Looking for historical design information 3

[TowerEngineer]

I am looking for any reference for all decades prior to 1970 and dating as far back as 1850 for historic wind and seismic design procedures. In particular, I am interested in an authoritative source or sources that contain the exact numeric computations that would have gone into the design of bridges or towers in the 12 decades prior to 1970. I am particularly interested in wind and seismic design procedures used in the USA or Europe.

 

[eureka]

TowerEngineer,

I have several items that may be of use to you. If you post a fax number, I can send the wind and earthquake sections from the Index to the Transactions of ASCE from Volume 1 (1867) to Volume 134 (1969). I also have a bibliography on wind which has references in addition to ASCE publications going back to 1655. It sounds like you have a research project on your hands.

 

[TowerEngineer]

Eureka,

Thanks for responding to my inquiry. I am indeed doing some research on historic wind and earthquake desgn forces and procedures. I don't think there is anything out there in the literary world that deals with wind and EQ engineering history -- especially from a technical standpoint. This has to be a subject that would interest most building and non-building structural engineering practitioners of today. There is a potential of putting together a very interesting read for individuals with both technical and non-technical backgrounds.

I would be pleased to receive any references that you may have dating as far back as possible.

My fax number is (541) 582-0072.

 

[stevenyoung]

Professor Harry J Hopkins Professor of Civil Engineering and Dean of the School of Engineering University of Canterbury, New Zealand, wrote a history (1970) titled A SPAN OF BRIDGES. With U of Canterbury a leading research school in earthquake engineering, I'm sure that EQ engineering will be discussed in that book.

 

[Qshake]

Towerengineer,

I have long been involved in earthquake engineering, hence the nickname 'Qshake'. Your correct to say there is little out there which preserves for historical purposes the evolution of code based design or the development of criteria. However, there are some which come close. In the area of earthquake engineering try looking for the following:

Monograph series from the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI). There are seven altogether; the subjects range Seismicity of the US to Earthquake Design Criteria. Earthquake Design Criteria by Housner and Jennings may be of particular interest.

Another excellent reference from EERI is the "Connections" series. In particular the published interview with George Housner. In this book, Housner develops the code based seismic design from the 1908 Messina, Italy earthquake to the 1933 Long Beach earthquake (which modified the code based design to prescribe a lateral load applied to the side of building based on the building's weight) and so on. It's really very interesting.

Good Luck! If I come across anything else I will pass it along.

Qshake.

 

[Imagineer]

Tower,
I've had very good luck using bookfinder.com to look for old books. Since there isn't a great demand for old engineering books, and they tend to be very used, they are quite cheap. I've picked up a couple of Timoshenko's early works for $10-$15 a piece.

Imagineer

 

[Qshake]

Also, if your looking at book websites check out these,

Powells.com and abesbooks.com I've had good luck with both

 

[RHK]

Historical Design Procedures

I would start with Timoshenko's "History of Strength of Materials". I have a copy of "A Span of Bridges" which proved an invaluable guide book when touring Europe - worth a look, but not much detail. On my shelves, but unread, is "Constructing a Bridge" by Eda Kranakis, MIT, 1997 - I suspect this is very heavy going (hence unread).

Russell Keays