Abstract
AMONG the papers contributed to the Third Reunion of the Brazilian National Laboratories for Testing Materials was one on soil stabilization, which has since been issued as a booklet by the National Institute of Technology, Rio de Janeiro. The author, Paulo Sá, outlines existing knowledge in this branch of the science of soil mechanics, in the hope of directing the attention of Brazilian engineers to this new and important science. This would be a commendable aspiration in any country. Too many engineers are unfamiliar with the extent to which the study of foundation and earthwork problems has been developed during the last ten or twenty years, for it is now legitimate to speak of the emergence of a rational science of soil mechanics, based on sound scientific principles and making full use of theory, experiment and practice. Here again, as in most eases of fresh scientific approach to an old problem, research has established a considerable lead on practical application. The Brazilian writer complains that, in his country, soil mechanics specialists are muito poúacos: in Great Britain also they are all too few. But the subject is not only a matter for the specialist. It should become part of the training of all civil engineers. Emphasis has been laid on the need for greater attention to it in Great Britain in annual reports of the Building Research Board which, in its report for 1938, noted with satisfaction steps taken at several university institutions, following a conference at the Building Research Station, to bring the subject into greater prominence in the curriculum for engineering students.
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Soil Mechanics in Brazil. Nature 148, 21 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/148021a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/148021a0