The Harmony of Theory and Practice: The Engineering Science of W. J. M. Rankine

Abstract

One of the problems that has engaged historians of technology is the relationship between science and technology. For some time historians accepted the idea, still firmly held by many scientists, that engineering is science. That is, engineering simply applies the results and discoveries of science without making any fundamental changes in the structure of those scientific discoveries. This model of the interaction of science and technology has been questioned by Edwin Layton and other scholars,1 and it is now recognized that technology is based on its own conceptual framework, which is parallel to yet independent of the scientific framework.2 Hence, while scientists may deal with a problem using primarily ideal concepts such as atoms and Newtonian forces, the engineer finds little direct practical use for these concepts and instead is concerned with concepts such as elastic fibers and pressures. So long as science and technology each had their own independent framework, there could be little direct interaction between the two. In fact, such an interaction requires the creation of a new body of knowledge-engineering science-the purpose of which is to transform the concepts and discoveries in one area so that they can be incorporated into the other area. The Scottish engineer-scholar W. J. M. Rankine, in the years between 1855 and 1872 while he was a professor at the University of Glasgow, became a leading figure in the creation of the engineering sciences of thermodynamics and applied mechanics. His studies of