ABSTRACT
In environmental and chemical engineering, the treatment of wastewater, hazardous wastes, distillation of petroleum, and polymer science have grown since the 1920s. The electrification of Japan proceeded in a manner similiar to that of the West. The individual cited for creating the first electric utility, Tokyo Electric Light Company, in Tokyo, the largest urban center, was Ichisuke Fujioka a professor of engineering at Kobu University, established in 1877. Engineering, in the US, benefited as a discipline from the scale of TVA engineering just as it had in the aftermath of an earlier landmark work, the Erie Canal. The US mimicked the Soviet Union in its lack of rural electrification in the early part of the 20th century. The impacts of the 20th century on engineered works are even more obvious than those of the 19th century. The impact of World War I was to push the industrialization of Japan thus increasing the need for electrical power.
