Karl Culmann

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Karl Culmann

Karl Culmann also Carl Culmann (born July 10, 1821 in Bergzabern (today Bad Bergzabern ), † December 9, 1881 in Zurich ) was a German-Swiss civil engineer , head of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and author of the book Die Graphische Statik and is therefore valid as the founder of this mathematical branch of structural engineering .

Live and act

Karl Culmann was born on July 10, 1821 in Bergzabern in the Rhine Palatinate as the first son of his parents. His father (a brother of August Ferdinand Culmann ), like his grandfather Friedrich Culmann, was a pastor and last worked as the city pastor in Speyer , his mother came from Freckenfeld and was the daughter of the court president Böll (see Heinrich Boell ) in nearby Weißenburg (today Wissembourg in France). One of his siblings was the later theologian Philipp Theodor Culmann (1824–1863). Karl Culmann showed an early interest in mathematics . His interest in engineering was awakened in 1835/36 when he stayed with his uncle Friedrich Jakob Culmann (1787–1849), who was a professor at the artillery school in Metz . Culmann attended the college in Wissembourg and then the trade school in Kaiserslautern . In 1841 he passed the final examination at the Polytechnic in Karlsruhe , where he had been studying since 1838. Since Bergzabern belonged to Bavaria , Culmann initially worked as an assistant and later as a construction intern at the Bavarian railway construction company. He planned and built the Ludwig-Süd-Nord-Bahn through the Fichtelgebirge under the technical direction of Friedrich August Pauli . There were considerable inclines to be mastered here, and the route was measured by Culmann first for English locomotives and then again for American locomotives, which could cope with steeper inclines and tighter curves.

Karl Culmann's grave in the Sihlfeld cemetery in Zurich

Culmann first became known to the public as an engineer through his trip to England and America from 1849 to 1851, from which he brought with him his “truss theory”, which he published in his two travel reports. He undertook the trip with the support of his superior Pauli and the travel plan in America was designed by the engineer Charles Ellet .

In 1855, through the mediation of Max Eyth , Culmann was appointed professor of engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, which was then being established . In 1868 he received Swiss citizenship. Between 1872 and 1875 he was the school director. In 1880 he received his doctorate from the University of Zurich Dr. phil. From 1860 he held lectures on graphic statics in Zurich.

Culmann advised the Swiss Federal Council on numerous technical projects, such as a horse tram for Zurich and almost all bridge building projects of his time. He also took stock of all the torrents in southern Switzerland .

His main work The graphic statics appeared in 1866. It deals with drawing methods to calculate the forces in steel structures such as roof trusses and steel bridges. Earth pressure problems were also addressed. "Drawing is the engineer's language," was Culmann's credo. His graphic processes experienced a rapid rise at technical universities and grammar schools. One of his students was Maurice Koechlin , one of the designers of the Eiffel Tower , who to a certain extent represents the illustration of the graphic statics in the building.

Even today there is still the Culmann method , with the help of which it is possible to obtain simple solutions under certain conditions. In soil mechanics, too, a graphic method for determining the earth pressure on retaining walls is named after him. After Karl-Eugen Kurrer , he was the most important German-speaking structural engineer in the 19th century , alongside Christian Otto Mohr , although his program to justify structural engineering with the help of projective geometry ultimately failed .

Culmann died on December 9, 1881 in Zurich at a pneumonia . His grave is in the Sihlfeld cemetery in Zurich .

Honor

Bust of Carl Culmann.

On October 20, 1884, a bust based on a design by Alfred Friedrich Bluntschli (1842–1930) and executed by Richard Kissling (1848–1919) was unveiled and the remaining capital of 8,000 francs was donated to the purpose of the foundation for funding in his former scientific area. The bust was in the entrance area of ​​the 'Hönggerberg campus' in May 2019 .

Publications (selection)

  • The construction of wooden bridges in the United States of North America. In: Allgemeine Bauzeitung, year 16, 1851, pp. 69–129; Plans p. 89, 95, 101, 123
  • The construction of the iron bridges in England and America. In: Allgemeine Bauzeitung, 17th year, 1852, pp. 163–222; Plans p. 167, 173, 191, 201, 203, 211
  • The graphic statics . Meyer & Zeller, Zurich 1864, doi : 10.3931 / e-rara-20052 (2nd edition 1875).
  • On the equilibrium conditions of earth masses , Zurich: Züricher and Furrer 1856
  • Lectures on engineering, Department I: Earthworks , Zurich 1872 (printing of the lecture manuscript)

literature

Web links

Commons : Karl Culmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Participation in the subscription for a monument and a foundation in honor of Culmann. Anzeiger zum Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung , March 18, 1882, p. 1, accessed on December 9, 2012
  2. ^ Philipp Theodor Culmann: The Christian ethics. (Speier 1863) 4th edition (anastatic reprint). Publishing house of the Evangelical Association for the Palatinate, Kaiserslautern 1926, pp. XI – XIII.
  3. ↑ Bust and Foundation , in the Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung , No. 43, October 25, 1884, p. 442, accessed on January 1, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Culmann, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss civil engineer
DATE OF BIRTH July 10, 1821
PLACE OF BIRTH Bergzabern
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 1881
Place of death Zurich