engineering

Maurice Koechlin

Maurice Koechlin is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Maurice Koechlin rather than just read about it. In short: Maurice Koechlin (3 June 1856 – 14 January 1946) was a Franco-Swiss structural engineer from the Koechlin family. Life A member of the renowned Alsatian Koechlin family, he was born in Buhl, Haut-Rhin, the son of Jean Koechlin and his wife Anne Marie (Anaïs), née Beuck.

Key takeaways

Maurice Koechlin belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Maurice Koechlin to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Maurice Koechlin from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Maurice Koechlin (3 June 1856 – 14 January 1946) was a Franco-Swiss structural engineer from the Koechlin family.

Life

A member of the renowned Alsatian Koechlin family, he was born in Buhl, Haut-Rhin, the son of Jean Koechlin and his wife Anne Marie (Anaïs), née Beuck. He was the first cousin once removed of André Koechlin, and the great-grandfather of actress Kalki Koechlin. When France lost the Franco-Prussian War to Prussia in 1871 the entire Koechlin family decided to become citizens of Switzerland and thus dropped French citizenship. After the defeat of the German Empire in 1918, however, the Koechlin family again applied for French citizenship. Maurice attended the lycée in Mulhouse, then between 1873 and 1877 studied civil engineering at the Polytechnikum Zürich under Carl Culmann. In 1876 he became a citizen of Zurich ("Zürcher Bürger") Between 1877 and 1879 he worked for the French railway company "Chemin de Fer de l'Est". Much of his work was done for Gustave Eiffel's "Compagnie des établissements Eiffel", which Koechlin joined in 1879. In 1886 Maurice married Emma Rossier (1867-1965). They had six children: three sons and three daughters. Maurice and Emma were lifelong members of the Plymouth Brethren. In 1887 he started work on his plans for the "Tour de 300 mètres" in Paris, along with his younger brother Henri Koechlin and civil engineer Émile Nouguier. Maurice Koechlin became the Managing Director of Eiffel's company when Eiffel retired from the engineering profession in 1893. The company was renamed Société de construction de Levallois-Perret. Maurice Koechlin died in 1946 in Veytaux, Switzerland in a house built by himself in 1900.

Major designs Major structural designs include:

Garabit viaduct, (1880–1884); Armature for the Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World) - in collaboration with Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, (1884); and Eiffel Tower, (1887–1889).

Honours and legacy Officer of the Légion d'honneur. Though named after a project of Gustave Eiffel, the Eiffel Tower – symbol of Paris – has its structural concept and form from the responsible chief engineer Maurice Koechlin. Koechlin was an engineer of outstanding ingenuity and well versed in the structural techniques of his time. He possessed therefore the best qualifications for evolving such technically innovative conceptions for which Eiffel and his firm were renowned.

Descendants Kalki Koechlin, a French actress based in India, is a descendant of Maurice Koechlin Pedro Koechlin von Stein, a businessman in Peru (owner of Wayra PeruMaria Violeta Koechlin Venturo Lima Peru

Bibliography Koechlin, S. (2007a). "Maurice Koechlin". Site de la famile Koechlin (in French). Archived from the original on 2007-10-15. Retrieved 2007-08-13. Koechlin, S. (2007b). "Maurice Koechlin et la Tour Eiffel". Site de la famile Koechlin (in French). Retrieved 2007-08-13. Picon, A. (1997). L'art de l'ingénieur. Paris: Éditions du Centre Georges Pompidou. p. 253. ISBN 2-85850-911-5. Trautz, M. (2002). "Maurice Koechlin Der eigentliche Erfinder des Eiffelturms" (PDF). Deutsche Bauzeitung. 136{4}: 105–111. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-05-08. (in German) Walbrach, K. F. (2006). "Ohne ihn gäbe es keinen Eiffelturm: Maurice Koechlin (1856-1946)". Bautechnik. 83 (4): 271–284. doi:10.1002/bate.200610025. S2CID 109267234. (in German) Bergier, J.-F.; Fabre-Koechlin, M.; Dubas, P. (1990). "Dipl.Ing. Maurice Koechlin und der Eiffelturm" (PDF). Schriftenreihe der ETH-Bibliothek. 27. (in German and French)

Notes

External links

"Maurice Koechlin". Nicolas Janberg's Structurae. Retrieved 2007-08-13.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Maurice Koechlin

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Maurice Koechlin claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Maurice Koechlin before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Maurice Koechlin ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Maurice Koechlin

In research: Maurice Koechlin appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Maurice Koechlin in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Maurice Koechlin is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1856 births, 1946 deaths, ETH Zurich alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Maurice Koechlin outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Maurice Koechlin in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Maurice Koechlin means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Maurice Koechlin out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Maurice Koechlin in simple terms?

Maurice Koechlin (3 June 1856 – 14 January 1946) was a Franco-Swiss structural engineer from the Koechlin family. Life A member of the renowned Alsatian Koechlin family, he was born in Buhl, Haut-Rhin, the son of Jean Koechlin and his wife Anne Marie (Anaïs), née Beuck.

Why does Maurice Koechlin matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Maurice Koechlin?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Maurice Koechlin.