Early Rock Mechanics/Rock Engineering Education in the United States
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- 作者：Banks ; D.
- 关键词：rock mechanics history ; rock engineering history ; U.S. Military Academy ; School of Mines at Columbia University
- 刊名：International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences & Geomechanics Abstracts
- 出版年：1997
- 出版时间：April 6, 1997
- 年：1997
- 卷：34
- 期：3-4
- 页码：602
- 全文大小：47.4 K
文摘
The development of the United States into a strong nation in the 1800s resulted, in many respects, from the successful completion of numerous engineering projects. Early civil engineering projects involved the construction of roads and canals, and later railroads; project features included bridges, aqueducts, retaining structures and locks, and later tunnels. In the later part of the 1800s the nation's importance was increased further by its strong leadership in the industrial revolution made possible in part by large quantities of minerals extracted by mining engineers. This development of the United States required building on, with or in rock. Prior to the 1800s engineering was considered a trade in which its practitioners learned from experience and apprenticeship training. The French had demonstrated by the end of the 1700s that formal education could play a significant role particularly in producing civil engineers. The French model was largely adapted in the first civil engineer institute in the United States -- the U.S. Military Academy; European influences, to include the French, were also felt when the School of Mines was established at Columbia University. Because so many civil and mining engineering project features involved rock, this paper examines the nature of rock mechanics/rock engineering taught at these two pioneering institutions near their founding years.