WISNER G.Y.

WISNER G.Y. 11.07. 1841 West Dresden NY/USA 03.07. 1906 Detroit MI/USA George Young Wisner graduated as civil engineer in 1865 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI. He then entered the employ of the government as US assistant engineer, being there employed for 27 years in government work and surveys of the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River, Des Plains and Illinois Rivers, and both the 10th and 11th Lighthouse Districts. In 1887 he resigned this employment to engage in private practice, from when he was in charge of a large number and important projects as a consulting engineer. He was chief engineer of the Brazos River Harbour improvement in Texas, then a consulting engineer to the Montreal, Ottawa & Georgian Bay Canal Co., and he had been during his last two years one of the consultants of the US Reclamation Service. The most important work of Wisner was probably his service on the Board of Engineers on Deep Waterways between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Seaboard. While the canal proposed by this Board was never executed, the investigations and the report made by the Board ranked as one of the most thorough and systematic pieces of engineering work undertaken in this field. Wisner was further involved in the design of the Pathfinder Dam on the North Platte River some 70 km southwest of Casper WY. It was originally constructed between 1905 and 1909 as cyclopean masonry dam, but has several times been modified since. The gravity dam is 65 m high, 132 m long, with a base width of 30 m and a crest width of 3.2 m. Wisner was at the time of his death also member of the International Commission on the Levels of the Great Lakes. He was a contributor to the professional literature, of which many papers were published in the Engineering News Journal. He was one of the best engineers in the Central West. He was member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers ASME, and Civil Engineers ASCE. Anonymous (1906). George Y. Wisner. Engineering News 56(2): 48. Williams, B., Wisner, G.Y. (1902). Report on the water supply of the city of St. Louis. Commission of Hydraulic Engineers: St. Louis MO. (P) Wisner, G.Y. (1901). The economic discussions for a waterway from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic. Trans. ASCE 45: 224-331. Wisner, G.Y. (1902). Montreal, Ottawa and Georgian Bay Canal. Ottawa. Wisner, G.Y. (1898). Discussion of Reservoir system of the Great Lakes of the St. Lawrence Basin: Its relation to the problem of improving the navigation. Trans. ASCE 40: 428-431.

WOLMAN A. 10.06. 1892 Baltimore MD/USA 22.02. 1989 Baltimore MD/USA Abel Wolman received education at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD, obtaining the AB, the BSE, and D.Eng. degrees in 1913, 1915 and 1937, respectively. He joined from 1914 to 1938 the US Public Health Service, conducting studies in stream pollution. He was involved already in 1914 in the construction of a sewage treatment station, promoted in 1915 to research engineer and in 1917 to division engineer, advancing in 1922 to chief engineer. He in parallel was from 1921 at his Alma Mater Lecturer in sanitary engineering, and from 1925 also at Harvard and Princeton Universities. From 1927 Wolman was a consultant at Baltimore MD, and the chairman of the Potomac River Flood Control Commission. From 1931 to 1941, he served as chairman the Maryland Water Resources Commission, acted as State Engineer and as director of Maryland Public Works Agency. He was from 1935 chairman of the National Water Resources Commission. He was in parallel professor of sanitary engineering and consulting engineer at Baltimore. In the 1919 paper, Wolman and a colleague established standards for the application of chlorine to drinking water. The benefits of using hypochlorite salts to kill the bacteria in water were demonstrated as early as 1896 by George W. Fuller (1868-1934). However, because no method existed in determining the adsorption of chlorine into different kinds of water, it could not be applied to drinking water reliably. In this paper, a formula was devised for calculating the amount of chlorine based on particular water conditions and desired qualities. Their method soon gained universal acceptance. Wolman’s expertise later guided the National Research Council in its efforts to improve sanitary engineering and environmental health issues. Anonymous (1952). Wolman first to receive new AWWA award. Municipal Utilities 90(3): 18. P Anonymous (1959). Wolman, Abel. Who’s who in engineering 8: 2723. Lewis: New York. Anonymous (1961). Abel Wolman Hon. M. ASCE. Civil Engineering 31(10): 80. P Anonymous (1989). Abel Wolman. Eos 70(35): 801-806. P Jacoby, H. (1957). Abel Wolman: Engineer extraordinary. Engineering News-Record 158(May9): 87-91. P Wolman, A., Enslow, L.H. (1919). Chlorine absorption and the chlorination of water. Journal of Industrial Engineering Chemistry 11(3): 209-213. Wolman, A., Gorman, A.E. (1931). The significance of waterborne typhoid fever outbreaks 1920-1930. Williams & Wilkins: Baltimore MD.