Q ..
38, 39, `40, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, Section of
Hydrology, on synthetic unit graphs. So that's what made your name?
A ..
Yes.
Q ..
That was all based on your own little work down in Knoxville?
Mostly that, but then, of course, I was in Harrisburg when I prepared the paper. I
A
had all my information from Knoxville, but that would have been just a regional
thing, so I incorporated and collected data on other areas. I had the Pennsylvania
data also.
I collected other data so that it was, well, so that I felt that it would work most
anywhere. I put certain factors into it that you could change when you got into an
area where the characteristics of stream flow were considerably different than they
were in these rugged areas that I had data for. Most of the areas I had at Knoxville
were rugged territories--and even in Pennsylvania, most of them were certainly
rugged. The procedure did work with the adjustment.
In other words, the Corps' offices started using it and you would study your stations
where you had the records and you would develop these factors that you could then
use to develop a unit hydrograph for an ungauged area, using the factors that they
had developed in their own area. My wife and I moved to Pittsburgh then, and I
became a civil servant then.
Civil Servant, Weather Bureau, Pittsburgh
Q ..
With the Weather Bureau?
A
With the Weather Bureau, although I think that took a little doing, too. But Merrill
Bernard arranged it. He had the energy, always on the go. He'd been a private
engineer in Louisiana developing cotton and rice lands. But he got mixed up with
the Federal government during his PWA days, and he ended up being Chief of the
River and Flood Service of the Weather Bureau.
That was the same time that Reichelderfer came in as Chief of the Weather Bureau.
He was an ex-Navy officer. He organized the place like a ship. I think everything
was vertical instead of horizontal. I think Bernard was there maybe a little before
Reichelderfer, but when I came to Washington later on, Reichelderfer was there and
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