Karl von Terzaghi facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Karl von Terzaghi
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Karl Terzaghi (1926)
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| Born | October 2, 1883 |
| Died | October 25, 1963 (aged 80) |
| Spouse(s) | Olga Byloff, Ruth Dogget Terzaghi |
| Children | child (b. 1912, adopted in Mexico), Vera Terzaghi, Eric Terzaghi, Margaret Terzaghi-Howe |
| Parent(s) | Anton Terzaghi and Amalia Eberle |
| Awards | Frank P. Brown Medal (1946), Doctorado honoris causa por la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (1951) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Geology, Geotechnical engineering |
| Notable students | Arthur Casagrande, Ralph Brazelton Peck, Cinna Lomnitz |
Karl von Terzaghi (born October 2, 1883 – died October 25, 1963) was an Austrian engineer and geologist. He is often called the "father of soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering" because he helped us understand how soil behaves. His work changed how engineers build structures on or in the ground.
Contents
Early Life and Education
A Young Mind in Europe
Karl von Terzaghi was born in 1883 in Prague, which is now part of the Czech Republic. His father, Anton von Terzaghi, was an army officer. When his father retired, the family moved to Graz, Austria.
At age 10, Karl went to a military boarding school. He became very interested in astronomy and geography. Later, at 14, he attended another military school in Hranice. He was a brilliant student, especially in geometry and mathematics, and he graduated with high honors at 17.
University Studies and Early Discoveries
In 1900, Terzaghi began studying mechanical engineering at the Technical University in Graz. He also became very interested in how things work in theory, known as theoretical mechanics. He graduated with honors in 1904.
After university, Terzaghi served one year in the military. During this time, he translated an English book about geology into German and added many new details. He then returned to the university for a year to study geology along with courses on building roads and railways. Soon after, he published his first scientific paper about the geology of terraces in southern Styria.
Starting His Engineering Career
First Jobs and Big Projects
Karl Terzaghi's first job was as a junior design engineer for a company in Vienna. This company was starting to work on hydroelectric power projects. Karl quickly became involved in solving the geological problems that came with these projects.
By 1908, he was in charge of a construction site. He managed workers and designed structures made of steel-reinforced concrete. He even worked on building a hydroelectric dam in Croatia. He also spent six months in Russia, where he created new ways to design industrial tanks. He used these ideas for his PhD thesis at the university.
Travels and War Service
In 1912, Terzaghi traveled to the United States. He visited many large dam construction sites in the West. He gathered information and learned firsthand about the challenges of different projects. He returned to Austria in December 1913.
When World War I started, he joined the army as an officer. He led an engineering battalion of 250 men, which later grew to 1,000. He saw combat in Serbia and witnessed the fall of Belgrade. After managing an airfield for a short time, he became a professor at the Royal Ottoman College of Engineering in Istanbul, which is now Istanbul Technical University.
Developing Soil Mechanics
Studying Soil in Istanbul
While teaching in Istanbul, Karl Terzaghi began to study the properties of soils in detail for engineering purposes. He measured and analyzed the forces on retaining walls. His findings were first published in English in 1919. Engineers quickly saw that his work was a major step forward in understanding how soils behave.
After the war, he moved to Robert College in Istanbul. He started teaching in English instead of French. He focused on studying how easily water flows through soil, a property called permeability. He developed theories to explain his observations and even invented new tools for his experiments.
A Groundbreaking Book and MIT
In 1924, Terzaghi published a very important book called Erdbaumechanik auf Bodenphysikalischer Grundlage. This translates to The Mechanics of Earth Construction Based on Soil Physics. This book had a huge impact on the field of engineering.
Because of his groundbreaking work, he received a job offer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States, which he accepted.
Later Years and Influence
Building a New Lab at MIT
When Terzaghi arrived in the United States, one of his first goals was to share his work with American engineers. He wrote a series of articles for the Engineering News Record in 1925, which were later published as a small book in 1926.
He found the facilities at MIT challenging, but he didn't let that stop him. He built a new laboratory where he could make precise measurements on soils using his own specially designed instruments. He began publishing many more papers and became a highly sought-after engineering consultant for large construction projects.
Inspiring Others
From 1926 to 1932, Arthur Casagrande, another important figure in soil mechanics, worked as Terzaghi's assistant at MIT.
In 1927, Aurelia Schober Plath, who would later be the mother of the famous poet Sylvia Plath, worked as Terzaghi's secretary. She helped him translate a German manuscript about new ideas in soil mechanics. She later said that working with him and their conversations greatly influenced her life and made her realize the importance of lifelong learning.
Return to Europe and Global Consulting
In 1928, Terzaghi met and fell in love with Ruth Dogget, a geology student at Harvard. The next year, he decided to leave MIT and accepted a professorship at the Vienna Technische Hochshule in Austria. He married Ruth, who also became his editor and helper.
From Austria, he traveled constantly across Europe. He worked as a consultant, gave lectures, and made new professional connections. His teaching duties were light, so he continued his experiments. He became especially interested in problems like the settling of foundations and grouting. He started writing a much bigger version of his Erdbaumechanik book.
Challenges and Moving to America
Political problems in Austria began to affect his work. In 1935, he took a leave from Vienna. He consulted on major building plans in Nuremberg, Germany, which led to a discussion with Hitler about foundations. He then returned to America to give a lecture at a big conference at Harvard University. This event led to the creation of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, and Terzaghi became its first president.
In 1938, he moved to the United States permanently and joined Harvard University. During World War II, he consulted on many important projects, including the Chicago subway system and raising the Normandie ship. He became an American citizen in March 1943. He retired from Harvard in 1953.
Later Projects and Legacy
In 1954, he became the chairman of the Consulting Board for the building of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt. He resigned from this role in 1959 after disagreements with the Soviet engineers in charge. However, he continued to consult on various hydroelectric projects, especially in British Columbia, Canada.
Karl von Terzaghi passed away in 1963. His work completely changed how engineers approach building on and in the ground. He taught us that understanding soil is just as important as understanding the structures built upon it.
Legacy
The American Society of Civil Engineers created the Karl Terzaghi Award in 1960. This award honors engineers who make outstanding contributions to soil mechanics and earthwork engineering.
The Terzaghi and Peck Library, managed by the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute in Oslo, Norway, holds a large collection of his papers.
In 1965, the Mission Dam in British Columbia, Canada, was renamed the Terzaghi Dam in his honor.
Karl Terzaghi himself once said, "All the modest achievements which I have to my credit can be described by a simple formula… Guided by common sense and casual observations, I recognized weak points in traditional procedures and tried to make them less weak. Sometimes I failed, but usually I succeeded." This shows his practical and determined approach to engineering.
See also
- Consolidation (soil)
- Effective stress
- Engineering geology
- Geotechnical engineering
- Retaining wall
- Rock mass classifications
- Soil mechanics
- Subsidence
- Terzaghi's principle
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