ADAMS

ADAMS 18.10. 1812 Boston MA/USA 13.12. 1899 Brooklyn NY/USA Julius Walker Adams was educated in New England academies. At age 18 he was appointed to the US Military Academy, West Point, and there remained 2 years, after which he initiated his career with railways projects, the earliest in the country, then operated with horse power. From 1835, Adams was engaged with engineering works, first as chief engineer for railways companies, then from 1844 as resident engineer for a dock of the US Navy and shortly later for the Boston water works. From 1855 to 1860 he was in charge of the construction of the Brooklyn drainage system, and from 1861 to 1866 chief engineer for the Hudson river bridge at Albany NY. From 1869 to 1878, Adams was chief engineer of the Board of City Works, Brooklyn, remaining in this position until 1889 in the Board of Public Works. He was also involved in Panama Railway Co. During his long professional career, Adams contributed also to waterworks and sewerage projects. By applying hydraulic principles, including the theory of concentration time that had been proposed by Neville, he reduced the size of sewers and their cost. These installations were so successful that no modifications were needed for decades. He was also actively involved as Colonel in the Civil War. Adams was a founding member of the American Society of Civil Engineers ASCE in 1852; he was elected its president in 1872 and awarded honorary membership in 1888. He owned a large personal library and was a frequent contributor of short articles and editorials to the technical press. In 1852 he was editor of Appleton’s Mechanics Magazine and Engineers’ Journal, and in the 1880s Editor of Engineering News, then one of the prime journals in the USA. He had a retentive memory, and though he had no diary, he accurately recalled incidents and dates of occurrences, and entered into minute details of engineering works. Adams, J.W. (1841). Report of the engineer to the directors of the Lockport and Niagara Falls Railroad Company, on the proposed extension of their road eastward. Dickson: Boston. Adams, J.W. (1880). Sewers and drains for populous districts, with rules and formulae for the determination of their dimensions under all circumstances. van Nostrand: New York. Adams, J.W. (1883). Flow of water through pipes. American Contract Journal 10(Mar.10): 117. Adams, J.W. (1899). Stave pipe: Its economic design. Trans. ASCE 41: 27-84. Anonymous (1899). Julius Walker Adams. Engineering News 42(Dec.21): 403. P Anonymous (1936). Early presidents of the society. Civil Engineering 6(9): 605-606. P https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6041406 P

AHERN 05.07. 1860 Berkeley CA/USA 19.04. 1944 Dixon CA/USA Jeremiah Ahern graduated in 1883 from University of California, Berkeley CA. He was engaged by the US Geological Survey as assistant topographer, and from 1889 as topographer, in charge of the Powell Irrigation Survey in Montana. In 1892 he became associated with an engineering company in San Francisco CA, acting as assistant engineer on the South Gila Canal Project in Arizona. He returned in 1895 to the USGS in charge of surveys in Indian Territory. From 1901 he was hydrographer and in charge of hydraulic studies on the Gila River, and Colorado River between Needles CA and Yuma AZ, in collaboration with Joseph B. Lippincott (1864-1942), and William B. Clapp (18611911). The story of these studies was published in 1904. One of the six large proposed irrigation projects was Uncompahgre Valley in Colorado, but the water from its river was insufficient to irrigate 700 km2 of irrigable land, so that it was proposed to supply water by diversion of 35 m3/s from Gunnison River. The necessary surveys were in 1901 completed by Ahern, including the Grand Canyon of the Gunnison. That portion of the river was so spectacular that it attracted nationwide attention. The newly established Reclamation Service, under its chief Frederick H. Newell (18621932), attracted many engineers from the US Geological Survey, among them also Ahern. He was there first engaged in supervising the DeSmet Project in Wyoming, and then placed in charge of the Shoshone Project, also in Wyoming, including a large storage reservoir for irrigation purposes. The Shoshone Dam was the first high concrete dam of the Reclamation Service, with Hiram N. Savage (1861-1934) responsible for the design. The arch dam is 95 m high, has a 60 m long crest, which has 3 m top width and 33 m base width. The spillway had a discharge capacity of 850 m3/s. Ahern continued on this project until completion in 1908, resigning then from government service and returning to California, where he had his private practice for the rest of his career. He there was engaged with land surveying and acted as consultant on reclamation and irrigation problems. In 1941 he was seriously injured in a car accident, and passed away three years later due to heart trouble. He was member ASCE since 1904. Ahern, J. (1904). First Report of the US Reclamation Service. Proc. 1st Conference Engineers of the Reclamation Service. Washington DC. Anonymous (1945). Jeremiah Ahern. Trans. ASCE 110: 1638-1641. https://thoth.library.utah.edu:1701/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do P