DIALOGUE

DIALOGUE 13.05. 1828 Philadelphia PA/USA 23.10. 1898 Atlantic City NJ/USA John Henry Dialogue was an industrialist of FrenchGerman ancestry. His father, Adam, was also an entrepreneur and inventor, and established himself as manufacturer of riveted fire hose. Dialogue grew up in Philadelphia and was educated at Central High School, graduating in 1846. His uncle taught him machine work and drafting; in 1850, Dialogue moved to Camden NJ. Dialogue started his business at Camden by repairing locomotives for the Camden & Amboy Railroad Co., as well as working on Camden and Philadelphia and West Jersey Ferry Companies ferryboats, which were then there common at the time, located on the Delaware River. In 1854, he purchased a foundry where his workers performed general machine work, as well as building Corliss stationary engines under a special license for the inventor George H. Corliss (1817-1888). This engine was a new invention, greatly increasing the steam engine's efficiency because of its innovative governor and valve design. In 1862, the Camden National Iron Armor and Shipbuilding Company was founded, which constructed small ships, but the company closed before the Civil War ended. Dialogue then acted as subcontractor for Wilcox and Whiting, which took over the shipyard during the ‘weak’ economic period from 1865 to 1870. In 1870 Dialogue founded the River Iron Works, Dialogue & Wood, proprietors, building iron ships. Dialogue eventually became partner in the firm with his son, which then became known as John H. Dialogue & Son. This shipyard produced a large number of tugboats, both for civilian use and for the US Navy. The shipyard was innovative, and was one of the first to adopt the compound marine engine and the Scotch boiler. By the late 19th century, the large shipyard had the honor of doing reconstruction work on the famous USS Constitution. After trying to restore his ailing heart by resting at his home at Atlantic City, he died, so that his son, John H., Jr., took over the shipyard continuing work before World War I, when the younger Dialogue was forced into bankruptcy. The property was purchased by the Reading Railroad at less than half its appraised value, and the shipyard was demolished and reconstructed into Reading's Camden terminal. Anonymous (1898). John H. Dialogue. American Engineer and Railroad Journal 72: 418. Anonymous (1898). John H. Dialogue. Engineering Record 38: 465. Anonymous (1898). John H. Dialogue. Iron Age 62(Oct.27): 21. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_H._Dialogue https://dvrbs.com/people/CamdenPeople-JohnHDialogue.htm P

DIEMER 27.04. 1888 Palmyra MO/USA 27.10. 1966 Los Angeles CA/USA Robert Bernard Diemer graduated in 1911 from the University of Missouri, Columbia MO, with the BSc degree in civil engineering. Upon his graduation he moved to the North Platte Project in Wyoming and Nebraska States, as principal assistant within the US Bureau of Reclamation USBR. He collaborated later with Frank E. Weymouth (1874-1941) on irrigation projects in Mexico. In 1929 he accepted work with Los Angeles CA on its study of a Colorado River water supply. When the newly formed Metropolitan Water District MWD in 1930 took over the design and construction of this project, Diemer became first assistant and general manager. He successively rose up through all positions becoming in 1950 assistant general manager of MWD, and in 1952 general manager and chief engineer, serving in this position until his retirement in 1961. He was recipient of the 1961 George A. Elliott Award of the American Water Works Association AWWA. He also was honorary member of the American Society of Civil Engineers ASCE. The purposes of the Colorado River Aqueduct were a continuation of the long trend of population and the industrial growth in Southern California without limitation due to lack of water supply, replenishment of the region’s underground water storage basins by spreading or by partial decreases of well pumping, and protection against at least the major effects of droughts. Without the Aqueduct, the unprecedented region’s growth would not have occurred. It appeared in the early 1950s that the optimum solution for solving the water supply problem was replenishment. By limiting the pumpage to a safe yield of the basin and supplying all additional requirements from the Colorado River Aqueduct, water levels of wells were effectively restored in spite of years of low rainfall and runoff. The Aqueduct was thus a substantial addition to California, and was at least partially responsible for the great success of the Golden State in the following decades. Diemer and his collaborators have notably contributed to this success. The Robert B. Diemer Treatment Plant at Yorba Linda is one of five in the MWD. Anonymous (1963). Robert B. Diemer. Engineering News-Record 171(Oct.17): 20. P Anonymous (1967). Diemer, Robert B. Trans. ASCE 132: 679. Diemer, R.B. (1953). Expansion of the Colorado River Aqueduct System. Journal of the American Water Works Association 45(4): 397-404. Diemer, R.B. (1959). Colorado River Aqueduct as a source of present and future supplies in Southern California. Journal of the American Water Works Association 51(4): 463-470.