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Fritz Leonhardt: Master of Bridges

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Contemporary (Post-WWII)
  • Corporation
  • Engineering
  • Modern (18th-20th Century)
  • Secondary Source
URL: 

http://www.bridgeweb.com/magazine/FeatureDetails.cfm?ArticleID=15

Author: 
Hemming Information Services
Excerpt: 

"My father was an architect," he explains, "but my professional choice was civil engineering because it covers a much wider range than architecture - bridges, towers, roads, dams - and gives greater scope." But despite the options and freedom that the profession offered, Leonhardt very rapidly demonstrated his interest in bridges. He studied civil engineering in his home town - at Stuttgart University - and after four years studying for his diploma, won an exchange scholarship to the USA to continue his graduate studies. The scholarship was to Purdue University in West-Lafayette, Indiana. While he was there he spent some time working with his uncle on the design of a river bridge in Detroit, but more significantly, when he first arrived in New York, he immediately arranged meetings with David Steinman and Othmar Ammann. Talking to the two greatest living bridge designers in the USA only strengthened his interest in bridges, and this experience was to stand him in good stead when he graduated.

Annotation: 

Feature article from Bridge Design and Engineering magazine. Includes a listing of the designers significant structures.

Sir William Arrol

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Corporation
  • Engineering
  • Modern (18th-20th Century)
  • Secondary Source
URL: 

http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/people/famousfirst3.html

Author: 
The Gazetteer for Scotland
Excerpt: 

Engineer and leading railway contractor. Born in Houston (Renfrewshire), the son of a spinner. He started work in a cotton mill at the age of only 9, but by 1863 had joined a company of bridge manufacturers in Glasgow. By 1872 he had his own business, the Dalmarnock Iron Works in the east end of the city.

Annotation: 

Biography, related records, and references and further reading.

John Rennie

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Biographical
  • Corporation
  • Early Modern (15th-18th Century)
  • Engineering
  • Modern (18th-20th Century)
  • Secondary Source
URL: 

http://www.electricscotland.com/history/other/rennie_john.htm

Author: 
Alastiar McIntyre, Electric Scotland
Excerpt: 

RENNIE, JOHN, a celebrated civil engineer, was the youngest son of a respectable farmer at Phantassie, in East Lothian, where he was born, June 7, 1761. Before he had attained his sixth year, he had the misfortune to lose his father; his education, nevertheless, was carried on at the parish school (Prestonkirk) by his surviving relatives. The peculiar talents of young Rennie seem to have been called forth and fostered by his proximity to the workshop of the celebrated mechanic, Andrew Meikle, the inventor or improver of the thrashing-machine. He frequently visited that scene of mechanism, to admire the complicated processes which he saw going forward, and amuse himself with the tools of the workmen. In time, he began to imitate at home the models of machinery which he saw there; and at the early age of ten he had made the model of a wind-mill, a steam-engine, and a pile-engine, the last of which is said to have exhibited much practical dexterity.

Annotation: 

The Significant Scots website has compiled an extensive historical primer on John Rennie, a major canal and bridge engineer. Though the writing style is convoluted, the biography covers the many career and personal landmarks of Rennie's life very well, including a fairly extensive list of his works and a section on his collaboration with John Watt. The site would most interest those studying Rennie himself, as it does not contextualize the engineer within broader trends in his field, but it could be of use to those studying the history of bridge design overall.

Zoarville Station Bridge

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Corporation
  • Early Modern (15th-18th Century)
  • Engineering
  • Links
  • Secondary Source
URL: 

http://www.tuscazoar.org/ZSB.htm

Author: 
Camp Tuscazoar
Excerpt: 

The Zoarville Station Bridge at Camp Tuscazoar is the only Fink Through-Truss bridge known to exist in the United States. The builders of this example, Smith, Latrobe and Co. of Baltimore, MD specialized in this type. Originally part of the three-span bridge over the Tuscarawas River in Dover, this span was moved to its present site over One Leg Creek, now called Conotton Creek, when the bridge was replaced in 1905. Recently acquired by the Camp Tuscazoar Foundation, this interesting architectural treasure has become the newest camp landmark. We are executing plans now for the bridge's full restoration but it already is a great hiking destination and teaches our campers about some of the rich local history of the area surrounding our camp.

Annotation: 

The only Fink Through-Truss bridge known to exist in the United States. Also includes links to a biography of Fink and to the bridge builders, Smith, Latrobe and Company.

The Civic Architecture of Paul Cret

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Biographical
  • Corporation
  • Engineering
  • Images
  • Modern (18th-20th Century)
  • Secondary Source
URL: 

http://assets.cambridge.org/0521496012/sample/0521496012WSN01.pdf

Author: 
Elizabeth Greenwell Grossman
Excerpt: 

Cret’s plan shows that he had learned to manipulate the École’s graphic conventions and to put a program “in order” (see Fig. 13). The contrast between the mosaique, the tapestry of broken lines that represent decorative floor and ceiling patterns, and the poché, the more heavily inked lines that indicate structure, make clear that the arrangement is a linear succession of volumes, with two relatively narrow rooms bracketing the more ample one at the center. The heavy unbroken outline of the main space underscores the lack of windows and reliance on top lighting, and thus its use for paintings and works on paper. The mosaique is more than decoration; it visually interweaves the volumes and defines a broad axial promenade, or path of movement, from the entrance to what is presumably the sidelit sculpture gallery that opens to a cascade of stairs leading down to the garden of fragments. All the pieces of a good Beaux-Arts plan are here: the clear proportions of the independent volumes, the axial disposition of openings, the warp and weft of the details, and the telling use of the graphic conventions of poché and mosaique so the design appears at once simpler than the sum of its parts and more ample than one might expect of a small museum

Annotation: 

This PDF contains a 28-page book about the architectural tendencies that Paul Cret displayed in the civic buildings he designed. After a short biographical section on Cret, Grossman delves into his work with tremendous, unwavering attention to detail. The sheer mass of information and analysis is staggering, yet Grossman's writing style is tremendously dense; she has composed a resource for architecture and design students, as well as some historical researchers, but not for the casual historian.

The Iron Bridge - How Was It Built?

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Corporation
  • Early Modern (15th-18th Century)
  • Engineering
  • Images
  • Modern (18th-20th Century)
  • Secondary Source
URL: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/society_culture/industrialisation/iron_bridge_01.shtml

Author: 
David de Haan
Excerpt: 

Despite its pioneering technology in 1779, as the first structural use of cast iron, no eye witness accounts are known which describe the Iron Bridge being erected. However, recent discoveries, research and experiments have shed new light on the mystery of exactly how it was built, challenging the assumptions of recent decades. In 1997 a small watercolour sketch by Elias Martin came to light in Stockholm. Although there are a wealth of early views of the Bridge by numerous artists, this is the only one which actually shows it under construction.

Annotation: 

The BBC's David de Haan discusses the many advances in investigating how England's Iron Bridge, designed by Abraham Darby, was built. To do so, he focuses on a 2001 attempt to reconstruct the bridge at half scale using period materials. The article includes a detailed account of the project, as well as photographs of the project, computerized images of the bridge's architecture, and photos of the bridge itself. De Haan also includes facts and figures about the original Iron Bridge and provides a brief list of further readings on the subject.

Who was Thomas Bouch?

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Biographical
  • Corporation
  • Engineering
  • Modern (18th-20th Century)
  • Secondary Source
URL: 

http://www.open2.net/forensic_engineering/riddle/riddle_02_05.htm

Author: 
Forensic Engineering - BBC
Excerpt: 

Thomas Bouch was born on 25th February 1822 in Thursby, Cumberland. He was educated at the village school, although his academic interest is said only to have been stirred by a lesson about moving water uphill. Thomas went on to spend three years as a boarder at the Academy School in Carlisle but the death of his father in 1838 led him to take up an apprenticeship with a firm of mechanical engineers based in Liverpool. Thomas quickly found the position unsuitable and returned to Thursby where he started a job as an assistant to George Larmer, a railway surveyor.

Annotation: 

Biography from the BBC's Forensic Engineering.

Building Bridges: Recognition of a Pioneering Engineer

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Contemporary (Post-WWII)
  • Corporation
  • Engineering
  • Modern (18th-20th Century)
  • Secondary Source
URL: 

http://www.ancestry.com/library/view/ancmag/2820.asp

Author: 
Jeannette Cabell Coley
Excerpt: 

During the course of researching the Cabell family, I became curious about a relative on my pedigree chart named Charles Ellet, Jr. But the curiosity rose to full bloom when a childhood friend, Joan Poland, from my native home of Alexandria, Virginia mailed me clues about him in a book. Joan has been a DAR member all of her adult life, and she wanted me to read about one of DAR’s organizing members, Mary Virginia Ellet Cabell.

"Turn to page 45," Joan wrote. "This lady must be related to you." The book was A Century of Service: The Story of the DAR.

Annotation: 

Opinions and views uncovered during family research. Article by Jeannette Cabell Coley

Lennox Bridge

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Corporation
  • Engineering
  • Images
  • Modern (18th-20th Century)
  • Secondary Source
URL: 

http://simplyaustralia.net/issue1/lennoxhistory.html

Author: 
Jim Low
Excerpt: 

Lennox Bridge is the oldest surviving bridge on the Australian mainland. This sandstone, single arched bridge is situated in a bushland setting on the eastern escarpment of the Blue Mountains of New South Wales and is well worth a visit. The bridge can now only be approached from the western side along Mitchell’s Pass. Once across the bridge, the roadway changes to one way traffic down the Pass.

Annotation: 

Jim Low of SimplyAustralia.com provides an illustrated history of Lennox Bridge, the first permanent stone bridge on the continent. His commentary includes details on the labor, money, and time associated with building - and later restoring - the bridge. The photographs of the restoration are of particularly high quality, and Low talks about the architectural aspects of the restoration far more than those of the initial construction.

Ironbridge - Production of the Iron ribs for the BBC Timewatch programme

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Corporation
  • Engineering
  • Images
  • Secondary Source
URL: 

http://www.hdowns.co.uk/ironbridge1.htm

Author: 
Nigel Downs, H. Downs and Sons, Ltd. Iron Founders
Excerpt: 

Firstly a base was laid down to cover the area of two of the ribs. The white bar coming from centre RHS is the radial pole for positioning the pattern equipment. The red pieces among the men are the pieces of patterns used. Segments of the rib were rammed with sand and then moved to form the next section of the mould.
The mould was 36 feet long with a cross section of the rib being 4.5" x 3".
The blue machine above the radial pole is the sand mixer. This mixer is computer controlled to allow resins and catalysts to be mixed with reclaimed sand. The temperature of the sand, ambient temperature and speed at which we require it to set are controlled automatically. The sand it produces is used to make the mould, into which we will pour the molten iron. It was imperative to have a flat bed as the iron like water would find its own level, if we were too high at one end the metal would overflow at the other and provide the BBC with a floor of metal.

Annotation: 

Technical details of the making of the iron ribs for the half scale model produced for the BBC Timewatch programme.

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