Abstract
Developments in engineering solid mechanics (strength of materials) have occurred over many centuries. Engineering students today will meet the names of many men who laid the foundation of the system of SI units we now use and many of the techniques we employ. It is a fact that modern courses in statics, dynamics and thermodynamics do not reveal a great deal about their lives and achievements. We have become so used to quoting our physical measures in so many watts, hertz and kelvin etc. or referring to Hooke's law and Young's modulus when performing calculations, that one may never be made aware of the creative individuals that lie at their root. The purpose of this article is to shed a little light on the lives of men whose names have become inextricably linked to the essential building blocks of modern engineering courses with reference to solid mechanics in particular.