Tom F. Peters

Transitions in Engineering

Guillaume Henri Dufour and the Early 19th Century Cable Suspension Bridges With a Foreword by Andre Corboz

1987 Birkhauser Verlag • Boston Fable of Contents

1 Some basic issues 70 Planning the Saint Antoine Bridge 9 Technical and scientific thought in 9 From 'overlay' to 'system' 73 Marc Seguin's letter and the first project 11 Structural engineering and architecture for the Geneva bridge 12 ,The method of examination 75 The problem of the catenary and its role 12 Some questions in engineering research 12 Introduction 76 Marc Seguin's statics 78 Marc Seguin's knowledge of engineering 2 Prehistory method 13 The earliest suspension types 79 Dufour's proposal 13 Primitive types 85 Examination of wire in preparation 14 The first catenary walkways for erection 14 Construction in cane and bamboo 87 Dufour's wire experiments 16 From the bamboo cable to the wrought 91 Wire experiments by the Seguin brothers iron chain 92 Availability of wire 17 Thang-stong rGyal-po 92 Relative neglect of Dufour's role in French 21 The iron he used publications 21 Variant Chinese chain bridges and stiffened, 93 Test model for the Saint Antoine Bridge horizontal decks 94 Ignoring the problem of resonance 22 Information spreads to the West 97 The Saint Antoine Bridge 24 Early Western development 102 Anchoring the cables 33 Wire cables 102 The manufacture of the cables compared to the Seguin method 105 The odd cable connection 3 Background 108 Suspenders and stays 39 Geneva and the transmission of 110 Imported iron? engineering information to the French- 111 Loads speaking world 1789-1815 41 French access to information in the 5 The establishment immediate post-war period of a structural type 42 Evolution of method and thought in French 115 Bridges at Liancourt, Passy and else- engineering education where in the environs of 50 Development of statistics 117 Test bridge at Vienna 52 Navier: the scientific and technological 119 Books begin to appear on the subject modes of thought 119 Dufour's constribution to the further 54 Graphic statics development 54 Strength of materials 119 The Drac bridge at Grenoble 57 The education of Guillaume Henri Dufour 121 The safety factor 122 Further weaknesses in the proposal 4 Genesis of the wire cable bridge 123 Two bridges by the Seguins 66 The Seguin brothers 126 Dufour's second structure: the Paquis Bridge 68 The bridge at Annonay 132 A simpler method of cable manufacture 133 Connecting the cables 164 French methods cross the Atlantic 134 Coupling the suspenders 166 Tensile structures in building construction 135 Research on friction 169 The collapse of the Basse-ChaTne Bridge 136 Loading the Paquis Bridge 136 The novel problem of expansion 7 A truncated development; 137 More proposals than structures: the underspanned suspension Dufour continues to design 174 La Caille Bridge 137 Coulouvreniere Bridge over the Rhone 175 Underspanned proposal for 137 Valentin Bridge over the Po River at Turin 178 Reasons for awarding the contract 141 lie aux Barques Bridge to Chaley 141 Coulouvreniere Bridge near 178 Navier's report Saint Jean's church 180 Micklewood Bridge 141 Bridge over the Arve River 181 Bergues Bridge 142 Peney Bridge 183 Preliminary versions in timber 187 Connections 6 French development and their influence 187 Arch bridges in cast-iron up to the catastrophe of 1850 192 Third proposal in cast-iron 145 Controversy between adherents of cable 193 Consultation with Navier and a proposal and of chain construction by Telford 147 Vicat and the building of the Marie Bridge 196 The underspanned Bergues Bridge at Argentat 197 The structure 147 Movable cable bearings and their problems 199 Calculation and erection 149 Vicat's wire tests and complaints about the 199 Planning the building process in detail quality of bar iron 202 Testing the structure 150 Detail problems of cable manufacture 203 Why chains? 151 A first approach to cable spinning 205 The Bel-Air Bridge at la Coulouvreniere 151 Concrete curing and load limitation 208 Proposal for an Aar Bridge at 152 The report of 1831 on the state of the 208 Conclusion Rhone bridges 152 Aerial cable spinning 8 Annotated bibliography and index 153 Cement as protection against rust 212 Abbreviations 155 The wire cable bridge comes of age: 212 Books, major journals and articles the Grand Pont Suspendu in Fribourg 230 Manuscripts 156 Joseph Chaley 234 Index 156 Building the world's largest span 161 Alternatives, aerial cable spinning and the 243 Acknowledgements endless cable system