PRESCOTT

PRESCOTT 03.10. 1755 Lancaster MA/USA 03.12. 1826 Waterford NY/USA Few is known on the early life of Benjamin Prescott, which he had spent at Northampton MA. In 1793 he was one of the founders of an aqueduct company to bring a larger water supply to his city. Water was collected from local springs, carried through bored logs into a reservoir from where it was distributed with small log conduits to the individual residences. The lock and canal proprietors of the Connecticut River, among whom was Prescott, were authorized to construct bypass canals around the falls at South Hadley MA, and Montague MA. Initially the engineer Christopher Colles (1738-1816) was invited to do the surveys and the design, whereas Prescott was asked to do the engineering. Work commenced in 1793 with about 250 men excavating the canal and building a diversion dam. Locks were to accommodate boats, and the 330 m long and 3.5 m high dam raised the water level 1 m over some 16 km. Ague had been almost unknown before in this region but it became common, due to the swamps caused by the backwater of the dam. The increasing expense of the construction caused Prescott to make a major deviation from the lock plan. He decided to install an inclined plane to overcome the 15 m lift. A carriage was built big enough to handle the canal boats. The idea was that a boat was floated over the submerged carriage in a lock chamber, the water was lowered until the boat settled on the carriage and the loaded carriage was then raised or lowered by means of chains by a pair of 5 m overshot waterwheels. In 1795 the 2 km long canal, the inclined plane and the dam were finished. For some ten years the drum hauled the boats but the objections of the anti-dam group grew so that in 1805, locks were substituted for the great Hampshire Machine. The canal was deepened, thus reducing the need for the dam, which was removed shortly later. Prescott then left Northampton accepting a position as superintendent of the famous US Armory at Springfield MA, where he remained in charge until 1815 when moving to Cohoes NY. Just before he died at age 72, Prescott was engaged in building a masonry dam across Hudson River at Waterford NY. His lasting work was the magnificent Hampshire Machine and the inclined plane. Bacon, E.M. (1911). The Connecticut River and the Valley of the Connecticut: Three hundred and fifty miles from mountain to sea. Bangor ME. Dwight, T. (1823). Travels in New-England and New York. Baynes & Son: London. Fitzsimons, N. (1970). Benjamin Prescott and the Hampshire Machine. Civil Engineering 40(12): 68. Love, N.D. (1903). The navigation of the Connecticut River. Hamilton: Worcester. https://www.forgeofinnovation.org/Springfield_Armory_1794-1812/index.html P

PRESTON P.J. 23.12. 1871 Grinnell IA/USA 20.09. 1950 Denver CO/USA Porter Johnstone Preston obtained the BS degree in civil engineering from Colorado State University, Fort Collins CO, in 1892. After having done survey work within Colorado State during the next two years, he became superintendent of the Fort Lyons Canal Co., Las Animas CO, where he stayed for five years. This was followed by a two-years stay as Colorado deputy state engineer. After four years of consulting work, he was retained by the US Bureau of Reclamation USBR, Denver CO. His work at the Bureau included preliminary investigation of the All-American Canal in California, the Uncompahgre Project in west Colorado, and the Yakima Irrigation Project in Washington State. From 1930 until his retirement in 1941, Preston was in charge of the Colorado River Project. He was further in charge of the USBR Colorado-Big Thompson Diversion Project as supervising engineer. He retired after 25 years of continuous service with the Bureau. He was member of the American Society of Civil Engineers ASCE. Preston was an outstanding irrigation and hydraulic engineer whose work covered the western third of the USA. He was appointed in 1938 head of the Diversion Project by the Secretary of the Interior. It was through Preston’s studies of irrigation possibilities in Colorado River Valley, made in 1935, that the project became reality. Preston was in collaboration with Raymond F. Walter (1873-1940), Sinclair O. Harper (1883-1966), or John L. Savage (1879-1967) also involved in the hydraulic experiments of the Boulder Canyon Dam. The Colorado-Big Thompson Project was a federal water diversion project collecting West Slope mountain water from the headwaters of the Colorado River and divert it to Colorado's Front Range and plains. Some 80% of the state's precipitation falls on the West Slope, while around 80% of the state's population lives along the East Slope. In search of a solution, farmers approached the Bureau. The water is diverted via a 21 km long tunnel under the Continental Divide and Rocky Mountain National Park. Anonymous (1941). Preston retires from USBR. Engineering News-Record 125(Jan.9): 67. P Hansen, C., Preston, P.J. (1936). Water resources, Colorado’s greatest wealth: The Colorado-Big Thompson water tunnel plan would aid vast areas. Greeley: Denver CO. Mead, E., Preston, P.J. (1920). All-American Canal. US Dept. of the Interior: Washington DC. Preston, P.J., Engle, C.A. (1928). Irrigation on Indian Reservations. Dept. Interior: Washington. Preston, P.J. (1938). Colorado-Big Thomson Project, Colorado. Civil Engineering 8(8): 517-519. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado-Big_Thompson_Project