The Study of the Stability of Vaults by the Viscount of Nieuport
摘要
The work of the Viscount of NieuportNieuport, Viscount of (Charles-François Le Prud’homme D’Hailly) oscillates between mathematics, the study of differential equations, the logic of Condorcet and mechanics, and the study of stability of vaults. This last is the focus of this chapter. Nieuport’s considerations do not consider the parallelogram law of forces. Instead, he finds an alternate way of transforming a problem of statics into one of geometry. He is also ambivalent about the role of the catenary. As his theories are examined, they are compared to those of CoupletCouplet, Claude Antoine, CoulombCoulomb, Charles Augustin, KrafftKrafft, Georg Wolfgang, and Jacob BernoulliBernoulli, Jacob.