Summary of Paper
Name: Lokendra Khatri
Date: 02/01/2021
Paper
“The Coming of Age of Soil Mechanics 1920-1970” The First Spencer J. Buchanan Lecture
Authur
Dr. Ralph B. Peck
Background
The paper describes how the concept of soil mechanics came into the mainstream as a vital part of Civil
Engineering and the role of one man responsible for making the practitioning engineers realize that, the
complex nature of soil, can and should be studied. His name was Karl Terzaghi, also known as the
father of Soil mechanics. With his knowledge, works and theories, he influenced all the civil engineers
and construction companies at that time and his theories are still the backbone of the modern soil
mechanics. Some of the notable engineers whom Karl Terzaghi influenced, who later made
advancements in the field of soil mechanics, are
 Glennon Gilboy – became Terzaghi’s successor at MIT and published a paper on hydraulic fill
dams.
 Arthur Cassagrande – established his own laboratory and courses at Harvard and continued
his research in hydraulic dams.
 Spencer J. Buchanan – worked with Terzaghi in the subway construction of Chicago and later
remained in collaboration with him until his lifetime and also published “Soil Mechanics in
Engineering Practice” with him.
Terzaghi regarded soil and soil properties to be variable and instead of forming theories to dictate the
soil problem, he believed in the experimental data and practical approach to guide his theories and not
the other way around. According to Spencer, the theories that Terzaghi formulated were the end result
of the careful evaluation and understanding of the data he obtained during a project. He also mentions
that for Terzaghi, the theories were the byproduct and not the main focus. Peck, also emphasizes that
Terzaghi made every job a learning experience and showed greater satisfaction when the experimental
data showed variance to his predictions as he believed this variance provided him with food for further
thought and investigation.
Karl Terzaghi dedicated his entire life in the field of Soil mechanics. He wrote numerous books,
research paper and journals regarding various aspects of Soil mechanics and Foundation engineering.
His devotion and dedication towards this field was evident in the last project he undertook; Design and
Construciton of Mission Dam in British Coloumbia. The dam was later named as Terzaghi Dam. During
this time, he underwent numerous surgeries and was confined to his home but that that also didn’t stop
him from working vigorously and publishing his last technical paper. Apart from this there are many
traits that the modern engineers working in the field of Geotechnical can and should learn;
 Trusting the field and experiment data and being open minded to evolve his understanding
incorporating the variance instead of being adamant to theories.
 His continuing effort to obtain and encourage other engineers to obtain field data and further
the lines of research.
 His focus on understanding and developing correlations among various variable observed
before suggesting any theories pertaining those variables.
 His attitude towards soil mechanics and sub surface explorations in general. Taking each
assignment as a learning opportunity is another trait we should look to develop.