Timoshenko’s History of Strength of Materials (1953)

Abstract

Timoshenko’s numerous earlier books are distinguished by their presentations based on original sources and by their abundant and careful attributions. In this volume he publishes in extended form his historical lectures. The main earlier works on this subject are

• (1) A.-J.-C. Barré de St. Venant, Historique abrégé des Recherches sur la résistance et sur l’élasticité des corps solides, prefaced to Navier’s Résumé des Leçons... sur l’Application de la Mécanique..., Paris, Dunod, 1864.

• (2) The abundant notes added by St. Venant to the translation Théorie de l’Élasticité des Corps Solides de Clebsch, Paris, Dunod, 1883; reprinted by Johnson Reprint Corp., 1966.

• (3) I. Todhunter, A History of the Theory of Elasticity and of the Strength of Materials from Galileo to Lord Kelvin, edited and completed by K. Pearson, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2 volumes, 1886, 1893; reprinted by Dover Publications, 1960. [The contributions by Pearson, which make up most of the work, are often prejudiced, capricious, and misrepresentative; sometimes they are even wrong.]