From the time it was organized in 1880, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers recorded aspects of the history of the mechanical engineering profession and the careers of some of its notable practitioners. The Society's historical efforts were formalized in 1971 with the creation of a History and Heritage Committee. This volume commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the formation of that committee and collects, in a single place, many of the historical contributions published over the past fifty years in ASME's flagship magazine, Mechanical Engineering.

In preparation for the United States' bicentennial year, and later the Society's centennial, the editors of Mechanical Engineering contracted with engineer-historian Fritz Hirschfeld for a long series of articles about the county's early mechanical engineering heritage and the lives of notable mechanical engineers, particularly those associated with ASME's founding. Hirschfeld's articles form the foundation of this volume. To supplement Hirschfeld's work, the editors have added numerous other historical articles published in Mechanical Engineering. The engineering innovations described by these articles have been enormously important to the development of modern technological society, and the stories behind their development should be of interest to engineers interested in the history of their profession, as well as anyone interested in American history.