] [Thread] [Date] [Author]

[Christopher Wright <chrisw(--nospam--at)skypoint.com>]

>What adjective(s) would you find it
>appropriate to apply to someone who designed (a 1000 year old engineering
>wonder)

The someone was called a master builder, since there weren't engineers 
1000 years ago in the current sense. What people knew about applied 
mechanics was pretty much anecdotal and often wrong. The very best 
builders, the ones in charge of things like cathedrals and aqueducts were 
quick studies with good intuition and the ability to learn from mistakes. 
In fact the thousand year old engineering wonders we see today, are the 
very best of the best. Lots of structures collapsed; what remains are the 
ones that didn't.



Christopher Wright P.E.    |"They couldn't hit an elephant from
chrisw(--nospam--at)skypoint.com        | this distance"   (last words of Gen.
___________________________| John Sedgwick, Spotsylvania 1864)
http://www.skypoint.com/~chrisw