Science Depends On Engineering, but Engineering Does Not Depend On Science; Modern Engineering Predates Modern Science

Half-educated soap-box orators customarily browbeat their listeners with the worship of Science. Science is often credited with the creation of modernity and systematic engineering. When the half-educated don’t credit Science itself, they often credit Francis Bacon, and mark the beginning of the scientific era with the publication of Novum Organum, in 1620.

Likewise, when the half-educated talk about industrial engineering, they often suggest that industrial engineering is a relative latecomer. They often think that it appeared on the scene with Frederick Taylor or Henry Ford.

But in fact, Science did not create modernity, and Bacon did not create modernity; in fact the Doge Odelafo Falier of Venice made modernity possible in 1104, when he authorized construction of the Venice Arsenal. Over the next 200 years, mass production and interchangeable parts became standard for the Venice Arsenal; mass production was in practice no later than 1320. The Venice Arsenal was the world’s first modern industrial center – and they did it 300 years before Bacon’s book!

Fifteen years before the Knights Templar formed, master craftsmen in Venice had figured out how to systematically assemble entire ships. Before the Crusaders were figuring out how to imitate the Arab chemists, plain old European diligence had made the Arsenal into a naval technology center.

By 1320, the New Arsenal was built. Venice led the world with interchangeable parts and mass production.