Squire Whipple

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Squire Whipple

Squire Whipple (born September 16, 1804 in Hardwick , Massachusetts , † March 15, 1888 in Albany , New York ) was an American civil engineer. In the USA he is regarded as the father of iron bridge construction and generally as a pioneer of structural engineering in the USA.

Life

Whipple was the son of a farmer who also designed and built his own cotton mill near Greenwich , Massachusetts from 1811 to 1817 . Then his father went back to work as a farmer in Otswego County, New York, and Whipple attended Hartwick and Fairfield Academy. He studied for a year at Union College in Schenectady , graduating in 1830. He was then a surveyor for the railroad and for canal projects. In 1840 he invented a lock with which the weight of canal boats could be measured. He also built and sold mathematical instruments. The work on the Erie Canal (and the advent of the railroad) made him realize the need for new bridge constructions specifically for iron bridges, for which Whipple contributed several half-timbered designs with a patent in 1841 and the construction of such a bridge over the Erie Canal near Utica in the same year, the others followed. In 1847 he published a brochure with which static calculations for railway bridges could be made (A work on bridge building). That is why he and Stephen Harriman Long are also considered the father of structural engineering in the USA. In 1853 he built a 146-foot railroad bridge at West Troy in New York. For bridges under 200 feet span, his designs became the model throughout the United States beyond New York State (especially after his arch bridge patent of 1841 expired in 1869). Cast iron was used for the parts that were not subjected to tensile stress and wrought iron for the rest (outlined by Whipple in his patent).

Whipple truss bridge
Bridge L-158 of the New York Central Railroad at Kingston (New York) , 1883, Whipple truss
Arch bridge with trusses patented by Whipple in 1841
Shaw Bridge, Claverack, New York, arched bridge by JD Hutchinson in 1870 after a design by Whipple

Its arch bridge at Union College in Schenectady is now a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark . Also historic landmarks are the L-158 bridge, the only remaining bridge in the USA with a double-crossed Whipple framework (1883) and the Shaw Bridge in Claverack (New York) from 1870 based on a design by Whipple. Another preserved Whipple Bridge is at Albany (Normans Kill Vicinity).

He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame .

Fonts

  • A work on bridge building: Two essays, the one elementary and general, the other giving original plans and practical details for iron and wooden bridges. Utica, New York 1847
  • An elementary and practical treatise on bridge building. Van Nostrand, New York 1869, 2nd edition 1899

literature

  • Francis E. Griggs Jr .: Squire Whipple - Father of Iron Bridges. In: Journal of Bridge Engineering (ASCE), Volume 7, May / June 2002, pp. 146-155
  • FE Griggs, AJ DeLuzio: Stephen H. Long and Squire Whipple: the first American structural engineers. In: Journal of Structural Engineering. Volume 121, 1995, pp. 1352-1361
  • Karl-Eugen Kurrer : The History of the Theory of Structures. Searching for Equilibrium . Berlin: Ernst & Sohn 2018, p. 1080 (biography), ISBN 978-3-433-03229-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl-Eugen Kurrer: The History of the Theory of Structures. Searching for Equilibrium . Berlin: Ernst & Sohn 2018, p. 66, ISBN 978-3-433-03229-9 .
  2. ^ Whipple Bridge at Albany, Library of Congress
personal data
SURNAME Whipple, Squire
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American civil engineer
DATE OF BIRTH September 16, 1804
PLACE OF BIRTH Hardwick , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH March 15, 1888
Place of death Albany , New York