Abstract
A MATTER of considerable importance dealt with in the report for the year 1937 of the Building Research Board, by Dr. R. E. Stradling, director, is the account of the work done in connexion with “Soil Mechanics”. This is a new and rapidly developing branch of engineering science which, it is felt, has not received from practising engineers in Great Britain the measure of recognition accorded to it elsewhere. The report therefore lays especial stress on the importance of recent developments in this direction. In the past, it is pointed out, such civil engineering problems as those associated with foundations and the stability of cuttings and embankments, have had to be dealt with on an empirical basis. As the necessary scientific knowledge did not exist this was inevitable ; but a new school of thought has arisen and, following the lines explored by Terzaghi and others, the Station has been engaged in a programme of research. In this it has been actively assisted by the Earth Pressures Committee of the British Association, and by an Earth Pressures Sub-Committee set up by the Institution of Civil Engineers. Abroad, the results of research have had a large measure of application and there are reported to be signs of increasing attention here, the inquiries received at the Building Research Station being taken to show that engineers are becoming more fully aware of the assistance which this new science can give in promoting accurate and economical design. This increased interest has had the result that the soil mechanics section at the Station has been strengthened and it is hoped, with the support of outside bodies interested in its aims, to extend its operations and so to hasten the work of fundamental research and the solution of problems of immediate practical interest.
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Progress in Building Research. Nature 142, 584–585 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142584a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142584a0