Jacob
Douma
as a member of their board of consultants. I took his class on bridge design. About twice
a month, he wouldn't show up at the class because he had to go to a board meeting about
some problem. The next time he came to the class, he spent the whole class time talking
about the bridge and its problems, and how the board functioned. I thought that was
valuable information for the students.
It was more valuable, in many ways, than just him going to the blackboard and showing
how to calculate the stress in various bridge parts. He said, "Your assignment for today
was to calculate these stresses. I assume you've done it. I have given you something else,
so you have learned more out of this one lesson than you would have if I were not at the
board meeting. Well, that made sense.
In the area of irrigation, California had for years been involved in that and was leading the
country. Did you have some good people teaching you about irrigation structures and
theories?
The California Department of Water had its own engineering staff which designed most
of California's early irrigation projects. They had outside boards of consultants whose
members were well-known engineers. The Bureau of Reclamation became involved with
them in the early
and the Corps of Engineers became involved about 1940. The
Corps built a lot of dams and canals for them. The state operates the canals, but I don't
think they're building anything new.
How much did they use that experience of the irrigation of the Central Valley or up in the
Sacramento River in teaching courses?
Not very much. I think Etchevary mentioned it, but to my recollection, he never took one
of the projects and outlined and said, "This is what they're doing, and this is how and why
they're doing it." He wrote his own textbooks and covered each chapter thoroughly in his
class lectures. The lectures concentrated mostly on basic hydraulic theory and design. He
would very seldom discuss the practical aspects related to specific project design,
construction, and operation. He should have done a lot more in that respect. He could
have shown slides and discussed California State dams and Bureau of Reclamation dams
with his classes.
How much did they talk about the large civil projects that were underway, such as the
Bonneville Dam, or things that were being built by the Public Works Administration?
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