From Nieuport to Magnel: An institutional historyof building science in Belgium, 1780-1930

While general overviews of the history of buildingmechanics are well established,2 Belgium still lacks astudy of the concrete local appropriation, diffusion andapplication of this scientific discipline.' This history of

the reception and local development of the buildingsciences, considered here in their triple nature of theca\culus of structures, the testing of materials and theirtechnological applications -a complementary history

to the instauration, rise and institutionalisation of thecivil engineer-, considers public, scientific,normative and educational institutions, scholars andmanuals as their principal actors.

The scope of current historiography -limited to afew «key»- figures like Vierendeel (Lederer 1970;Arthur Vierendeel1989) and the use of new materialslike steel (Baele and De Herdt 1983) or concrete4-forced us to undertake substantial research ofinstitutional and biographical nature5 and to elaboratea key research tool: a bibliography of Belgiantechnical writings on building.6 The exhaustive listwith references to library copies creates a virtuallibrary which responds more to the needs of the

historian than the remaining collections of libraries ofeducational and research institutions.7

THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW ARCHlTECT AND A NEW

ENGINEER (1750-1830)8

Parallel with the elaboration of a network of roads

and canals in arder lo fully benefil economically from

Dirk Van de Vijver

the strategic position of the Southern Low Countriesbetween the Canal and the German hinterland, thelocal and central governments of the AustrianNetherlands created civil administrations for public(especially hydraulic) works. In this way, the civil

government regained independence from the corps ofmilitary engineers. The States of Flanders created a

two headed professional administration of PublicWorks (an architect and an engineer) in 1755; thecentral government created the Jointe des Eaux(1772) with a Corps and an Ecole hydraulique (1774)

with seat in Brussels. The programme of this (firststate civil engineering) school offered a preparationto the application of hydraulics in practice. Alsoaround the same years, in 1778, Jean-Joseph Mottintaught architecture as applied mechanics at the oldUniversity of Leuven.9

In 1772, the Académie royale et impériale deBruxelles was founded by the government of theAustrian Netherlands as a state research institute witha double mission: to support the economicdevelopment by the exploitation of the naturalresources and technical sciences (the «classephysique») and to write the history of the Austrian

Netherlands (<<classe historique»). In this localversion of the French Academy of Science thetechnical aspects of building were the object ofattention: building materials (mortar, brick) weretested, fireproof constructions were studied (Mann1778), the hydrographical situation of the country

was evaluated10 and hydraulic inventions were

Proceedings of the First International Congress on Construction History, Madrid, 20th-24th January 2003, ed. S. Huerta, Madrid: I. Juan de Herrera, SEdHC, ETSAM, A. E. Benvenuto, COAM, F. Dragados, 2003.

2056 D. Van de Vijver

certified. The knowledge of higher mathematics bytheir members, especially by the military engineer

Charles- Fran,<ois le Preud' Homme de Nieuport(1746-1827), also permitted to treat the problems ofthe calcuIus of vaults with mathematical tools evokedby Euler, Krafft, Bossut and Jakob Bernouilly (De

Nieuport 1781; Radelet-De Grave 1995). De Nieuport

also formulated a public prize question re1ating to thecalculus of an isostatic supported beam. Theunsatisfying answers showed the iso]ated position of

the Academy in these matters and the growing gapbetween traditional artisan knowledge and the new«mathematicah> engineering science.

By pub]ishing the work of her members and the

prize winning responses, the Theresian academy

broke also with another tradition of the Southern LowCountries: the oral (and manuscript) transmission oftechnical knowledge. Even if hydraulic andengineering realisations could rival with those of theRepublic, local specialised libraries" must rely on thelavishly illustrated Dutch works on hydraulicmachinery (Van der Horst and Poley 1736-1737) or

the French resumés of the availab]e technicalknow]edge (Bélidor 1729, Bélidor 1737-1753) to fill

the engineering department.The annexation of the Belgian departments by the

French submitted public architecture andinfrastructure works to the competence of Frenchadministrations, populated by French architects andengineers, respectively the Conseil des Bátiments

civils and the Corps des Ponts et Chaussées. Theconstruction in An[werp of the most important marinearsenal of the French Empire (Lombaerde 1987;Lombaerde 1989; Lombaerde 1992) put its stampupon the writings of Sganzin, who directed the works,

and of Louis-Charles Boistard (Boistard 1822). TheFrench mining engineer, Alexandre Miché, stated inMons, reworked and published [he Bullet-manual(Miché 1812).

In the beginning of the 19th century a newengineering elite emerged (Van de Vijver 1993). As

the Southern Low Countries were incorporated in theFrench Empire, young Belgian students were formedat [he newly founded Eco/e po/ytechnique and thesubsequent Eco/es d'applications. Forced to returnafter the treaty of Vienna (1815), thesepolytechnicians of «Belgian» origin filled the

«southern» vacancies of the engineeringadministration of the new Kingdom of the

Netherlands (1815-1830), especially of the newlyestablished Corps van Waterstaat en Openhare

Werken (1818-), modelled on the French Corps des

Ponts et Chaussées but with addition of thecompetence of the French Conseil des Bátiments

civils. Polytechnicians of French origin immigrated tothe new Kingdom and were employed by Waterstaat

or at the new Universities (Ghent, Liege, Leuven).This new generation with an ideal (French) scientificand technical background (taught by Durand,Sganzin, . .. ) fiHed easily the gap created by thedeparture of the French Corps des Ponts et

Chaussées, became al so dominant in the field ofmilitary engineering and ambitioned careers in the

exact and applied sciences at the universities. Theremarkable presence of newly constructed «Belgial1»meta] bridges, canals and sluices reported by Brisson

(Brisson 1821-1825), or the detailed documenting of

these technical realisations by the American engineerLoami Baldwin jr in his Engineering diary of 1823'2is therefore not surprising. Nor was the formation -

a polytechnical one- of the author of a mémoirpresented to the Academy on the hydraulic qualities

of local chalk (Cauchy 1827) a «hazard».In the same period (1750-1830), the architecture of

the Southern Netherlands was sllbmitted to a parallelevolution: the emancipation of the architect. Aformation based on drawing (after models andprogrammes) in the local drawing schools (the so-

called academies) complemented the practicalformation in the gllild, and created a learnedarchitectural cultllre (based on Vignola, Jacques-Fran,<ois Blondel and Jean-Fran,<ois de Nellfforge).With the arrival of a new generation of Frenchedllcated architects at the Eco/e spécia/e

d'Architecture in the Dutch epoch (1815-1830), theacademic formation was also to include the Beaux-

Arts composition technique (Van de Vijver 1998).New attention was given to the more technical aspectsof building in the local academies. A new translationof Vitruvius, published in Brussels (De Bioul 1819)and a publication of the most important buildings ofthe new kingdom (Goetghebuer 1827; Van de Vijver2000a) underlined the emergence of a new architect.The hierarchic structure of the course of constrllctiontaught at [he Musée des Sciences et des Lettres de

Bruxelles by the polytechnician Nicolas Roget(1790-1865) «<1'exposition des qualités des

matériaux . . . , les réunir pour composer les élémens

From Nieuport to Magnel: an institutional history of building science in Belgium, 1780-1930 20S7

des edifices ... , composer avec ces élémens lesedifices mémes») established an ideal base for botharchitect and engineer (Roget 1829,79).

THE BELGIAN CONQUEST OF THE BUILDING SCIENCES

With the institutionalisation of the new Belgian state

of 1830, a new Corps des Ponts et Chaussées waserected. This was complemented by a long expectedpolytechnical school at the Statc University of Ghent(the Ecole Spéciale for the administration of Public

Works, 1835) ~a state school for Mining wasconfided to the University of Liege~and an ownperiodical: Les Annales des Travaux Publin' deBelgique (from 1843 onwards). The continuity was

insured by the reemployment in the new engineeringcorps of the poI ytechnicians of the southern di visions

of Waterstaat. The Annales. . . , composed by and forthe Corps. . . , published the results of recent researchand practice, constructing in this way a sharedknowledge of local building materials (due to newand systematic testing campaigns), buildingtechniques and calculus methods.

If the programmc of the Ghent Ecole préparatoireand the Ecole spéciale inc1uded evidently theengineering courses, as for instance analyticalmechanics (taught by Jean-Alexis Timmermans(1801-1864) from 1835 to 1864), mathematics and

mechanics were also taught in the science programmeof the three universities Ghent (Timmermans), Liege(Jean-Baptiste Brasseur (1802-1868), who alsotaught in the Ecole des mines and was renown for his

theoretical approach) and Leuven (Gaspar-MichelPagani (1796-1855)).

However, the Corps of military engineers played

also a leading role in the production of technical texts.Remy Depuydt (1789-1844) republished the

Mémorial de I'nfficier du genie (Depuydt 1844) andArmand Demanet (1808-1865) published the text ofhis Cours de cnnstructinn (Demanet 1850), taught atthe Brussels Ecole militaire from 1843 untill 1847.The latter was the first manual (including knowledgeof local materials, structural theory and practice)specifically applied to the Belgian situation. Thepresence at the end of the second volume of the in

1849 adopted building specifications for theMinistery ofWar ~also by Demanet's hand~ places

this manual in the French tradition of Bullet and

Rondelet." Both French manuals received Belgianupdated editions. We mentioned already Miche'sBullet; Rondelet's annotated treatise was published inBrussels (Blouet 1848-1851). But also Sganzin'smanual became popular (Sganzin 1839, Sganzin1840-1844, Sganzin 1867), the last edition was

annotated by E. Roffiaen, Demanet's successor at theMilitary School.

Besides these clear French references, the Belgianengineering world also kept tight relations with

England. In 1850 for instance, the translation of Henri

Law's The rudiments of' civil engineering wastranslated as a Manuel pratique de construction(applied statics) in the series Bibliotheque industrielle

supporté par le gouvemement beige (Law 1850).

Already in the Kingdom of the Netherlands(1815-1830), Charles Dupin' s technical investigation

of British engineering contributions (roads, railways,bridges and steam engines) received a Brussels'

edition (Dupin 1826). Personal voyages and publicmissions to England informed architects andengineers on matters of technical progress as gaslighting (Louis Roelandt), hygiene (Remont 1850,

Remont 1853) and railways (Brees 1841). Belgium1'ollowed Britain's great example by introducing the1'irst public railway (1835) on the Continent andrealising one of the most dense railway networks 01'

the Contincnt (i1'considered 1'or instance in 1928)14Another consumer 01'the Belgian iron industry was

1'ound in the development 01'metal carpentry 1'or largespan constructions ~int1uenced both by French(Emy 1842; Polenceau) and English examples~ 1'or

the new typologies 01' 19th century industrial society:

railway stations (Antwerp, 1895-1898), exchangehall s (eng. Marcellis in Antwerp, 1852), churches(Demanet 1847), green houses (arch. Ballat inLaeken, 1870). It is hardly surprising then, that theint1uential Dechamps' Principes de la construction

des charpentes métalliques was written by thepro1'essor in industrial architecture at the MiningSchool 01' the University 01' Liege (Dechamps 1898).

Tow ARDS A BELGIAN CONTRIBUTION

The mathematical culture at the Ghent University,especially the research 01'Jules Massau on the graphicintegration and the method 01' characteristics,

contributed to the practica! so!ution 01' numerous

2058 D. Van de Vijver

problems. In 1880, graphical statics became anofficial part of the programme. However, the stress on

mathematics and scientific rigour consideredessential at an academic level (consider for instancethe courses ofVierendeel, Magnel, Baes)15 was not anoption for the technical schools aiming at the artisan

and technician: they had to develop their own, andoften very successful, manuals on the resistance ofmaterials and the calculus of structures. The successof such manuals ]ike Louis Aerts's Elémentspratiques de la résistance des matériaux al 'usage des

ingénieurs, conducteurs des ponts et chaussées,

architectes, conducteurs des travaux, éleves des

académies des beaux-arts et des écoles industrielles(Aerts ] 886), proves the great stimuJi of those works

to the diffusion and vulgarisation of this knowledge.The rapid growth of vademeca or aide-de-mémoires

with an a]ways growing number of formulae, tab]esand abaci needed in daily construction practice(Moerman ] 874; Hoyoux 189]; De Koninckx 1900;Nachtegal ]911a) are addressed to the same pubJic.The Agenda du bátiment by A. Nachtegal, a «chef debureau d' études» and teacher at the «écolesindustrielJes d'Houdeng-Aimeries et de Tubize»

became a long lasting success and was publishedfrom 1911 tilJ 1969 (NachtegaI191Ib).

However, the greatest innovation in metal

construction carne from outside the three-poledBelgian academic engineering world (Ghent, Brussels

and Liege) drawn above. In 1864, the Speciale Scholen

were erected in Leuven (Vierendeel (1851-1934» andin 1879 folJowed the Ecole polytechnique at theUniversity of Brusse]s (Lucien Anspach (1857-] 915»;in 1925 the University of Liege received a departmentof Civil Engineering due to the Dutchifying of theGhent State University and the funding by theCompagnie intemationale des Pieux Frankignoul ~

another Belgian concrete success story invented in1908 and registered in 1911 (Baes ] 930, 675-682).

Arthur Vierendeel, whose motto was <<i'ingénieur doitsentir d' abord, caJculer ensuite», shocked the academicestablishment with an «unorthodox» truss withoutcross-bar-reinforcement, «le poutre Vierendeel»(1896), where the canonica] static triangles are absent.

Approximations and confronting tests results permitted

Vierendeel to present a calculus method, wich togetherwith successful constructions, constituted thebeginning of a flourishing intemational career for the

Vierendeel-truss.]6

For private works the engineer/architect/contractor,not obstructed by government regulation, couldexperiment in Belgium within the boarders of hispersonal legal responsibility. (Only the departments ofWar, Public Works and State Railways had stated type

specifications). Therefore, the marriage betweenconcrete and steel was consummated by a wide rangeof patents and systems, dominated however by theHennebique system (Christophe 1899; Dumas 1902;Baes 1930). Fran~ois Hennebique (] 842-1921)started his career in Belgium with the construction offireproof floors of the vilJa Madoux at Lombartsyde(1883-1884). He patented his «poutre en béton armé»

in 1892. The engineering bureau in Brussels, where he

started his world conquest, stayed active, even afterthe move of the office seat to Paris in 1899. Althoughthe system Hennebique lacked rigorous calcu]usmethods, the introduction of numerique eJements

based on experiments permitted the reaJization of vastand audacious constructions. Even if the chapter «feret ciment» of Vierendeel' s La constructionarchitecturale en fer, fonte et acier (1896) constitutedthe first BeJgian work that discussed the calculus of«ciment armée», Paul Christophe's Le béton armé et

ses applications (] 899) was the crucia] step indocumenting this new construction method; he al soproposed a straight and simple calculus method which

became classic.As chief architect of the Belgian State Railways, an

institution which already used the Hennebique systemin an early stage (at Chimay in ] 894), Léon Cosyn(1871-] 914) published practical treatises on

reinforced concrete (Cosyn 19] 1, Cosyn ] 914),

reducing with numerous abaci and tables the calculus

method adopted by his administration: theprescriptions of the French ministry regarding «bétonarmé» of 1906. Belgian guideJines for the calculus ofreinforced concrete date only from later on: those of

the Ministry of Public Works and of the Associationbeige de Standardisation (founded in 1919) date from

1923. These regulations stimulated the deve]opmentof laboratories for testing and control. Belgiumdisposed of one laboratory in Mechelen (at theArsenal, conducted by Emile Camerman), one in

Brussels (at the Ecole militaire, founded in 1913 andconducted by Rabozée), one in Ghent (theLaboratoire da béton armé of professor GustaveMagnel (1889-1955), created in 1925 by the StateRailways and integrated in 1930 in the Ghent

From Nieuport to Magne]: an institutional history of building science in Belgium, 1780-1930 2059

university), and four at the University of Brussels(those of professor Dustin and of professor LouisBaes, both founded in 1924, the laboratory of theGroupement professionnel des fabricants de ciment

Portland artificial, founded in 1926 and conducted byprofessor Dutron, and the Office de contróle et de

recherches expérimentales concernant l' art de

construire of the Société centrale d'architecture deBelgique, founded in 1930), the Centre d'essais et

d'information of the Groupement professional desfabricants de ciments de laitier (conducted byMagnel, 1925) and that at the university of Liege(1930 F. Campus).

The calculus of reinforced concrete was carefullyintroduced in the courses of the Ecole militaire (byRabozée in 1899) and of the universities of Bruxelles(by Vandrunen in 1900), Ghent (by Keelhof in

1904), Leuven (by Vierendeel in 1905-1908) and

Liege (Deschamps). But only in 1920 a (thenfacultative) practical course on the calculus of

reinforced concrete was taught at the GhentUniversity by Gustave Magnel. The very successful

manual (Magnel 1923-1924) received a fourthvolume in 1948 consecrated on pre-stressed concrete(Magnel 1948).

CONCLUSION

In 1930, 150 years after his first appJication of highermathematics on a construction problem, theinstitutionaJisation of the new discipline (buildingsciences) and the new profession (the civil engineer)

seems complete: both the discipline and theprofession became crucial and indispensable for theconstruction of the built environment. At that time,Belgium had the highest density of railways andHennebique system buildings, counted five chairs ofbuilding mechanics at an academic level with theirrelated societies of graduates, publishes -often incollaboration with Parisian editors- his ownmanuals and reviews (Les Annales des Travaux

Publics de Belgique and La Technique des travaux

besides the periodicals of the ancient studentassociations of the engineering schools), andcelebrated the centennial of Belgium's independenceby receiving at Liege both the First international

congress on concrete and reinforced concretel7 and

the lnternatianal congress far metallic structures.

NOTES

1. This is the first presentation of an ambitious long-termresearch project developed and stimulated by

complementary (and funded) research projects on the

intluence of French architecture on the Southern Low

Countries 1750-1830 (PhD, K.U.Leuven 2(00), the

emcrgence of the «new» architect and engineer

1750-1830 (F.W.O. G.04l6.98, 1998-200]) and thebuilding site of public works in Belgium 1750-1880

(F.W.O. G.0272.02, 2002-20(5). lt implies an

exhaustive bibliography of Belgian technical writings

on eonstruction (manua]s, periodicals, legislation . . . ),

and complementary research on scientific and

educational programmes, institutions and protagonists.

2. Timoshenko 1953; Straub 1975; Dugas 1988; Szabo1987; Benvenuto 1991; Guillerme ] 995.

3. For Germany for instance, see the studies by Kurrer:

Kurrer ]987, Kurrer 1988, Kurrer ]995.

4. Baes 1930. For the Hennebique enterprise, based inBelgium in the starting phase, see for instance:

Delhumeau ] 999; Delhumeau et al. 1993; Delhumeau

1992; Cusack 1984-1985.

5. For the history of the Ministry of Publie Works and theCorps of state engineers in Belgium see: De Brabandere]930; Watelet 1987; Velle ]991. For the history of

architectura] edueation: Verpoest 1984; Van de Vijver

2000b, 56-58, 60-62, 299-306. For the history of

technical education see D'Hoker 1980. For the history

of university engineering edueation see Verpocst 1989(University of Leuven); 150 jaar ingenieursopleiding

1986 (University of Ghent); Campus and Massonnet

1981 (Université de Liege); Van Drunen 1925(Université Libre de Bruxelles).

6. The Belgian bibliography (]875-1974) wascomp]emented by the catalogues of the university

libraries of Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)

and Ghent (Universiteit Gent), and -for earlicr

literature- by our own research on Belgian

architectural publications of the pcriod (1750-1830):

Van de Vijver ] 997; Van de Vijver 2000b, 257-290.

7. To keep only the most recent edition of a manual was a

common library po]icy.

8. See Van de Vijver 2000b and the forthcoming catalogue

of the exposition [ngenieurs en architecten 01' dedrempel van de nieuwe tijd (1750-[830), K.U.Leuven,spring 2003.

9. Université Catholique de Louvain, Archives, C.151.

lO. Royal Library Brussels, ms. 11.2136-2137. A.T. Mann,

Mémoire sur les lois du mouvement des jleuves, et sur

la quantité der leur penten, en particulier des rivieres et

canaux de la Flandre; d'oll l'on déduit une méthodegénérale et tres facile de niveler tout ce pays; 011 y

détermine la profondeur que doivent avoir les canaux et

2060 D. Van de Vijver

les écluses, et on indique plusieurs nouveaux moyens

d'ohtenir un pmfait écoulement des eaux dont les hasseterres de la Flandre sont inondées tous les hivers, 1774.

11. See our forthcoming study on libraries of architects,engineers and surveyors in the Southern Netherlands

(1750-1830) to be published by the Royal Flemish

Academy of Belgium for Seiences and the Arts.

12. American Philosophical Soeiety, Mss. BB 189.

13. The following civil construetion manual s be long to the

same tradition: Launoy 1910; Francken 1911; Combaz

1895-s.d.

14. Lamalle 1930. The rapid expansion evoked an even

passionate diseourse in defence of the waterways by the

head of the Belgian Corps des Ponts et Chaussées, Jean-

Baptiste Vifquain (Vifquain 1842)

15. Vierendeel for instance states in the Préface of his

Cours de stahilité: «Les mathématiques constituent leprincipal outil des seiences techniques modernes, et

I'ingénieur vraiment digne de ee nom doit les posséder

de fa~on tres sérieuse ou sinon il se eondamne a ne pas

comprendre les raisons intimes des faits de statique et

de dynamique qui constituent I'infrastructure des

phénomenes et se trouvera tres empéehé dans les

applications pratiques a en tirer; toutefois, il ne faut pas

abuser des mathématiques. . . . » (Vierendeel 1931. 5).

16. Arthur Vierendeel 1989; Vierendeel 1920; for the

calculus see also: Magnel 1934.

17. 585 partieipants from 48 different countries

communicated 191 mémoirs.

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ealeuls usuels de résistanee, agencement, calcul et coLÍt

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texte. Paris/Liege: librarie polytechnique Ch. Béranger(other eds.: 1921, 1928L

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71-85.De Bioul. 1816. L'arehitecture de Vitruve, traduite en

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