Research and Development in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Improving the Common Stock of Knowledge
Abstract
In 1743, Benjamin Franklin was trying to establish an American philosophical society. As with many of that age, Franklin believed that science, like statesmanship, was a gentlemanly career pursued individually by those of independent means. What he had in mind was something like the Royal Society of London, to which he and other colonials belonged. Unlike the highly centralized royal academies of France or Sweden, the Royal Society was a loosely connected group of gentlemen scientists, professional and dabblers, who collected information, posed theories, conducted experiments, or advanced technology. The Society provided a forum to coordinate among members, publish findings, distribute funds, provide books or data, and in other ways support scientific research. Included among such efforts were topics that would clearly be considered engineering at various times in the future topography and cartography, mining and metallurgy, management of natural forces, development of instruments or other devices, and improvements to methods of everything from sailing ships to building roads and canals. Franklin s campaign to form a similar society in America was in essence the first attempt to develop a national capability for scientific and engineering research what would later occur in government laboratories.2 Over the next 250 years, many other attempts were made to harness the scientific drive that was developing in America, including within the engineering profession. Central to the story of the evolution of scientific engineering was the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which Franklin played a role in helping to establish. As ambassador to France, he helped recruit highly educated French officers for service in America as engineers, noting to George Washington, you cannot have too much of that Science in your Army.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2011
- Accession Number
- ADA581204
Entities
People
- Damon Manders