ASME History & Heritage

All aboard for a look at a super-fast #ASMELandmark!

Sad news about an #ASMELandmark.

Noria [nawr-ee-uh]: a noria raises water from a stream or river and discharges it at a higher elevation. Among the largest and oldest existing waterwheels ever constructed, the Noria al-Muhammadiyya is the most famous of many norias in Hama, Syria, and was built in 763 AH, or 1361 CE and became #ASMElandmark #241 in 2006. Some facts: the diameter of its wheel is 21 meters (69 feet). Fourteen of the arches of its aqueduct still exist. Compared to the typical known size of wat...erwheels of 2 to 3 meters (7 to 9 feet), the Noria al-Muhammadiyya is among the largest water wheels ever constructed. It was restored in 1977 and is currently in service! This noria supplied water to the Grand Mosque and provided water to the public bath of Hammam al-Dahab, to the gardens around the mosque, and to the houses and the fountains of the same quarters or neighborhood. Learn more about the intriguing history of norias here: bit.ly/3eRcRAJ

Diamonds -- they're shiny and beautiful, and are used to celebrate the importance of events ranging from marriage to anniversaries to birthdays and more. But where and when did commercial diamond production actually begin? #ASMElandmark #198 may give you a hint. A research group, known as Project Superpressure, that was formed in 1951 at GE's Research Laboratory in Schenectady, New York paved the way for the first apparatus to consistently produce industrial diamonds. The apparatus demonstrated the fundamentals of producing and containing very high pressures (65 kbar (65,000 atmospheres) at 1800 C (3272 F)) to be exact, and became the basis for the industrial-diamond production that followed!

Welcome to the Windmill City! Batavia, Illinois, USA is known for its windmill manufacturing. In the early twentieth century, nearly all of the windmills in the United States were made in one of Batavia’s facilities. Although windmills have been used in North America since the 1600s, the rapid growth westward of the U.S. in the nineteenth century increased the need for a way to pump water in dry, flat regions. Batavia’s mass-produced windmills spread across the growing Unite...d States, a key part of the growing country’s infrastructure. Batavia was home to the U.S. Wind Engine & Pump Company, the first mass-production windmill factory in the U.S. Two key innovations in windmills were made there: machinist Daniel Halladay patented the self-governing wind engine in 1854. In 1883, engineer Thomas Perry developed optimum metal-bladed windmills, using his unique wind resistance test machine. In 2013, ASME declared the city’s collection of windmills an #ASMElandmark of mechanical engineering. Today, seven windmills are on display at the Batavia Riverwalk.

Happy 116th birthday to #ASMELandmark #31, New York City's Interborough Rapid Transit system! The first sections of the NYC subway opened on this day in 1904. Read the landmark report here: https://www.asme.org///31-interborough-rapid-trasit-system