has been one of the most transformative inventions of the modern age.
Computers are now an integral part of our daily lives, used for both work and pleasure. Together with the internet, computing and computers have completely changed many aspects of the modern world, transforming everything from how we watch media and find news to how we shop and communicate.
However, perhaps the most intriguing aspect of computers is it could easily be argued we are just at the tip of the iceberg in terms of where computing, the web, and other associated tech could go. Compared to many other revolutionary inventions, computers are still very much in their infancy.
The first binary computer (an electro-mechanical yet programmable model) – the Z1 – was created by Konrad Zuse. However, Alan Turing is widely accredited (rightly in this case) as being the father of modern computing with his machine that still forms the foundation of computer and computing theories.
Of course, significant strides have been made since by countless inventors and companies to the point that computers now form an integral part of the operations of pretty much every business in existence – plus are an invaluable tool in our social lives too. Also, it’s worth remembering that the rather misleading title, ‘smartphone’, actually describes a shrunken down (and much easier to use and fuller-featured) version of desktop computers – and in 2022, it’s estimated just short of 84% of the world’s population has one.
Global Positioning System (GPS) technology
The Global Positioning System (GPS) was originally designed for use by the US military, but, like so many other technologies developed for defense and warfare, over the years, systems trickled down into mainstream use.
Initially, GPS products and software were horrendously expensive, but with greater take-up, prices soon came tumbling. However, the crowning moment of the tech must surely have come with the advent of GPS-touting smartphones.
Nowadays, GPS is used for a huge variety of applications and features in everything from smartphones to smartwatches, shipping containers, and farming vehicles. The tech has found multiple other uses, too, including helping design better cities by monitoring traffic flow as well as maintaining national security.
The age of machines and robots
Once very much the stuff of science fiction movies, over the last decade or so, robots and autonomous machines have reached new levels of sophistication and are beginning to herald a new reality where humans and intelligent, computer-driven bots will soon live in harmony.
While much has been made of this technology’s potential to strip human workers of their jobs, most industry experts suggest that many of the future jobs that could come to be as a result of the new tech have yet to be created. Certainly, one thing is for sure – there’s little point in trying to resist the seemingly unstoppable march of progress in terms of the complexity and sophistication of machines.
Pioneering companies like Boston Dynamics have made incredible progress over recent years in producing robots with almost scary dexterity nearing that of humans. Robots like their BigDog, Spot, Handle, and Atlas are already performing hugely precise and intricate tasks – making this one sector that shows zero signs of slowing.
Aside from robots, tremendous progress has also been made in smart technology – particularly over the last decade. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) have long promised a glittering future of automation but have, until very recently, somewhat spectacularly failed to deliver.
However, with the advances made of late in hardware, programming, and tech, both AI and ML are finally beginning to deliver on their potential. AI is now in common use across a huge variety of industries – everything from Big Data crunching to cybercriminal prevention.
Meanwhile, both technologies are also making inroads into our homes and personal devices. For example, if you use popular platforms like Google Photos or Spotify, both rely on computer intelligence to deliver their personalized, automated services.
The takeout
From the above examples, it should be pretty clear that the majority of inventions aren’t produced by just one person but are instead most commonly the collective work of countless inventors that is refined over the years.
Putting fairness aside, it has become common practice over time that the inventor who makes the most successful or commercially viable model of an innovation normally gains the reputation of the inventor while little recognition is given to those that went before them.
Nevertheless, there is little doubt that the ground-breaking work of these pioneering souls has changed – and will continue to change – our lives for the better.