Engineers are the people who have built our world. Everything we use today was at one point nothing but an idea in someone’s head, that was successfully designed and built. So who are the best engineers throughout history?
10. Nicolaus Otto
Nicolaus Otto developed the four-stroke or Otto-cycle engine and the first internal combustion engine, where fuel is burned directly in the piston chamber. The Otto-cycle is still used in the internal combustion engines that run all of our cars today. Despite developing the engine, it was Otto’s peers such as Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz who first apply it to locomotion, forever changing how people move around the world.
9. Archimedes of Syracuse
With Archimedes it’s difficult to separate the legend from the man. The engineering feats he is rumored to have accomplished include a mirror death-ray and a crane capable of lifting and smashing Roman ships, although they probably never existed. He did improve the catapult, develop levers and pulleys, and invent the Archimedean Screw, a device used to raise water for irrigation or mining. He also calculated pi and developed many mathematical insights without which modern engineering would be impossible.
8. Mikhail Kalashnikov
While much of Kalashnikov’s AK-47 was borrowed from other guns, his simplification of their designs to make a nearly flawlessly functioning rifle was his genius. The gun is cheap to manufacture, easy to use, and hard to break. It’s hard to argue with success, after 57 years the AK-47 is still in production, and there are dozens of different varieties from shotguns to sniper rifles and the familiar assault rifle. It is arguably one of the best guns in history, and definitely one of the most influential. After all, what other gun has African children named for it?
7. Alan Turing
Alan Turing developed the binary architecture now used in all computers, as well as much of the theory behind computers. He is regarded as the father of computer science. The computer you’re currently using would not exist without his contributions to the field. He also broke the German Enigma code during WWII, without which victory would have been far more difficult, if not impossible. After the war he made many other contributions to code making and breaking. While he never really built anything physical, his enormous influence in computer science earned him a place in the top ten.
6. Wilbur and Orville Wright
A clear indication of engineering brilliance is when you essentially invent your field. Other pioneers of flight came before them whose work was invaluable, but it was the Wrights who truly created aeronautical engineering. In a time when people thought of the mechanics of flight as ground locomotion in the air, the Wright brothers saw it as something wholly new. Their development of the three axis control system was necessary to fly controllably. They were also the first to really look at propeller design and aerodynamics. Their work profoundly changed the world.
5. Hero of Alexandria
This man could have started the Industrial Revolution in 50 AD with the invention of the Aeolipile, a form of steam or jet engine where jets of steam spin a ball. However, he failed to realize what the device could do, and thought of it as nothing but a toy. Some have speculated that the abundance of slave labor negated any need for a labor-saving device, so no one applied his device in the manner of the Industrial Revolution. Hero also wrote many works on subjects ranging from pneumatics to mathematics to physics.
4. James Watt
James Watt’s incarnation of the steam engine ushered in the Industrial Revolution. His centrifugal governor kept the engine running at the desired rate, and is a modification so simple and elegant that it may be one of the best ideas of all time. The governor was only one of his countless modifications to one of the most influential devices of all time. Watt’s perfection of one of the most important devices in history easily puts him in the top ten engineers.
3. Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla is perhaps the greatest electrical engineer of all time. His inventions include fluorescent lighting, the Tesla coil, the induction motor, and 3-phase electricity. He developed the AC-current generation system comprised of a motor and a transformer. Some have said that he “invented the 20th century.” Unfortunately, he became something of a mad scientist in his later years, and died in obscurity, but his invaluable contributions are remembered today.
2. Thomas Edison
Edison is the most prolific inventor in history, holding a record 1,097 patents. He developed the phonograph, incandescent light bulb, stock ticker, motion picture camera and projector, and hundreds more. He also created the first electrical plant and distribution infrastructure. Without these inventions, modern life is almost inconceivable.
1. Leonardo da Vinci
Perhaps the most visionary man of all time, Leonardo foresaw everything from the helicopter to the tank to the submarine. Modern engineers have proven that many of his designs, including bridges, hang-gliders, transmissions, parachutes, and more would have worked had they been built. There have been few individuals in the history of engineering who have designed so many revolutionary devices that actually worked. Leonardo is, by far, the greatest engineer of all time.
Honorable Mentions:
43 Comments
For those who believe Tesla
For those who believe Tesla is forgotten have obviously not been to a college engineering/physics class. Tesla is the name of a unit of measure.
Edison is the forgotten name in true science. But, as mentioned, Edison is important to the concept of R&D and modern entrepreneurship.
Edison's importance
Sad to think that people discount Edison because of their support instead for Tesla. The reality is that Edison's truest contribution is the "invention" of commercial R&D. Edison's lab itself should be the concept that Edison gets most credit for, in my mind.
Innovation now is by corporate entity as much as by lone geniuses puttering away in their garage laboratories... We can fight all we want about who is the greatest inventor of all time, and who should or should not be included, but the modern reality is that very few people push the envelope without a lot of help; Edison understood this early on. His detractors underscore the fact that he couldn't have gotten the credit he has without help, which is true but they ignore Edison's deliberate effort to brute force the process that has become the model for corporate R&D departments today.
If Henry Ford's development of the assembly line is his signature achievement, and the Wright brother's invention of a new industry puts them on this list, Edison certainly should get credit for making the art of invention something of an assembly line process, even if it meant he took the credit that one or more of his assistants actually deserved. How different is that from proprietary R&D agreements most corporate entities routinely force their R&D employees to sign? Bell Labs developed the transistor. Phillips and Sony developed the Compact Disc. We give credit to companies nowadays, not individual inventors, (infomercials notwithstanding...)
Nobody sings the one about "building a better mousetrap..." much anymore, do they? The world merely beats a path to the nearest gadget retailer's door, not the inventor's.
You Forgot This One...
Doesc anyone remember someone by the name of Alexander Graham Bell???
Stop Complaining!
If you don't like the list, make your own list. BTW, if you spew out a 5-page reply, nobody will read it except you, but how proud you will feel.
Thanks for the interesting post! :)
Dear Complainers: Post a link to YOUR great accomplishments!
Nice list! I'm glad it
Nice list! I'm glad it hasn't been "PC-ized" It list great ones, their achievements and does not berate them for something they "might have" said once, have "quotas" or other PC junk like so many other lists of "Top People" today.
Bessemer, Goddard, Gore
Bessemer invented mass produced steel.
Goddard preceded Von Braun in rocketry
Al Gore invented the Internet!
Watt
Seems as though Watt didn't invent the Centrifugal Governor. It was already in use. He just applied it to steam engines, and that at the suggestion of his business partner.
Thats according to wikipedia though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrifugal_governor
Anyone want to refute?
Exclusions
I wouldn't have included Hero or Leonardo da Vinci. While undoubtedly clever, in an inventive sense they were sterile. Heros invented a steam engine - but no others followed it. It was not until Newcomen re-invented it, and Watt improved it, that steam engines cam into people's lives. Likewise, none of Leonardo's prescient inventions actually led to anything. How about Jaquard - programmable devices; Parsons - turbines; Gutenberg - printing; Morse - electric telegraphy.
- ummm, shut up you whiner!
- ummm, shut up you whiner!
Float glass
I have NO idea who came up with pouring glass out on mercury
in a continuous ribbon of uniform thickness.
Mr. Otis and Mr. Westinghouse ought to be in here somewhere.
The concept and development of fail safe brakes enabled horizontal and vertical expansion of major cities.
it's tin, not mercury
it's tin, not mercury
Pilkington
Pilkington
Tesla
How dare you rank the "hated edison" better than Tesla, without Tesla's AC system we would have very little of what we have today, including air conditioning (DC can't handle the power requirements) nor would we have computers. I believe you should switch the ranks on the 2 of them
I agree here. Telsa is far
I agree here. Telsa is far more significant than Edison. Its time he should be recognized for this. A lot of Edison's patents are not actually his work, but some actually from Telsa when he was working for the Edison company. Many others are also from his companies, rather than himself, or from where he stole the ideas from others who were unable to afford to patent the designs themselves.
I also agree. Tesla is by
I also agree. Tesla is by far the greatest inventor of at least the 20th century. He had wireless technology that preceded Marconi and electrical technology that Edison could never dream of. The only reason he isn't more widely known today is because of the political motions of Edison and J.P. Morgan. He may not deserve the #1 spot, but he definitely deserves to be above Edison.
Top Inventors
GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER, need i say more!
Carver's Contribution
I don't know what I'd feed my kids without his inventions!
You needn't say more, but I
You needn't say more, but I will.
Prof. Carver should definately be on the list. His contribution was the invention of a new science of applied synthetics. Ref: The authors comments on Orvill & Wilbur Wright.
Great List
Alan Turing, Hero of Alexandria, and Nikola Tesla are my three favorite people in history. Alan Turing was a sheer genius, Einstein squared. Hero was building programmable robotic cars, automatic doors, and vending machines in the first century! How awesome is that? Tesla understood electricity like Mozart understood music.
As for the Tesla/Edison debate, Tesla was by far the superior inventor and human being. Also, Edison did not invent the light bulb as is commonly believed. However, he did tinker and improve it. Google it if you don't believe me.
You know, it would be great if we stopped marking the critical periods of history with battles and instead measure them with scientific, technological, and social advancement.
Minor Correction
I forgot about Democritus, the inventor of Democracy and the person who first thought of atomic theory. So actually AT, HA, and NT are three of my four favorite people in history.
Okay, but where is
Okay, but where is Gutenberg? He invented the movable type printing, in my opinion the most important invention in the middle age since it made the worldwide distribution of books for everyone possible.
Gutenberg didn't invent it,
Gutenberg didn't invent it, he saw it during his trip to Korea.
Philo Taylor Farnsworth. Inventor of television
Come you tube suckers! He should be your hero!
Edwin Howard Armstrong, inventor of the superhetorodyne receiver, made radio practical. Also he is the inventor of FM radio, used in TV sound transmission.
Adding Kalashnikov is very correct
Usually he is overlooked, but AK-47 changed world history. The AK-47 was a refinement of a German machine gun. Kalishnikov had 2 excellent captured Nazi machinists that made his work possible.
Leornado did not change history, his work laid dormant for 500 years. His works were rediscovered after people realized that the machine he drew actually worked.
Democritus was more important than Hero, he contributed the idea of the atom, but Hero was a real inventor.
Tesla is the most important inventor of them all, his invention is powering your computer right now, it is the same Tesla AC system patented by him 110 years ago. Edison is also very important, but Tesla initiated the post industrial revolution.
List of Inventors
Thanks for this post.
Western culture, at least, likes lists: and so do I.
I won't even quibble about the inventor of string being left out: after all, that happened in prehistory.
(I'm serious about this: string is a very basic technology, making it possible for an individual to carry more than a handful of items, and forming the basis of cloth: an even more important tool-and-food-carrying technology.)
Everyone keeps forgetting
Everyone keeps forgetting about Johannes Gutenberg. He created the printing press. We would not have the education we have now without his creation.
Johannes Gutenberg's contribution.
Gutenberg is often credited with creating the printing press.
Fact is, his breakthrough invention was movable type.
Presses, in one form or another, had been around for quite a while before JG.
Problem was, each sheet to be printed had to be from a hand-made, one-of-a-kind original master.
JG developed type slugs, individual letters and characters, which could be combined to form a printable page, and then re-used for another page - without having to re-create each letter for the new sheet.
In its own way, it was a precursor of mass production, at the single-character level.
Printing Press
China had a printing press prior to Gutenberg, but since there are so many characters in Chinese, the technology didn't take off.
Also, I think that a press without interchangeable type face doesn't constitute a printing press in the modern sense. Gutenberg's invention would though.
Tesla
Edison should not be on the list.
It is my first post here as I found this forum on very strange way. Toolbar. Well. I was born in former Jugoslavija, country Slovenia. After 19 years abroad am I still confused how little or nothing people out of former Yugoslavian border know about Nikola Tesla. He is legend, he is famous that much that he may not be famous. Edison is writen in historical books instead of Tesla.
But you know dear people in all former Yugoslavian republics are people studying and continuing his work. One for example is in Serbia. He made something against radiation and it helped when NATO (USA) has attack to Serbia 1999.
Another one is in Slovenia. He have very much success with Tesla simbols which are energetic power against stream inside houses and some kind of protectors.
Slavko Gorenc my teacher went so far in multi dimensial space with his measurement and cleaning of biosistems. (People, plants, animals) He named his science Biokibernetika (biocybernetics) How far away from Tesla researches is it I don"t know at all. But part of it is real Tesla, that is the fact. So well. After 50-100 years some people will talk about some BIOCYBER scinece begun in Slovenia 1993 and today we are talking about Tesla. To late, that"s because are we in groups but just drop of us are living outside Slovenian and former Yugoslavian borders.
There is much more and I am still surprised how much public talking about Edison, Einsten etc and there is no word abot Nikola Tesla. Even Ebay has moved out of sale some kind of Tesla shield. It is protecting for sure. But who believes? Laughing
Nothing named here above is patented, but it do not need to be, because it is to complicated for masive production and it must go from word to word.
So well. Here is song. If you are listening it than you will find some kind of Tesla feels, Tesla soul, because country he is come from has it own BIO code as this song have. Click here to watch Tesla
Andres
continuing work
It pleases me to no end that they are working so diligently to continue Tesla's work, history has committed a great crime in mostly overlooking Tesla.
Edison is a very important inventor
He invented entrepreneurialism. People don't realize it. But it's the basis of modern economics.
His light bulb made the tesla system useful.
He invented motion picture camera, a revolutionary invention with extreme far reaching consequences.
file
Oh, file of course.
Andres
http://media.putfile.com/Tesla
Edison? or faraday?
I would have thought none of Edison's 'inventions' would be possible without the amazing contribution of the invention/discovery of electricity by Michael Faraday?
And what of Charles Babbage? Surely his engineering contributions are considered at least par, if not in advance of Turing?
Turing is not an iventor
He is a theoretician. Babbage should be cited.
Edison
Yeah, I definitely agree that Tesla should be above Edison, and I'm not even sure if Edison should be on the list at all.
Edison should not be on this list
I have to correct you on Edison. He may have been a shrude business man but he was not much of an inventor. He simply stole his ideas from other people (mainly Tesla) and launched a smear campain against Tesla in an effort to sell his DC current over Tesla's superior AC current. Edison essentially bought his way into the history books, later becoming idealized by the United States as their greatest inventor when infact he Invented very little.
re: tesla vs. Edison
Edison invented the light bulb. I think. He created a large lab in NJ where many inventors (including Tesla) developed many things. As the owner, Edison gets the credit. That is the core of capitalism. When the minivan was developed, who got credit? The engineers? No, Chrysler as a company and its president, Lee Iaccoca. So, Edison's company developed the phonograph, motion pictures, and 100's more "toys". Edison gets the credit.
Ford - Henry Ford. The concept of mass assembly is a big one. As with Turing, its not the pure technologies that matter, but the systems, techniques, and concepts that grow from the technology that are important. Maybe 10 is too short of a list.
So basically; it's not right
So basically; it's not right but we've been going along with it for so long we might as well believe the lie?
Edison screwed Tesla over, he doesn't deserve credit for the inventions, and that's what you're giving him.
that bit about edison being
that bit about edison being a jerk and stealing stuff from tesla is true. he is also rumored to have set up a firebombing of tesla's laboratories and to have ripped off tesla for $100,000 on a project.
That's very interesting. I
That's very interesting. I did not know about this Tesla/Edison conflict. I am going to look into this. I always viewed Edison as a very hardworking and good person.
Edison was very hardworking
Edison was very hardworking in the fact that he sought out others inventions and patented them as his own.
Edison, Tesla, and Space Aliens
Edison and Tesla were contemporaries, more or less, and rivals.
Apparently Tesla has fans to this day.
Just to add a little nonsense to what could be a very serious debate, how's this:
They were both space aliens. "Tesla," whose real name was BviZNik, was later re-assigned the role of Elvis, and is now an undercover hairdresser/alien agent in Arlington, VA.
Now you did it!
You put it on the internets, so now it has to be true!
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