Essays on the History of Mechanics

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.

Truesdell and the History of the Theory of Structures.- Development of Studies in the History of Elasticity Theory and Structural Mechanics.- Coping With Error in the History of Mechanics.- The Development of the Deformation Method.- The Mechanics of Timbrel Vaults: a Historical Outline.- The Use of a Particular Form of the Parallelogram Law of Forces for the Building of Vaults (1650-1750).- Rose Windows.- Early Theories of Vectors.- The Ancients' Inferno: The Slow and Tortuous Development of 'Newtonian' Principles of Motion in the Eighteenth Century.- A Historical Survey of Impact Theories.- What Can the Historian of Science Learn from the Historian of Fine Arts?.- Index of Names.