The Engineer And The Scandal: A Piece Of Science History

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The Engineer and the Scandal gives an in-depth study into an important part of the development of the Theory of Porous Media as well as the amazing story of the glittering life of Professor Karl von Terzaghi. It provides an outline of the bitter dispute between him and Professor Paul Fillunger, both working at the Technische Hochschule of Vienna, Austria, in the fields of soil mechanics and technical mechanics during the 1930s. The ugly confrontation with its tragic end was a scandal in many respects. The author, a well-known scientist himself in the field of the mechanics of porous media, investigated this piece of science history in Austria, Norway, and the United States of America. He discloses an amazing story which has been nearly forgotten although it produced large headlines in the Vienna of 1937.

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R. de Boer The Engineer and the Scandal o ne must have hypotheses and theories in order to organise one^s knowledge: otherwise everyWing remains mere debris Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-1799) Physicist and witty satirist in Gottingen Reint de Boer The Engineer and the Scandal A Piece of Science History With 103 Figures Professor Dr.-Ing. Reint de Boer o. Professor em. f¨ ur Mechanik an der Universit¨ at Duisburg-Essen, Campus Essen Institut f¨ ur Mechanik Fachbereich Bauwissenschaften D-45117 Essen http://www.uni-essen.de/mechanik/Mitarb/deBoer.htm [email protected] ISBN 3-540-23111-0 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2004116219 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrati