Stephen Timoshenko’s letters to Paul Ehrenfest, recently discovered at the museum Boerhaave, Leiden, The Netherlands

Author Type

Faculty

Co-Author Type 1

Outside Researcher

Co-Author Type 2

Outside Researcher

Co-Author Type 3

Outside Researcher

College

Engineering and Computer Science

Department

Ocean and Mechanical Engineering

Document Type

Article

Publication/Event/Conference Title

Philosophical Magazine

Publication Status

Version of Record

Abstract

This article presents and discusses the letters sent by Stephen Timoshenko (1878-1972) to Paul Ehrenfest (1880-1933). The first three postcards were sent during a trip abroad to St. Petersburg, where Ehrenfest then lived, while the fourth letter was sent from St. Petersburg to Leiden in 1913 when Ehrenfest was working at Leiden University. The last letter mentions a refined theory for beams, which considers the effect of rotational inertia and shear deformation. The letters were found in the Ehrenfest archive at the Boerhaave Museum in Leiden. It seems that these letters have a certain historical interest and allow us to better understand the interaction between the two outstanding scientists. We take the liberty of providing both the Russian transliterations of these letters as well as their translations into English, so both the Russian (the language these letters were written in) and English readers would have full access to their contents.

First Page

489

Last Page

518

DOI

10.1080/14786435.2025.2570218

Publication Date

1-1-2026

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