mechanical engineering summary

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see mechanical engineering.

mechanical engineering, Branch of engineering concerned with the design, manufacture, installation, and operation of engines, machines, and manufacturing processes. Mechanical engineering involves application of the principles of dynamics, control, thermodynamics and heat transfer, fluid mechanics, strength of materials, materials science, electronics, and mathematics. It is concerned with machine tools, motor vehicles, textile machinery, packaging machines, printing machinery, metalworking machines, welding, air conditioning, refrigerators, agricultural machinery, and many other machines and processes essential to an industrial economy.

Richard Trevithick, detail of an oil painting by John Linnell, 1816; in the Science Museum, London.

Richard Trevithick Summary

Richard Trevithick was a British mechanical engineer and inventor who successfully harnessed high-pressure steam and constructed the world’s first steam railway locomotive (1803). In 1805, he adapted his high-pressure engine to driving an iron-rolling mill and to propelling a barge with the aid of

Emanuel Swedenborg Summary

Emanuel Swedenborg was a Swedish scientist, Christian mystic, philosopher, and theologian who wrote voluminously in interpreting the Scriptures as the immediate word of God. Soon after his death, devoted followers created Swedenborgian societies dedicated to the study of his thought. These