NSF Award
8710423
In the nineteenth century, science and engineering were becoming significantly interconnected for the first time. The history of the development of modern long span wire suspension bridges affords advances in understanding the way in which analytical and experimental techniques have been exploited in tandem in technological development in Europe and North America. Dr. Kemp, trained as an engineer and hence bringing solid technical knowledge to his subject, proposes that Marc Seguin played a key role in the refinement and spread of wire suspension bridges. Yet Seguin falls in the category of bridge- designers--a nomadic group about whom information, even concerning those most successful, is scarce. In this study, Dr. Kemp examines collections of private papers of Seguin's which he has found in France and which he will mine in order to add an important piece to the historical puzzle. He argues that Seguin's approach was more practical than Navier's rather theoretical approach and helped to set the stage for the golden age of suspension bridges in America.
