The Industrious Engineer
The industrial revolution of the 19th century brought unprecedented material progress to humanity. Advances in technology resulted in a general improvement in health and comfort. Industrial activity generated new sources of wealth and power and opened opportunity for social mobility.
Engineers could rightfully claim credit for facilitating an all-encompassing transformation of human existence. The profession was imbued with a confidence reflected here in an architectural detail from the headquarters of the Association of German Engineers, built in 1897.
But, industrialization exacted social costs. People traded familiar patterns of rural existence and long-establish social structures for a new, unsettled life in rapidly growing urban centers. Inequities in wealth and opportunity, and dehumanization brought by increasing mechanization created intransigent problems that generated political backlash.
Individual engineers who personified both the promise and perils of that era were sometimes made to suffer consequences for industry’s failings.
Read more in my latest article about the advocate for industrial development who is immortalized as an arch-villain of French literature— the chemist Louis-Jacques Thénard.
RE: Engineering publishes occasional notes and comment on what it means to be an engineer in a world created by science and technology. Being an engineer requires specialized knowledge, an insatiable interest in how things work, and a knack for solving problems. But, on a personal level, an engineer cannot be anything else. Sign up to receive future issues.
