CULMANN, CARL

born July 10, 1821, Bergzabern, Rhenish Palatinate died Dec. 9, 1881, Zrich, Switz. engineer whose graphic methods of structural analysis have been widely applied to engineering and mechanics. In 1841 Culmann entered the Bavarian civil service as a cadet bridge engineer with the Hof railway construction division. He was eventually appointed professor of engineering sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zrich (185581). In 1864 he made a valuable report on his investigation of the wild mountain streams of Switzerland, the control of which was a seasonal problem. His most important book, Die graphische Statik (1865; Graphic Statics), presented a survey of all known work on the graphic method of solving static problems and laid the foundation for its use as an exact science.