Coulomb's Memoir On Statics: An Essay In The History Of Civil Engineering

An Essay in the History of Civil Engineering

Jacques Heyman

• Publisher: ICP
• Year: 1997
• Print ISBN:
  9781860940569
  9781860940569
• eBook ISBN:
  9781848160880
• Topic: Tecnologia e ingegneria
• Subtopic: Matematica generale

Coulomb read his Essai on 'some statical problems' to the French Academy in 1773. It is a document of great importance in the history of engineering since it laid the foundations of the modern science of soil mechanics and also discussed three other major problems of eighteenth-century civil engineering: the bending of beams, the fracture of columns and the calculation of abutment thrusts developed by masonry arches.Professor Heyman's book makes the Essai accessible to a wide range of engineers and historians of technology. It is here reproduced in full with an annotated English translation, a chapter elucidating Coulomb's references and with full discussion of the technical problems it treats. It concludes with some brief historical notes on Coulomb's life and technical education in eighteenth-century France.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Preface
• E S S A I
• 1 NOTE{1}
• 2 Coulomb's References
• 3 The Strength and Stiffness of Beams
• 4 Coulomb's Equation
• 5 The Thrust of Soil
• 6 The Thrust of Arches
• 7 Some Historical Motes
• References