Page 152 - Biomimetics: Technology Imitates Nature

Biomimetics: Technology Imitates Nature

A Structure that Makes Bones More Resistant

Even today, the Eiffel Tower is accepted as a marvel of engineering,
but the event that led to its design took place back to 40 years before its
construction. This was a study in Zurich aimed at revealing "the anatom-
ical structure of the thigh bone."
In the early 1850s, the anatomist Hermann von Meyer was studying
the part of the thigh bone that inserts into the hip joint. The thigh bone
head extends sideways into the hip socket, and bears the body's weight
off-center. Von Meyer saw that the inside of the thigh bone, which is ca-
pable of withstanding a weight of
one ton when in a vertical posi-
tion, consists not of one single
piece, but contains an orderly lat-
ticework of tiny ridges of bone
known as trabeculae.
In 1866, when the Swiss engi-
neer Karl Cullman visited von
Meyer’s laboratory, the anatomist
von Meyer showed him a piece of
bone he had been studying.
Cullman realized that the bone’s
structure was designed to reduce
the effects of weight load and
pressure. The trabeculae were ef-
fectively a series of studs and
braces arranged along the lines of
The Eiffel Tower was built with a structure force generated when standing. As
similar to that of the thigh bone head.
Thanks to this design, the tower acquired a mathematician and engineer,
an unshakable structure that also solved the Cullman translated these findings
ventilation problem.

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