What is humanity's most impressive feat of engineering?
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What is humanity's most impressive feat of engineering?
Order of Kilopi
For mass production: a multiblade razor, any modern car, a self winding watch. OK some electronic stuff
For a single project:CERN, the Cassini satellite, a pick of high tech buildings,
for solving problems: The water closet, air conditioning, solar panels.
But that's just for starters.
sicut vis videre esto
When we realize that patterns don't exist in the universe, they are a template that we hold to the universe to make sense of it, it all makes a lot more sense.
Originally Posted by Ken G
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Feet of engineering?
Boston Dynamics robots
(sorry, I couldn't resist)
Order of Kilopi
The Onager. Vastly more complicated than the trebuchet, yet at least one thousand years older.
Hey, you already knew what sort of thing was going to impress ME, didn't you?
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.
Order of Kilopi
Oh so that's what t's called? I remember seeing a demo on TV using a bunch of steel rods as the torsion spring and they hurled a piano a fair way.
sicut vis videre esto
When we realize that patterns don't exist in the universe, they are a template that we hold to the universe to make sense of it, it all makes a lot more sense.
Originally Posted by Ken G
Established Member
I am truly sorry but I have to go with the spork and the zipper.
Order of Kilopi
I don't know what a spork is but I used to use the zipper in design lectures. Anybody would be proud to think of the idea of the zipper in a buttoned up world but Gideon Sundback did not just do that, he made a machine to make zippers. Production engineering machines and processes often exhibit the maximum creativity IMO and put so called creatives who paint pictures to shame.
sicut vis videre esto
When we realize that patterns don't exist in the universe, they are a template that we hold to the universe to make sense of it, it all makes a lot more sense.
Originally Posted by Ken G
Established Member
I gotta agree; the Rube Goldbergesque fabrication and manufacturing processes I've seen some tv shows just blows me away. I can't conceive of how minds think that can design these.Originally Posted by profloater
I realize most if not all these manufacturing designs didn't appear full-blown in somebody's mind, but started out simply and then re-hashed and tweaked until SHAZAM! you end up with a super sci-fi automated factory. So yeah, I agree that most engineers could spatter paint on a large canvas whilst nekkid and drinking vodka, but how many "artists" could design a cost effective manufacturing process? (preferably clothed)
Edit: a spork is a spoon with tines like a fork...spork!
Last edited by Hypmotoad; 2017-May-19 at 05:17 PM. Reason: clarity:
Moderator
The problem I always have with these kinds of questions, is what the heck does "impressive" mean.
Most useful? Clever? Complicated? Difficult to design? Wowish?
And what about time frames? Impressive in 27 BC is not impressive in 2017.
Is the engineering in the design or in the execution?
A lot of people in real design and engineering work will tell you is what is impressive is giving the customer what they want, for a reasonable price, on time, and with a design and function that makes whatever they are doing a better or easier task.
A doorknob or a tea kettle might not be as "impressive" as the Taj Mahal, but if you make thousands of them cheaply and they work well, that is probably more "impressive".
Moderator Borealis
I'm rather surprised it hasn't been mentioned but my vote goes to the U.S. space programs leading to the Moon landings. Considering the state of technology at the time, the technology they developed, the scope of work, and the time frame, I consider it truly amazing.
On a more personal scale, since I'm a woodworker, I like the example of edged tools like knives, chisels, and hand planes. As simple as the concept is, the knife is amazingly adaptable in design and application, each numbering in the thousands. They can be both utilitarian and objet d'art. Chisels...I find few things more satisfying to use than a well made, finely honed chisel...except maybe a hand plane, which is really just a big chisel in a convenient holder. I'm awed by what Japanese master craftsman accomplish (video, 1:19) with elegantly simple wooden planes. For me though, the culmination rests in the Stanley-patterned offerings of Veritas and Lie-Nielsen.
I'm also a fan of the straight razor. As impressive as the engineering and manufacture of multi-blade razors may be, they are an abomination and must be destroyed.
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Man is a tool-using animal. Nowhere do you find him without tools; without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all. — Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)
Order of Kilopi
Let's see : super refined spring steel ( first chronometer for marine navigation ) , the compass , ceramics , glass ( how about that microscope and the telescope my friends ) , steam , stellite, carbide, ...how about concrete , how about creosote ? ( They used to have to re-build railroad trestles every 5 years or so for rot ...and then creosote, how about the miniature water/air turbine dentist's drill ?
How about portland cement, bricks, laminated structural timber, epoxy , vacuum tubes , the magnetron ( radar...all types ) ,
how about the Ship's inertial navigation system ? The bicycle? The tire? the pneumatic tire ?
The list is as long as a telephone pole. And all because someone said to themselves...." there must be a better way " .
Dan
Order of Kilopi
I have mentioned this before and it got no traction then but:
one of the hardest projects I ever worked on was the railway brake adjuster. This device takes up and pays out slack in a tie rod that applies the brakes on a train. The brake itself needs a controlled gap to work properly and heat and wear change the gap. The device has no power input and operates in a truly harsh environment. The originator is unknown, probably an unsung railway engineer in the 19th C. It took a long time to really understand how it worked with screws and springs and clutches and even longer to try to improve it for modern trains. Almost no-one even knows it exists, but it's still an essential element of transport design.
By comparison Ford's epicyclic model T gearbox, somewhat similar in some ways is a cinch but still a marvel of invention.
sicut vis videre esto
When we realize that patterns don't exist in the universe, they are a template that we hold to the universe to make sense of it, it all makes a lot more sense.
Originally Posted by Ken G
Order of Kilopi
Second to aircraft carriers, the Space Shuttle was most likely the most complex beastie ever made
Some favorites:
http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/8...-zero-purpose/
http://www.funnyjunk.com/Top+7+most+...tures/5437224/
https://www.automationworld.com/help...-manufacturing
Member
The highest engineering achievement for the present moment is rocket-robots- the technological basis for exploring all corners of the universe (not only) - only a good organization and money is missing. If all money from an international weapon race would spend on astronautics we would have now our colonies not only on the Moon or Mars, but also on some Jupiter or Saturn moons.
Order of Kilopi
The first ones that come to my mind:
1. Printing presses as they emerged during the decades following the Civil War. The ones on display at the Smithsonian museums just blew my mind.
2. Big ships, as working pieces of machinery.
I find these every bit as impressive as the electronic technology that has emerged during the past few decades.
Established Member
These.
Established Member
For me, the greatest invention in history is the Gutenburg press.
Essentially bootstrapped global civilization.
Member
You are absolutely right - the Gutenberg press. That today unsuited for the fact that it replaced hand-slow small productions (books) with mass automated production, and what should have been more advanced use in current development and production of ... solar panels, rockets ... for further much faster acceleration of exploration of space and ... our bodies.
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Moonnow,
Your latest two posts in this thread violate our rules in regard to political content and off-topic posting in promotion of your agenda, which you were previous warned to stop. Please drop it. Now.
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Man is a tool-using animal. Nowhere do you find him without tools; without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all. — Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)
Order of Kilopi
International Space Station
The Internet
The Three Gorges Dam
United States' Interstate Highway System
Thermonuclear bombs - they shouldn't exist as weapons, but their sheer power is incredible. Hopefully we'll use them for huge Orion drives someday, when we've outgrown our psychotic childhood.
Last edited by SkepticJ; 2017-May-19 at 09:44 PM.
Calm down, have some dip. - George Carlin
Order of Kilopi
Food preservation technology. I can eat food from all over the world every day.
Established Member
The LHC.
Member
Hands down - the Internet. Or Arpanet, if you are as old as me.
Think about it - a global "entity", with billions of self-managed components, which is self-healing and self-configuring. Completely redundant and immune to physical attack. In fact, it was designed to withstand a nuclear war, after the initial concept was proven by academics. Of course, that original design has been subjugated in the decades since, with many choke points and single points of failure, put in place by the commercial backbone carriers in order to reduce costs and increase profits. I guess that made it commercially viable.
Last edited by Krankor; 2017-May-26 at 05:06 PM.
Order of Kilopi
The wheel?
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I may have many faults, but being wrong ain't one of them. - Jimmy Hoffa
Order of Kilopi
The new London cross rail tunnel and train system, one of the most complex civil engineering projects in the world intersecting with an existing, still operating rail system.
sicut vis videre esto
When we realize that patterns don't exist in the universe, they are a template that we hold to the universe to make sense of it, it all makes a lot more sense.
Originally Posted by Ken G
Order of Kilopi
The Tesla factory is something to behold.
The science channel had a special on it (Impossible Engineering)
http://www.sciencechannel.com/tv-sho...ury-upgrade-2/
From the wiki:
"The manufacturing process uses more than 160 specialist robots, including 10 of the largest robots in the world, which are named after X-Men characters. Many of the Model S's unique components, including the battery pack, battery module, and drive units are manufactured in-house. The plant has a high level of integration compared with other modern car assembly plants, with most processes taking place within the Tesla Factory. This includes most of the stamping and machining, painting, and some coding. The hydraulic press lines used to stamp 5,000 body panels per day with a force of 10,000 tonnes, are the largest in North America and the 6th largest in the world."
The largest is in China: http://imgur.com/NblCszN
That's about half a Borg ship all by itself.
Last edited by publiusr; 2017-May-26 at 09:10 PM.
Established Member
Only versions 5 or less before they became tablet sized.
Order of Kilopi
Boeing 747. The original one. What an achievement.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.
Established Member
There are various ways to measure this, so there's no single correct answer. However a modern CPU chip is one of the most complex things ever made by mankind. They are much more complex than a 747 or Space Shuttle, in fact the Intel R&D budget required to facilitate these chips is several times that of Boeing: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...l-makes-a-chip
Another type of less-obvious complexity and engineering achievement is computer software. Google's entire codebase is about two billion lines and 86 terabytes: http://bgr.com/2015/09/18/size-of-go...ce-code-lines/
These illustrate that huge engineering achievements need not be of a physically large, mechanical or industrial nature. If a software system was ever devised that successfully implemented Artificial General Intelligence, that would likely be the most complex engineering achievement ever, yet it would be of a non-material nature.
Member
I already replied. However, on second thought, I would have to say that the ability to produce fire on demand, probably with a spark from a flint stone, would be number one. This led to cooking of food, which made high quality protein much more readily available in large, digestible quantities, which provided the raw materials needed to grow a much larger brain. It would also enable building of muscle mass, making early humans stronger and able to more easily dominate other species, especially for food.
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