BLACK

BLACK 08.12. 1855 Lancaster PA/USA 24.09. 1933 Washington DC/USA William Murray Black graduated in 1877 from the US Military Academy, and from the Engineering School of Application in 1880. He then was until 1886 instructor at his Alma Mater, and from 1891 to 1895 instructor in civil engineering at Willets Point NY. He was later engaged in practical construction works on the locks and dams on Kanawha and Ohio Rivers, served the Philadelphia Harbor Commission as secretary, and opened the mouth of St. John’s River in Florida. He further contributed to the exact knowledge of littoral drift of sand, and the behaviour of bars in tidal estuaries. He then was ordered to the Spanish-American War, serving as chief engineer in Puerto Rico in 1898. From 1899 to 1900 he was chief engineer at Havana, Cuba, in charge of sewer projects and works for the improvement of the ocean front. From 1903 to 1904 Black observed work of the Isthmian Canal Commission in Panama. He was until 1906 then in charge of rivers, and harbors in Maine, taking over until 1909 the Department of Public Works in Cuba. He was stationed until 1916 in New York NY to improve the East River and Hudson River, receiving in 1912 the ScD degree from the Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster PA. He also was senior member of the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors, and of the New York and Boston Harbor Line Boulevards. Black was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1905, to colonel in 1908, and to brigadier general and Chief of Engineers in 1916. He enlarged the US Corps of Engineers more than hundred times during World War I. He served as member of the Committee of Engineers and Education, and chaired the Inland Waterway and Railway Transportation in 1917, retiring as major general in 1919. In 1920 he received the PhD degree in engineering from the Pennsylvania Military College, Chester PA. He finally was a consultant, ASCE member and awarded its Rowland Prize and Wellington Prize. Anonymous (1916). Col. William M. Black. Engineering News 75(10): 483. P Black, W.M. (1893). The improvement of harbours on the South Atlantic Coast of the United States. Trans. ASCE 29: 223-276. Black, W.M. (1895). The United States public works. Wiley: New York. Black, W.M. (1910). Report concerning the location of sewer outlets and the discharge of sewage into New York Harbor. Brown: New York. Black, W.M. (1925). Waterway and railway equivalents. Trans. ASCE 88: 538-552. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Murray_Black P

BLAISDELL 21.07. 1911 Goffstown NH/USA 19.03. 1998 Minneapolis MN/USA Fred William Blaisdell received education from the University of New Hampshire, with a BS in 1933, from where he continued at Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT, with an MS in 1934. He joined the Soil Conservation Service of the Agricultural Research Service ARS at State College PA in 1935, and from 1936 to 1940 the Hydraulic Laboratory of the US Bureau of Standards. He then moved to the Saint Anthony Falls SAF Hydraulic Laboratory, Minneapolis MN, where he was promoted to chief engineer of ARS in 1954, and to the Science and Education Administration, ARS, in 1978. Blaisdell was the recipient of the 1969 J.C. Stevens Award from ASCE, and he was elected ASCE Fellow in the 1980s. Blaisdell was known as a hard worker and a meticulous experimenter. His 1937 paper on sluice-gate flow compares laboratory and prototype observations, at this time an important issue because so-called scale effects were largely unknown. Researches as these gave confidence to laboratory investigations as an alternative to prototype investigations, which are often extremely limited by practical issues. In 1947, Blaisdell developed the SAF stilling basin, one of the first proposals made, and later followed by similar designs mainly by the US Bureau of Reclamation USBR, Denver CO. Whereas the latter are still in worldwide use, the SAF basin has in the meantime lost interest. Other works of Blaisdell relate to the designs of drop spillways and plunge pools. Anonymous (1950). F.W. Blaisdell receives J.W. Rickey Medal. Civil Engineering 20(1): 45. P Anonymous (1964). Blaisdell, Fred W. Who’s who in engineering 9: 160. Lewis: New York. Anonymous (1992). Fred W. Blaisdell and wife Harriet. ASCE News (10): 4. P Blaisdell, F.W. (1937). Comparison of sluice-gate discharge in model and prototype. Trans. ASCE 102: 544-560. Blaisdell, F.W. (1948). Development and hydraulic design, Saint Anthony Falls stilling basin. Trans. ASCE 113: 483-520; 113: 551-561. Blaisdell, F.W., Donnelly, C.A. (1956). The Box Inlet Drop spillway and its outlet. Trans. ASCE 121: 955-986; 121: 992-994. Blaisdell, F.W., Manson, P.W. (1963). Loss of energy at sharp-edged pipe junctions in water conveyance systems. Technical Bulletin 1283. US Dept. Agriculture: Washington DC. Blaisdell, F.W., Anderson, C.L. (1991). Pipe plunge pool energy dissipator. Journal Hydraulic Engineering 117(3): 303-323; 118(10): 1448-1453.