Imhotep – credit to Creative Commons.
For today’s Fun Friday Fact, we take a virtual trip to Egypt, home to a man named Imhotep. The belief is he is the first person in the world credited as an engineer.
Imhotep was probably the first person to use stone columns to support a building in the design and building of the Pyramid of Djoser. As the oldest of Egypt’s famous pyramids, it dates way back to the 27th century BC (nearly 5000 years ago). The impressive use of stone has set a precedent for other structures. It’s also one reason this significant monument was opened to the public one year ago. It follows many years of restoration, employing more engineering feats like using giant self-inflating airbags inside the pyramid to prevent it from collapsing inwards. As you may gather, the pyramids’ history fascinates me and is on my places to visit list!
Undoubtedly, the pyramid’s original plans would have gone through numerous revisions to get it right. Here in the office, it’s been a busy week of client lead revisions by utilising feedback from a 3D prototype. It’s not on the scale of a pyramid but does weigh in at over a ton. Testing the structural integrity is critical with our Finite Element Analysis at hand. As a result, our reverse engineering enables us to make the appropriate tweaks to the engineering drawings in readiness to manufacture the part. It can test the strength of different materials – a modern evolution from the pyramid building days! We’ve successfully achieved a low-cost alternative and another happy client through this process. Please look at a short video about our design process on our website. Please get in touch to see how we can help you.
In the meantime, we’re welcoming signs of Spring. We embark on a daily challenge to walk 11,000 steps to raise money for Prostate Cancer UK. The fresh air is proving to help me think about new projects. Plus, it’s nice to explore what’s on our doorstep in lovely Wiltshire. We hope everyone is well and look forward to hearing from you soon.
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