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THE HISTORY
287-212BCE Archimedes invents Archimedian screw for raising water.
1440 Johannes Gutenberg invents printing press with movable type and oil-based inks.
1592 Windmill driven mechanical saws used in Holland.
1691 Denis Papin invents pump with steam-driven piston.
1701 Papin invents high-pressure boiler.
Jethro Tull invents seed drill, first modern agricultural machine.
1730 Zinc smelting practiced in England.
1738 Daniel Bernoulli writes about pressure and velocity of fluids in Hydrodynamica.
1740 Benjamin Huntsman improves crucible process to smelt steel.
1762 Cast iron converted into malleable iron at Carron Ironworks in Stirlingshire, Scotland.
1765 James Watt invents separate condenser to reduce loss of steam, perfecting Newcomen steam engine.
1775 Pierre-Simon Girard invents water turbine.
1786 James Rumsey designs first mechanically driven boat.
1789 Samuel Slater establishes first successful cotton mill in U.S.
1793 Eli Whitney patents cotton gin.
1794 Napoleon Bonaparte establishes Ecole Polytechnique.
Josiah Hornblower builds first U.S. stamp mill.
1795 Joseph Bramah invents hydraulic press.
1798 David Wilkinson invents slide-rest lathe to cut screw threads.
1807 Robert Fulton develops Clemiont, first successful commercial steamboat.
1824 Nicolas Carnot publishes Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire, leading to science of thermodynamics.
1830 Peter Cooper builds Tom Thumb, first U.S. steam locomotive.
1834 Cyrus H. McCormick patents reaping machine that revolutionizes agricultural industry.
1837 John Deere opens shop that pioneers manufacture of plows.
1841 Sir Joseph Whitworth proposes standard screw threads.
1846 Elias Howe invents sewing machine that revolutionizes garment manufacturing.
1850 Margaret E. Knight invents stop-motion for loom shuttle at age 12, the first of many patents.
1853 First meeting of Polytechnic Institute Board of Trustees.
William J. M. Rankine proposes law of conservation of energy.
1854 Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute chartered.
1856 Sir Henry Bessemer develops first process for manufacturing steel inexpensively.
1857 Elisha G. Otis installs first safety elevator for passenger service.
1860 Lenoir builds first practical internal-combustion engine.
1861 Linus Yale patents lock with pin tumbler mechanism and small flat key.
1862 John Ericsson, whose inventions revolutionize navigation and construction of warships, oversees the building of Monitor, an iron-clad Civil War ship.
1863 Henry Clifton Sorby discovers microstructure of steel, leading to development of science of metallurgy.
Birdsill Holly designs water-pumping system and central heating system adopted by cities in U.S. and Canada.
1865 Francis A. Pratt and Amos Whitney establish Pratt & Whitney.
1867 George H. Babcock, ASME's 6th president (1887), and Stephen Wilcox patent a water-tube boiler, designed to avoid explosions, and establish Babcock & Wilcox.
1868 Christopher L. Sholes, S. W. Soule and G. Glidden patent first practical modern typewriter.
1869 George Westinghouse, ASME's 29th president (1910-11), patents railroad air brake.
1871 Simon Ingersoll invents pneumatic rock drill.
1873 John E. Sweet, ASME's 3rd president (1884-85), builds first micrometer caliper.
1879 Polytechnic alumnus Robert G. Brown '68 invents modern telephone, combining mouthpiece and receiver on one handle.
1880 Herman Hollerith creates system to record and retrieve information on punched cards; organizes Tabulating Machine Company, which grew into IBM.
Lester A. Pelton invents Pelton water wheel.
1884 Sir Charles Parsons invents first practical stream turbine engine.
Ottmar Mergenthaler patents first Linotype typesetting machine.
1885 Karl Benz designs and builds first practical automobile powered by internal combustion engine.
1892 Rudolph Diesel patents internal-combustion engine.
1895 Michael J. Owens patents first automatic bottle-blowing machine.
1899 Polytechnic Institute establishes Mechanical Engineering (ME) Department.
Charles G. Curtis, recipient of ASME's Holley Medal (1950), patents first U.S. gas turbine.
Frederick W. Taylor, ASME's 25th president (1906-07), and Maunsel White develop Taylor-White Process for heat-treating high-speed tool steels.
1900 First trial flight of Zeppelin.
1901 Magnus C. Ihlseng named first professor of mechanical engineering.
1902 ME Department offers one-year graduate course.
1903 First ME degree awarded to Alfred Helwig, who graduates cum laude.
Orville and Wilbur Wright fly first powered, sustained and controlled airplane.
1908 Ford Motor Company mass produces first Model T.
1909 Polytechnic's ASME Student Section holds first meeting.
1910 Elmer A. Sperry, holder of over 400 patents, invents nonmagnetic navigational aid. Following year, his gyrocompass installed on U.S. battleship Delaware. ASME names transportation award after Sperry in 1955.
1914 Robert H. Goddard begins rocketry experiments.
1915 Hugo Junkers constructs first fighter airplane.
1918 Prof. Edwin E Church named head of ME Department.
ME Department obtains four-cylinder Maxwell car for testing purposes as part of mechanical laboratory course.
1919 ME Department moves into own building with $50,000 of new equipment and more than twice the space.
Otto Henry, ME assistant professor, expands metallurgy program.
1924 John Harwood patents self-winding wristwatch.
1927 Polytechnic increases engineering program requirements and establishes BS in ME. First degrees awarded to Joseph A. Lambertine, Harold J. Mahoney, Robert Y MuscareII and Herman J. P. Schubert.
1928 MS in ME established; eight students enrolled in first year.
Divisions of Industrial Engineering (IE) and Materials Engineering created.
1930 First MS in ME awarded to John C. De Cotiis.
ME student Jules Podnossoff'31 (BME) '33 (MME) wins Charles T.
Main Award, ASME's highest student award, for essay on economic phase of safety movement.
Theodore von Karman becomes director of Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at California Institute of Technology, now NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab.
1931 ME Department offers Polytechnic's first classes in aeronautical engineering (AE): Airplane Designs and Aerodynamics and Airplane Structures.
1937 Frank Whittle builds first jet engine.
1939 ME Department establishes programs offering BS in AE and Metallurgical Engineering (MetE).
Igor Sikorsky's helicopter has first successful flight.
1940 New combustion chamber for jet engines designed.
1941 AE Department established and headed by Prof. R. Paul Harrington.
First BS in AE awarded to William S. Holmes and Aaron Krushner.
MS in AE offered.
1942 First BS in MetE awarded to James G. Farmer.
First MS in AE awarded to Edwin E Miller and Sebastian Nardo.
Bell Aircraft tests first U.S. jet plane.
1943 ME Department offers Polytechnic's first courses in air pollution control.
PhD in AE offered.
1945 First PhD in AE awarded to Maria Z. E. Krzywoblocki.
1946 Prof. Edwin F. Church retires after 28 years as head of ME Department.
Prof. Ernst L. Midgette, former director of research and design for American Engineering Company, named head of ME Department.
First MS in MetE awarded to Jorge G. Veiga.
1947 ME Department moves to 69 Schermerhorn Street.
PhD in Applied Mechanics (AM) offered.
1948 Edythe Crescenzo De Gaeta first woman to receive BS in ME.
Ann Elizabeth Gunsolus first woman to receive BS in AE.
1949 Goldye Cohen Leeds first woman to receive BS in MetE.
1950 Dr. Nicholas John Hoff named head of AE and AM Department. His work as an aircraft structure analyst guided aircraft design worldwide.
1951 PhD in ME offered.
1952 Edythe Crescenzo DeGaeta’48 (BME) first woman to receive MS in ME.
Preston R. Bassett '14 (BME) named chairman of Polytechnic’s Board of Trustees.
1954 ME Department expands graduate program in air pollution control under direction of Prof. Clifford A. Wojan '43 (BME) '48 (MME).
1955 Dr. Charles T. Oergel, named head of ME Department.
First use of atomically generated power in U.S. in Schenectady, NY.
1957 ME Department moves to 333 Jay Street.
Dr. Antonio Ferri named head of AE and AM Departments.
U.S.S.R. launches SputnikI and II.
1959 MS in IE offered.
First nuclear powered merchant vessel Savannah launched.
1962 Dr. William A. Lynch named head of ME Department.
Telstar satellite launched from Cape Canaveral.
1963 Friction Welding invented.
1964 Dr. Martin H. Bloom '46 (BME) '49 (MAM) '51 (PhD AM) named head of AE and AM Department.
The Otto H. Henry Metallurgical Laboratory opens.
ME Prof. Clifford A. Wojais is part of Polytechnic team supervising the rewriting of New York City's building code.
ME Department offers bioengineering courses.
1965 Joseph W. Wunsch System Center for Project Engineering opens through generous support of Dr. Wunsch '17 (BME) and grant from National Science Foundation.
PhD in IE offered.
1966 Bioengineering (BI) program established; Prof. William B. Blesser named director.
1967 Prof. John R. Curreri '44 (BME) '48 (MME) named head of ME Department.
ME Department offers courses in creative design in stress areas and underwater acoustics in ocean engineering.
1968 MetE Department established and headed by A. Johnson; PhD program offered.
Dr. Joseph Kempner named head of AE and AM Department.
Operations Research (OR) and IE Department created; Dr. Norbert Hauser named head.;
BI program becomes division of Chemical Engineering Department.
1969 Apollo 11 lands lunar module on moon's surface.
1973 Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn merges with New York University's School of Engineering and Science to form Polytechnic Institute of New York.
Nuclear Engineering (NE) program established.
Dr. Jotin R. Lamarsh named head.
1974 Dr. Richard S. Thorsen named head of ME Department.
1975 Separate graduate program in ocean engineering created within ME Department. Dr. Richard S. Thorsen appointed head of combined ME and AE Department.
1976 Nuclear engineer Jimmy Carter elected U.S. president.
1977 Paul Soros '50 (MME) elected to Polytechnic Board of Trustees.
1982 Herman Fialkov '51 (BAE) elected to Polytechnic Board of Trustees.
Richard W. Foxen'50 (BME) elected to Polytechnic Board of Trustees
1983 Dr. Pasquale M. Sforza named head of ME and AE Department receives Distinguished Faculty Award in 1985.
1985 New York State Board of Regents approves name change to Polytechnic Institute of NYU.
1986 ME Department establishes Manufacturing Engineering (MN) Program.
1987 Dr. William R. McShane named head of ME and IE Department.
1987 Dr. Pasquale M. Sforza remains head of AE Department.
1991 Arthur C. Martinez '60 (BME) elected to Polytechnic Board of Trustees.
1992 Dr. Charles W. Hoover, Jr. named director of MN program.
1993 Dr. Michael R. Corey '70 (PhD IE) elected to Polytechnic Board of Trustees.
1994 Arthur C. Martinez '60 (BME) named chairman of Polytechnic Board of Trustees.
1995 ME and AE Departments recombine to form ME, AE and MN Department, headed by Dr. George Vradis.
1996 Dr. Sunil Kumar named head of ME, AE and MN Department. A specialist in heat transfer, he has conducted research in energy systems, micro-scale heat transfer and radiation transport.
1997 Polytechnic joins NASA/New York Space Consortium, which provides grants to help students participate in research relevant to NASA mission.
1999 Robert Prieto '76 (BNE) '77 (MNE) elected to Polytechnic Board of Trustees.
Polytechnic Institute of NYU celebrates 100 years of ME. University presents Drs. Herman Fialkov’51 (BAE) and Eugene Kleiner '48 (BME) '51 (MIE) '89 (HON) with Outstanding Mechanical Engineering Alumni of the Century Awards, and honors Ursula M. Burns '80 (BME), Anthony J. Tanner '70 (BLS) '72 (MBI) and Dr. Morris Young '75 (PhD MM) with Outstanding Alumni Awards.
2001 Dr. Said Nourbakhsh named head of ME, AE and MN Department. A materials engineer with research interests in composites, superconductors, smart materials, and piezoelectric thin films.
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The History 
