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...

A good grasp of the theory of structures - the theoretical basis by which the strength, stiffness and stability of a building can be understood - is fundamental to structural engineers and architects. Yet most modern structural analysis and design is carried out by computer, with the user isolated from the processes in action. Plastic Design of Frames; Volume 1. Fundamentals provides a broad introduction to the mathematics behind a range of structural processes. The basic structural equations have been known for at least 150 years, but modern plastic theory has opened up a fundamentally new...

A good grasp of the theory of structures - the theoretical basis by which the strength, stiffness and stability of a building can be understood - is fundamental to structural engineers and architects. Yet most modern structural analysis and design is carried out by computer, with the user isolated from the processes in action. Plastic Design of Frames; Volume 1. Fundamentals provides a broad introduction to the mathematics behind a range of structural processes. The basic structural equations have been known for at least 150 years, but modern plastic theory has opened up a fundamentally new...

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...