WELKER

WELKER 01.06. 1857 Toledo OH/USA 24.12. 1926 Washington DC/USA Philip Albert Welker graduated as a civil engineer in 1878 from Cornell University, Ithaca NY. He was appointed in 1879 to the US Coast and Geodetic Survey, and was engaged on the transcontinental triangulation of Missouri. From 1880 to 1890 he continued these works carrying out precise levels in Arkansas, Illinois and Tennessee. He also conducted hydrographic surveys at the harbour of Baltimore MD, San Francisco Bay and various rivers in Florida and Louisiana. From 1891 to 1910 he was in charge of hydrographic surveys along the Atlantic Coast as far north as Maine. He was placed in command in 1898 of the US Coast and Geodetic Survey Steamer Bache, making surveys of the harbour of Portsmouth NH and its approaches in New Hampshire and Maine. In 1911 captain Welker took his charge of the sub-office of the US Coast and Geodetic Survey at Manila, the Philippine Islands, where he worked until 1914 as director of the coast surveys. He there served also as member of the Harbour Lines Commission. He was then appointed assistant in charge of the office, the US Coast and Geodetic Survey, Washington DC, from 1917 as hydrographic and geodetic engineer, and personnel officer from 1920 until his retirement from active duty in 1921. His surveys of the coasts of Porto Rico and off the Isthmus of Panama formed the basis for the first complete navigating charts of these waters prepared by the Federal Government. Through his systematic operations, Welker played an important role in the security and the extension of the American commerce. His results had always in evidence a distinctive mark of scientific originality, thereby increasing the accuracy and efficiency of the methods of the US Coast and Survey, and its reputation. His kind disposition gained for him the regard of all his associates in the Survey, and all who dealt with him could rely on him and his innate sense of justice. He was member of the Washington Society of Engineers, and of the American Society of Civil Engineers ASCE. Mount Welker is a geographical feature located in the Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area AK, named in 1923 for captain Welker. Anonymous (1916). Centennial celebration of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. US Dept. of Commerce: Washington DC. Anonymous (1928). Philip A. Welker. Trans. ASCE 92: 1752-1753. Baird, W.R. (1914). Philip A. Welker. Betas of achievement: 341. Beta Publishing Company: New York. P

WELLS 27.04. 1858 North Adams MA/USA 04.08. 1940 North Adams MA/USA Charles Edwin Wells graduated from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester MA, with the BSc degree in 1880. He was then employed by railroad companies, accepting in 1895 the position of division engineer, the Metropolitan Water Board of Boston MA. He was transferred to Clinton MA for raising the Wachusett Reservoir to augment the water supply for Boston MA. In 1899 he was transferred to the Reservoir Department in charge of the removal of topsoil from the 18 km2 site. All Department work was placed from 1903 under his direction, from then as department engineer. In 1905 Wells entered the US Reclamation Service as supervising engineer, in charge of the construction of irrigation works in southern Wyoming, Nebraska, and South Dakota. His first work was on the Pathfinder Dam and Reservoir, then one of the largest irrigation projects extending over 150 km in length. This dam is a masonry structure, 65 m high, located near Casper WY. The Belle Fourche Project SD lays within its territory, as did also the Gunnison Tunnel in Colorado. Wells resigned from the Service in 1907, moving as division engineer to the Board of Water Supply, New York NY, on its new Catskill water supply, then in its earliest stages. He was assigned to the 7 km long Hill View Division, located at Yonkers NY, where he spent the next nine years. It included a 2 km long steel pipe siphon 4 m in diameter, a pressurized aqueduct, and the 1 km long, 500 m wide and 10 m deep Hill View Reservoir; its filling began in 1915. In 1917 Wells became resident engineer on the construction of an embarkation camp, including water supply and sanitation works. In 1918 he was appointed supervising plant engineer for the US Shipping Board, San Diego CA, but retired in 1919, opening a private practice, serving finally from 1924 as city engineer of North Adams MA. It was stated: ‘Wells had unusual execution ability. In carrying out the extensive work under my direction, I always felt the greatest confidence, because of his ability to get the work done… without friction’. He was ASCE member from 1892. Anonymous (1906). Belle Fourche Irrigation Project. The Irrigation Age 21(5): 138-139. Anonymous (1941). Charles E. Wells. Trans. ASCE 106: 1692-1696. Anonymous (1946). C.E. Wells, with Reclamation Group, 1907. Civil Engineering 16(4): 188. P Flinn, A.D., Wells, C.E. (1912). Protection of steel pipes. The Canadian Engineer 22: 205-208. Wells, C.E. (1906). Operations in Nebraska. 4th Annual Report of the Reclamation Service: 231-257, F.H. Newell, ed. Government Printing Office: Washington DC.