Experimental solid mechanics in the nineteenth century

Fashion, fortune, dogma, and genius have each played a role in the 19th century history of experimental solid mechanics. The dominant themes are traced and critically evaluated, from the epoch-making experiments of Alphonse Duleau and Pierre Dupin in 1811 that for 50 years stimulated successive studies in various aspects of solid mechanics including giving impetus to the linear theory of elasticity in the 1820's, to the ingenious and definitive experiments of Eduard Grüneisen in 1906, who adapted Michelson-Morley interferometry to solid mechanics, reaching strains as small as 10−8. The 19th century was rich in experimentists and elegant experiments that in every decade contributed to a fascinating panorama of discovery in the laboratory.