Medieval and Renaissance Engineering

The talents of the engineer in medieval Europe were largely confined to the design and building of military machines and Fortifications and to the construction of large buildings. At the same time, however, a fascination with the functions of machinery and with the details of engineering processes began to expand engineering knowledge. Beginning with the spread of the printed word in the 15th century, illustrated books of machines and manuals of technical processes were published by many artist-technologists. The notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, filled with sketches of possible and impossible machines, were by no means unique. Notebooks of this kind were kept by builders, architects, and machinists, and were circulated among their colleagues. The German scientist Georgius Agricola (1494-1555) wrote his famous De remetallica (1556) as an illustrated compilation of contemporary mining and metallurgical processes. The Italian Agostino Ramelli (c.1531-1600) published his Le Diverse et Artificiose Machine in 1588; the volume contained illustrations depicting the workings of water powered machines of every variety.

The tradition of the publication of engineering knowledge and theory established by these writers continued for several centuries.

The beginnings of Industrialization

Starting with the Renaissance, engineering knowledge was increasingly based on scientific law in addition to the accumulation of empirical experience. The great scientific theorists of the Renaissance and the early modern era created a body of new knowledge that provided engineer inventors with enormous impetus. In addition, the notion of mechanical invention as the principal means toward industrial progress led many governments to offer rewards to inventive genius and to establish learned societies in which news of the latest discoveries and inventions could be shared.

During the 17th and 18th centuries improvements in basic materials also contributed to engineering progress. Metal especially cast iron, which could be used in machines construction, gradually replaced wood as a building material, and relatively cheap coal and coal and coke began to be used as fuel in place of wood. The rapidly expanding use of coal required an improvement in mining methods and in Transportation; eventually the coal economy inspired the invention and rapid modernization of rail transport.

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