HST 318: History of Engineering (Poly campus)

Use the name of the structure or invention given in the assignment sheet or approved topic. You may need to add a culture or location to be more specific -- "Roman aqueducts"; India AND "step wells";  Spain AND acequias;  Maya AND "water filtration".

When you search, be sure to enclose any multiword phrase in double quotes (" ") to keep the words together -- "Nazca lines"; "Nazca aqueducts"; "living bridges".

Please keep in mind that historically, the knowledge of how to make these items was a tradition passed down orally. We can only surmise and hypothesize as an outside culture looking back. Our methods are too perfectly controlled, plus we cannot be sure about the impurities of the source materials that contributed to the strength/durability of the device/structure. There are some cultures who are still building/making their inventions. They are not necessarily sharing their master engineering techniques, since some of them are considered "trade secrets."

Resources on historical or cultural context is better found in the history databases than the engineering databases.  The engineering of ancient structures and inventions are often covered in the engineering databases.

You may use these encyclopedias to find background information, dates, and other possible sources, but you cannot cite these in your paper.

In some of our databases in Engineering and other areas, the database does not allow you to check an option for only peer-reviewed journal articles. To find out if a journal is refereed/peer-reviewed, you have two options:

1. Go to the journal publisher's web site to read their sections: "Advice to Authors"; "About this Journal." These are the most likely places that state if articles are sent out for peer-review.

2. Check Ulrichsweb (see below) to see if there is a little referee shirt icon in the left hand column.  Search by journal name.

If you need more help discovering the peer-review status, please contact Jenny or Ed. 

Remember, only your professor can tell you if an article is acceptable for your assignment.