Skip to main content

1986

Roll Over Protection Structure (ROPS)
Society: ASABEMain Category: Agricultural & BiologicalSub Category: VehiclesEra: 1950-1959DateCreated: 1956John Deere Product Engineering CenterCedar FallsState: IAZip: 50613Country: USAWebsite: https://www.asabe.org/awards-landmarks/asabe-historic-landmarks/rops-21.aspx

The First Agricultural Tractor Roll-Over Protection Structure (Rops) In The USA Resulted From Research By Lloyd H. Lamouria, Ralph R. Parks And Coby Lorensen At The Agricultural Engineering Department Of The University Of California At Davis. It Was Designed And Successfully Tested In The Summer Of 1956. It Was Exhibited And Reported At The Annual Meeting Of The Pacific Coast Section Of The American Society Of Agricultural Engineers (ASAE) In December 1956. Warren I. Hanson, Safety Coordinator, N.

YearAdded:
1986
Image Credit: Courtesy Wikicommons/BulldozerD11 (CC BY 3.0)Image Caption: Ford Tractor with fitted ROPS bar
Cotton Gin
Society: ASABEMain Category: Agricultural & BiologicalSub Category: ProcessingEra: 1750-1799DateCreated: 1794Cotton Exchange Commission BuildingSavannahState: GACountry: USAWebsite: https://www.asabe.org/awards-landmarks/asabe-historic-landmarks/cotton-gin-20.aspxCreator: Eli Whitney

This Creative Development Which Was Responsible For The Survival Of The Cotton Industry In The United States Occurred In General Nathaniel Greene's Plantation Near Savannah 10 Miles Northeast Of This Marker. Separation By Hand Labor Of The Lint From The Seed Of The Desired Upland Variety Of Cotton Produced Only One Pound Per Day Per Person. Eli Whitney, A Native Of Massachusetts And Yale Law Graduate, Came To Georgia To Teach School In Late 1792, At Age 27. Mrs. Catherine Greene, Widow Of General Greene, Invited Whitney To Her Plantation, And Urged Him To Design A Cotton Gin.

YearAdded:
1986
First Central Station in South Carolina
Society: IEEEMain Category: ElectricEra: 1880-1889DateCreated: 1882United States Electric Illuminating CompanyCharlestonState: SCZip: 29401Country: USAWebsite: http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Milestones:First_Central_Station_in_South_Carolina,_1882Creator: Maxim, Hiram

The United States Electric Illuminating Company of Charleston started up South Carolina's first central station for incandescent lighting in October 1882 -- only one month after Thomas Edison opened his famous Pearl Street plant in New York City. In the following years, the company's parent firm was a major force in the growing electrical industry.

YearAdded:
1986
Image Credit: Courtesy IEEEImage Caption: The United States Electric Illuminating Company central station at 94 Queen Street.Era_date_from: 1882
El Camino Real - The Royal Road
Society: ASCEMain Category: CivilSub Category: Roads & RailsEra: 1000-1599DateCreated: 1519Mexico City to Santa FeState: NMZip: 87501Country: USAWebsite: https://www.asce.org/project/el-camino-real---the-royal-road/Creator: Spain, Kingdom of

El Camino Real (literally, "the royal road") is the oldest and longest historical trail in the Western Hemisphere. The transportation link has, through the centuries, been called various names, including El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (literally, "the road to the interior" because the U.S. frontier was seen as the country interior to Mexico), the King's Highway and the Royal Highway. It became a transportation lifeline that helped integrate Spanish and European culture in the Southwestern U.S. 

YearAdded:
1986
Image Credit: Courtesy Wikipedia/National Park ServiceImage Caption: El Camino Real (literally, "the royal road") is the oldest and longest historical trail in the Western Hemisphere. Era_date_from: 1519
El Camino Real (The Royal Road) Eastern Branch
Society: ASCEMain Category: CivilSub Category: Roads & RailsEra: 1000-1599DateCreated: 16th CenturySan AntonioState: TXZip: 78207Country: MexicoWebsite: http://www.asce.org/project/el-camino-real---eastern-branch/Creator: Spain, Kingdom of

Historically, a camino real (Royal Road) is defined as a road that connects Spanish capital with Spanish capital, a distinction not shared with roads connecting ordinary Spanish or Indian villages. The term Camino Real implied that the status and privileges granted to the villas and capitals it connected were extended to the main routes of travel through use by officials and others acting in the interest of the crown. Unlike ordinary Indian and Spanish villages, villas like San Antonio and others along the route had charters that prescribed royal privileges.

YearAdded:
1986
Image Credit: Photo courtesy Orange County Archives.Image Caption: The El Camino Real arches, located at Knott's Berry Farm in California. The arches are marked "El Camino Real: 'The King's Highway'"Era_date_from: 16th Century
Zuiderzee Enclosure Dam
Society: ASCEMain Category: CivilSub Category: DamsEra: 1920-1929DateCreated: 1927-1932ZuiderzeeZaandamState: North HollandCountry: NetherlandsWebsite: http://www.asce.org/Project/Zuiderzee-Enclosure-DamCreator: Lely, Cornelis

The first Zuiderzee Enclosure Dam ran from North Holland to the island of Wieringen, successfully barring the sea for over 50 years and protecting a large area north of Amsterdam. The total Zuiderzee project was the largest land reclamation effort in the Netherlands, developed over a period of about 80 years, beginning in 1918 and reaching completion in 1996. The huge dyke/dam was considered one of the greatest engineering feats of its time.

YearAdded:
1986
Image Credit: Public Domain (Copyright Exp.)Image Caption: Zuiderzee Enclosure DamEra_date_from: 1927
White River Concrete Arch Bridge
Society: ASCEMain Category: CivilSub Category: BridgesEra: 1930-1939DateCreated: 1930White RiverCotterState: ARZip: 72626Country: USAWebsite: http://www.asce.org/Project/White-River-Concrete-Arch-Bridge/Creator: Marsh, James Barney

When this 1,850-foot concrete-arch highway bridge was built on the White River in a remote region of northern Arkansas - prior to the construction of upriver, flood-control dams - flash floods occurred frequently, sometimes causing the water to rise as much as one foot per hour. Construction under these conditions presented a clear danger, so project managers specified both a design and an innovative construction method appropriate to the problem of building across a perilous stretch of unpredictable river.

YearAdded:
1986
Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/jaystout (CC BY 2.0)Image Caption: White River Concrete Arch BridgeEra_date_from: 1930
U.S. Capitol
Society: ASCEMain Category: CivilSub Category: BuildingsEra: 1750-1799DateCreated: 1793Capitol HillWashingtonState: DCZip: C 20016Country: USAWebsite: http://www.asce.org/Project/U-S--Capitol/Creator: Thornton, William , Latrobe, Benjamin

The United States Capitol is among the most symbolically important and architecturally impressive buildings in the nation. Construction of the original Capitol began in 1793, but it has been through several additions and alterations. Over its lifetime, the Capitol building has been built, burnt, rebuilt, extended, and restored.

YearAdded:
1986
Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Jiuguang Wang (CC BY-SA 2.0)Image Caption: U.S. CapitolEra_date_from: 1793
Triborough Bridge Project
Society: ASCEMain Category: CivilSub Category: BridgesEra: 1930-1939DateCreated: 1936Robert F. Kennedy BridgeNew YorkState: NYZip: 10035Country: USAWebsite: http://www.asce.org/Project/Triborough-Bridge-Project/Creator: Moses, Robert , Ammann, Othmar

The Triborough Bridge Project is a three-branched waterway crossing that connects Manhattan, the Bronx, and Queens at a junction of the East River and the Harlem River in New York City. The complex structure includes a suspension bridge from Wards Island to Queens, a vertical lift span from Randall's Island to Manhattan, a fixed span (designed to be convertible to a lift span) across the Bronx Kills, viaducts, and an innovative three-legged roadway interchange.

YearAdded:
1986
Image Credit: Public Domain (National Park Service)Image Caption: Triborough Bridge ProjectEra_date_from: 1936
Sewall's Bridge
Society: ASCEMain Category: CivilSub Category: BridgesEra: 1750-1799DateCreated: 1761York RiverYorkState: MEZip: 03909Country: USAWebsite: http://www.asce.org/Project/Sewall-s-Bridge/Creator: Sewall, Samuel

Sewall's Bridge is a singular example of an era when wooden trestle bridges carried highway traffic across New England waterways. It is the earliest pile-trestle bridge for which an authentic construction record exists, and the oldest for which builder's drawings survive. Spanning the York River, it was named for Major Samuel Sewall, Jr., the civil engineer who designed and constructed it.

YearAdded:
1986
Image Credit: Public Domain (State Historical Society of Colorado)Image Caption: Sewall's BridgeEra_date_from: 1761
Subscribe to 1986

Innovations

Fairbanks Exploration Company Gold Dredge No. 8

This floating dredge is one of the last mammoth gold dredges in the Fairbanks Mining District that traveled an ancient stream bed, thawing the ground ahead of it and scooping up the gravel. During 32 years of operation, a fortune in gold washed through its sluices. Ladder dredges came to Alaska…

Read More
Disney engineers designed this monorail system based on the system developed by Axel Wenner-Gren of the Alweg Company in Cologne, West Germany. Wenner-Gren ran his experimental monorail in 1952 on a level track, and when adopted by Disney in 1959, it was designed to simulate the terrain typical of… Read More
Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower was built for the International Exhibition of Paris of 1889 commemorating the centenary of the French Revolution. Of the 700 proposals submitted in a design competition, Gustave Eiffel's was unanimously chosen. At 300 meters and 7,000 tons, it was the world's tallest…

Read More
Cranetown Triangulation Site

The precise system of measurements provided today by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey originated with an act of Congress under the administration of Thomas Jefferson in 1807 that funded work on "an accurate chart" of America's coastal waters. Intended to aid sea-going commerce, the first…

Read More
New Castle Ice Harbor

In 1794, the Delaware legislature authorized a lottery to fund the erection of ice piers in the harbor at New Castle. The ice harbor was designed to protect anchored ships from storms and ice. At the time, New Castle served as the principal winter port for ships from the Port of Philadelphia…

Read More
Norris Dam

Norris Dam impounds the Clinch River, a mountain tributary of the Tennessee River. The facility stands as a tribute and symbol of the birth of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Given broad jurisdiction over resource development in the watershed (a 40,000-square-mile basin comprising parts of…

Read More
Ever since the Gold Rush days of the 1850s, San Francisco Bay area residents and businesses had lobbied for a bridge joining San Francisco and Oakland. Early studies indicated that the bridge was impractical and infeasible; but in October 1929, President Herbert Hoover (himself an engineer) and… Read More
Sewall's Bridge

Sewall's Bridge is a singular example of an era when wooden trestle bridges carried highway traffic across New England waterways. It is the earliest pile-trestle bridge for which an authentic construction record exists, and the oldest for which builder's drawings survive. Spanning the York River…

Read More
Triborough Bridge Project

The Triborough Bridge Project is a three-branched waterway crossing that connects Manhattan, the Bronx, and Queens at a junction of the East River and the Harlem River in New York City. The complex structure includes a suspension bridge from Wards Island to Queens, a vertical lift span from…

Read More
U.S. Capitol

The United States Capitol is among the most symbolically important and architecturally impressive buildings in the nation. Construction of the original Capitol began in 1793, but it has been through several additions and alterations. Over its lifetime, the Capitol building has been built, burnt…

Read More
White River Concrete Arch Bridge

When this 1,850-foot concrete-arch highway bridge was built on the White River in a remote region of northern Arkansas - prior to the construction of upriver, flood-control dams - flash floods occurred frequently, sometimes causing the water to rise as much as one foot per hour. Construction…

Read More
Zuiderzee Enclosure Dam

The first Zuiderzee Enclosure Dam ran from North Holland to the island of Wieringen, successfully barring the sea for over 50 years and protecting a large area north of Amsterdam. The total Zuiderzee project was the largest land reclamation effort in the Netherlands, developed over a period of…

Read More
El Camino Real (The Royal Road) Eastern Branch

Historically, a camino real (Royal Road) is defined as a road that connects Spanish capital with Spanish capital, a distinction not shared with roads connecting ordinary Spanish or Indian villages. The term Camino Real implied that the status and privileges granted to the villas and capitals it…

Read More
El Camino Real - The Royal Road

El Camino Real (literally, "the royal road") is the oldest and longest historical trail in the Western Hemisphere. The transportation link has, through the centuries, been called various names, including El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (literally, "the road to the interior" because the U.…

Read More
First Central Station in South Carolina

The United States Electric Illuminating Company of Charleston started up South Carolina's first central station for incandescent lighting in October 1882 -- only one month after Thomas Edison opened his famous Pearl Street plant in New York City. In the following years, the company's parent firm…

Read More
Cotton Gin

This Creative Development Which Was Responsible For The Survival Of The Cotton Industry In The United States Occurred In General Nathaniel Greene's Plantation Near Savannah 10 Miles Northeast Of This Marker. Separation By Hand Labor Of The Lint From The Seed Of The Desired Upland Variety…

Read More
Roll Over Protection Structure (ROPS)

The First Agricultural Tractor Roll-Over Protection Structure (Rops) In The USA Resulted From Research By Lloyd H. Lamouria, Ralph R. Parks And Coby Lorensen At The Agricultural Engineering Department Of The University Of California At Davis. It Was Designed And Successfully Tested In The…

Read More

We hope you enjoyed this essay.

Please support America's only magazine of the history of engineering and innovation, and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to Invention & Technology.

Donate

Stay informed - subscribe to our newsletter.
The subscriber's email address.