4. The Institutional Roots of Engineering Science

This chapter analyzes how new institutions that emerged in response to the Industrial Revolution helped to set that stage for the emergence of engineering science. The chapter describes how in Britain a number of more informal institutions helped to spread and popularize Newtonian and Baconian ideas to the working classes. The chapter also discusses how in France the needs of the State led to the creation of a number of engineering schools which emphasized science and mathematics but also through descriptive geometry provided a “grammar of the arts.” While Napoleon’s conquest of the Continent led the German States to imitate much of the French model of engineering education, the chapter argues that some of the Technische Hochschulen saw technical knowledge as not simply applied science but an independent and autonomous form of knowledge. The chapter then describes how in the debate between a “shop culture” and a “school culture” influenced engineering education in the United States and led to new institutions such as the Franklin Institute that were able to combine elements of both cultures. The chapter concludes by arguing that all of these institutions did more than simply apply science to technology but helped to create a new engineering science.