Page 26 - issue 28 2020
P. 26
26 Opinion
For Engineering to Champion Future Industrial
Revolutions, it must look to the Past
• In Early History; Engineering, Art, Philosophy and Politics were the same thing.
Professor Edward Chikuni
Energy Expert and Engineering Educator , Botho University he first Engineer (i.e., genius),
Gaborone over 2600BC ago, was an African
T Imhotep, of Memphis, Egypt.
Imhotep was an incredibly wise and
clever man, architect, astrologer, Chief
Minister and Spiritual adviser to Pharaoh
Djoser (reigned 2630–2611 BC), the
second king of Egypt’s third dynasty.
He designed the 61m, Step-Pyramid of
Saqqara (Encyclopedia Britannica).
Italian Leonardo da Vinci, born 15 April
1452 was undoubtedly a genius. He was
an inventor, designer, painter (of the
Mona Lisa fame), sculptor, architect,
scientist, musician, mathematician,
engineer, writer, anatomist, geologist,
astronomer, botanist, paleontologist,
and cartographer.
There were several other very clever
men and women through history.
Benjamin Franklin was one of the
Founding Fathers of the United States.
Franklin was a leading scientist, inventor,
journalist, writer, printer, politician,
diplomat and Post Master General of
the United States.
Another Great Engineer was Thomas
Edison, owner of over 1000 patents
which included the electric light, electric
train and telephony. Among Edison’s
employees were Henry Ford and Nikola
Tesla. Tesla was the inventor of the
Alternating Current Electric Motors
(which replaced horse and donkey
power) and the technology of we now
call robotic drones. So far we have seen
the achievement of men.
Women also achieved. Hertha Marks, an
inventor of electric arc light, qualified for
Leonado Da Vinci earliest work , a human heart and horse anatomy
>> To Page 28
Issue 28 - Dec/Jan 2021 www.engineerbw.com
