The Mechanical Sciences In Antiquity

The origin of the mechanical sciences can be traced to the studies of Aristotle and Archimedes, who set forth the principles that are the basis of mechanics. However, development in successive centuries advanced but slowly, with notable progress made during the Middle Ages, and would find its complete formal development and linguistic expression only in the Renaissance.The use of elementary static systems followed different courses, tied more to empiricism and constructive technologies than to theoretical science, resolving the problems that were mentioned from time to time by the architects and builders of antiquity. Such problems, formulated from the constructive practices of architecture and by the machines for building, were resolved using those very mechanical devices that are at the basis of the discipline, without a precise knowledge of their general semantic value, but rather with a awareness of statics and constructive empiricism that validated the choices made on the building site.

Provides a broad framework for engaging with ideas relevant to ancient Greek and Roman science, medicine and technology.

The history of the Faculty of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering is as old as that of the TU Wien. As intended by its founders, the former Imperial Royal Polytechnic Institute worked closely together with industry and business, addressing topics from the very beginning that one would today assign to the Faculty of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. In correspondence with overall technological progress, the research topics and teaching fields of the faculty have undergone continual, often even revolutionary, development and change. This commemorative volume provides both a historical overview of the evolution of the faculty as well as exemplary highlights and striking characteristics of the developments of the last 50 years in particular.