Analytical Modeling: Its Beginning to 1850

Structural engineering did not move from a rule of thumb/experience-based discipline until early engineers began to develop functional relationships between some of the observed behavior of columns, beams, tension members and trusses. Men such as Archimedes, Hero of Alexandria and Vitruvius were the earliest to put into writing some of their observations around the time of Christ. They were giants, but for almost 15 centuries little progress was made in quantifying the relationships needed. DaVinci and Galileo in the late 15^th century and early to mid 17^th century paved the way for the development of modern Analytical Modeling. This paper primarily traces the development of Analytical Modeling in the period of the 18^th and early to mid 19^th century.