Henry Eddy

After completing his mathematics studies at Yale University in 1867, Eddy attended engineering courses at Sheffield Scientific School. By 1868 he was already teaching mathematics and Latin at the University of East Tennessee in Knoxville and one year later became assistant professor for mathematics and civil engineering at Cornell University, where he also gained his doctorate. His academic career continued in Princeton, where in 1874 he was appointed professor of mathematics, astronomy and civil engineering, a post he held until 1890. It was during this period that he studied at the University of Berlin and the Sorbonne in Paris (1878/79), and also published his books on graphical statics [Eddy, 1877; 1878; 1880]. His books contain a method of graphical analysis for determining the meridian and hoop forces for the membrane stress state in domes [Eddy, 1878; 1880]. He was president of the University of Cincinnati in 1890 and one year later at Rose Polytechnic Institute, Terre Haute, Indiana. Eddy taught engineering and mechanics at the College of Engineering at the University of Minnesota from 1894 until his retirement in 1912. Afterwards, he collaborated with the consulting civil engineer Claude Allen Porter Turner (1869–1955) (see section 9.3.1.2) and published his theory of reinforced concrete slabs [Eddy, 1913; 1914]. Eddy therefore made a decisive contribution to reinforced concrete theory during the accumulation phase of structural theory (1900–25). The University of Minnesota acknowledged Eddy’s scientific work as follows:"His ability as a mathematician won him an international reputation and his high general scholarship and Christian character endeared him to all with whom he came in contact. He was an educator of the highest type, an inspiration to his students and intimate associates, and a wise, sympathetic counsellor in the faculty conferences” [F., J. J., 1922, p. 13].

Main contributions to structural analysis:

New constructions in graphical statics [1877]; Researches in graphical statics [1878]; Neue Constructionen aus der graphischen Statik [1880]; The theory of the flexure and strength of rectangular flat plates applied to reinforced concrete floor slabs [1913]; Concrete-steel construction [1914] 

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. 727