On the Shoulders of Giants
Publication: Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 120, Issue 3
Abstract
The education of our future civil engineers is incomplete without an appreciation of the men who created the profession of civil engineering in the late 18th and early 19th century. This paper presents an approach to introducing the history and heritage of civil engineering into existing course work by the use of packaged “history modules.” One such module is contained in this paper with two additional modules available to the reader on request. The module traces the evolution of truss design and construction from da Vinci and Palladio in wood to Whipple in iron. It describes the efforts of many men over a 300‐year period to move truss design from an art form (pre‐1847) to a science with the publication of Squire Whipple's book of 1847. It is my hope that additional modules will be written and packaged by ASCE for distribution to engineering faculty around the country.
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References
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Charlton, T. M. (1982). A history of theory of structures in the 19th century. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.
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Haupt, H. (1851). General theory of bridge construction. D. Appleton and Co., New York, N.Y.
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Johnson, J. B., Bryan, C. W., and Turneaure, F. E. (1893). Modern framed structures. John Wiley and Sons, New York, N.Y.
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Merriman, M., and Jacoby, H. S. (1907). Roofs and bridges. John Wiley and Sons, New York, N.Y.
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Palladio, A. [(1570) 1755]. Trans., Isaac Ware, Four books of architecture. London, England.
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Timoshenko, S. (1953). History of strength of materials, with a brief account of the history of theory of elasticity and theory of structures. McGraw Hill Book Co., New York, N.Y.
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Tyrrell, H. (1907). A history of bridge engineering. Henry Tyrell, Chicago, Ill.
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Waddell, J. A. L. (1919). Bridge engineering. John Wiley and Sons, New York, N.Y.
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Whipple, S. (1847, 1869). A work on bridge building consisting of two essays, the one elementary and general, the other giving original plans and practical details for iron and wooden bridges. Plus Appendix.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 120 • Issue 3 • July 1994
Pages: 254 - 264
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 2, 1993
Published online: Jul 1, 1994
Published in print: Jul 1994
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