Engineering

Featured exhibit items for engineering.

Exhibit Items

	Works… A New Science Tartaglia, Niccolo (1606) Niccolò Tartaglia argued for the use of mathematics in physics, engineering and art. Tartaglia’s frontispiece shows Euclid guarding the gate of knowledge. Just inside, Perspectiva stands among the sciences that open the way to Philosophia.
2	Wonderful Machines of the Far West Schreck, Johann (1830) Schreck helped Galileo show the telescope to the Medici family and others in Rome. Once he arrived in China, he wrote this work on engineering in Chinese.
3	Natural Magick, 1658 Porta, Giambattista della (1658) In Natural Magick, della Porta described an optical tube he designed to make far things appear as though they were near. The field of optics was often associated with magical tricks and illusions, and for that reason sometimes held suspect among non-mathematicians.
4	Various and Ingenious Machines Ramelli, Agostino (1588) The ancient philosopher Hero described mechanics as the science of five simple machines: the lever, pulley, wheel, wedge and screw. These simple machines are combined in the complex inventions of Ramelli.
5	Description and Use of an Instrument, Called the Double Scale of Proportion Partridge, Seth (1692) After a century of calculating instrument innovation, Partridge created the slide-rule. Edmund Gunter designed a logarithmic scale in 1620. William Oughtred placed two logarithmic scales side-by-side to perform multiplication and division in 1630.
7	Notes Lovelace, Ada (1843) These notes comprise one of the most important papers in the history of computing. Lovelace explained how Babbage’s “analytical engine,” if constructed, would amount to a programmable computer rather than merely a calculator.
9	The Spectacle according to the Eye: Practical Optics Manzini, Carlo Antonio (1660) Galileo designed this lens grinding machine in 1639, when he was 75 years old. Galileo began grinding his own lenses as early as 1609.
10	On the Motion of Animals, 1680 - 81 Borelli, Giovanni (1680-81) The physics of bones and muscles: Borelli, a practicing mathematician and engineer as well as a physician, analyzed the musculoskeletal system in terms of the mechanics of the lever and other simple machines. Borelli studied under Galileo’s student Castelli, along with Torricelli.
10	Commentary on Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics Philoponus, (1504) In the 6th century, the Greek physicist and theologian Philoponus constructed an anti-Aristotelian theory of motion. For Philoponus, an “impressed incorporeal motive force” explains the motion of a top, a projectile, and falling bodies.
10	Curious Technology Schott, Gaspar (1664) Schott was among the first to report the “Miracle of Magdeburg,” the sensational story of Otto von Guericke’s public demonstration of the reality of the vacuum. Von Guericke bolted two large hemispheres together, then evacuated the air inside them with his air pump.