Famous Engineer Series

Father of the Modern Tunnel

Born in 1769, he designed a tunnel under the River Thames - the first tunnel under a river anywhere in the world.  His patented method of digging with a protective shield is still used today.   read more

"The Great Engineer"

Although he studied geology at Stanford University, this Iowa native worked as an engineer after graduation.  He joined the British mining firm of Bewick, Moreing and Company in 1896 and traveled the world acting on behalf of the company as a financier, promoter, geologist, engineer, and metallurgist.  read more

The "Einstein of Structural Engineering"

Completion of the Eiffel Tower in 1898 was the catalyst for a skyscraper race in the early 20th century.  A number of skyscrapers were built in the U.S. in the first half of the century, most notably the Empire State Building in New York.  However, by 1960, buildings taller than 30 stories were still the exception, not the rule.  read more

The "Father of Air Conditioning"

Imagine modern day life without air conditioning.  If not for a persistent engineer from the balmy state of New York, we might all be toiling in the heat and humidity each summer.  read more

The "Prolific Inventor"

By simply flicking a switch, you can turn on a light in your house, watch a show on television or toast bread in a toaster.  For that we can thank a determined engineer from New York - one of the most prolific inventors in U.S. history.   read more

A Missed Vacation That Changed The World

On a hot summer day in July, 1958, a young engineer sits alone at his desk in Dallas, TX.  Having just joined Texas Instruments two months earlier, this Kansas native can't join in the mass summer vacation that was customary among TI employees at the time.   read more

The Man Who Invented the 20th Century

While strolling through Budapest's city park one early evening in 1882, this young engineer suddenly had a vision that would lead to one of the greatest inventions of all time..   read more

Trains to Planes: An Engineering Mastermind

The weather outside is unusually cold, even for mid-December, 1890.  A white-haired man takes a break from reading at his desk.  As he watches the snow fall outside the window of his home in Chicago, he reflects back on his "first" career...   read more

The Master of Prestressed Concrete

The man known as "Mr. Prestressed Concrete" was born in Fuzhou, China in 1912.  As a boy, his first career choice was to become a politician, but his father encouraged him to pursue a career in engineering.....  read more

The Crackpot Who Changed the World

The year is 1927.  Jobless and penniless, a young man stands at the banks of Lake Michigan.  After losing his business and suffering the loss of his beloved daughter to polio and spinal meningitis, he is on the verge of suicide......  read more

The Father of American Civil Engineering

Born Oct. 10, 1770, this self-taught engineer was named "The Father of Civil Engineering" by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1969.......  read more

From Razing to Amazing: "The Father of the Skyscraper" 

It might be considered an odd beginning that someone who specialized in demolition would later become the man responsible for changing the way tall buildings... read more

Wild Horse Sets New Standard in Autos 

The young boy named Lido was what you might call a "real go-getter."  Even at a young age, he was working with his father, a grocer by trade ....  read more

Engineer Proves Mussolini Wrong 

Sometimes it takes a challenge to make a person perform at his best. And this challenge was a big one. ... read more

The Engineer Everybody Laughs At 

He was the typical geek of a kid that you might expect him to have been. He spent his after-school hours tutoring other kids in math. He loved to read. When he wasn’t reading, he was riding his bicycle – or, more often, taking it apart to see how it worked. ....  read more

The Engineer Who Built Marshmallow Bridges 

He was so scrawny and small at birth that the physician said he would never amount to much. It was a rather inauspicious start ....  read more

History's Most Dangerous Engineer 

History’s Most Dangerous Engineer – it sounds like an exaggeration. But in reality, there are simply not many people who have had such a powerful, albeit negative impact on nearly everyone who lived in the 20th Century.....  read more

He Went From Tapping Code to Radio Shows 

It’s Christmas Eve, 1906. A Morse code operator on a United Fruit ship in the Atlantic Ocean moves closer to his receiver. Instead of the usual, primitive taps of Morse code, he hears a man speaking over the receiver, followed by music. And so began the world’s first long distance radio transmission.....  read more

Hail to the Chief ... Chief Engineer 

It was 1930, a tough economic and political time around the world. In the Russian village of Butka, a man known as Iggy was a bit better-off financially than most. He was a peasant, but a landowner.....  read more

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