Transitions in Engineering

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• 1 Some basic issues.
• Technical and scientific thought.
• From ‘overlay’ to ‘system’.
• Structural engineering and architecture.
• The method of examination.
• Some questions.
• 2 Prehistory.
• The earliest suspension types.
• Primitive types.
• The first catenary walkways.
• Construction in cane and bamboo.
• From the bamboo cable to the wrought iron chain.
• Thang-stong rGyal-po.
• The iron he used.
• Variant Chinese chain bridges and stiffened, horizontal decks.
• Information spreads to the West.
• Early Western development.
• Wire cables.
• 3 Background.
• Geneva and the transmission of engineering information to the French-speaking world 1789–1815.
• French access to information in the immediate post-war period.
• Evolution of method and thought in French engineering education.
• Development of statistics.
• Navier: the scientific and technological modes of thought.
• Graphic statics.
• Strength of materials.
• The education of Guillaume Henri Dufour.
• 4 Genesis of the wire cable bridge.
• The Seguin brothers.
• The bridge at Annonay.
• Planning the Saint Antoine Bridge in Geneva.
• Marc Seguin’s letter and the first project for the Geneva bridge.
• The problem of the catenary and its role in engineering research.
• Marc Seguin’s statics.
• Marc Seguin’s knowledge of engineering method.
• Dufour’s proposal.
• Examination of wire in preparation for erection.
• Dufour’s wire experiments.
• Wire experiments by the Seguin brothers.
• Availability of wire.
• Relative neglect of Dufour’s role in French publications.
• Test model for the Saint Antoine Bridge.
• Ignoring the problem of resonance.
• The Saint Antoine Bridge.
• Anchoring the cables.
• The manufacture of the cables compared to the Seguin method.
• The odd cable connection.
• Suspenders and stays.
• Imported iron?.
• Loads.
• 5 The establishment of a structural type.
• Bridges at Liancourt, Passy and elsewhere in the environs of Paris.
• Test bridge at Vienna.
• Books begin to appear on the subject.
• Dufour’s contribution to the further development.
• The Drac bridge at Grenoble.
• The safety factor.
• Further weaknesses in the proposal.
• Two bridges by the Seguins.
• Dufour’s second structure: the Pâquis Bridge.
• A simpler method of cable manufacture.
• Connecting the cables.
• Coupling the suspenders.
• Research on friction.
• Loading the Pâquis Bridge.
• The novel problem of expansion.
• More proposals than structures: Dufour continues to design.
• Coulouvrenière Bridge over the Rhone.
• Valentin Bridge over the Po River at Turin.
• Ile aux Barques Bridge.
• Coulouvrenière Bridge near Saint Jean’s church.
• Bridge over the Arve River.
• Peney Bridge.
• 6 French development and their influence up to the catastrophe of 1850.
• Controversy between adherents of cable and of chain construction.
• Vicat and the building of the Marie Bridge at Argentat.
• Movable cable bearings and their problems.
• Vicat’s wire tests and complaints about the quality of bar iron.
• Detail problems of cable manufacture.
• A first approach to cable spinning.
• Concrete curing and load limitation.
• The report of 1831 on the state of the Rhone bridges.
• Aerial cable spinning.
• Cement as protection against rust.
• The wire cable bridge comes of age: the Grand Pont Suspendu in Fribourg.
• Joseph Chaley.
• Building the world’s largest span.
• Alternatives, aerial cable spinning and the endless cable system.
• French methods cross the Atlantic.
• Tensile structures in building construction.
• The collapse of the Basse-Chaîne Bridge.
• 7 A truncated development; the underspanned suspension.
• La Caille Bridge.
• Underspanned proposal for Fribourg.
• Reasons for awarding the contract to Chaley.
• Navier’s report.
• Micklewood Bridge.
• Bergues Bridge.
• Preliminary versions in timber.
• Connections.
• Arch bridges in cast-iron.
• Third proposal in cast-iron.
• Consultation with Navier and a proposal by Telford.
• The underspanned Bergues Bridge.
• The structure.
• Calculation and erection.
• Planning the building process in detail.
• Testing the structure.
• Why chains?.
• The Bel-Air Bridge at la Coulouvrenière.
• Proposal for an Aar Bridge at Aarau.
• Conclusion.
• 8 Annotated bibliography and index.
• Abbreviations.
• Books, major journals and articles.
• Manuscripts.
• Acknowledgements.