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Biographical Information

Name: Maurice Lévy
Born on 28 February 1838 in , Haut-Rhin (68), Grand-Est, France, Europe
Deceased on 30 September 1910 in , Ile-de-France, France, Europe

Short biography of Maurice Lévy

Maurice Lévy studied at the École Polytechnique and the École des Ponts et Chaussées from 1856 to 1861. Thereafter, he spent several years in the provinces before gaining his doctorate in Paris in 1867 and working at the École polytechnique from 1862 to 1883 as a mechanics tutor. It was in this period that Lévy wrote his chief work on the theory of structures: his contribution to the elastic theory foundation of structural theory (1873) and the first edition of his graphical statics (1874), which followed on directly from Cremona's work and which became a standard reference book in the German-speaking world like Wilhelm Ritter's Anwendungen der graphischen Statik. Lévy's four-volume work on graphical statics (2nd edition) (1886–88) played the same role in the French-speaking world. In 1875 he was appointed professor of structural mechanics at the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures and in 1885 professor of analytical mechanics and celestial mechanics at the Collège de France, and was also promoted to the post of general inspector of bridges and highways. From 1883 onwards he was a member of the Académie des Sciences. 

Main contributions to structural analysis:

Note sur un système particulier de ponts biais [1869]; Application de la théorie mathématique de l'élasticité à l'étude de systèmes articulés [1873]; La statique graphique et ses applications aux constructions [1886–88]; Notes sur les diverses manières d'appliquer la règle du trapèze au calcul de la stabilité des barrages en maçonnerie [1897] 

Source: Kurrer, Karl-Eugen The History of the Theory of Structures, Wilhelm Ernst & Sohn Verlag für Architektur und technische Wissenschaften GmbH, Berlin (Deutschland), ISBN 3-433-01838-3, 2008; p. 744

Relevant Publications

  • About this
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  • Person-ID
    1009844
  • Published on:
    20/08/2013
  • Last updated on:
    22/07/2014
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