On Chepstow Railway Bridge, with General Remarks suggested by that Structure

Abstract

IN a letter to NATURE of some months past, suggested by a special subject of engineering, I pointed out the necessity of clearly understanding the effects of endwise pressure on metallic columns, in respect of its tendency to cause springing or buckling of the columns. I remarked that there is a total want of experiments on the subject (Mr. Hodgkinson's observations, made on a very small scale, being excepted), and I gave some details of a theory by which the effective arrangement of such experiments might perhaps be facilitated. I have lately observed in an engineering work a failure of a different class arising from end wise pressure, of a kind which I had not anticipated, and which appears to be perhaps more dangerous than even the buckling to which I had called attention.