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Want to cut a sheet of paper in half? Pry open a tin can? Pull a cord to open a curtain?
The objects you use to do these things are all the result of engineering. In fact, engineering affects just about every aspect of life. And it’s as old as civilization itself.
The very first engineers were solving problems more than a million years ago. Stone tools found in China and Kenya are the evidence. The problem? How to cut fruits, roots, vegetables, and meat. The solution? Strike stones together, causing sharp slivers of rock to break off. The stones with sharp edges were the tools. Today, these tools are called wedges. Each time you cut food with a knife, you are using a wedge, one of the six simple machines. ▶
◀ If you’ve pulled a wagon, pushed a shopping cart, or ridden a bike, you can thank an ancient engineer. About 2,500 years ago, an engineer made the task of moving objects easier. The solution was a wheel and axle. The wheel and axle, a simple machine, is an essential part of cars, buses, bikes, carts, wagons, and more. The wheel itself — a circular object with a hole in the center — predates the wheel and axle by over a thousand years. According to evidence, the first wheels were made for potters. Originally, the potter turned the wheel by hand to help shape a pot and make its surface smooth. Today, potter’s wheels turn with the help of an electric motor.
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▲ A very strong person may be able to lift a 450-pound stone, but transporting it from one place to another may be impossible. What if the stone were one of many in an otherwise open field? How could the stones be moved and the field cleared? About 7,000 years ago, an engineer solved the problem by shoving a strong tree branch under an edge of a rock, pushing down on the tree branch, and rolling the rock forward. This was the first lever, another of the six simple machines. A couple of thousand years later, this same tool was used to solve a different problem — fetching water from a river. The tool is called a shaduf and is still used today to irrigate land in Egypt, India, and other countries.
From the earliest times, people needed to get across streams and rivers. This was a problem calling out for a solution. In places where large, flat stones were available, an ancient engineer used them to lay a path from one side of the water to the other. In places where timber was plentiful, ancients laid logs end to end across the water. Were these the first engineers? Perhaps so. ▶
