Knowing What You Don t Know

Knowing What You Don't Know

The state of the practice in those days was very rudimentary. Calculations of center of mass and the like were not known or performed. It was basically impossible, given the intellectual and practical tools of the day, to know if a design was stable or not. There was very little ability to predict anything. It is amazing more boats didn't sink.

This situation is not unlike bridge-building in America in the 1800s. Many, many bridges collapsed simply because engineers of the day didn't know how to calculate well enough. John Roebling, the builder of the Brooklyn Bridge, knew he didn't know how to do the calculations, so he built in very large safety factors. Smart man.