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Karl von Terzaghi

Karl Terzaghi at age 43
Born October 2, 1883
Prague, Czech Republic
Died October 25, 1963
Winchester, Massachusetts, United States of America
Occupation Civil engineer, Geotechnical engineer
Parents Anton Terzaghi and Amalia Eberle

Karl von Terzaghi (October 2, 1883 – October 25, 1963) was an Austrian civil engineer and geologist, called the father of soil mechanics. Events 1187 - Siege of Jerusalem: Saladin captures Jerusalem after 88 years of Crusader rule Year 1883 ( MDCCCLXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Prague (ˈprɑːg Praha (ˈpraɦa see also other names) is the Capital and Largest city of the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic ( ˈt͡ʃɛskaː ˈrɛpuˌblɪka short form in Česko ˈt͡ʃɛskɔ also called Czechia, Events 1147 - The Portuguese, under Afonso I, and Crusaders from England and Flanders conquer Lisbon after a Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Winchester is a town located in Middlesex County Massachusetts, eight miles north of Boston. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A civil engineer is a person who practices Civil engineering, one of the many engineering professions Geotechnical engineering is the branch of Civil engineering concerned with the engineering behavior of earth materials Events 1187 - Siege of Jerusalem: Saladin captures Jerusalem after 88 years of Crusader rule Year 1883 ( MDCCCLXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 1147 - The Portuguese, under Afonso I, and Crusaders from England and Flanders conquer Lisbon after a Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Austrians (Österreicher are a nation and an ethnic group originating from the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states ( March of Austria, A civil engineer is a person who practices Civil engineering, one of the many engineering professions A geologist is a contributor to the Science of Geology, studying the physical structure and processes of the Earth and planets of the solar system Soil mechanics is a discipline that applies principles of Engineering mechanics, e

Contents

Biography

Early life

Karl von Terzaghi was the first child of Army Lieutenant Colonel Anton von Terzaghi and Amalia Eberle in Prague, a major city in part of the former Habsburg Empire in Austria at the time. Lieutenant (abbreviated Lt or Lieut) is a Military, Naval, Paramilitary, Fire service, Emergency medical services Prague (ˈprɑːg Praha (ˈpraɦa see also other names) is the Capital and Largest city of the Czech Republic. Habsburg Monarchy (alternatively Habsburg Empire) refers to the territories ruled by the Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg, and then by the successor Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich Upon Anton Terzaghi's retirement from the army, the family moved to Graz, Austria. Graz (etymologically from Slovene: Gradec IPA /gradeʦ/ "little castle" with a population of around 290000 as of 2008 (of which 252852 have principal Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich At the age of ten, Terzaghi was sent to a military boarding school. He developed an interest in astronomy and geography. At age fourteen, Terzaghi entered a different military school, this time in what is now Hranice, the Czech Republic. Hranice (ˈɦraɲɪtsɛ German: Weißkirchen, Mährisch Weißkirchen) sometimes also referred to as Hranice na Moravě ( ˈna moravjɛ is The Czech Republic ( ˈt͡ʃɛskaː ˈrɛpuˌblɪka short form in Česko ˈt͡ʃɛskɔ also called Czechia, He was an excellent student, especially in geometry and mathematics, and graduated with honors at the age of seventeen.

Terzaghi entered the Technical University in Graz to study mechanical engineering in 1900. Graz University of Technology (German "Technische Universität Graz" short "TU Graz" is (after University of Graz) the second largest university in He became especially interested in theoretical mechanics, but Terzaghi was a rambunctious student and was nearly expelled at one point. He graduated with honors in 1904. Terzaghi's then fulfilled a compulsory one year military service. While fulfilling his military obligations, Terzaghi translated and greatly expanded a popular English geology field manual into his native language, German. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. He returned to the university for one year after this and combined the study of geology with courses on subjects such as highway and railway engineering. He shortly produced his first academic paper, the subject of which is the geology of terraces in southern Styria. Academic publishing describes the subfield of Publishing which distributes academic Research and Scholarship. Styria (Steiermark is a state or Bundesland, located in the southeast of Austria.

Early professional years

His first job was as a junior design engineer for the firm Adol Baron Pittle, Vienna. The firm was becoming more involved in the relatively new field of hydroelectric power generation, and Karl became involved in the geological problems the firm faced. His responsibilities quickly increased, and by 1908, he was already managing a construction site, workers, and the design and construction of steel reinforced structures. He embarked on an ambitious and challenging project to construct a hydroelectric dam in Croatia. Hydroelectricity is electricity generated by Hydropower, ie the production of power through use of the gravitational force of falling water Croatia (Hrvatska ˈxȓvatska officially the Republic of Croatia ( Republika Hrvatska) is a southern Central European country at the crossroads between He went on with great success to an even more chaotic project in St. Petersburg. Saint Petersburg ( tr: Sankt-Peterburg,) is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River During six months in Russia, he developed some novel graphical methods for the design of industrial tanks, which he submitted as a thesis for his PhD at the university. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending "PhD" redirects here for other uses see PhD (disambiguation. His growing list of achievements began to open more opportunity to him. He resolved to go to the United States of America, which he did in 1912. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the

In US, on his own, he undertook an engineering tour of major dam construction sites in the West. This was no ordinary tour, but was his opportunity to gather reports and first-hand knowledge of the problems of many different projects, and he used it to the fullest before returning to Austria in December 1913. When WWI broke out, he found himself drafted into the army as an officer directing a 250 man engineering battalion. A battalion is a Military unit of around 500-1500 men usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by a Lieutenant Colonel His responsibilities again increased, leading now 1000 men, and he faced combat in Serbia and witnessed the fall of Belgrade. After a short stint managing an airfield, he became a professor in the Royal Ottoman College of Engineering in Istanbul (now Istanbul Technical University). Istanbul Technical University ( ITU, İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi commonly referred to as İTÜ or Teknik Üniversite is an international Technical university

Here he began a happy, very productive period, in which he began his lifelong work of bringing true engineering understanding to soil as an engineering material whose properties could be measured in standardized ways. Soil, often typeset as SOiL, is a four piece rock band from Chicago Illinois United States founded by Shaun Glass Tom Schofield Tim King and Adam Zadel He set up a laboratory using only the most rudimentary of equipment, and began his revolution. His measurements and analysis of the force on retaining walls were first published in English in 1919, and was quickly recognized as an important new contribution to the scientific understanding of the fundamental behavior of soils. A retaining wall is a structure that holds back Soil or rock from a Building, structure or area

At the end of the war, he was forced to resign his post at the University, but managed to find a new post at Robert College in Istanbul. Robert College of Istanbul ( Turkish: Istanbul Amerikan Robert Lisesi) is one of the most selective independent private high schools in Turkey. Here he switched his teaching language from French to English, and again constructed a laboratory out of the most simple equipment. This time he studied various experimental and quantitative aspects of the permeability of soils to water and was able to work out some theories to explain the observations. Permeability in the Earth sciences (commonly symbolized as κ, or k) is a measure of the ability of a material (typically a rock or unconsolidated He invented entirely new apparatus for the measurements and put in many long days of work to carry out the measurements himself. In 1924 he published much of this in his Magnum Opus, Erdbaumechanik which revolutionized the field to great acclaim. It resulted in a job offer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which he immediately accepted.

Later years

One of his first tasks in the USA was to bring his work to the attention of engineers. This he proceeded to do by writing a series of articles for the Engineering News Record, which were published in the winter of 1925, then as a small book in 1926. He found the facilities at MIT abominable and obstruction from the administration. He brushed these obstacles aside, and once more set up a new laboratory geared to making measurements on soils with instruments of his own devising. He entered a new phase of prolific publication and a rapidly growing and lucrative involvement as an engineering consultant on many large-scale projects.

In 1927, in an interesting co-incidence, Aurelia Schober Plath, subsequently to become the mother of the famous poet Sylvia Plath, worked as a secretary for Terzaghi. Sylvia Plath (October 27 1932 &ndash February 11 1963 was an American Poet, Novelist and Short story Writer. She was of Austrian descent and worked for Terzaghi translating a handwritten manuscript in German dealing with new principles of soil mechanics. After work they would have dinner together, when Terzaghi's sparkling conversation led her to Greek drama, Russian literature, the works of Hermann Hesse, the poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, as well as the writings of great world philosophers. Hermann Hesse (ˈhɛʀman ˈhɛsə ( 2 July, 1877 — 9 August, 1962) was a German - Swiss poet novelist and painter Rainer Maria Rilke (also Rainer Maria von Rilke (4 December 1875 &ndash 29 December 1926 is considered one of the German language 's greatest 20th century Poets She claims the experience affected her for the rest of her life and that she "realized how narrow my world had been and that self-education could be and should be an exciting lifelong adventure. It was the beginning of my dream for the ideal education of the children I hoped some day to have. "(Plath, 1975)

From 1926 to 1932, Arthur Casagrande, another pioneer of soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering, worked as Terzaghi's private assistant at MIT. Arthur Casagrande ( August 28, 1902 – September 6, 1981) was an Austrian-born American civil engineer who made important contributions

Terzaghi was much sought after as a dinner companion and was a fascinating conversationalist. His striking good looks and evident power was very attractive to women. In 1928 he met the young Harvard doctoral student in geology, Ruth Dogget, and fell deeply in love.

In 1928, Terzaghi was finally fed up with MIT and its president, and determined to return to Europe. He accepted a chair at the Vienna Technische Hochshule in the winter of 1929. He married Ruth, who, became his editor and collaborator as well. A short consulting trip to Russia before taking up his post horrified him, and he came to oppose the Communist system there as a regime exemplified by its brutality and chaos. Using Austria as his base he traveled ceaselessly throughout Europe, consulting and lecturing, and making new professional contacts and collaborations. His teaching workload was now relatively light, so he continued his experimental investigations, and became especially interested in the problems of the settling of foundations, and of grouting. Settling is the process by which particulates settle to the bottom of a liquid and form a Sediment. Grout is a Construction material used to embed Rebars in Masonry walls connect sections of pre-cast Concrete, fill voids and seal joints (like He began writing the manuscript for a much updated and expanded version of Erdbaumechanik, now set for two volumes. However, the political turmoil in Austria began to interfere with his work, and in 1935 he decided to take a leave from Vienna during 1935 to 1936.

He began his sabbatical with a short trip to consult with Todt and the architects of the proposed grandiose plans for immense buildings at the Nazi's Party Day Rally site in Nuremberg. A sabbatical (from the Latin sabbaticus, from the Greek sabbatikos, from Hebrew shabbathon, i The Organisation Todt (OT was a Third Reich civil and Military engineering group in Germany eponymously named for its founder Fritz Todt, an The Nuremberg Rally (officially Reichsparteitag, meaning national party convention was the annual rally of the NSDAP (Nazi Party in the years 1923 to 1938 in This led to a conflict over the best way to lay a sound foundation, which led to a discussion with Hitler himself, who took an intense interest in all details of the architecture. Terzaghi then returned to America where he gave a plenary lecture at the International Conference on Soil Mechanics at Harvard University. He made a lecture tour of many other universities, but discovered that prospects for employment were dim. He returned to Vienna in November of 1936, shortly after the birth of his first son, Eric. In Vienna, he returned to a nasty professional and political controversy, which he overcame only with some difficulty. He memorably stated "The Fatherland denoted me as a Nazi, the Nazis as a Bolshevik, and the Bolsheviks as a conservative idealist. Certainly only one of the three could be right, and that one is the Bolsheviks. " He escaped from Vienna frequently by extended consulting trips to major construction projects in England, Italy, France, Algeria and Latvia, adding greatly to his store of practical engineering experience.

In 1938 Terzaghi emigrated to the United States and took up a post at Harvard University. Before the end of the war, he consulted on the Chicago Subway system, the Newport News Shipways construction, and raising the Normandie, among others. Newport News is an Independent city in Virginia. It is at the south-western end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the north shore of the James River Origin The beginnings of Normandie can be traced to the Roaring Twenties when shipping companies started to look for new ships to replace the aging veterans He became an American citizen in March 1943. He remained as a part-timer at Harvard university until his retirement in 1953 at the mandatory age of 70. In July of the next year, he became the chairman of the Consulting Board for the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Aswan (Assuan is a city on the first cataract of the Nile in Egypt. He resigned this post in 1959 after coming into conflict with the Russian engineers in charge of the project, but continued to consult on various hydroelectric projects, especially in British Columbia. He died in 1963.

Legacy

The American Society of Civil Engineers established in 1960 the Karl Terzaghi Award to an "author of outstanding contributions to knowledge in the fields of soil mechanics, subsurface and earthwork engineering, and subsurface and earthwork construction". [1] The Terzaghi and Peck Library, which is managed by the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, in Oslo, Norway holds an extensive collection of his papers. [2] The Mission Dam in British Columbia, Canada, was renamed his honor as the Terzaghi Dam in 1965. British Columbia (ˌbrɪtɨʃ kəˈlʌmbiə ( BC) ( (la Colombie-Britannique C Terzaghi Dam located about 100 km NE of the resort of Whistler British Columbia in western Canada, is the key diversion dam in the Bridge River Power Project

See also

Books

References

External links

Persondata
NAME Terzaghi, Karl von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Father of soil mechanics
SHORT DESCRIPTION Civil engineer, Geotechnical engineer
DATE OF BIRTH October 2, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague, Czech Republic
DATE OF DEATH October 25, 1963
PLACE OF DEATH Winchester, Massachusetts, United States of America
Soil mechanics is a discipline that applies principles of Engineering mechanics, e A civil engineer is a person who practices Civil engineering, one of the many engineering professions Geotechnical engineering is the branch of Civil engineering concerned with the engineering behavior of earth materials Events 1187 - Siege of Jerusalem: Saladin captures Jerusalem after 88 years of Crusader rule Year 1883 ( MDCCCLXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Prague (ˈprɑːg Praha (ˈpraɦa see also other names) is the Capital and Largest city of the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic ( ˈt͡ʃɛskaː ˈrɛpuˌblɪka short form in Česko ˈt͡ʃɛskɔ also called Czechia, Events 1147 - The Portuguese, under Afonso I, and Crusaders from England and Flanders conquer Lisbon after a Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Winchester is a town located in Middlesex County Massachusetts, eight miles north of Boston. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the
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