For information on significant engineers and their contributions to the field, try searching:
Reference sources like encyclopedias are good starting points for any research project. They can help you learn basic facts or background info about your topic so that you can search more successfully in scholarly article databases.
Indexing and full-text coverage for engineering journals, magazines and trade publications, monographs, books, and conference papers and proceedings.
Scholarly research, trade journals, and popular news/magazines covering all disciplines. A good place to start for most research topics. (An expanded version of Academic Search Premier.)