Engineering failures have journalistic mass media type appeal, but what about the people that really made our lives better. I personally would love to know about them. Being Australian I know a small amount about some of our heroes such as Hargrave, O'Connor, Bradford and Sarich and of course such international heroes as Grenville Dodge, Tesla, Lister, Pastuer and the Curies. Is it possible to have a moderated site where the works of the greats can be collated and stored for posterity? Or does such a site already exist?
I know that there is some risk, but moderated, researched facts should stand up to most scrutiny. From my perspective it could either enshrine or debunk many current "historical truths" such as Edison and the Wright Bros are nothing more than patent thieves.
These out front issues are all very fine. Previously developed technology needs to be permanently recorded to provide the basis of further development. For instance O'Connor's pipe designs that predated welding (of steel) yet still work fine. The reason to thoroughly store methodology and detail is twofold. Firstly to provide a record of what didn't work then and more importantly what did but has been forgotten or misunderstood. The old saying is, "There is nothing new under the sun".
engineers who changed the world
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