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Architects and Engineers - Engineers

If it wasn't for engineers, most of our buildings and structures wouldn't be in place! Engineers ensure that the designs of architects are feasible and won't fall down. Test your knowledge on all things of an engineering nature by playing this quiz looking at ten famous engineers. Good luck!

  1. The topmast of the Great Eastern, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, is used as a flagpole at the entrance to which football club?

    Photograph courtesy of dyson.co.uk
    • Born: 9 April 1806
    • Place: Portsmouth
    • Nationality: British
    • He was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards
    • The Great Western Railway was one of his constructions
    • His designs revolutionised public transport and modern engineering
    • He designed and built three ships that revolutionised naval engineering

  2. What is the Claw of Archimedes, invented by Archimedes of Syracuse, also known as?

    Photograph courtesy of zyzyo.com
    • Born: 287 BC
    • Place: Syracuse, Sicily
    • Nationality: Greek
    • He was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor and astronomer
    • Archimedes is generally considered to be one of the greatest mathematicians of all time
    • He is credited with designing innovative machines, including siege engines and the screw pump that bears his name
    • He also defined the spiral bearing his name
    • The Claw of Archimedes is a weapon that he is said to have designed

  3. What were the first names of the Wright brothers?

    Photograph courtesy of aerospaceweb.org
    • Born: 16 April 1912 and 19 August 1871
    • Place: Dayton, Ohio and Millville, Indiana
    • Nationality: American
    • They were two Americans credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane
    • In the two years afterwards, the brothers developed their flying machine into the first practical fixed-wing aircraft
    • The brothers' fundamental breakthrough was their invention of three-axis control
    • In 1903 the brothers built the powered Wright Flyer I
    • In 1904 the Wrights built the Flyer II

  4. The garret room workshop that James Watt used in his retirement was presented to which museum in 1924?

    Photograph courtesy of universitystory.gla.ac.uk
    • Born: 19 January 1736
    • Place: Greenock, Scotland
    • Nationality: Scottish
    • He was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer
    • Watt introduced a design enhancement, the separate condenser
    • The SI unit of power, the watt, was named after him
    • Watt patented the application of the sun and planet gear to steam in 1781 and a steam locomotive in 1784
    • From an early age Watt was very interested in chemistry
    • Watt has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history

  5. Who owns The Codex Leicester, a major scientific work of Leonardo Da Vinci?

    Photograph courtesy of lazyoptimist.wordpress.com
    • Born: 15 April 1452
    • Place: Vinci, Italy
    • Nationality: Italian
    • He was among other things a painter, sculptor, architect, musician and scientist
    • He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time
    • Also the most diversely talented person ever to have lived
    • Among his works, the Mona Lisa is the most famous and most parodied portrait
    • The Last Supper is the most reproduced religious painting of all
    • He conceptualised a helicopter, a tank, concentrated solar power and a calculator

  6. What was the name of the post office steamer that Rudolf Diesel boared on 29 September 1913 where he met his death?

    Photograph courtesy of autokult.pl
    • Born: 18 March 1858
    • Place: Paris, France
    • Nationality: German
    • He was a German inventor and mechanical engineer
    • He was famous for the invention of the diesel engine
    • At age 14, Rudolf wrote a letter to his parents stating that he wanted to become an engineer
    • He first worked with steam, building a steam engine using ammonia vapour
    • During tests, however, the engine exploded and almost killed him
    • Rudolf Diesel obtained patents for his design in Germany and other countries, including the USA

  7. In 1804, Robert Fulton moved to England, where he was commissioned by which Prime Minister?

    Photograph courtesy of history.com
    • Born: 14 November 1765
    • Place: Little Britain, Pennsylvania
    • Nationality: American
    • He was an American engineer and inventor
    • He is widely credited with developing the first commercially successful steamboat
    • In 1800 he was commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte to design the Nautilus

  8. As a tribute to George Stephenson's life and works a bronze statue of him is at which railway station?

    Photograph courtesy of rememberwhengazettelive.co.uk
    • Born: 9 June 1781
    • Place: Wylam, Northumberland
    • Nationality: British
    • He was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer
    • He built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives
    • Stephenson designed his first locomotive in 1814
    • The Skew Bridge opened in 1830 and is now a listed structure

  9. On a visit in 1974 to Allegheny College, Wernher von Braun revealed he had an allergy to what?

    Photograph courtesy of thelivingmoon.com
    • Born: 23 March 1912
    • Place: Wirsitz
    • Nationality: German/American
    • Was a German-born American rocket scientist, aerospace engineer and space architect
    • He was a former member of the Nazi party
    • His crowning achievement was to lead the development of the Saturn V booster rocket that helped land the first men on the Moon in July 1969
    • In 1952, von Braun first published his concept of a manned space station
    • In 1975 he received the National Medal of Science

  10. Dean Bridge in Edinburgh, designed by Thomas Telford, was featured in which Ian Rankin novel?

    Photograph courtesy of en.wikipedia.org
    • Born: 9 August 1757
    • Place: Eskdale, Dumfriesshire
    • Nationality: Scottish
    • He was a Scottish civil engineer, architect and stonemason
    • He was also a noted road, bridge and canal builder
    • Some of his earliest work can still be seen on the bridge across the River Esk
    • In 1790 he designed a bridge carrying the London-Holyhead road over the River Severn
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