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ENGINEERING IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

During the first decade of the twentieth century, there were a number of significant technological
developments that were destined to have a great impact on our civilization. At the turn of the twentieth
century, inventors and engineers were engaged frantically in attempts to achieve heavier-than-air
flight.
Success came in 1903 when Wilbur and Orville Wright flew their airplane on a journey that lasted 12
seconds and covered a distance of 120 feet (18) (see Figure 1.9.). Since that initial flight, air
transportation has grown to dominate long distance public carrier transport, accounting in 1998 for 91
percent of intercity public passenger-miles of travel in the United States (19). Today, commercial
airliners routinely achieve travel speeds of 550 miles per hour, and transoceanic air travel by
supersonic aircraft has been achieved at speeds up to 1450 miles per hour (18). More than 3000
airports have been built in the United States to accommodate air travel, including approximately 2200
general aviation airports that serve smaller private airplanes. The busiest airport in 1999, Atlanta
Hartsfield, accommodated more than 78 million arriving and departing passengers.
A variety of horseless carriages had been devised by 1900, and by 1904, motor vehicles were being
built in considerable numbers. Henry Ford contributed greatly to the development and popularity of
automobiles by introducing modern mass production and affordable vehicle costs. By the end of the
twentieth century, nearly 9 of every 10 households in the country had a motor vehicle available. More
than one-half of the U.S. households had two or more motor vehicles available for use. A 3.8-millionmile highway system has been developed to accommodate motor vehicle travel. The most
remarkable component of this road network is the 45,500-mile Interstate Highway System, which was
built at a cost of over $100 billion. That system, which was initiated in 1956, accommodates about 23
percent of all vehicular mileage of travel.
In the early 1900s, engineers and scientists introduced several advances in the treatment of water
and sewage, including (20):
Rapid sand filters in reinforced concrete tanks were introduced in New Jersey.
Karl Imhoff demonstrated a large-scale sludge settling and digestion tank that replaced septic
tank usage except for small installations.
Liquid chlorine was first used as a water disinfectant in Fort Meyer, Virginia.
The success of these and other pioneering advancements in environmental engineering is
demonstrated by the decline in annual deaths by typhoid fever from about 10,000 in 1906 to
approximately 200 twenty years later (20). See Figure 1.10.
The first giant construction project to be completed in modern times was the
Panama Canal, which opened in 1914. The canal is about 50 miles in length. It has three sets of
locks, each of which has a length of 1000 feet, a width of 110 feet, and a depth of approximately 70
feet. Before it opened, a ship sailing from New York to San Francisco had to travel more than 13,000
miles around the tip of South America. The canal shortened that journey to about 5200 miles.
Remarkable progress has been achieved in this century in the construction of innumerable bridges
and buildings. Illustrations of the achievements in structural design and construction include:

1931 The Empire State Building, New York City, with a height of 1250 feet.
At the time of its construction, it was the worlds tallest building by 20 stories.
1931 The George Washington Bridge, New York City, with a length of 3500 feet. When it opened, its
span nearly doubled the prior record (see Figure 1.11).
1974 The Sears Tower, Chicago, Illinois, with a height of 1450 feet.
Other twentieth century engineering achievements focused on water resources. One example of this
progress is the Hoover Dam, which was completed in 1936. At the time of its construction, this
pioneering concrete dam with a height of 726 feet was the worlds highest. Another example of
progress in water resources management was the remarkable flood control, navigation, and power
projects of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Created in 1933, the TVA brought to the Tennessee
Valley flood control, cheap power, and industrial growth.
Shortly after World War II, design and feasibility studies were made on the generation of electrical
energy by nuclear means. The first nuclear power generating station was placed in operation in 1967
(1). Nuclear power had become economically competitive with fossil fuel power, and by 1998, 104
nuclear units were generating 674 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in the United States, accounting
for 21 percent of the nations energy production (21).
Typically, in a commercial nuclear power generating station, heat is generated by the fission of a
nuclear material such as uranium 235. The heat is removed by a steam generator, and the steam is
used to drive a turbine and an alternator that generates electricity. Two major challenges have faced
the designers of nuclear power stations: (1) providing appropriate safeguards (e.g., adequate
shielding, closed-cycle cooling systems) against radioactive emissions; and (2) devising a protective
containment structure to limit the effects of an explosion. Figure 1.12 illustrates a modern nuclear
power generating station.
The twentieth century has been characterized by unparalleled technological development and
change. The quickening pace of discovery is, perhaps, most

apparent in the field of electronics. In this century, the primitive transmission of signals has been
replaced by modern communications networks with massive switching systems using electronic
components (1). Since the invention of the transistor in 1947, semiconductor devices have in large

measure replaced vacuum tubes as amplifying devices for electronic signals. The transistor and
semiconductor diode have led to great reductions in the size of electronic equipment. The advent of
inexpensive integrated circuits, mass produced on tiny silicon chips, has brought revolutionary
changes in electronic design (see Figure 1.13). Along with miniaturization, such devices have
provided reliable and rapid transmission of signals through circuits and led to the development of
faster switching circuits and digital computers (1, 14).

Because of space limitations, we have only been able to briefly describe a few of the extraordinary
achievements of engineers during the twentieth century.
It is hoped that the examples described will convey to the reader some of the excitement and
challenges associated with an engineering career. Looking to the future, engineers will face a host of
complex problems of far-reaching consequence, including:
1. Discovery, development and utilization of alternative sources of energy to replace the worlds
dwindling supplies of coal and petroleum.
2. Development of ways to maintain and rehabilitate the nations vast deteriorating public works
infrastructure.
3. Further development of microcomputer technology and extension of its applications.
4. Development of technology to further increase agricultural productivity to cope with growing world
population and hunger.
5. Design of structures that are more resistant to earthquakes, storms, and other ravages of nature.
6. Development of better ways to manage the disposal of hazardous wastes, including the radioactive
wastes that accompany the production of nuclear power.
7. Exploration of interplanetary space and discovery of applications of space research to military and
peaceful uses.

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