One approach to helical strand (cable or overhead electrical conductor) bending analysis puts the emphasis on friction rather than on elastic curved rod behavior. Based on Coulomb’s laws of friction, it leads to stick-slip models where strand bending stiffness varies with imposed curvature (Papailiou, 1995). Such an approach can be traced back to a Ph.D. thesis by H. Ernst, in 1933. This work is in fact often referred to in cable analysis reports. An English translation (with a short presentation) of the dissertation analytical part is attached.