Game changer

For this week’s Fun Fact, we head back to 1452. A Hungarian engineer, Orban, offered to sell a mighty cannon to the Roman Emperor. He refused, so Orban instead sold the cannon to the Ottoman emperor, who used it to breach the walls of Constantinople in 1453. This brought the Read more…

Add value not cost

This week’s Fun Friday Fact comes from the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge. The lead structural engineer named Joseph Strauss insisted on installing a safety net even though its $130,000 (£94,948.30) cost was deemed excessive. Over the four years of its construction, the net saved 19 men, who named Read more…

Jpbowen, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Bring forth a challenge

Another busy week here and another thought-provoking Friday Fun Fact: ‘In 1891, Chicago issued a challenge to all engineers to build a structure that would surpass the Eiffel Tower. The engineer who won proposed a giant rotating wheel that will lift visitors high above the city. The inventor of this Read more…

‘Nothing is impossible’

Welcome to our first blog post of 2021. Let’s start by sharing a Fun Friday Fact …. ‘In the 1920s, newly hired engineers at General Electric would be told, as a joke, to develop a frosted lightbulb. The experienced engineers believed this to be impossible. In 1925, newly hired Marvin Read more…