HESSE

HESSE 28.03. 1826 Treves/D 27.01. 1911 Oakland CA/USA Frederick Godfrey Hesse was born in the Rhenish Prussia. After having received education at various German Polytechnics, he entered the Prussian Army and was engaged by the government with works in engineering. He left his native country during the 1848 wars moving to the USA. He there soon took up an engineering position, later receiving several engineering appointments under the US Government including a professorship of mathematics in the US Navy. He resided from 1864 at San Francisco and was there occupied in mechanical operations. He joined in 1875 the chair of mechanical engineering, the University of California, Berkeley CA. Its president noted that ‘it is rare to find a man qualified to fill the duties of a chair of industrial mechanics, both by his scientific attainments and practical knowledge, yet Mr. Hesse is such a man’. He was described as a man beautiful and simple in his character, unsuspecting and credulous in his dealings with others, thoroughly scientific in the quality of his intellect, so that he was eminently suited for this position. Hesse was actively involved in the development of the turbine proposed by Lester A. Pelton (1829-1909) by providing the original sketch of a split bucket. As stated by Rouse ‘it is of note that whereas Pelton experimented first in this field of hydromachinery, with buckets improvised from oyster cans, a model made from patterns supplied by Pelton had been tested in 1883 by Hesse in his hydraulic laboratory’. Pelton took out a second patent of his turbine in 1889 on small details, and this was followed by others on improvements of the bucket shape and in 1900 on the first needle nozzle. Hesse’s laboratory appears to have been the first in the USA. Unfortunately, all that is known about it is found only in a printed report published in 1883, supplemented by a colleague of Hesse relating to the efficiency of a Pelton unit. Anonymous (1911). Frederick G. Hesse. The University of California Chronicle 8: 117. Greene, A.M. (1911). Pumping machinery. Wiley: New York. Hesse, F.G. (1887). Hydraulic step. College of Engineering, Bulletin 2. University of California: Berkeley. Hesse, F.G. (1911). Hesse papers 1861-1911. University of California: Berkeley. Jones, W.C. (1895). Hesse, Frederick G. Illustrated history of the University of California: 113-114. Dukesmith: San Francisco. P Rouse, H. (1976). Frederick G. Hesse. Hydraulics in the United States 1776-1976: 53-55. P

HEUER 02.03. 1843 St. Louis MO/USA 28.04. 1925 San Francisco CA/USA William Henry Heuer was a graduate of the US Military Academy, West Point NY, commissioned first lieutenant of engineers in 1865. He was placed assistant engineer on the river and harbor work of the Pacific Coast until 1870, during which period he was in charge to remove Blossom Rock, a menace in San Francisco Harbour, to a depth of 7 m below low-water. From 1872 to 1873 he was placed in charge of the removal of Halletts Point in New York Harbour, known as the Hell Gate. In 1874 he joined a Commission of Military Engineers as junior officer to examine possible interoceanic canal routes at Darien, Nicaragua and Panama. From 1876 to 1880 he was on duty at Key West FL, as lighthouse engineer, and on the fortifications at the Dry Tortugas Islands. Until 1884 he was then in charge at New Orleans LA for river and harbor works, and instrumental for the jetties at Sabine Pass TX. He became major in 1884, stationed at Philadelphia PA, again for improvements of rivers and harbours. He also designed a lighthouse at Delaware Bay. Heuer returned in 1887 to the Pacific Coast and remained in California until his death, except for a short stay on the Ohio River. He was made in 1900 lieutenant-colonel and continued river improvement works. During the Spanish-American War, he was in charge of the submarine defense of San Francisco Bay. After his retirement in 1907 he opened a consulting office at San Francisco CA, and was connected during the ten next years with important works along the Pacific Coast. In 1917 he was called to active duty taking charge of the office of division engineer for the districts San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Hawaii until 1919. Like many visitors of the Golden State, Heuer became infatuated with it, considering San Francisco his home. He became thoroughly identified with the people, and was widely and favorably known throughout the Pacific Coast. Anonymous (1888). Report of Major W.H. Heuer, Corps of Engineers. Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers, US Army 4: 2690-2691. Government Printing Office: Washington. Anonymous (1927). William H. Heuer. Trans. ASCE 90: 1168-1170. Heuer, W.H. (1892). Bar at entrance to harbor at Yaquina Bay, Oregon. Committee on Rivers and Harbors: Washington DC. Heuer, W.H., Handbury, T.H., Harts, W.W. (1905). Sacramento Valley river improvement: Government policy and works. Hall: San Francisco. (P)