Abbreviation for the
Institution of Mechanical Engineers, an organisation instituted by
Royal Charter for the furtherment of
mechanical engineering in the
UK and elsewhere.
Founded on January 27, 1847 by a group of railway engineers in Birmingham, England, the IMechE's purpose was stated as "to increase knowledge and give an impulse to inventions likely to be useful to the world". George Stephenson, inventor of the world's first viable railway locomotive was elected as the Institution's first president.