Hardy Cross
first published this method, in 1930, during his years at the
University of Illinois. The Hardy Cross Method is actually an adaptation
of his Moment Distribution Method, which was originally used to test
the moments of indeterminate structures. The adaptation, by contrast,
set forth an entirely new method for analyzing building frames.
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| Hardy Cross Paper Reprint, 1939 |
Amusingly,
Cross published such a landmark piece of work largely due to the
pressure put on him by his dean, Milo Ketchum. Supposedly, Ketchum was
resentful of Cross for his reputation as a great teacher. One of the
allegations Ketchum launched toward Cross was that he did not publish
enough papers. In response to this, Cross put forth a ten page paper in
the May,1930 Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
The paper, entitled "Analysis of Continuous Frames by Distributing Fixed-End Moments”, instantly garnered a lot of notice. Discussion of the paper was closed in 1930, but the paper itself was not published until two years later. At that time, space was afforded for 38 commentators who took up 146 pages, which may or may not be a record for commentators on a single paper. Cross was immediately hailed for not only solving one of the “knottiest” problems in Engineering, but doing so in such a way that could be adopted by any engineer working in the field. The Hardy Cross Method has made many architectural feats possible, ranging from skyscrapers to bridges to dams.
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Works Cited:
Electrical and Civil Engineering Alumni. (1997). “What’s Bill Hall Doing With Hardy Cross’s Wallet?” ECE Alumni Piece. p. 23
Hall, William J. (2013). “Hardy Cross: Educator, Analyst, Engineer, Philosopher”. Civil and Environmental Engineering. Retrieved on April 10th, 2013 from http://cee.illinois.edu/about/history/cross
Eaton, Leonard K. (2001). “Hardy Cross and the "Moment Distribution Method"”. Retrieved on April 10th, 2013 from http://www.emis.de/journals/NNJ//Eaton.html
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