Story from the World of Engineering

In 1802, Young, a rising man of 29, was appointed to the chair of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution in London. His colleague, and in some sense his rival, was Humphrey Davy, who was made Professor of Chemistry at an improbable age of 24. It was the custom of the professors of the institution, then as now, to deliver series of lectures to popular audiences. The Institution relied heavily upon such lectures for both money and publicity.

Young took his educational mission seriously, and, filled with the enthusiasm of discovery, launched a series of lectures about elasticity of various kinds of structures, with many useful and novel observations on the behaviour of walls and arches. 

The audience at Albemarle Street in those days was fashionable, consisting of women and dilettante philosophers.

However, good luck doesn't always favor those who, earnestly try to communicate useful information. Young's fashionable audience made it a point to quietly slip away during his lectures - delivered with all seriousness in too severe and too didactic a style. Unfortunately, professional engineers were also not drawn to Young's lectures. The prevailing mood of the engineering fraternity of England in those times, weighed heavily in favor of 'something practical' and was deeply against theory. 

On the other hand, Davy, who exhibited in his lectures some of the exciting phenomenon associated with the new electric fluid, together with a range of colorful chemical experiments, soon gained popularity like a TV star. Davy was also remarkably good looking and young women flocked to his lectures for reasons which were not always strictly academic; 'those eyes', one of them was heard to say, 'were made for something besides pouring over crucibles.' 

The result, in box office terms, could not be in doubt.

In consequence, Young resigned his chair almost immediately and returned to his medical practice. 

The development of elasticity then passed, for many years to France, where, at this time, Napoleon was actively encouraging the study of structural theory. 

However, Young's theory about elastic compression, the 'middle third' and instability, which so bored the fashionable females of higher society of London, does really tell us practically all we need to know about behaviour of joints in masonry and construction, provided we know the position at which the weight can be considered acting.

Source: Structures Why They Don't Fall Down by Gordon