The Innovators, College The Engineering Pioneers who Transformed America

by Billington, David P.

• ISBN13: 9780471140962
• ISBN10: 0471140961
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-06-05
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

A richly illustrated introduction to the engineering triumphs that made America modern In this age of microchips and deep space probes, it's hard to imagine life before electricity or passenger trains. An astonishing series of engineering innovations paved the way to the twentieth century, and transformed America into the world's mightiest industrial power. The Innovators tells the exciting story of the engineering pioneers whose discoveries so dramatically altered commerce, industry, and world history. The book takes readers into the workshops of America's early engineering geniuses, explaining how they came up with their ideas and later applied them in the marketplace. Devotees of history and technology will appreciate the finely drawn profiles of America's technical wizards, from the famous--including Robert Fulton, the inventor of the steamboat; Samuel F.B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph; and Thomas Edison, inventor of the first electrical power network--to the lesser known, such as J. Edgar Thompson, who built the Pennsylvania Railroad. * From the author of the critically acclaimed The Tower and the Bridge * Features over 80 illustrations of the engineers and their inventions DAVID P. BILLINGTON (Princeton, New Jersey), a professor of civil engineering at Princeton University, is the author of The Tower and the Bridge, and Robert Maillart's Bridges: The Art of Engineering, which won the 1979 Dexter Prize as the outstanding book on the history of technology.

Author Biography

DAVID P. BILLINGTON, Professor of Civil Engineering at Princeton University, is the author of The Tower and the Bridge and Robert Maillart's Bridges: The Art of Engineering, winner of the 1979 Dexter Prize as the outstanding book on the history of technology.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	v	(2)
Preface	vii
Part I Iron, Steam, and Early Industry, 1776-1855	1	(94)
Chapter 1 Modern Engineering and the Transformation of America	3	(18)
Chapter 2 Watt, Telford, and the British Beginnings	21	(20)
Chapter 3 Fulton's Steamboat and the Mississippi	41	(26)
Chapter 4 Lowell and the American Industrial Revolution	67	(12)
Chapter 5 Francis and the Industrial Power Network	79	(16)
Part II Crossing the Continent, 1830-1883	95	(126)
Chapter 6 The Stephensons, Thomson, and the Eastern Railroads	97	(22)
Chapter 7 Henry, Morse, and the Telegraph	119	(20)
Chapter 8 St. Louis versus Chicago and the Continental Railroads	139	(20)
Chapter 9 Carnegie and the Climax of Steel	159	(20)
Chapter 10 Edison and the Network for Light	179	(20)
Chapter 11 The Centennial Revolutions, 1876-1883	199	(22)
Notes and References	221	(16)
Index	237	(10)
Problems	247