Bow and Arrow 30,000 BCE
If we were to go back in human history as far as we can, when would we see Bow and Arrow - 30,000 BC End the first example of engineering? If someone makes a tool, is that engineering? Yes, but there has to be some kind of line. If a person picks up a rock to crack a nut, that is tool use but it is not really what we think of as engineering. When something is engineered, there is more to it. Therefore, the bow and arrow probably qualifies as the first engineered object. And its use is indeed ancient-starting 30,000 years ago or more.
The bow and arrow is a surprisingly clever piece of technology. It is the first device we know of that stores energy for later release. It is the first projectile weapon. And it can be fashioned from objects readily available in nature. A piece of wood combined with a string made of fibers, skin, or sinew handles the energy storage. A piece of wood tipped with bone or stone and stabilized with feathers acts as the projectile.
As humankind's first projectile weapon, think of how useful the bow and arrow is. If a person is hunting a deer or rabbit, a bow and arrow gives the human a fighting chance.
Compare the bow and arrow to throwing a rock or a spear. Rocks and spears work for only a short distance, are not particularly accurate, and telegraph the human's position with the windup. With a bow and arrow, the human can fire silently from a hidden position without any windup, with accuracy, and at a decent range. A bow and arrow changes the game for a hunter.
By 1400 BCE, the bow and arrow was highly refined. Archers in England were able to use longbows to fire ten arrows per minute. Arrows leave the bow at 100+ mph (160+ kph) and fly 1,000+ feet (300+ meters). At a range of 60 feet (18 meters), metal-tipped arrows can punch through armor.
Guns reconceptualized weaponry (and have since led to high-performance weapons like the AK-47), but there is no doubt that the 30,000-year run for the bow and arrow is a record for technological dominance.
In Egypt's Old Kingdom period (third millennium BCE), the single arched bow was developed.
Hunter & Gatherer Tools Otzi 3300 BCE
One thing that engineers and the engineering mindset create is new technology — useful objects that solve problems. Animals living in the wild do not create novel technology of any complexity— it is a distinctly human trait that comes from our ability to identify problems and then invent solutions for them.
The development of technology is something that happens early in many human cultures. We get a glimpse of the technology available about five thousand years ago because of a man today known as Otzi, who died in 3300 BCE but was preserved almost perfectly in mummy form in a glacier and discovered in 1991. On his person, Otzi was carrying many pieces of technology of his era. He wore, for example, grass-insulated shoes with bearskin soles and deerskin uppers. He also had clothing (hat, coat, pants, belt) made of animal skins. Thread made of sinew held the skins together.
His tools are even more surprising. The most impressive is a copper axe with a yew handle. He was also found with a dagger with a flint blade, wooden handle, and a sheath attached to his belt. He carried a bow, although it seems it was not yet finished and did not have a string. To go with the bow he had a quiver with arrows and arrow shafts. The arrowheads are made of flint, and feathers were attached to stabilize the arrows in flight.
Apparently he had a backpack with an internal frame and a bag made of animal hide. Inside the backpack were birch bark containers, and one was probably used to carry embers to start a fire. He also carried a net, some string, a thong device perhaps for carrying dead birds during a hunt, and fungus thought to be used medicinally.
Given the era, and the state of European civilization at the time, the technology is stunning. It shows how deeply seated the engineering mindset is in the human brain. In order to be carrying a copper axe, for example, it implies the ability to mine and refine copper ore and then cast copper objects from molten copper. It is a surprising level of technology to achieve in a primitive culture.
Dutch artists Adrie and the practitioner created this reconstruction of Otzi the mummy based on the latest forensic research.
Waterwheel - 100 BCE
Before the introduction of the steam engine, the diesel engine, and the electric motor, if people wanted to build a factory or use a large tool of any sort that went beyond a hand tool, they needed something to provide the power. Engineers could and did put humans in big hamster-wheel-like affairs (treadwheels) to spin horizontal shafts. They also could have people or horses walk in circles to turn a vertical shaft.
But the innovation that reliably provided a source of continuous power was the waterwheel. And the Romans appear to be the first to have exploited it in about 100 BCE. There are multiple Roman sites that show their engineering prowess, but the most impressive was the multi-wheel four mill at Barbegal in France.
On a steep hillside, Roman engineers arranged two sets of eight mills with sixteen vertical overshot waterwheels. Because of the hillside arrangement, the water leaving one wheel could feed into the next wheel down.
The horizontal shaft of a waterwheel would connect to a cog wheel so that: 1) the direction of the shaft rotation could switch from horizontal to vertical for the millstone and 2) the rotational speed of the millstone could be two or three times faster than the waterwheel.
It is estimated that the 16 mills at this site could produce perhaps 10,000 pounds (4,500 kilograms) of four each day. A pound of flour would make a loaf of bread. The 10,000 loaves of bread per day fed the nearby Roman city of Arelate (present-day Arles), which had a population of perhaps 30,000 people.
The Romans also used water to power reciprocating sawmills for wood or stone.
At the start of the Industrial Revolution in America 1,700 years later, water was still the power source. Both vertical and horizontal waterwheels provided the power for the first factories. Therefore factories needed to be located where falling water was available in sufficient quantity. So, for example, the first factory of the Industrial Revolution was located at Pawtucket Falls in Rhode Island. Until steam engines became popular, every factory needed falling water to provide the power.
Inuit Technology - 2000 BCE
Engineering seems to be something wired into the human brain. Many human cultures are quite adept at developing innovative technologies to solve problems they experience.
This happened in spades in the Inuit culture in Northern Canada and Greenland.
Although no one is sure exactly when the Inuit peoples arrived in the area, it is thought to have occurred sometime before 2000 BCE. The Inuit lived above the arctic tree line, in an extremely harsh climate, and developed at least a dozen unique technologies to deal with the environment and to help in providing food and shelter.
One of their key requirements is clothing that can protect against winter temperatures that regularly plunge below 0°F (-17°C). Inuit parkas, boots, and gloves provide that protection. Made of animal hides with the fur on the inside to improve insulation and avoid wetting, Inuit garments are works of art and beautifully engineered.
Another area of innovation is the igloo, able to provide shelter in the most extreme arctic conditions. Using a snow saw, Inuit can build igloos in just an hour or two to erect a quick shelter. Given more time, these ice domes can be 13 feet (4 meters) in diameter and 10 feet (3 meters) high.
An Inuit technology widely adopted in the West is the kayak. In its original form, a wood frame bound together with sinew is covered in de-haired sealskins. The Inuit perfected the idea of rolling the kayak back over if it capsized
Inuit snow goggles carved of wood provide protection against snow blindness on bright days. They consist of an opaque mask with narrow slits to significantly cut down on incoming light.
The Inuit are adept at crafting knives, arrowheads, and harpoon heads from materials like bone and stone. The toggling harpoon head is particularly insightful.
Once embedded, the head shifts from parallel to perpendicular to make the harpoon's accidental removal nearly impossible.
Together this suite of technologies make it possible for the Inuit to thrive in the harsh arctic climate. Each technology embodies unique engineering discoveries polished to a high art and then handed down orally from generation to generation.