Civil engineering. History of the civil engineering profession[edit] Engineering has been an aspect of life since the beginnings of human existence. The earliest practice of civil engineering may have commenced between 4000 and 2000 BC in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia (Ancient Iraq) when humans started to abandon a nomadic existence, creating a need for the construction of shelter. During this time, transportation became increasingly important leading to the development of the wheel and sailing. Until modern times there was no clear distinction between civil engineering and architecture, and the term engineer and architect were mainly geographical variations referring to the same occupation, and often used interchangeably.[7] The construction of pyramids in Egypt (circa 2700–2500 BC) were some of the first instances of large structure constructions.
In 1818 the Institution of Civil Engineers was founded in London, and in 1820 the eminent engineer Thomas Telford became its first president. Construction. Building construction is the process of preparing for and forming buildings[1] and building systems.[2] Construction starts with planning, design, and financing and continues until the structure is ready for occupancy. Definitions[edit] Building in this article is used as a noun as "...that which is built; a structure, edifice... ".[3] The distinction between a building and a non-building structure is not always clear but is sometimes determined if the structure has walls or by its size or use.
The Oxford English Dictionary includes that structure may be used for a large or imposing building. Construction is a very general term meaning the art and science to form material or immaterial objects, systems or organizations,[3] and comes from Latin constructionem (from com- "together" and struere "to pile up") and Old French construction.[4] Construction is used as a verb: the act of building, and a noun: how a building was built, the nature of its structure.
Types of construction projects[edit] Building Information Modeling | Turner Construction Company. BBHCSD - District News. Time bomb. A time bomb (or timebomb, time-bomb) is a bomb whose detonation is triggered by a timer. The use (or attempted use) of time bombs has been for various purposes including insurance fraud, terrorism, assassination and warfare. Construction[edit] Diagram of a simple time bomb in the form of a pipe bomb A time bomb's timing mechanism may be professionally manufactured, either separately or as part of the device, or it may be improvised from an ordinary household timer such as a wind-up alarm clock, wrist watch, digital kitchen timer, or notebook computer.
Types[edit] Types of time bombs include: Delay-action bomb (bombs dropped by aircraft with a delay to increase damage/disruption)Improvised explosive device ("home-made" bombs with a delay to allow the person placing the bomb to escape)Limpet mine (attached to enemy ships by naval divers) List of some notable incidents involving time bombs[edit] Time bombs in fiction[edit] Such fictional appearances include: See also[edit] References[edit]
Tool. A tool is any physical item that can be used to achieve a goal, especially if the item is not consumed in the process. Informally the word is also used to describe a procedure or process with a specific purpose. Tool use by humans dates back millions of years, and other animals are also known to employ simple tools. Tools that are used in particular fields or activities may have different designations such as "instrument", "utensil", "implement", "machine", or "apparatus". The set of tools needed to achieve a goal is "equipment". History Up until recently, weapons found in digs were the only tools of “early man” that were studied and given importance. Tools are the most important items that the ancient humans used to climb to the top of the food chain; by inventing tools, they were able to accomplish tasks that human bodies could not, such as using a spear or bow and arrow to kill prey, since their teeth were not sharp enough to pierce many animals' skins.
Functions Tool substitution Notes. Coffee. Coffee is a brewed beverage prepared from the roasted or baked seeds of several species of an evergreen shrub of the genus Coffea. The two most common sources of coffee beans are the highly regarded Coffea arabica, and the "robusta" form of the hardier Coffea canephora. The latter is resistant to the coffee leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix), but has a more bitter taste. Coffee plants are cultivated in more than 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa.
Once ripe, coffee "berries" are picked, processed and dried to yield the seeds inside. Coffee is slightly acidic (pH 5.0–5.1[1]) and can have a stimulating effect on humans because of its caffeine content. Coffee cultivation first took place in southern Arabia;[4] the earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking appears in the middle of the 15th century in the Sufi shrines of Yemen.[4] In East Africa and Yemen, coffee was used in native religious ceremonies. Etymology[edit] History[edit] Biology[edit] Tracked vehicle. A closeup of continuous tracks on a bulldozer A British Army Challenger 1 tank An agricultural tractor with rubber tracks Continuous track, also called tank tread[1] or caterpillar track, is a system of vehicle propulsion in which a continuous band of treads is driven by two or more wheels. This band is typically made of modular steel plates in the case of military vehicles, or rubber reinforced with steel wires in the case of lighter agricultural or construction vehicles.
The large surface area of the tracks distributes the weight of the vehicle better than steel or rubber tyres on an equivalent vehicle, enabling a continuous tracked vehicle to traverse soft ground with less likelihood of becoming stuck due to sinking. History[edit] Lombard Steam Log Hauler (Designed, patented 1901) Hornsby tracked, paraffin-powered tractor c.1908 Hornsby tractor, 1909 Steam traction engines were used at the end of the 19th Century in the Boer Wars.
A little known American inventor, Henery T. Blinov[edit] Bulldozer. A working bulldozer from the First Tractor Company, on Xinbu Island, Hainan, China. A bulldozer is a crawler (continuous tracked tractor) equipped with a substantial metal plate (known as a blade) used to push large quantities of soil, sand, rubble, or other such material during construction or conversion work and typically equipped at the rear with a claw-like device (known as a ripper) to loosen densely compacted materials. Bulldozers can be found on a wide range of sites, mines and quarries, military bases, heavy industry factories, engineering projects and farms. Description[edit] A Caterpillar D10N bulldozer equipped with a single shank ripper. Most often bulldozers are large and powerful tracked heavy equipment. Because of these attributes, bulldozers are often used in road building, construction, mining, forestry, land clearing, infrastructure development, and any other projects requiring highly mobile, powerful, and stable earth-moving equipment.
Blade[edit] Bulldozer blade. Coping saw. A coping saw. A coping saw consists of a thin, hardened steel blade, stretched between the ends of a square, c-shaped, springy-iron frame to which a handle is attached. The blade is easily removed from the frame so that the blade can be passed through a drilled hole in the middle of a piece of wood. The frame is then re-attached to the blade and the cut starts from the middle of the piece. Long cuts perpendicular to the edge of the material are possible but the shallow depth of the frame rather limits how far from the edge one may cut.
The much deeper frame of the fretsaw is more useful for cutting well away from the edge but conversely cannot manage the thicker materials commonly cut by the coping saws. The coping saw blade is removable by partially unscrewing the handle. The blade is prevented from rotating by means of the short, steady bar provided where the blade is attached. The direction of the cut is quite easy to change because of the thinness of the blade. Hacksaw. Junior hacksaw A panel hacksaw Design[edit] Blades[edit] Blades are available in standardized lengths, usually 10 or 12 inches for a standard hand hacksaw.
The pitch of the teeth can be anywhere from fourteen to thirty-two teeth per inch (tpi) for a hand blade, with as few as three tpi for a large power hacksaw blade. Hacksaw blades are normally quite brittle, so care needs to be taken to prevent brittle fracture of the blade. For several decades now, hacksaw blades have used high speed steel for their teeth, giving greatly improved cutting and tooth life. Hacksaw blade specifications: The most common blade is the 12 inch or 300 mm length. 12 Inch Blade: Hole to Hole: 11 7/8 inches / 300 mm Overall blade length: 12 3/8 inches / 315 mm (not tightly controlled) Mounting Hole diameter: 9/64 to 5/32 inch / 3.5 to 4 mm (not tightly controlled) Blade Width: 7/16 to 33/64 inch / 11 to 13 mm (not tightly controlled) Hole to Hole: 9 7/8 inches / 250 mm Variants[edit] An electric hacksaw See also[edit]
Abrasive blasting. Sandblasting a stone wall Diesel powered compressor used as an air supply for sandblasting Abrasive blasting is the operation of forcibly propelling a stream of abrasive material against a surface under high pressure to smooth a rough surface, roughen a smooth surface, shape a surface, or remove surface contaminants.
A pressurized fluid, typically air, or a centrifugal wheel is used to propel the blasting material (often called the media). The first abrasive blasting process was patented by Benjamin Chew Tilghman on 18 October 1870.[1] There are several variants of the process, such as bead blasting, sand blasting, sodablasting, and shot blasting. Types[edit] Wet abrasive blasting[edit] One of the original pioneers of the wet abrasive (vapourmatting) process was Norman Ashworth who found the advantages of using a wet process a strong alternative to sandblasting—which is banned in many countries. Bead blasting[edit] Wheel blasting[edit] Hydro-blasting[edit] Micro-abrasive blasting[edit]
Hot-melt adhesive. A hot glue gun loaded with a glue stick Hot melt adhesive (HMA), also known as hot glue, is a form of thermoplastic adhesive that is commonly supplied in solid cylindrical sticks of various diameters, designed to be melted in an electric hot glue gun. The gun uses a continuous-duty heating element to melt the plastic glue, which may be pushed through the gun by a mechanical trigger mechanism, or directly by the user. The glue squeezed out of the heated nozzle is initially hot enough to burn and blister skin. The glue is tacky when hot, and solidifies in a few seconds to one minute.
Glue Stick Diameters[edit] 1/4 inch (6.3 mm) 5/16 inch (7.9 mm)(sold as .27 [6.9 mm] to .28 inch [7.1 mm]) 7/16 inch (11 mm) (sold as .43 or 11 mm) .44 inch (11 mm) .45 inch (11 mm) .50 or 1/2 inch (13 mm) .625 or 5/8 inch (16 mm) 1 inch slug (25 mm) 1 3/4 inch slug (44 mm) Diameters .50 inch and smaller are typically used for home and craft. Hot melt specific properties[edit] General Adhesive properties[edit] Nail gun. Pneumatic nail gun in use The first nail gun used air pressure and was introduced to the market in 1950 to speed the construction of housing floor sheathing and sub-floors. With the original nail gun the operator used it while standing and could nail 40-60 nails a minute and had a capacity of 400-600 nails.[1] Usage[edit] Air compressor supplies air into a nail gun The smallest size of fasteners are normally 23 gauge (0.025 inches in diameter), commonly called "pin nailers" and generally having no head.
The next size up is the 18 gauge (1.02 mm diameter) fixing, often referred to as a "brad nail". The next sizes are 16 and 15 gauge (1.63 and 1.83 mm diameter). The largest sizes of conventional collated fastenings are the clipped head and full head nails which are used in framing, fencing and other forms of structural and exterior work. Another type of fastening commonly found in construction is the strap fastening which is roughly analogous to the large head clout nail.
Safety[edit] Tape measure. Plastic tape measure (metric) Self-retracting tape measure (imperial) Measuring tape capable of measuring down to 1⁄32 inch (0.79375 mm) Uses[edit] Tape measures that were intended for use in tailoring or dressmaking were made from flexible cloth or plastic.These types of tape measures or mainly used for the measuring of the human's waist line.
Today, measuring tapes made for sewing are made of fiberglass, which does not tear or stretch as easily. Measuring tapes designed for carpentry or construction often use a stiff, curved metallic ribbon that can remain stiff and straight when extended, but retracts into a coil for convenient storage. History[edit] Hiram A. The first record of a people using a measuring device was by the Romans using marked strips of leather, but this was more like a regular ruler than a tape measure. Design[edit] The design on which most modern spring tape measures are built was patented by a New Haven, Connecticut resident named Alvin J. United States[edit] Screw. Screws come in a variety of shapes and sizes for different purposes. U.S. quarter coin (diameter 24 mm) shown for scale. A screw , or bolt , is a type of fastener characterized by a helical ridge, known as an external thread or just thread , wrapped around a cylinder. Some screw threads are designed to mate with a complementary thread, known as an internal thread , often in the form of a nut or an object that has the internal thread formed into it.
Other screw threads are designed to cut a helical groove in a softer material as the screw is inserted. The most common uses of screws are to hold objects together and to position objects. A screw will always have a head , which is a specially formed section on one end of the screw that allows it to be turned, or driven . Common tools for driving screws include screwdrivers and wrenches .
More generally, screw may mean any helical device, such as a clamp, a micrometer , a ship's propeller or an Archimedes' screw water pump. [ edit ] Lag bolt. Nut (hardware) A nut is a type of fastener with a threaded hole. Nuts are almost always used opposite a mating bolt to fasten a stack of parts together. The two partners are kept together by a combination of their threads' friction, a slight stretch of the bolt, and compression of the parts.
In applications where vibration or rotation may work a nut loose, various locking mechanisms may be employed: Adhesives, safety pins or lockwire, nylon inserts, or slightly oval-shaped threads. The most common shape is hexagonal, for similar reasons as the bolt head - 6 sides give a good granularity of angles for a tool to approach from (good in tight spots), but more (and smaller) corners would be vulnerable to being rounded off. Other specialized shapes exist for certain needs, such as wing nuts for finger adjustment and captive nuts for inaccessible areas. Left to right: Wing, hex, hex flange, and slab weld nuts. Left to right: Slotted, square, T, cap (or acorn), nylon locking, and castellated nuts. Hexagon nuts. Pipe wrench. Monkey wrench. Saw. Scroll saw. Drill. Screwdriver. Wheel Loaders | Construction Equipment. Set square. Hammer. Wrench. Jackhammer. Hard hat. Voted Top Construction Job Board: Construction Employment Opportunities, Construction Resumes, Engineering Jobs.
Heavy equipment (construction)