Engineering ingenuity played a big part during the American Revolution. In honor of the U.S.’s 250th, test your knowledge about such solutions with this ASME quiz. In honor of the United States’s 250th birthday, see what you know about some of the clever engineering that helped win a revolution. American colonists had a staggering disadvatage after declaring independence in 1776. They were facing the era’s greatest military power with no formal navy of its own.