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PREFACE:
Historic mechanical engineering landmarks are machines, systems, or devices that help shape our civilization, either in industry or the personal lives we live. The variety of those presented on these pages is remarkable, ranging from marine steam engines to food processing equipment to manufacturing plants to postage meters to medical devices to nuclear power plants to the collection of a specialized technical museum. They are found in every region of the United States as well as in other countries.
The spectrum of significance is equally broad, stretching from the steam engine of Thomas Newcomen (1712), which was a major element in the advent of the Industrial Revolution, up to the Saturn V rocket (1967). While by no means a comprehensive list, these landmarks represent what the mechanical engineering profession considers to be both unusual and significant achievements through the eyes of ASME International (the American Society of Mechanical Engineers).
As a worldwide engineering society focused on technical, educational, and research issues, ASME International conducts one of the world's largest technical publishing operations, holds some thirty technical conferences and two hundred professional development courses each year, and sets many industrial and manufacturing standards.
Since ASME's founding in 1880, engineers engaged in the mechanical arts and sciences have found a professional home in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Here they could meet and share ideas, plans, discoveries, and the results of their research.
The History and Heritage program of ASME, in its present day activities, began when a committee was formed in 1971 to administer its recognition program through a grassroots nomination process. This book describes the 135 historic mechanical engineering landmarks designated by ASME International between 1973 and 1989.
This publication is actually a successor to an earlier volume entitled National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmarks, which was prepared by Richard S. Hartenberg, P.E., a distinguished founding member of ASME's History and Heritage Committee.
Professor Hartenberg's work described the first twenty eight landmarks, designated between 1973 and 1977. In 1987 the committee decided that it was appropriate to produce a new publication that would bring the story up to date. A search was conducted for an author who could prepare the manuscript under the general supervision of the committee.
Carol Poh Miller, a historical consultant based in Cleveland who has written widely in the areas of industrial and technological history, was selected Ms. Miller prepared the individual landmark entries and sidebars, organized the text, and selected the majority of the illustrations. She also conceived the idea of providing information on the location and accessibility of the landmarks, together with suggestions for further reading, for those who may wish to visit or learn more about them.
The committee has been closely involved with the preparation of the book. In addition to lending occasional technical expertise, the members of the committee have prepared the introductory essays that open each chapter.
These are intended to set the material of the chapter in the broader context of the history of mechanical engineering. In reading these introductory essays, as well as the main body of the chapter, the committee hopes that the user will obtain an understanding of the topic in both a wider sense and, as far as particular landmarks are concerned, in greater depth. Illustrating these landmarks in ways that are useful to portraying their mechanical aspects has been challenging.
There is a mix of those that reflect the time period in which the machines or businesses functioned alongside those that give the reader an idea of what to expect when visiting one today.
The landmarks are chosen by a careful procedure intended to ensure that they are truly outstanding examples of the art and science of mechanical engineering. They are nominated by the local sections of the society in whose geographical area the artifacts reside or by its technical divisions under which the technology can be categorized.
A carefully documented statement of the credentials of the potential landmark is submitted to the History and Heritage Committee for review.
The committee's membership consists of mechanical engineers with a good understanding of engineering history and historians with a sound background in the history of technology. If the committee members agree with the nominator's assessment of the significance of the nominated artifact, then it is designated as a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark.
Sometimes the committee's deliberations involve a request for further information and research before the committee can be satisfied that the nominee is truly worthy of the landmark designation.
Once an item has been so approved, the nominating section is responsible for arranging a ceremony at which a senior officer of the society, usually the president, presents to the owners of the landmark a bronze plaque, attesting to the status of the landmark and the reasons for its being so distinguished.
The plaque can then be displayed on or near the landmark. The landmarks program is a continuing activity of the society and, at the time of publication, nearly two hundred landmarks have been identified. The artifacts described here were chosen for a variety of reasons.
In some cases, a landmark represents the beginning of a particular new technology. Another might be chosen because it was an outstanding representative of the mechanical engineer's art. Some were selected because they operated in the most efficient manner and were thereby examples to the profession of what could be achieved.
Often the profession responded to the challenge and, subsequently, the performance of a landmark was surpassed. Occasionally size has played a part in the choice of a landmark in recognition of the achievement in designing, constructing, and operating a machine of unusually large dimensions.
Very small dimensions could also be a qualifying factor, as exemplified by a landmark that was designated after completion of the manuscript of this book. This is the Texas Instruments ABACUS II, which is used to manipulate and solder connections to electronic microchips.
Survival has always been an important criterion in the selection of landmarks, on the premise that this would be indicative of a sound original design and because it would give current and future generations an opportunity to study the work of earlier engineers. The attention of the reader should be drawn to some practical points regarding visits to the landmarks.
Directions for reaching each of the landmarks are provided wherever possible, but readers should note that in some cases prior arrangements will have to be made with the owners of the artifacts. Also, the directions must be treated with caution.
In spite of the committee's best efforts to keep track of the landmarks, some may have been moved from the locations given in this book. Furthermore, in other cases the plaque has been separated from the artifact.
An additional point in visiting landmarks concerns the identification of landmarks by name. In certain cases, the designation used to identify a landmark does not correspond to the title on the plaque. This situation has arisen because of the evolution over time of the ownership or due to refinements by the History and Heritage Committee.
We hope this will not confuse visitors to the various landmarks. Unfortunately, historically important machines have not typically been easy to preserve. After years of service, obsolete machines are replaced and often scrapped or abandoned.
Museums and corporate archives occasionally are able to store an artifact until suitable display can be arranged. For example, the Corning ribbon machine was rescued from warehouse storage for its display in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Some industrial systems are simply too big for storage and therefore too costly to display. ASME will not remove a landmark from its roster if it is altered or destroyed in hopes that any remaining documentation will not be lost or forgotten as well.
The range of technologies represented and the chronological depth of the period covered by the landmarks gives the interested observer an outstanding opportunity to view, appreciate, and understand the work of the mechanical engineer. In a sense, the collection of landmarks represents a giant museum, and this book is a guide to that museum.
It is a museum assembled by the energy and interest of mechanical engineers, with the intention of showing their fellow professionals and the public at large what mechanical engineers have wrought. ASME
