Ancient Engineers: Technology & Invention from the Earliest Times to the Renaissance

I thought that this would be a tad bit different since I know this author as a science fiction writer, but he did well and showed that he did his homework for this book. Being forty years old, some fallacies and wrong facts were due to be seen, but he really did a good job surveying the field of engineering from ancient times to the renaissance. He did not know that there was a whole civilization before the Sumerians in the fertile crescent and around the Black Sea, which was then a lake. There is some mention of the ancient Crete civilization that is rather puzzling and is related to the ancient Black Sea culture. He uses an odd notation system for dates: Roman numerals for centuries, -xx for before common era, and +xx for common era. I found that I was translating the centuries to numbers to make it understandable to me. The writing is more interesting than Sir Burton’s "The Book of the Sword". There are quite a lot of good ideas and his explanations for the quirks of the ancient people, is really good. Tuesday, July 13, 2004

The author provides an outline of history for the engineeringprofession. He explains how the first engineers were irrigators,architects and inventors of simple machines. Memphis,Egyptis cited as one of the initial engineering project sites.The engineer, Imhotep is cited as an important architectand mathematician in the building of the first pyramids. Theauthor explains how stones were sledded to the building siteover miles of roadways. Next, the author explains howthe Mesopotamian engineers built great temples. i.e. MardukThe Chinese are credited with inventing cast iron.The Greeks are extolled for inventing catapults, refinementsto temple architecture and mechanical engineering.The Helenistic engineers are credited with the lever waterclock,museums and advanced hulls on ships. The Roman engineersare credited with their artful use of concrete, lead pipesand lighthouses. Oriental engineers perfected the first pendentive dome, stone temples, the wheelbarrow and thecurved roof. European engineers improved metallurgical processes, pirotechnia, statics, mechanics and kinetics.The work is a good reference for any student contemplatinga science project in the engineering art. The book isrecommended highly for anyone desiring to trace the historyand evolution of the engineering sciences throughout keyperiods of human history.

L. Spargue de Camp is better know as a great writer of classic science fiction. However, this is a good history book. There are people in this world who choose to believe that things like how the Egyptians built the prymaids or how the Romans built roads are totally unknown to modern historians. This book shows that we do indeed know how the Egyptians built the prymaids. It shoulds that we know a lot more about ancient peoples that some would like you to believe. This is a good book to own.

Have you ever wondered how they built the pyramids? Or the Colossus of Rhodes? Or those huge walls, aqueducts or temples? Sprague de Camp shows in a very entertaining and engaging manner how the ancients were as intelligent as we are today and many a lot more so. They didn't have modern technology but they did have ample curiosity, ingenuity and derring-do. A must read for anyone interested in history.

In his inimitable clear style, L. Sprague de Camp shares the benefits of his vast knowledge with a general audience. Dividing his subject---the early days of engineering and technology---by period and place, he shows how often-humble beginnings led to spectacular structures. Reading this book made me wonder what our lives would be like, had as much energy been spent on doing something practical about the physical problems that beset human society as was done begging imaginary gods for never-forthcoming assistance