Transitions in Engineering

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.