Wikipedia:Today's featured article/September 3, 2013

Charles Inglis (1875–1952) was a British civil engineer who has been described as the greatest teacher of engineering of his time. He was educated at King's College, Cambridge, and then spent two years with the engineering firm run by John Wolfe-Barry before returning to King's College as a lecturer. Working with Professors James Alfred Ewing and Bertram Hopkinson, he made several important studies into the effects of vibration on structures and defects on the strength of plate steel. Inglis served in the Royal Engineers during the First World War and invented the Inglis Bridge, a reusable steel bridging system (example pictured) – the precursor to the Bailey bridge of the Second World War. In 1916 he was placed in charge of bridge design and supply at the War Office and, with Giffard Le Quesne Martel, pioneered the use of temporary bridges with tanks. He returned to Cambridge University after the war as head of the Engineering Department, which became the largest in the university and one of the best regarded engineering schools in the world. Knighted in 1945, he spent his later years developing his theories on the education of engineers and wrote a textbook on applied mechanics. (Full article...)

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