Energy Production and Conversion

In many ways, energy production and its conversion from one form to another is the heart of mechanical engineering. The history of energy is vast, beginning with efforts to make the energy produced by human muscle more effective through the use of lubricants or the application of the so-called six simple machines in pre-history. By the end of Classical antiquity, inventors and engineers had harnessed the power of wind to move ships and water to grind flour. In the eighteenth century the first practical heat engines opened the era of fossil fuels, utilizing the expansive power of steam to convert thermal energy to mechanical energy.