The document summarizes key engineering inventions throughout history including airplanes, highways, electricity, clean water, computers, and the telephone. It then discusses the importance of buildings, warfare, and military technology to civilizations. Major engineering advances in transportation, infrastructure, energy and information networks are highlighted as transforming civilization and enabling global connectivity.

1. Humanities
Lecture (2)

2. Engineering and
civilization History of the most important
engineering Inventions
Buildings
War
Military
Technology

3. The level of advancement of a civilization is often measured by
its progress in agriculture, long-distance trade, occupational
specialization, and urbanism.
Aside from these core elements, a civilization is often marked
by any combination of a number of secondary elements, including
a developed transportation system, writing, standardized
measurement, currency, legal systems, characteristic art and
architecture, mathematics, enhanced scientific understanding,
metallurgy, political structures, and an astronomical
understanding.

4. 6 of the Best Engineering Inventions of
All Time:
• Airplanes
• Highways
• Electricity
• Clean Water
• Computers
• Telephone

5. Airplanes
Most of us credit the Wright
Brothers for their aviation breakthrough
when they launched the first controlled
powered flight, on December 17, 1903.
Technically, Sir George Cayley built the first true airplane in
1799.
Not to knock the automobile, but the airplane undoubtedly
revolutionized travel as we know it. The burdens of traveling
across the country became more tolerable — what once
took days or weeks is now possible in mere hours.

6. Highways (Roads)
In a 1922 , General Motors founder William Durant said, “Most
of us will live to see this whole country covered with a network
of motor highways built from point to point as the bird flies, the
hills cut down, the dales bridged over, the obstacles removed.”
It wasn’t long after this that his vision started to take shape, and
now the United States has the largest network of highways in
the world. As much as we like to complain about traffic, try
imagining your morning rush hour without a reliable network of

7. Royal Road
In 500 BC, Darius I the Great started an extensive road system for
Persia (Iran), including the famous Royal Road which was one of
the finest highways of its time. The road was used even after the
Roman times. Because of the road's superior quality, mail carriers
could travel 2,699 kilometres (1,677 mi) in seven days.
Roman roads
With the advent of the Roman Empire, there was a need for armies
to be able to travel quickly from one area to another, and the roads
that existed were often muddy, which greatly delayed the
movement of large masses of troops. To resolve this issue, the
Romans built great roads.`

8. Early tar-paved roads
In the medieval Islamic world, many roads were built
throughout the Arab Empire. The most sophisticated roads were
those of the Baghdad, Iraq, which were paved with tar in the 8th
century.

9. Electricity
Electricity has existed all along in some form
rubbing two stones together to create a spark,
lightning, etc.
but it was merely scientific theory until
innovators like Thomas Edison effectively
turned it into something essential to our
modern life: the light bulb.
And today, electricity literally powers our
world, thanks in part to Nikola Tesla’s
invention of alternating current (AC)
technology that made transmitting electricity
over long distances possible. It’s what allows
us to heat our homes, see in the dark and
enjoy many modern conveniences.

10. Clean Water
Of the roughly 70 percent of the Earth’s surface that is
covered in water, less than 1 percent is suitable for
human consumption, yet it is one of the most
essential elements to our survival.

11. Computers
First mechanical computer or automatic computing engine
concept. In 1822, Charles Babbage purposed and began developing
the Difference Engine, considered to be the first automatic
computing engine that was capable of computing several sets of
numbers and making a hard copies of the results.
First programmable computer
The Z1, originally created by Germany's Konrad Zuse in his
parents living room in 1936 to 1938 is considered to be the first
electro-mechanical binary programmable (modern) computer and
really the first functional computer.

12. Telephone
The telephone has come a
long way since Alexander
Graham Bell introduced it in
1876. He probably didn’t
envision that more than 135
years later, it would be as
indispensable to our society as
it is. Nor did he imagine that it
would fit in our pocket and
connect us to a world of
information through our
fingertips.

13. The first words ever uttered through a telephone
occurred in Bell’s lab with his assistant Thomas Watson
who reported to have heard Bell saying “Mr. Watson, come
here, I want to see you”.
The techniques which were developed by Alexander
Graham Bell and Thomas Watson had directly led to the
first commercial telephone services only a year after the
registration of Bell’s patent.
The citizens of Boston city were the first to benefit in
1877 with the first telephones being installed.
The first entered service in 1878 in New Haven. The
United States boasted nearly 50,000 telephones within the
first three years of commercial telephone service being
available.

14. Information Technology
Around 1980, computers with integrated circuits on a
single chip started to become available as an
affordable item, specifically designed for use by
consumers.
The first IBM PC was released in 1981.
Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) appeared in the
late 1980s.
Information technology has also shifted from
focusing on single computers to networks of
computers, as the years have passed and technology
has advanced.

15. Information technology has brought us the
Internet. The web has quickly grown to
become a primary choice in order for people
to communicate whether it be through email
or instant messaging services.
Since the mid-1990s the Internet has had a
drastic impact on culture and commerce,
including the rise of near-instant
communication by electronic mail, instant
messaging, "phone calls", two-way
interactive video calls, and the World Wide
Web with its discussion forums, blogs, social
networking, and online shopping sites. The
research and education community
continues to develop and use advanced
networks

16. Builings are signs of Civilization!!!

17. War

18. According to Conway W. Henderson, "One source claims 14,500
wars have taken place between 3500 BC and the late 20th century,
costing 3.5 billion lives, leaving only 300 years of peace"
In War Before Civilization, Lawrence H. Keeley, a professor at the
University of Illinois, says that approximately 90–95% of known
societies throughout history engaged in at least occasional warfare,
and many fought constantly
60,000,000–72,000,000 - World War II (1939–1945)
36,000,000 - An Shi Rebellion (China, 755–763)
30,000,000–60,000,000 - Mongol Conquests (13th century)
This may be due to significant recent advances in weapons
technologies

19. Military engineering

20. Military engineering
Perhaps the first civilization to have a dedicated force of
military engineering specialists were the Romans, whose army
contained a dedicated corps of military engineers known as
Roman military engineering
The most notable engineers of ancient times were the Romans
and Chinese, who constructed huge siege-machines (battering
rams and siege towers)

21. Military technology

22. Military technology
is the collection of equipment, vehicles, structures and
communication systems that are designed for use in warfare.
It is common for military technology to have been researched
and developed by scientists and engineers specifically for use by
the armed forces. Many new technologies came as a result of the
military funding of science.
There are a significant number of military inventions that are
technologies originally developed and designed for military
purposes, and which are now used by civilians with sometimes
minor or no modifications at all.

23. Vehicles and transports
Military aviation
Warships & Submarines
Military robots Bomb disposal robots
Unmanned ground vehicles
Unmanned combat air vehicles
Sensors and communications Radar
Missile guidance
GPS guidance in guidance weapons