You ever wondered what it would be like to own a Top Trumps pack full of the Greatest Engineers of all time? Yeah so did I. So I made this...
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| Top Trumps - The Greatest Engineers of all time |
Well actually I created 35 of them. Each with their own statistics, but not wholly accurate at the moment. Since researching the lives of each and everyone of the chosen 35 Engineers lives or reading their biographies would have taken me years, then let's get a little bit of Christmas online collaboration going!?
[Stage 1]
I have already begun the task by naming the 5 attributes by which they are to be measured. Experience [in years], this represents the years which they were in the industry of engineering. Buildability [1-100], representing technical expertise. Creativity [1-100], how inventive and concerned they were with design subtleties. Business [1-100], did they run their own business? How successful were they? Inspiration [1-100], how well were they received by piers and the public. Did they inspire a generation?
If anyone has any better ideas, then please drop me a message!
[Stage 2]
The naming of the Engineers has taken me a small amount of research - and I did not want to name only Civil and Structural Engineers. Therefore I chose a representative sample of mechanical, product design, electrical and industrial engineers to cheer up the soiree a little.
So here they are - please give me your input.
1.Isambard K Brunel 2.Sir Marc I.Brunel 3.Steve [Wozniak] 4.Sir James Dyson 5.Robert Stephenson 6.Eugene Freyssinet 7.Nikola Tesla 8.Archimedes 9.James Watt 10.Thomas Brassey 11.The Wright Brothers 12.Henry Ford 13.Thomas Edison 14.Leonardo da Vinci 15.Gustave Eiffel 16.Sir Henry Royce 17.Sir John Fowler 18.Othmar H Ammann 19.Sir Benjamin Baker 20.Anthony Hunt 21.Sir Ove Nyquist Arup 22.Alexander Graham Bell 23.James Brindley 24.Edgar Cardoso 25.Sir John F.Baker 26.Arthur Casagrande 27.Charles de Coulomb 28.Henry Darcy 29.Dr Oscar Faber 30.Clifford Holland 31.James Buchanan Eads 32.Joseph Locke 33.Thomas Telford 34.Fazlur Rahman Khan 35.Lillian Gilbreth
[Stage 3]
Once I have set the designs from the earlier stages, the final step [and most arduous] is to set some accurate levels for the each Engineer and their attributes.
Doing this will take some effort. I suggest the best way to enable it is to set a maximum number of top level and lower level statistics. For example; only 5 individual attributes can be set at 100. We then decide which Engineer gets them. Then we set a total of 5 attributes at the lowest level of 10, and apply them to Engineers.
Finally we arrange each of the 35 Engineers in order of their perceived value for each available attribute.
So please try this at home over the next few weeks of the holiday season. I will do the rest.
Finally, the open poll and debate flooding the LinkedIn Engineering Groups dealing with Pay & Status will be concluded tomorrow [currently 99 votes / 88% voting not happy]. Watch out for that one.
Engine[er]
[update - Replaced Steve with Steve] Thanks Anon.

Surely Fazlur Rahman Kahn must be at the top (or very near) for creativity? And Telford near the top for inspiration?
ReplyDeleteGreat idea though, look forward to seeing the finished product
Absolutely Simon. I bought his biography [as written by his daughter - also a structural engineer]. Looking forward to reading about the Einstein of structural engineers.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your input.
Merry Xmas
what about joseph bazalgette?
ReplyDeleteThe 'Sewer King'. Great find Andrew.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
Like the idea of this - first post I have felt inspired to reply to!
ReplyDeletePlease add Calatrava and Felix Candela - absolute musts for this list.
I now am mithering about a few others that founded a host of more modern civil/structural consultancies and could qualify for the list:-
Frischmann?
Alan Baxter?
Curtin?
Price & Myers?
Reginald Travers Morgan?
Good luck!
Great list Richard. I will update with all the new suggestions and create an online poll.
ReplyDeleteCan you pick 5 of them and write a very short bio on them? Suggest where they might come in relation to the rest of the pack for the attributes listed above?
Many thanks for your comment.
How about John Frederick LaTrobe Bateman. Over 50 years as a waterworks engineer
ReplyDeleteThank you Carol! Another one to add to the list.
ReplyDeleteNice to see that Calatrava has been nominated further up the message list. Can I suggest the late, great Peter Rice as well...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Anon. I will take a look at Peter, but we are trying to fix these names and progress the project.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many Engineers who need a mention...
Great idea, Glen. I realise I am late in the game to suggest further names, but Pier Luigi Nervi and Buckminster Fuller would look nice in the set, I think. Will happily write up their bio with a handful of others!
ReplyDeleteThank you Ed!
ReplyDeleteI'll message you on LinkedIn what has been done already by one of the guys.
Glen - definitely a few structural engineers should be there - Eladio Dieste (a must!!), Felix Candela, Jean Prouve, Michel Virogeux, John Roebling, Frei Otto, William Owens, Francois Hennebique, Pierre Luigi Nervi, Ricardo Morandi, and Robert Maillart....contemporary engineers who must have a mention Chris Wise (Expedition) and Stephen Morley (Wembeley Stadium, Sydney Olympic Stadium).....Jörgen Schlaich
ReplyDeleteWow, that's a lot of additional Engineers. What is great about this post is that we are uncovering so many well respected Engineers. What is unfortunate problem is that we can only use 35 for this project, and we need create not only an educational aide, but an enjoyable game too.
ReplyDeleteI think there is a great opportunity to us all to put together an encyclopaedia of respected engineers from the past and present.
Perhaps we can try that quest on for size once we have sorted the top trumps out :-)
What about Frank Whittle the "Father of jet propulsion", Sir Tim Berners-Lee Brit inventer of the internet, Thomas Eddison (one of your top trumps at least!), Joseph Swan, to name a few off the top of my head.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your input Alex. I will be pushing for the results of this collaboration very soon :-)
DeleteI think my geotechnics lecturer would have a heart attack. No mention of the father of soil mechanics and developer of the field of geotechnical engineering...Karl Von Terzaghi?!
DeleteAhh another great name to add to the list. Thank you!
DeleteStephen Tomoshenko. Assen Jordanoff. Antoni Gaudi (Gaudi's strings). Arthur Vierendeel. Francois Hennebique. It may sound strange, but Osama Bin Laden himself was engineer too.
ReplyDeleteHi Anon. Thanks for your input :)
ReplyDeleteGreat Project!!! Please check up the bio of Sir M. Visvesvaraya on wikipedia. He was the greatest engineer of India & Engineer's day is held in his honour.
ReplyDeleteThanks Anon! Great tip off. I'll look into that.
DeleteGlen