The Twenty Greatest Engineering Achievements of the Twentieth Century

1
The Twenty Greatest Engineering Achievements of
the Twentieth Century

• by
• National Academy of Engineering
• 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W.
• Washington, DC 20418
• www.nae.edu

2
Background and Introduction

• Project sponsored by Robert A. Pritzker,
  President and CEO of Colson Assoc. Inc.
• Coffee Table Book written by George Constable
  and Bob Somerville
• Book published by National Academies Press
  www.jhpress.org
• Power point presentation by Bob Koerner of Drexel
  University

3
Selection of Achievements

• solicitation from consortium of 27 professional
  engineering societies
• they independently polled their membership
• AAES and NAE coordinated the effort
• NAE Committee then narrowed the nominations
• an important consideration was to emphasize
  positive effects on mankind
• twenty achievements were eventually selected

4
Power Point Organization

• each of the 20-achievements has 4-slides
• bulleted items highlight text in the book
• photos and sketches taken directly from book
• goal is to present within a 1-hour class
• each slide has a brief voice-over which can be
  used, or not, depending on the presenter and
  his/her audience
• order of achievements is same as the book with
  electrification being top-ranked by all societies

5
1. Electrification

• 1882 - first power plant by Edison in NYC
• 1903 - first steam turbine generator by Curtis
• 1917 - first high voltage transmission line by
  AG E controversy between DC AC current (AC
  and Steinmetz won!)
• 1930s - dams along with hydroelectric
  turbogenerators spread electrification to the
  Western States
• 1935 - Rural Electrification Administration by
  Roosevelt eventually reached everyone

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Methods of Generating Electricity

• fossil fuels (coal, oil, and/or gas)
• hydroelectric via dams and tides
• wind produced, i.e., wind farms
• solar energy via solar panels
• degradation of organic matter (farms, landfills,
  waste products)
• nuclear (more later)

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Reliability of Electricity(North American
Reliability Council)
9
2. Automobile

• 1890 - Ottos first internal combustion engine
• 1890s - improvements by Daimler and Benz
• 1901 - Olds produced 425 cars
• 1905 - shock absorbers by Harock then drum
  brakes by Renault
• 1908 - Fords Model T (10,660 cars produced)
• 1911 - Kettering introduced electric starter
• 1913 - Ford perfected moving assembly line
• 1922 - 4-wheel hydraulic brakes introduced

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Automobiles Critical Role

• growth of the suburbs
• malls, factories, schools, etc., followed
• government regulations introduced, e.g., safety
  and mileage
• onboard microprocessors reduce pollution
• new materials save weight and add strength
• new motive power fuel cells, hybrids,
  all-electric, others (?)
• ___________
• Ford said, Everybody wants to be somewhere he
  aint, and as soon as he gets there he wants to
  go right back.

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3. Airplane

• 1890s - glider experiments by Lilienthal
• 1903 - Orville and Wilbur Wright at Kitty Hawk
  competition with Curtis resulted in many
  subsequent legal battles
• 1914-17 - many improvements during World War I
• 1918 - postal service provided income
• 1927 - Lindbergh crosses the Atlantic
• 1933 - first modern commercial airliner by Boeing
• 193845 - World War II necessitated and created
  major advancements

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Orville Wright at controls with Wilbur looking on
at Kitty Hawk, NC on December 17, 1903 for the
first sustained, powered and piloted flight.
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Advancements-to-Date

• 1937 - jet engines by Whittle and Ohain
• 1939 - Sikorsky developed first helicopter
• 1947 - faster-than-sound by Yeager
• 1976 - Concorde Supersonic Transport (SST)
  London to New York in 3.5 hours
• 1986 - carbon composite materials by Rutar
• 1990s - all composite flying wing that cannot
  be detected by radar
• 1996 - American-Russian joint research program

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4. Water Supply and Distribution The Quality
Issues

• dysentery, diarrhea, typhoid and cholera were
  deadly especially in 19th Century
• bad water resulted in major health and disease
  issues
• Jersey City in 1908 used chlorination
• Metcalf and Eddys textbook in 1914
• reversal of Chicago River in 1930
• U.S. Public Health Service sets water quality
  standards
• coagulation, sedimentation, filtration and
  chemical disinfection are used in modern systems
  see following

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Water Supply and Distribution The Quantity
Issues

• 1913 - Los Angeles Aqueduct by Mulholland
• 1915 - Catskill Aqueduct for Manhattan water
• 1930 - Hardy Cross Method developed for pipe
  distribution system design
• 1935 - Hoover Dam in 1935
• 1937 - Delaware Aqueduct System for NYC water
• 1938 - Colorado River Diversion
• 1951 - Robbins Tunnel Boring Machine
• 1960s - Kuwait uses seawater desalination
  technology... many follow

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5. Electronics

• 1904 - Fleming (Marconi Co.) devices an
  oscillation valve in a vacuum bulb
• 1907 - DeForest develops a vacuum table triode
• 1941 - ENIAC Computer at Univ. of Penn used to
  predict projectile trajectories
• 1947 - Bardeen, Brattain, Shockley (Bell Labs)
  build the transistor received the Nobel Prize
• 1954 - G. Teal at Texas Inst. introduces
  transistor radio
• 1959 - Kilby and Noyce invent the integrated
  circuit
• 1967 - Texas Inst. develops the hand-held
  calculator

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Vacuum Tube-to-Transistor
Intels 1971 Microprocessor (60,000
operations/second)
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More Recent Developments

• 1968 - Cho of Bell Labs develops molecular beam
  epitoxy
• 1970 - Russell of Battelle PNL develops CD-ROM
• 1971 - Intel develops computer-on-a-chip
• 1972 - Magnavox develops video game systems
• 1997 - IBM uses copper to connect transducers in
  chips
• 1998 - Bell Labs develops printed plastic
  transistors resulting in flexible computer
  screens, smart cards, etc., etc.

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6. Radio and Television

• 1900 - Tesla patented an electrical transmitter
• 1901 - Marconi picks up transmitted signal across
  the Atlantic with a coherer
• 1904 - Fleming develops diode, i.e., a radio
  receiver
• 1906 - on Christmas Eve Fessenden transmits the
  voice of music
• 1912 - Armstrong of Columbia develops AM radio
• 1920 - Station KDKA in Pittsburgh does
  commercial sending of signals (wireless becomes
  radio and omnidirectional radiation
  becomes broadcasting into space)
• 1953 - Sarnoff of RCA goes strongly into radio
  development and manufacturing

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And Then Came Television

• 1929 - Zworykin and Farnsworth compete for
  cathode ray versus image dissector cameras
• 1947 - transistor aids TV development greatly
• 1954 - Rose Bowl transmitted in color
• 1962 - Bell Labs develops satellite for first
  transatlantic telecast
• 1990 - high definition TV (HDTV) introduced
• 1996 - digital HDTV follows shortly thereafter

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7. Agricultural Mechanization

• 1900 - 38 of workforce were farmers by 2000
• 3 of workforce were farmers
• 1902 - first internal combustion engine powers
  a farming tractor
• 1904 - first crawler tractor appeared
• 1905 - first agricultural engineering curriculum
  at Iowa State by J. B. Davidson many A M
  Colleges followed
• 1921 - crop dusting began
• 1925 - Caterpillar Tractor Co. formed

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- 1920 -
- 1900 -
- 1940 -
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Advances Beyond Machinery

• 1935 - conservation tillage by Dubey and Russell
• 1935 - FDRs rural electrification program
• 1948 - Zybachs center pivot irrigation
• 1956 - Gyral air seeder, i.e., pneumatic seeding
• 1966 - electronic monitoring devices begin
• 1994 - precision agriculture begins (water,
  fertilizer, pesticide all together)

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8. Computers

• 1850 - George Boole (British Mathematician)
  devised a two-state form of algebra (on-off,
  or 1-0)
• 1936 - Shannon of MIT established digital circuit
• 1939 - ABC System combines binary arithmetic and
  electronic switching
• 1945 - Von Neumann suggests method for storing
  data and writing programs
• 1946 - Mauchly and Eckert develop ENIAC
• 1947 - transistor was developed things got small

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Penns EINAC weighting 40 tons with 18,000 vacuum
tubes, 6,000 switches and 1,500 relays for
ballistic and projectile calculations
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Companies are Formed!

• 1951 - Eckert Mauchly formed company
• 1957 - FORTRAN developed by IBM
• 1964 - BASIC developed at Dartmouth
• 1975 - Altair 8800 developed by Micro Systems
• 1975 - B. Gates and P. Allen write BASIC for a
  new computer
• 1975 - Microsoft formed
• 1977 - S. Jobs and S. Wozniak form Apple Computer
• 1981 - IBM Personal Computer introduced
• 1985 - Microsoft releases Windows I
• 1991 - World Wide Web available to public

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9. Telephony

• 1876 - Bells invention of the telephone
• 1900 - inductors used to reduce attenuation
• 1904 - DeForests triode amplifies signals
• 1915 - transcontinental call from Bell to Watson
• 1919 - Bell System installs switching system and
  dial phones
• 1929 - Coaxial cable first used
• 1949 - Model 500 ringer and handset introduced by
  AT T
• 1951 - calls made without an operator

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The telephone, wrote Alexander Graham Bell in
an 1877 prospectus drumming up support for his
new invention, may be briefly described as an
electrical contrivance for reproducing in
distance places the tones and articulations of a
speakers voice.
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Space and Cell Phones

• 1962 - Satellite Telstar I transmits telephone
  and data from space
• 1963 - touch-tone telephone introduced
• 1973 - first portable cell phone call
• 1978 - public tests of cellular phone system
• 1995 - voice-over internet protocols (VoIP)
• 2000 - growth to 100M cell phones

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10. Air Conditioning and Refrigeration

• 1904 - refrigerants (low boiling point) are
  developed which circulate through coils to absorb
  and dissipate heat
• 1907 - Carrier patents Dew Point Control
• 1910s - many department stores air conditioned
• 1914 - Wolff focuses on large buildings
• 1928 - CFC refrigerants developed
• 1930s - Carrier, Kelvinotor, General Electric,
  York, Frigidaire, become the major companies in
  air conditioning

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Related Advances

• 1916 - Birdseye develops quick-freezing
• 1923 - ice cream dipping cabinet made by
  Frigidaire
• 1931 - Southern California Edison introduces heat
  pump air conditioning
• 1936 - Hence synthesizes refrigerant R-134a to
  replace CFCs
• 1987 - minimum energy efficiency rules mandated
  by U. S. government

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11. Highways

• 1905 - Office of Public Roads established
• 1910 - Asphalt, a oil-refining byproduct, was
  mixed with sand and gravel for pavements
• 1913 - First concrete paved highway in Arkansas
• 1919 - Highway Research Board, under MacDonald,
  was formed
• 1927 - Holland Tunnel in NYC constructed
• 1932 - Germanys first Autobahn built
• 1940 - 470 mile Pennsylvania Turnpike opens

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The Interstate System

• 1944 - city connections are built randomly
• 1956 - President Dwight D. Eisenhowers actions
• Major Eisenhower led convoy across country in
  1930s took 3-months
• He recognized troop mobility of German Autobahns
  during WWII
• signed Federal Aid Highway Act in 1956
• 1962 - AASHTO formalized
• 1964 - Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel
• 1990s - Bostons Big Dig most expensive to date

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12. Spacecraft

• 1903 - Tsiolkovsky suggests use of liquids fuels
• 1926 - Goddard launches first rocket
• 1942 - Braun launches V-2 rockets during WWII
• 1957 - Russians successfully launch Sputnik I
  (satellite weighs 184 lbs. and one orbit takes 98
  min.)
• 1958 - USA launches Explorer I
• 1961 - Russian Yuri Gagarin becomes first
  astronaut completing one orbit of earth
• 1963 - first communications satellites launched

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Space Exploration

• 1969 - Neil Armstrong walks on the Moon
• 1971 - Soviets launch first space station
• 1975 - NASA launches first Mars space probe with
  orbiter and lander
• 1986 - Space shuttle Challenger is destroyed
  during launch
• 1990 - Hubble Space Telescope in orbit
• 1998 - International Space Station joined
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

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13. Internet

• 1962 - Kleinrock works with queuing theory
• 1962 - ARPA investigates global interconnectivity
• 1964 - Baran of RAND divides messages into
  independent segments
• 1966 - MIT gains ARPANET project
• 1967 - Davies coins term packet switching
• 1969 - ARPANET has four nodes in Western U.S.
• 1969 - ARPANET grows at one new node per month
  also interactive graphics begins
• 1972 - first e-mail by Tomlinson (_at_-sign begins)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

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In 1969 ARPENET linked four nodestime-sharing
computer at Stanford, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, and
University of Utahand packets began flowing on
leased telephone lines. By 1977 the network was
a maze of linked computers all over the country
and even across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii.
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Internet-to-World Wide Web

• 1973 - Kahn and Cerf publish basic design of
  internet and open architecture
• 1981 - NSF and DARPA establish nodes at several
  Universities
• 1984 - Domain Name Service introduced
• 1987 - NSF examines high-speed national research
  network
• 1992 - Internet Society formed
• 1998 - U.S. Dept. Commerce gives private sector
  the task of Internet coordination

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14. Imaging

• 1890 - Eastmans Kodak Brownie
• 1913 - Coolidge invents cathode ray tube
• 1913 - Soloman develops mammography
• 1915 - Langevin develops radar
• 1931 - Rusha builds electron microscope
• 1950s - Franklin uses X-Rays to reveal DNA
• 1958 - Anger develops medical imaging
• 1960 - DOE at Brookhaven does nuclear imaging
• 1972 - Hounsfield Cormack develop CAT-scan

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Meanwhile In Space

• 1960 s - Apollo 7 traces earths topography
• 1973 - Skylab does Landsat imagery
• 1990 - NASAs Hubble space Telescope launched
  into Earth orbit
• 1990s - NASA launches robotic spacecraft to
  investigate distant planets and moons

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15. Household Appliances

• 1901 - Booth patents vacuum cleaner
• 1903 - Richardson introduces lightweight iron
• 1905 - March patents nichrome (nickel and
  chrome)
• 1907 - Spangler invents suction sweeper
• 1909 - Sharlor patents electric toaster
• 1913 - Wolf invents refrigerator
• 1913 - Walker Bros. produce electric dishwasher
• 1919 - Strite invents pop-up toaster
• 1927 - Hammus develops garbage disposal
• 1935 - Chamberlain invents dishwasher
• 1935 - Moore creates first clothes dryer
  
  
  
  
  

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After World War II

• 1947 - Sears Kenmore label begins
• 1952 - Hobbs invents first automatic coffeepot
• 1962 - Sunbeam modernizes irons
• 1963 - General Electric self-cleaning oven
• 1972 - Sunbeams Mr. Coffee introduced
• 1978 - Singer introduces electronic sewing
  machine
• 1997 - Electrolux introduces robotic vacuum
  cleaners

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16. Health Technologies

• 1895 - Roentgen discovers X-Rays
• 1903 - Einthoven develops electrocardiographs
• 1927 - Drinker devises the iron lung
• 1930s - Hyman invents artificial pacemaker
• 1933 - Electroshock therapy at John Hopkins
• 1945 - Kolff invents kidney dialysis machine
• 1948 - Touhy patents plastic contact lenses
• 1952 - Zoll develops cardiac pacemaker

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Machines plus Surgery

• 1954 - Brigham Hospital human kidney transplant
• 1958 - Charnley develops artificial hip placement
• 1960 - Greatbatch uses transistors in pacemakers
• 1972 - Computerized axial tomography (CAT)
  developed
• 1970s - fiber optics used in surgery
• 1980s - Langer develops controlled drug delivery
• 1981 - first MRI developed
• 1982 - first permanent artificial heart
• 1985 - implantable defibrillator developed
• 1987 - Bemahed implants brain electrical
  stimulation
• 1987 - Troket first laser eye surgery
• 1990 - Human Genome Project ? DNA !

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17. Petroleum and Petrochemical Technologies

• 1859 - Drake strikes oil in Titusville, PA (used
  as kerosene for home lighting)
• 1901 - first oil gusher in Spindletop, Texas
• 1913 - Standard Oil patents thermal cracking
  (major use is now automobile gasoline)
• 1921 - Kettering adds lead to gasoline no more
  engine knocking
• 1928 - Giliasso creates offshore drilling
• 1936 - Houdry introduces catalytic cracking

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This heavy work-class subsea robot performs
intricate tasks in water depths down to 10,000
feet or more.
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After World War II

• 1947 - Haensel uses platinum catalyst eliminating
  lead additive
• 1955 - jack-up oil drilling rig introduced
• 1960s - synthetic oils developed for lubrication
• 1970s - digital seismology for oil exploration
• 1980s - remote operated vehicles for subsea work
  and exploration
• 1990s - new sensors and fracture simulation
• 2000 - 63,000 ton cassion vessel goes into
  operation in Gulf of Mexico

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18. Lasers and Fiber Optics

• 1917 - Einstein proposes stimulated emission
  theory photons are hypothesized
• 1954 - Columbia Professors develop the maser
• 1958 - Townes and Schawlow publish the concept of
  the laser
• 1960 - Maiman invents an operable laser
• 1960 - Gould also develops laser
• 1960 - Bell Labs invent the gas laser
• 1962 - gallium arsenide laser developed

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Fiber optic cable manufacturing and cable laying
across the Atlantic Ocean
Laser Telescope
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Lasers and Fiber Optics

• 1966 - optical fibers seen to transmit laser
  signals
• 1970 - Corning Glass transmit via pure glass
• 1977 - telephone companies use fiber-optic links
• 1980 - AT T links major cities
• 1987 - Payne dopes fibers with erbium
• 1988 - first transatlantic fiber-optic installed
• 1991 - optical amplification methods
• 1996 - all optical-fiber cable across the Pacific

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19. Nuclear Technologies

• 1905 - Einstein introduces special theory of
  relativity, E mc2
• 1919 - Rutherford demonstrates protons
• 1932 - Chadwick discovers the neutron
• 1932 - Cockcroft and Walton split the atom
• 1937 - Van de Graaff generator developed
• 1939 - Hahn and Strassman split uranium atoms
• 1939 - Manhattan Project of the U.S. Army
• 1942 - Fermis U. of Chicago low powered reactor
• 1945 - Oppenheimers team develop atomic bomb

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Nuclear fission experiment in 1938 by Hahn and
Strassmann
USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered
submarine, enters New York Harbor during routine
training operations.
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Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy

• 1948 - Argonne Lab begins commercialization
• 1951 - Breeder Reactor produces nuclear energy
• 1954 - Atomic Energy Act licenses private use
• 1955 - first nuclear powered submarine
• 1957 - International Atomic Energy Agency formed
  with 18 countries (now 130)
• 1979 - Three Mile Island failure in Pennsylvania
• 1986 - Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine
• 2000 - 100 nuclear power plants in USA

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20. High Performance Materials

• 1907 - Baekeland creates Bakelite (thermoset
  plastic) the billiard ball challenge!
• 1913 - Brearley rediscovers stainless steel
• 1915 - Littleton develops Pyrex
• 1930 - DuPonts Crothers develops artificial
  rubber calls it Neoprene
• 1930s - Glass companies develop fiberglass
• 1933 - low density polyethylene discovered by
  accident
• 1934 - DuPonts Crothers develops Nylon
• 1936 - Rohm and Haas develop Plexiglas
• 1938 - Plunkett discovers Teflon

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More Modern Materials

• 1945-52 - ceramics developed by many researchers
• 1953 - Zeigler develops high density polyethylene
• 1954 - General Electric synthesizes diamonds
• 1955 - Natta develops polypropylene
• 1964 - acrylic (water-based) paints developed
• 1964 - Phillips makes carbon fibers
• 1977 - electrically conducting organic polymers
  (LEDs) developed
• 1986 - synthetic skin developed
• 1990s - nanotechnology begins...

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Epilog

• What-a-Century of Achievements !!!
• never has any even approached it
• perhaps (?) there will never be an equal
• but, Why the 20th Century?

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Possible Reasons for Why

• (i) industrial revolution was well advanced
• (ii) many scientific achievements were already in
  place but not yet utilized
• (iii) the time was ripe for implementation
• (iv) furthermore, Necessity is the Mother of
  Invention
• the wars (WWI, WWII, etc.)
• exploding population
• quest for better life
• capitalistic drive and incentive
• (v) engineering R D is fun !

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Prognosis for the 21st Century

• smaller, more incremental, advances
• complexities require team achievements
• shift to quality-of-life improvements
• tremendous activity in health care, biomedical
  advancements, and complete understanding of human
  life and how to influence it
• heavy emphasis on environmental safeguards and
  improvements
• lets all approach it with energy and optimism...