Essays on the History of Mechanics: In Memory of Clifford Ambrose Truesdell and Edoardo Benvenuto (Between Mechanics and Architecture)

The history of mechanics, and more particularly, the history of mechanics applied to constructions, constitutes a field of research that is relatively recent. This volume, together with the recent publication "Towards a History of Construction", is intended as an homage to the two eminent scholars who made a determinant contribution to the history of mechanics: Edoardo Benvenuto and Clifford Truesdell. Front Matter....Pages 1-8 Truesdell and the History of the Theory of Structures....Pages 9-20 Development of Studies in the History of Elasticity Theory and Structural Mechanics....Pages 21-38 Coping with Error in the History of Mechanics....Pages 39-56 The Development of the Deformation Method....Pages 57-87 The Mechanics of Timbrel Vaults: A Historical Outline....Pages 89-134 The Use of a Particular form of the Parallelogram Law of Forces for the Building of Vaults (1650–1750)....Pages 135-163 Rose Windows....Pages 165-178 Early Theories of Vectors....Pages 179-198 The Ancients’ Inferno: The Slow and Tortuous Development of ‘Newtonian’ Principles of Motion in the Eighteenth Century....Pages 199-221 A Historical Survey of Impact Theories....Pages 223-234 What Can the Historian of Science Learn from the Historian of the Fine Arts?....Pages 235-249 Back Matter....Pages 251-256