Transitions in Engineering
Guillaume Henri Dufour and the Early 19th Century Cable Suspension Bridges
Published on 1. January 1987
Book
Hardback
244 pages
978-3-7643-1929-8 (ISBN)
Description
Ci ...il engineering has but few admirers. Its works person groped and battled with unique problems, are regarded as feats of prowess and are either he rediscovers and in a certain sense accomplishes admired or abnarred. They are considered to be an -archeological"' survey of his subject for the apart from normal concerns and incomprehen- first time. A Dufour arises from these pages who sible. like works of architecture and city planning, is no longer the General according to Swiss they are absent from our general cultural aware- legend, but who is formed through the fluctuating ness. On the other hand, engineering does not processes of reflection and experimentation attrad popularizers (in the most lofty sense of the before our ...ery eyes, by the transformation of term) either, so perhaps the two observations are thought into adion. Dufour thus attains a surpris- in fact mutually explicatory. ing modemity and resembles those among us who And yet, from time to time someone appears who are not sotisfied by pat answers and who, instead can lead the layman through the maze of con- of avoiding the questions they encounter, use cepts and objeds, can explain them without them as a means to produce novel instruments.
More details
Edition
1987
Language
English
Place of publication
Basel
Switzerland
Publishing group
Springer Basel
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Popular/general
Edition type
Annotated edition
Illustrations
1 Illustrations, color; 112 Illustrations, black and white; 244 p. 113 illus., 1 illus. in color.
Dimensions
Height: 0 mm
Width: 0 mm
Weight
1160 gr
ISBN-13
978-3-7643-1929-8 (9783764319298)
DOI
10.1007/978-3-0348-9304-6
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Tom F. Peters
Transitions in Engineering
Guillaume Henri Dufour and the Early 19th Century Cable Suspension Bridges
Book
01/1988
Birkhäuser
€85.55
The article will not be published
Content
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.