TABLE OF CONTENTS Engineering was initiated by the human imagination to serve a human purpose. The objective in this introductory Part A is to identify a framework for this human activity as an aid in thinking about engineering and its implications.
The first documented reference to a term suggestive of the presently conventional meaning of the word engineer or engineering can be traced to early Roman times when the Latin expression ingenium was used to suggest some ingenious attribute of an object or a person. Soon after, this term was specialized to characterize an ingenious device useful for exceptional and important purposes. Eventually, its derivative ingeniator was applied to a person possessing an innovative mind and skillful hands in the making of such devices.
Though the Romans may be credited with assigning a label to individuals who were both clever and dexterous in the making of useful devices, they did not invent the practice of making ingenious devices. The primal instinct for innovative artifacts and the skills required in their making, had emerged during the earliest stirrings of the human imagination. Indeed, one may identify a long and systemic progression of such activities as suggested by the following: from prehistoric making of stone tools to the building of ancient pyramids; from medieval construction of cathedrals and fortresses to the intricate crafting of mechanical clocks and moveable-type printing; from isolated discoveries of glass lenses and iron casting to...
