Engineering Design Techniques Research Articles

Transitions in Engineering: Guillaume Henri Dufour and the Early 19th Century Cable Suspension Bridges by Tom F. Peters

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE 530 Book Reviews Chaussade’s firm and that of the Crowleys in England “deserve detailed examination” (p. 239). Should that work arrive, it will, like this one, provide comprehensive and multilayered treatment and, perhaps, offer further explanation for the French failure to exploit the energies of its entrepreneurs. Reed Benhamou Ms. Benhamou is associate professor of interior design at Indiana University. She is writing a dissertation on the preparation of the artist in 18th-century France. Transitions in Engineering: Guillaume Henri Dufour and the Early 19th Century Cable Suspension Bridges. By Tom F. Peters. Basel: Birkhauser Verlag (P.O. Box 133, CH-4010), 1987. Pp. 244; illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. SFr 80.00. Tom Peters’s new book deals with an aspect of the evolution of an engineering design technique using an interesting blend of biogra­ phy, contextual material, and a discussion of technical issues in a very accessible manner. The book is well written and lavishly illustrated. The opening chapter, “Some Basic Facts,” is an essay on the nature of scientific and technical thought and eloquently introduces what follows. It stresses the essentially hybrid nature of engineering—that rich mixture of intuition, experience, scientific method, and empiri­ cism. This short essay stands on its own, although the questions it poses make the reader wish to proceed. This introduction places engineering history firmly in the realm ofthe history ofideas and contributes to the philosophy of technology. Chapter 2 deals with the prehistory of sus­ pension bridges and ranges widely both in time and location—notably in China. The third chapter provides a background to the main theme and discusses the importance of Geneva in the dissemination of en­ gineering knowledge to the French-speaking world from 1789 to 1815 and the development of engineering education in France. It is at this point that Peters introduces the Swiss engineer Guil­ laume Henri Dufour (1787—1875), who was an important figure in various aspects of modern Swiss history. But this is no conventional piece of engineering biography. Indeed, the author’s view is that “Biography tends drastically to impoverish the image of complex events and historical figures. All incertitude, dilemma, conflict and contradiction disappear and leave behind the mere husk of fact, a fallacious determinism, a caricature of persons and events” (p. 57). It is easy to see why Peters was drawn to Dufour as a central figure around which to weave the threads of a historical engineering design study. The Dufour archives in Geneva contain a collection of his drawings, letters, manuscript proposals for various projects, and published reports. It is clear that Dufour was both articulate and an acute observer and reporter. He also exchanged information with TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 531 others working in the field, and Peters draws on this interaction to gain an engrossing insight into a crucial period in the evolution of the wire suspension bridge. The largest section of the book deals with the genesis of the wire cable bridge, beginning with the Seguin brothers in France. One theme explored is the fascination of the properties of the catenary curve for mathematicians and engineers and its role in engineering research. A proposal to build the Saint Antoine Bridge in Geneva in the 1820s brought Marc Seguin and Dufour (then state engineer) into discussions. The bridge was completed to Dufour’s design and opened in August 1823. This was the world’s first permanent wire cable suspension bridge, and the design techniques, wire tests, and test loading of the completed structure are discussed. Dufour’s sketches, drawings, manuscript reports, and subsequent archival photographs illustrate this section. The remaining two chapters deal with French developments up to 1850, and an undeveloped design where the cable was beneath the bridge deck. Peters’s exploration of engineering design clearly shows decision making to be multidisciplinary, involving social, military, economic, and political issues. Moreover, Dufour’s design style is the product of his personality and of the culture in which he worked. The author believes that “some familiarity with engineering history is a pre­ requisite of modern education, for engineering is one of the basic constituents of modern civilization and culture” (p. 9). If only this...

Present-day control engineering—is it latin to the undergraduate?

The development of control engineering design techniques over the last two decades is traced and their application is examined to show how they may be reflected back into the undergraduate teaching of engineers. Control engineering can be regarded as a thought-provoking orderly discipline fulfilling the same functions for science students as does latin to the arts student.

A review categorizing engineering design techniques of plant environmental simulators

Over the past 30 years, considerable effort has been expended in developing engineering design techniques for partially controlling the total plant environment within growth chambers, phytotrons and greenhouses. In a review covering 126 articles relative to the design, construction, operation, and performance of plant environmental simulators, techniques followed in simulator design are categorized with a view toward the future development of an inclusive environmental design criteria.