CONGER

CONGER 05.06. 1875 Gouverneur NY/USA 26.05. 1931 Wellesley MA/USA Alger Adams Conger graduated as a civil engineer from Cornell University, Ithaca NY, in 1897. He was then engaged until 1899 by the US Deep Waterways then directed by Alfred C. Noble (1844-1914). His duties included hydrographic surveys and the design of the proposed ship canal from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. He was engaged with a similar work with the Isthmian Canal Commission until 1900, and until 1901 with the New York State Barge Commission at Albany NY. Conger thereby gained a detailed insight into the variety of the engineering problems. From 1901 to 1903 he was in charge of the hydro-electric power development on the canal and power house at Sault St. Marie MI, for the Michigan-Lake Superior Power Company. Until 1906 he was employed again by the New York State Barge Canal in the construction of the canalized river. Conger joined in 1906 a company in New York as assistant hydraulic engineer, engaged on a plant at West Buxton ME, the Comerio Development in Porto Rico, the Ocmulgee Development in Georgia, the La Cross Development in Wisconsin, and the San Joaquin Development in California. He further went to Venezuela preparing plans and estimates for the Mamo Hydro-Electric Development. He also was in charge of the design of the hydro-electric power plant at Vernon VT on the Connecticut River, which was the first plant forming the nucleus of the later New England Power Association. When in 1911 this Company was formed, Conger was hydraulic engineer continuing his work until his death. The hydro-electric developments in Massachusetts and Vermont, at Harriman and Sherman on the Deerfield River, and at Bellows Falls on the Connecticut River, which were installed in the 1920s, are examples of the soundness of Conger’s designs. He had a mind trained to weigh his problems and make his decisions with common sense, justice and humanity. His associated valued his counsel, and he was a trusted adviser and valued friend to all who knew him. He was remembered by his associated as one who never departed from the highest ideals of his profession. He was one in whom kindness, tact, and sympathy could always be counted on. He did the work that life gave him to do with charity, fidelity, and honor. He was member of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers, and of the American Society of Civil Engineers ASCE. Anonymous (1931). Alger A. Conger. Engineering News-Record 106(25): 1030. Anonymous (1933). Alger A. Conger. Trans. ASCE 98: 1523-1526. https://radio-timetraveller.blogspot.ch/2011/09/mediumwave-along-erie-canal-part-1.html (P)

COOLEY L.E. 05.12. 1850 Canandaigua NY/USA 03.02. 1917 Chicago IL/USA Lyman Edgar Cooley, brother of Mortimer E. (18551944), graduated as a civil engineer from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1874. From 1879 to 1884 he was assistant engineer on Mississippi and Missouri River improvements. After having been assistant editor of Engineering News from 1876 to 1878, he took over as editor the American Engineer in 1884. He made a report in favour of the Chicago Sanitary Canal in 1885 and organized the drainage and water supply commission of the Chicago Sanitary District CSD. He was from 1889 its consulting engineer, working on problems of the relation to the lakes and rivers. He was from 1896 member of the Deep Waterways Commission, proposing solutions for the Isthmian Canal. Cooley went in 1897 to Panama and Nicaragua with engineers, becoming advisory engineer for the Erie Canal in 1898. He worked also with water power companies at Keokuk IA, advised on water works for Omaha NE in 1904, was consultant on the optimum location of the Rochester Barge Canal, and contributed to the flood problem in Grand Rapids MI. He was from 1909 consulting engineer for the Lakes-to-the-Gulf Deep Waterway Association, and from 1912 to 1915 chaired the Commission on Sewage Disposal and Water Power Development, CSD. In the late-19th century, when the Chicago River was a huge sewer, when the sewage of a million population ran straight into the lake, Cooley started to build the Chicago Drainage Canal, then one of the largest engineering works. He set his mind to work as to how Chicago’s sewage could be kept out of the water supply. He was the man who figured how and when dirt should fly, and how the earth and rock could be cut to form the canal conveying the sewage of Chicago to the ocean, and on its way be purified by the action of water. This project was one of the achievements of the century. Cooley, L.E. (1902). Proposed dam and water power on the Mississippi River at Keokuk IA. Journal of the Western Society of Engineers 7(1): 10-19. Cooley, L.E. (1913). The diversion of the waters of the Great Lakes by way of the Sanitary and ship canal of Chicago. Chicago Sanitary District: Chicago. Davenport, F.G. (1973). Lyman Cooley: The sanitation revolution in Illinois. Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 66(3): 306-326. P Seddon, J.A., Cooley, L.E., Randolph, I. (1900). A deep waterway from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Western Society of Engineers: Chicago. https://genforum.genealogy.com/cooley/messages/2762.html