STARLING

STARLING 25.01. 1839 Columbus OH/USA 11.12. 1900 Greenville MS/USA William Starling attended the University of New York, from where he graduated in 1856. He moved in 1859 to Frankfurt KY, serving during the Civil War the US Forces as first-lieutenant of a Kentucky Cavalry. He did the first engineering work during his military service, showing great aptitude so that he was soon made chief engineer. After the War he took interest in a cotton plantation in Arkansas, and sold it only in 1882. He moved to Greenville MS resuming his work as engineer. He was engaged in levee works and US Government surveys, thereby devoting time to study levees and the associated river hydraulics, a field in which he became an national and international authority. He was appointed chief engineer of the Mississippi Levee District, a position he held for ten years. Starling was then appointed a member of the Southwest Pass Commission created to formulate a project for securing a permanent deep canal through Southwest Pass. This was his last, but his most important professional position, because he died of heart failure at Greenville MS shortly after the Board had completed its work. Starling wrote a number of technical papers, including on dikes in Holland, for which he was awarded the ASCE Norman Medal. In addition there are papers on dikes on the Mississippi River between Helena and Vicksburg, the Discharge of Mississippi River, or Improvements made on Mississippi River. Several of the papers were later issued in the pamphlet The floods of the Mississippi. Accordingly, Starling was a man related to one of the great rivers of the country, and he added with his services to the wealth of the nation, and to the population along the river. He was described as a man of great force of character. He was daring in his undertakings, and manly and frank in his intercourse with men. His culture and breeding impressed all who came into contact with him. He was cheerful and ever ready with anecdotes. Anonymous (1901). William Starling. Trans. ASCE 46: 566-567. Starling, W. (1889). The improvement of the Mississippi River. Trans. ASCE 20: 85-108. Starling, W. (1889). On flood heights in the Mississippi River, with especial reference to the reach between Helena and Vicksburg. Trans. ASCE 20: 195-228. Starling, W. (1892). Some notes on the Holland dykes. Trans. ASCE 26: 559-700. Starling, W. (1901). River basins and the levees which protect them. Riparian lands of the Mississippi River: 75-80, F.H. Tompkins, ed. New Orleans. P

STEARNS 11.11. 1851 Calais ME/USA 01.12. 1919 Boston MA/USA Frederic Pike Stearns went at the age of eighteen to Boston and there found a job with its engineering department. Here he came under the influence of James B. Francis (1815-1892) and Hiram F. Mills (1836-1921). In 1872 he was engaged on Sudbury River water supply of Boston, and became division engineer of the sewage tunnel under Dorchester Bay in 1880. In 1886 Stearns was called by the State Board of Health to become its chief engineer. This Board was in charge of the state’s island waters, and empowered to advice the numerous municipalities with regard to their sanitation and water supply. The work required great sense in making decisions, and the influence the Board acquired was largely due to the excellence of its chief engineer. Stearns’ exhaustive studies of water supplies and the means of controlling and improving them have become the basis for practice in many other states. He planned the improvement of the Charles River Basin, later carried out with his advice of consultant, by which the foul tidal estuary of the Charles was converted into a beautiful fresh-water basin. Stearns’ most notable work for the State Board of Health was the design of the Boston metropolitan water supply using Nashua River. When this plan was adopted in 1895, he became chief engineer of the new Board and completed the project in 1907. The waterworks were recognized as examples. They included a provision by which the water fall into the aqueduct was utilized to develop water power. Stearns then became consultant, with projects for the water supply of New York, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Rochester or Winnipeg. He also did important work for dam design. In 1905 he was appointed by President Roosevelt Board Member of consulting engineers for Panama Canal, thereby advocating for the lock-type canal. Stearns published a number of important papers in hydraulics, including the 1883 paper with Alphonse Fteley (1837-1903). Anonymous (1905). Frederic P. Stearns. Engineering News 54(11): 263-264. P Anonymous (1920). Frederic Pike Stearns. Trans. ASCE 83: 2132-2138. Anonymous (1935). Stearns. Dictionary of American biography 17: 542. Scribner’s: New York. Fteley, A., Stearns, F.P. (1883). Description of some experiments on the flow of water made during the construction of works for conveying the water of Sudbury River to Boston. Trans. ASCE 12: 1-118. Stearns, F.P. (1885). Experiments on the flow of water in a 48-in pipe. Trans. ASCE 14: 1-18. Stearns, F.P. (1900). The Wachusett Dam. Engineering Record 41: 50-51; 42: 218.