This document summarizes the major ages of human engineering and technology from prehistory to the present. It outlines the Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, pre-scientific revolution, Industrial Revolution, and Information Age. For each age, it provides examples of key technologies developed, such as tools, weapons, transportation, and machinery that were engineered to improve lives. It concludes by suggesting robotics, electrical and bioengineering as potential technologies of the future.

1. Past, Present and Future:
A History of Human Engineering
TE8490: Intro to Engineering

2. Overview of the Ages in Mankind
 Stone Age
 Bronze Age
 Iron Age
 Pre-Scientific Revolution
 Industrial Revolution
 2nd Industrial Revolution
 Information Age  Where we are now

3. Stone Age
<Paleolithic-Mesolithic-Neolithic>

4. Hunters and Gathers
 “Old Stone Age”, “Prehistory”, “Ancient
Era”
 10,000+ - 5,000 years BC
 Engineered tools: fire, clothes,
Arrowheads, baskets, the wheel and
rafts.

5. Neolithic – New Stone Age
 4,500 - 2,000 BC
 Pottery, Statues, cooking tools, stone
axes, grinding stone, houses, loom
and canoes

6. Bronze Age
 2100~ - 1200 BC
 Early human civilizations smelting
smelting its own copper, alloying with
Tin or trading for it.
 The Rise of Civilizations
◦ Ancient Egypt
◦ Ancient Rome/Greece
◦ Chinese Dynasty
◦ Ancient Mayans

7.  Mankind had perfected the art of
crafting stone structures
 From Pyramids to Stone Coliseums
 Using metal to reinforce weapons,
early transportation

8. Seven Wonders of the
World consists of:
The Great Pyramid of
Giza (the most ancient as
well as the only surviving
structure), the Hanging
Gardens of Babylon,
the Temple of Artemis at
Ephesus, the Statue of
Zeus at Olympia,
the Mausoleum of
Maussollos at
Halicarnassus,
the Colossus of Rhodes,
and the Lighthouse of
Alexandria.

9. Iron Age
 1200 BC – 400 AD
 Known for improvements with humans
working with metals and forming better and
improved weapons: (i.e. swords, daggers
as well as better farming equipment)

10. The Separation of the Iron Age to
the Pre Scientific Age
 One thousand years ago, superstition
and the sword ruled.
It was a time of darkness. It was a
world of fear.
 At this time mankind was choosing to
not believe in myth and magic and
scientific reasoning was beginning to
set in.

11. Pre-Scientific Age
 400~ AD – 1500~ AD
 Think medieval times, with bows and
arrows, trebuchet/catapults and siege
engines. Featuring guillitines and broader
studies into the sciences of electricity,
machinery and chemistry.
 Let’s call this a Prelude to Steampunk

12. Industrial Age
 1750s- 1820s~1840s
 Now we are getting to the good stuff.
2nd

13. Poor Working Conditions

14. Second Industrial Revolution
 1860s~1914~
 It is considered to have begun around the time of
the introduction of Bessemer steel in the 1860s
and culminated in early factory electrification, mass
production and the production line.
 Also Railroads, highways, steam power, oil power
 Telegraph, telephone and Radio
 Maritime Surge: Screw Propeller, oscillating
engine, iron steamboat, surface condenser, paddle
wheel and ironclad battleships.

15. Atomic Age
(1945~1954)
 Dropping of
the first
atomic bomb
and
 the Red
Scare/
McCarthyism
(1947-1954)

16. Space Age
(1957~)

17. Information Age
 Also known as the Digital Revolution,
Computer Age, Digital Age
 Late 1970s to the present
 It is the change
from analog, mechanical,
and electronic technology to digital
technology

18. The Future?
 Robotics
 Electrical
 Bioengineering