ABSTRACT
BISHOP 13.01. 1884 Des Moines IA/USA 06.03. 1933 Denver CO/USA Lyman Edgar Bishop moved in 1887 with his parents to Denver CO. He graduated in 1903 with the BSc degree in civil engineering from Boulder University of Colorado. During the next few years he lived in Denver and there was occupied with engineering work in hydraulics and irrigation. He was involved also in the city water supply. The data acquired on the supply sources were later used by the Water Board, constituting one of the best data record then available. He was also connected as assistant with the Denver Reservoir and Irrigation Company on a large project including four reservoirs. In 1914 he was in private practice locating 30 km of the Grand Valley Canal for the US Reclamation Service. From 1915 to 1917 he was deputy state engineer of Colorado, becoming then construction superintendent on the 36 m high Costilla Earth Dam NM. He returned to private practice, designing hydraulic plants, and reporting on the geological conditions for the 30 m high masonry dam on the Bear River, Alexander ID. Bishop was appointed in 1929 consulting irrigation engineer for the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics, with headquarters at Tashkent, Turkestan. He served in this capacity for two years and was also consulting engineer for the General Cotton Committee. In a letter written home, he described a two weeks’ field trip from where he had just returned: ‘The Ferghana Valley is egg-shaped, about 100 km wide and 220 km long. There are now some 8,000 km2 under irrigation and cultivation in this valley. Roughly two-thirds of the area is devoted to cotton. Some of this land has been under irrigation for over 1,200 years’. He returned to the USA in 1931, after his family had made a visit to Tashkent. During his trip, he went by way of India, the Philippines and the Pacific Coast, spending several months to examine irrigation projects. At Denver his former clients had found other consultants, so that his practice had strong financial difficulties: He passed out of life as a result. He had been a man of strong convictions and when he formed an opinion or conclusion, it was difficult for him to compromise. This strong inflexibility of mind was a handicap to him, but he also possessed admirable qualities. Anonymous (1907). Bishop, Lyman E. The Coloradoan 9: 145. P Anonymous (1935). Lyman E. Bishop. Trans. ASCE 100: 1603-1605. Bishop, L.E. (1911). Economic canal location in uniform countries. Trans. ASCE 74: 179-204. Bishop, L.E. (1924). Report on Laramie Water Company Irrigation System. Denver CO. Bishop, L.E. (1926). South Platte River investigation. Denver CO.
