COLLINGS

COLLINGS 07.07. 1888 Beaver City NE/USA 21.11. 1941 Los Angeles CA/USA William Tatem Collings Jr. graduated from the high school of his city in 1906. He was then employed by the US Indian Service in Los Angeles CA. From 1904 he worked for the harbour district, and on the Los Angeles Aqueduct. He was city engineer from 1916 at Superior NE, and in 1917 joined the US Reclamation Service on the Rio Grande Project in New Mexico, first on canal location, and then on its construction. He had then for the next two years his private practice at Las Cruces NM, where he acted also as city engineer. He became in 1921 a project engineer for the New Mexico State Highway Dept., but moved in 1923 to Los Angeles as field engineer, engaged in municipal improvement work. In 1927 he accepted the position of engineer with the Imperial Irrigation District, engaged in the installation of a large irrigation system near Niland CA. He later also supervised the construction of the distribution system, and was active in studies of the drainage requirements of the district. The greatest contribution of Collings in the engineering field was from 1929 to 1938 in connection with the All-American Canal Project. He was employed by the US Bureau of Reclamation USBR in field investigations for the canal. He was then sent to Denver CO as the representative of the Imperial Irrigation District, so that this project became his in the next seven years. A review of his correspondence shows his capacity for work, his understanding of the problems, and his versatility. His reports range from hydrographic studies to financial details for the project. In 1937 he became assistant to the chief engineer at Imperial CA, involved with the construction of the hydro-electric plants of the Canal, but his health began to fail in 1938, so that he retired from this position. In retrospect, it was remembered that throughout the strenuous period devoted to the construction of the Canal, he was suffering from the disease which finally caused his death. He had made a remarkable work both as designer and builder. He was ASCE member from 1931. Anonymous (1942). William Tatem Collings. Civil Engineering 12(1): 70. Anonymous (1943). William T. Collings, Jr. Trans. ASCE 108: 1568-1570. Collings, Jr., W.T. (1934). Discussion of A problem of soil in transportation in the Colorado River. Trans. ASCE 99: 550-555. https://www.mytrees.com/ancestry/Nebraska/Born-1888/Co/Collings-family/William-Collings-hu000981-40426.html https://netmole.blogspot.ch/2008/09/scenes-from-bureau-of-reclamation.html (P)

COLLINGWOOD 10.06. 1834 Elmira NY/USA 18.08. 1911 Avon-by-the-sea NJ/USA Francis Collingwood entered at age 17 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY, graduating with the class of 1855. Among his contemporaries there was Washington A. Roebling, son of John A. Roebling (1806-1869), who was later engineer of Brooklyn Bridge. From 1865 to 1869, Collingwood was city engineer of Elmira NY, and from then until 1883 assistant engineer in the construction of Brooklyn Bridge. During this period he became member of the American Society of Civil Engineers ASCE. He was not only a frequent discusser of papers and often attended ASCE Meetings, but he also wrote various papers in its Transactions. Among these is the 1885 paper entitled Preservation of forests, in which he summarized the forestry operations up to that time and called attention to the necessity of economical methods of lumbering if the forests were to be saved from rapid extinction. From 1883 Collingwood was engaged to supervise repairs to the Allegheny Suspension Bridge between Pittsburgh PA and Allegheny PA. He was appointed chief engineer in 1887 of the Chesapeake Dry-Dock & Construction Co., Newport News VA, returning in 1888 to New York City. He was there appointed member of the New Croton Aqueduct Commission, which reported on the reservoir and aqueduct work recently completed then. He also served Elmira NY in examining the Chenung River to devise means for protecting the city from floods. Collingwood was in 1891 elected ASCE Secretary and served in this position until 1894. Until his death he was then expert examiner for New York City, Lecturer on foundation techniques at New York University, and consultant. He was awarded the Telford Medal by the Institution of Civil Engineers ICE, London UK, for a paper describing the repairs at Allegheny Bridge, as also the Trevithick Medal. He was director ASCE from 1873 to 1876, and the founder of the Collingwood Prize for Juniors, one of the eldest decorations of ASCE, instituted in 1894. Anonymous (1911). Francis Collingwood. Engineering News 66(8): 242; 66(9): 269. P Collingwood, F. (1872). Experiments on the power of water to transport sand in sluices. Trans. ASCE 1: 246-266. Collingwood, F. (1874). The foundations of the Brooklyn anchorage of the East River Bridge. Trans. ASCE 3: 142-146; 4: 205-210. Collingwood, F. (1876). Notes on the masonry of the East River Bridge. Trans. ASCE 6: 7-34. Collingwood, F. (1890). The protection of the city of Elmira NY against floods. Elmira NY.