The engineering book [electronic resource] : from the catapult to the Curiosity Rover : 250 milestones in the history of engineering / Marshall Brain.

30,000 BCE Bow and Arrow -- 3300 BCE Hunter/Gatherer Tools -- 2550 BCE The Great Pyramid -- 2000 BCE Inuit Technology -- 1400 BCE Concrete -- 625 BCE Asphalt -- 438 BCE Parthenon -- 312 BCE Roman Aqueduct System -- 100 BCE Waterwheel -- 79 Pompeii -- 1040 Compass -- 1144 Basilica of Saint Denis -- 1300 Catapult -- 1372 Leaning Tower of Pisa -- 1492 Square-Rigged Wooden Sailboats -- 1600 The Great Wall of China -- 1620 Gunter's Chain -- 1670 Mechanical Pendulum Clock -- 1750 Simple Machines at Yates Mill -- 1773 Building Implosions -- 1784 Power Loom -- 1790 Cotton Mill -- 1794 Cotton Gin -- 1800 High-Pressure Steam Engine -- 1823 Truss Bridge -- 1824 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute -- 1825 Erie Canal -- 1830 Tom Thumb Steam Locomotive -- 1835 Combine Harvester -- 1837 Telegraph System -- 1845 Mass Production -- 1845 Tunnel Boring Machine -- 1846 Sewing Machine -- 1851 America's Cup -- 1854 Water Treatment -- 1855 Bessemer Process -- 1856 Plastic -- 1858 Big Ben -- 1859 Oil Well -- 1859 Modern Sewer System -- 1860 Louisville Water Tower -- 1861 Wamsutta Oil Refinery -- 1861 Elevator -- 1869 Transcontinental Railroad -- 1873 Cable Cars -- 1876 Telephone -- 1878 Power Grid -- 1879 Carbon Fiber -- 1885 Supercharger and Turbocharger -- 1885 Washington Monument -- 1886 Statue of Liberty -- 1889 Eiffel Tower -- 1889 Hall-Héroult Process -- 1890 Steam Turbine -- 1891 Carnegie Hall -- 1891 Zuiderzee Works -- 1893 Two-Stroke Diesel Engine -- 1893 Ferris Wheel -- 1897 Diesel Locomotive -- 1899 Defibrillator 1902 Air Conditioning -- 1903 EKG/ECG -- 1903 The Wright Brothers' Airplane -- 1905 Engineered Lumber -- 1907 Professional Engineer Licensing -- 1908 Internal Combustion Engine -- 1910 Laparoscopic Surgery -- 1912 Titanic -- 1913 Woolworth Building -- 1914 Panama Canal -- 1917 Laser -- 1917 Hooker Telescope -- 1919 Women's Engineering Society -- 1919 Under Friction Roller Coaster -- 1920 Kinsol Trestle Bridge -- 1920 Radio Station -- 1921 Robot -- 1926 Heart-Lung Machine -- 1927 Electric Refrigeration -- 1931 Empire State Building -- 1935 Tape Recording -- 1936 Hoover Dam -- 1937 Golden Gate Bridge -- 1937 Hindenburg -- 1937 Turbojet Engine -- 1937 Magnetically Levitated Train -- 1938 Formula One Car -- 1939 Norden Bombsight -- 1939 Color Television -- 1940 Tacoma Narrows Bridge -- 1940 Radar -- 1940 Titanium -- 1941 Doped Silicon -- 1942 Spread Spectrum -- 1943 Dialysis Machine -- 1943 SCUBA -- 1944 Helicopter -- 1945 Uranium Enrichment -- 1945 Trinity Nuclear Bomb -- 1946 ENIAC : The First Digital Computer -- 1946 Top-Loading Washing Machine -- 1946 Microwave Oven -- 1946 Light Water Reactor -- 1947 AK-47 -- 1947 Transistor -- 1948 Cable TV -- 1949 Tower Crane -- 1949 Atomic Clock -- 1949 Integrated Circuit -- 1950 Chess Computer -- 1951 Jet Engine Testing -- 1952 Center-Pivot Irrigation -- 1952 3D Glasses -- 1952 Ivy Mike Hydrogen Bomb -- 1953 Automobile Airbag -- 1956 Hard Disk -- 1956 TAT-1 Undersea Cable -- 1957 Frozen Pizza -- 1957 Space Satellite -- 1958 Cabin Pressurization -- 1959 Desalination -- 1960 Cleanroom -- 1961 T1 Line -- 1961 Green Revolution -- 1962 SR-71 -- 1962 Atomic Clock Radio Station -- 1963 Retractable Stadium Roof -- 1963 Irradiated Food 1964 Top Fuel Dragster -- 1964 Drip Irrigation -- 1964 Natural Gas Tanker -- 1964 Bullet Train -- 1965 Gateway Arch in St. Louis -- 1965 Cluster Munition -- 1966 Compound Bow -- 1966 Parafoil -- 1966 Pebble Bed Nuclear Reactor -- 1966 Dynamic RAM -- 1967 Automotive Emission Controls -- 1967 Apollo 1 -- 1967 Saturn V Rocket -- 1968 C-5 Super Galaxy -- 1968 Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet -- 1969 Lunar Landing -- 1969 ARPANET -- 1969 Space Suit -- 1970 LCD Screen -- 1970 Apollo 13 -- 1970 Fiber Optic Communication -- 1971 Anti-Lock Brakes -- 1971 Lunar Rover -- 1971 Microprocessor -- 1971 CANDU Reactor -- 1971 CT Scan -- 1971 Power Plant Scrubber -- 1971 Kevlar -- 1972 Genetic Engineering -- 1973 World Trade Center -- 1975 Router -- 1976 The Concorde -- 1976 CN Tower -- 1976 VHS Videotape -- 1977 Human-Powered Airplane -- 1977 Tuned Mass Damper -- 1977 Voyager Spacecraft -- 1977 Trans-Alaska Pipeline -- 1977 MRI -- 1978 Nitrous Oxide Engine -- 1978 Bagger 288 -- 1979 Seawise Giant Supertanker -- 1980 Flash Memory -- 1980 M1 Tank -- 1980 Stadium TV Screen -- 1981 Bigfoot Monster Truck -- 1981 Space Shuttle Orbiter -- 1981 V-22 Osprey -- 1982 Artificial Heart -- 1982 Neodymium Magnet -- 1983 RFID Tag -- 1983 F-117 Stealth Fighter -- 1983 Mobile Phone -- 1983 Gimli Glider -- 1983 Ethernet -- 1984 3D Printer -- 1984 Domain Name Service (DNS) -- 1984 Surgical Robot -- 1984 Container Shipping -- 1984 Itaipu Dam -- 1985 Bath County Pumped Storage -- 1985 International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) -- 1985 Virtual Reality -- 1986 Chernobyl -- 1986 Apache Helicopter -- 1990 World Wide Web -- 1990 The Hubble Space Telescope -- 1991 Lithium Ion Battery -- 1991 Biosphere 2 1992 Low-Flow Toilet -- 1992 Stormwater Management -- 1993 Keck Telescope -- 1993 Doom Engine -- 1994 Channel Tunnel -- 1994 Digital Camera -- 1994 Global Positioning System (GPS) -- 1994 Kansai International Airport -- 1995 Toy Story Animated Movie -- 1996 Ariel Atom -- 1996 HDTV -- 1997 Prius Hybrid Car -- 1998 International Space Station -- 1998 Large Hadron Collider -- 1998 Smart Grid -- 1998 Iridium Satellite System -- 1999 Wi-Fi -- 2001 Segway -- 2003 A Century of Innovation -- 2004 Millau Viaduct -- 2005 Bugatti Veyron -- 2005 Georgia Aquarium -- 2006 Palm Islands -- 2006 AMOLED Screen -- 2007 Smart Phone -- 2008 Quadrotor -- 2008 Carbon Sequestration -- 2008 Engineering Grand Challenges -- 2008 Martin Jet Pack -- 2008 Three Gorges Dam -- 2009 National Ignition Facility -- 2009 Earthquake-Safe Buildings -- 2009 US President's Limousine -- 2010 Solar Impulse Airplane -- 2010 BP Blowout Preventer Failure -- 2010 Burj Khalifa -- 2010 Harry Potter Forbidden Journey Ride -- 2010 Alta Wind Energy Center -- 2010 Tablet Computer -- 2010 The X2 and X3 Helicopters -- 2011 Fukushima Disaster -- 2011 Self-Driving Car -- 2011 Instant Skyscraper -- 2011 Watson -- 2012 Curiosity Rover -- 2012 Human-Powered Helicopter -- 2013 NCSU BookBot -- 2014 Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System -- 2016 Venice Flood System -- c. 2020 Vactrains -- c. 2024 Brain Replication -- c. 2030 Mars Colony -- c. 3000 Things We Have Yet to Engineer. -- Notes and further reading -- Index -- Photo credits.

Engineering is where human knowledge meets real-world problems--and solves them. It's the source of some of our greatest inventions, from the catapult to the jet engine, from the cell phone to the Large Hadron Collider. Marshall Brain, creator of the How Stuff Works series, provides a detailed look at 250 milestones in aerospace, architecture, chemistry, computer engineering, and more, from ancient history to the present.