Eaton Hodgkinson

Eaton A. Hodgkinson (born February 26, 1789 in Anderton , Cheshire , † June 18, 1861 in Salford ) was an English mathematician and engineer . In the area of ​​the calculation of structures and material properties, Hodgkinson took a pioneering role.

Life

Hodgkinson was born in Anderton in 1789. His father died at the age of six, so that he and his two sisters were raised by his mother, who also continued their parents' farm . Hodgkinson was initially sent to school in Northwich by his mother , with the wish that her son could later pursue a career in the Church of England . However, it became clear early on that his interests were more in mathematics . Hodgkinson therefore soon switched to a less prestigious private school, but in which his mathematical talent could be promoted. As a teenager and young adult, however, Hodgkinson's labor was increasingly needed on the family farm, so he soon had to leave school to help at home.

In 1811 the family moved to Salford and ran a pawn shop there , especially as Hodgkinson's mother promised better opportunities for her son near Manchester . In his spare time, Hodgkinson occupied himself with mathematics and soon found his way into the scientific community in Manchester. There he met his future colleague William Fairbairn, among others . Hodgkinson became a student and friend of the naturalist John Dalton , who taught him mathematics. A close friendship lasted until Dalton's death in 1844. Eaton Hodgkinson withdrew from the family business at an early age and devoted himself to his scientific work even in old age.

Hodgkinson was married twice without children. Hodgkinson died in Higher Broughton , near Salford, in 1861 .

Scientific work

Excerpt from Illustrations of Mechanics : Hodgkinson's investigations into the load-bearing capacity and fracture behavior of round columns.

Hodgkinson's research focused primarily on the experimental investigation of the load-bearing capacity of columns made of cast iron and marble .

Hodgkinson worked with William Fairbairn in Manchester on the then novel design for iron girders , especially between 1828 and 1830 for the Water Street Bridge of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway . The work on the improved cross-section of the beams was published in 1830 by the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society and influenced building and design in the 19th century.

With the help of his experiments, Hodgkinson also set up a simple, empirical formula to calculate the maximum load-bearing capacity of an iron girder.

In 1841, Hodgkinson was admitted to the Royal Society and received the Royal Medal for his work entitled Experimental researches on the strength of pillars of cast iron ( German: Experimental studies of the load-bearing capacity of cast iron supports ).

In 1847 he was appointed to University College London , where he took over a professorship in mechanics. In 1849, the British Parliament named Hodgkinson as a member of a commission which, with a view to material fatigue, was set up to examine iron structures on railway lines.

His experience in the field of iron structures meant that Hodgkinson was called in as a consultant for the construction of the Britannia Bridge and the Conwy Railway Bridge between 1846 and 1850, as the new box girder design was to be used. The actual load-bearing capacity of the construction was clearly underestimated by Hodgkinson at the time, so that the bridge could ultimately be built without additional load-bearing chains.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Henry Moseley : Illustrations of Mechanics . Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans, Paternoster-Row. 1839. Page 403.

literature

• Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire into the Application of Iron to Railway Structures . 1849.
• Petroski, H .: Design Paradigms: Case Histories of Error and Judgment in Engineering . 1994, ISBN 0-521-46108-1 .
• Rawson, R .: Memoir of Eaton Hodgkinson . In: Transactions of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society . Reprinted in Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution , 1868. Vol. 2, 1865, pp. 203-230 .
• Timoshenko, SP : History of Strength of Materials . 1953, p. 126-129 .
• Karl-Eugen Kurrer : The History of the Theory of Structures. Searching for Equilibrium , Ernst & Sohn 2018, p. 71, p. 89 and p. 1007f (biography), ISBN 978-3-433-03229-9