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Home , Abram Ioffe, Stephen Timoshenko

EDITORIAL Timoshenko and Lampkin Found Their Park Benches . . . You Will Too

Patrick L. Walter, Contributing Editor

A few years ago, I mentioned Stephen Ti- a professorship at the Polytechnic moshenko’s name to a young professor, and Institute. He is remembered for delivering he asked me who he was. It was as though lectures in Russian while using as many a dagger had been stuck through my heart. Croatian words as he could; the students With that reply, from time to time I would were able to understand him well. later ask other young engineers if they had In 1922, Timoshenko moved to the U.S., heard of Timoshenko. More often than not where he worked for Westinghouse from I received a negative reply. Having attended 1923 to 1927. He later became a faculty pro- engineering school in the 1960s, Timosh- Professor was honored in fessor at the , where enko’s works were routinely referenced in 1998 in his native with the issue of this he created the first bachelor’s and doctoral commemorative postage stamp. my classes. Before I introduce him to those programs in engineering mechanics. His of you without gray hair, let me first tell you , Ukraine). He studied at a textbooks have been published in 36 lan- about Les Lampkin. “real school” in , Poltava Gover- guages. His first textbooks and papers were At the age of 21, now 46 years ago, I hired norate from 1889 to 1896. In Romny, his written in Russian, but he later published on at the Environmental Testing Director- schoolmate and friend was future famous mostly in English. From 1936 on, he was a ate (about 350 people in size) at Sandia semiconductor . Ti- professor at . National Laboratories (Sandia Corp. at that moshenko continued his education toward In 1957, ASME established a medal time). The work environment was fairly a university degree at the St. Petersburg named after Timoshenko; he became its first austere. In my organization we had gray, Ways of Communication Institute. After recipient. The Timoshenko Medal honors well-worn, linoleum-topped desks butted graduating in 1901, he stayed on teaching at Timoshenko as the world-renowned author- side by side in a “bull-pen” arrangement. I his alma mater from 1901 to 1903 and then ity in the field of was overwhelmed during the first months worked at the St. Petersburg Polytechnical and it commemorates his contributions as of my work by the vast array of drop ma- Institute under Viktor Kyrpychov from 1903 author and teacher. The Timoshenko Medal chines, shakers, climatic chambers, static to 1906. In 1905, he was sent for one year is given annually for distinguished contri- test frames, actuators, test tracks, cable tow- to the University of Göttingen, where he butions in . ers, explosive and rocket test locations, and worked under . In 1960, Timoshenko moved to Wupper- other test facilities. In the fall of 1906, he was appointed to tal, West Germany to be with his daughter. Soon after my arrival, I was invited to the chair of strength of materials at the Kiev He died in 1972, and his ashes are buried meet the director of environmental testing Polytechnic Institute. The return to his na- in Palo Alto, CA. I am proud to have two of – Les Lampkin, who was probably in his tive Ukraine turned out to be an important his original textbooks from the 1930s and late 50s then. I have no idea how big his part of his career and also influenced his ’40s on my shelf at the university where office was, but it appeared palatial by my future personal life. From 1907 to 1911, as a I now teach (Texas Christian University, bull-pen standards. In addition, Lampkin professor at the Polytechnic Institute, he did Fort Worth). I could carry either one into sat behind a mahogany desk. I have no research in the earlier variant of the finite- a classroom today and teach an excellent recall of the substance of our conversation, element method of elastic calculations, the course. but I knew surely that I had been near the so called Rayleigh method. In those years, Now how do Lampkin’s and Timoshen- throne of God. he also pioneered work on buckling and ko’s stories tie together? Despite the heroic Over the next 10 years, I got to know him published the first version of his famous work that Lampkin did, his career ended on a bit more and traveled with him as part of Strength of Materials textbook. He was a park bench. The fact that my young col- a larger group several times. I learned how elected dean of the Division of Structural league didn’t know who Timoshenko was he had arrived at Sandia shortly after the Engineering in 1909. indicated to me that, at least figuratively, Manhattan Project, how much personal In 1911, he signed a protest against Timoshenko also found a park bench. energy people had expended during those Minister for Education Kasso and was What might be observed here is that early years to develop the initial nuclear fired from the Kiev institute. In 1911, he we all have but a brief time to contribute stockpile, and how our massive environ- was awarded the D. I. Zhuravski prize of to advancing the cause of analytical and mental test complex had come into exis- the St. Petersburg Ways of Communication experimental mechanics, along with its tence piece by piece. Lampkin retired in Institute that helped him survive after losing supporting test and evaluation activities, the early 1970s. his job. He went to St. Petersburg, where he before we find our individual park benches. A few years later on a family picnic in worked as a lecturer and then a professor However, what I learned from knowing Les Albuquerque, I saw an elderly man in Levis in the Electrotechnical Institute and the St. Lampkin and being familiar with all of his walk over and sit down on a park bench. Petersburg Institute of the Railways (1911- and Timoshenko’s work is how important It was Les Lampkin. I left the picnic and 1917). During that time, he developed the it is to document our own work. Whether walked over to say hello. He was glad to theory of elasticity and the theory of beam writing test reports, conference papers, see me, and we had a nice conversation. deflection and continued to study buckling. or textbooks, it is crucial that we leave Among other things, he told me that his In 1918, he returned to Kiev and assisted the lessons learned from our professional wife had passed away. It was apparent Vladimir Vernadsky in establishing the experiences for those who follow us. It is that his office was now the park bench. I Ukrainian of Sciences – the oldest not important that we be recognized as walked away reflecting on the difference academy among the Soviet republics other individuals, but rather that our efforts are between that meeting and the first, “before than Russia. documented to advance the disciplines in the throne.” Now I’ll tell you about Stephen After the royalist troops of general Deni- which we work. Timoshenko, the father of modern engineer- kin had taken Kiev in 1919, the Ukrainian And may Stephen Timoshenko’s memory ing mechanics. Academy of Sciences was closed, and Ti- endure a bit longer among those of us with Timoshenko was born in the village of moshenko lost his job. In 1920, after the gray hair. Shpotivka in the Chernigov Governorate Bolshevik takeover of Kiev, Timoshenko of the (now located in immigrated to Yugoslavia, where he held I can be reached at: [email protected].

4 SOUND & VIBRATION/MAY 2011 www.SandV.com

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