Carroll H. Dunn
A ..
Just by doing a good job.
Q ..
On the ones that you had?
A ..
Yes. Being responsive.
Q ..
Another question I have deals with the decision that was made to complete the
Mississippi River Basin model, which was roughly
percent complete when you
came. Why was there a question about completing it? Was it a budgetary thing?
A ..
Well, there were three factors. One was budgetary. Second, was a question of whether
the model would ever be needed and would supply the data that it was designed to
supply. In other words, could the whole system be put together and would it really be
useful in flood times? And third, was there any possibility that computers-that were
then coming
might make it obsolete? In effect, that did happen, but it was not
a factor at the time. Of course, the model was never completed. More area was added,
but it was never really completed.
Q ..
But at that point, a decision was made.
A ..
To continue.
Q ..
There was a flood in 1952 that had some impact on that?
A ..
Yes, a flood on the Missouri, and the model had been very effective in forecasting
gauge heights on the river. This was one of the key elements that really made it logical
to continue.
Q ..
Now you mentioned the computer aspect, but was there a general discussion about the
virtues of mechanical models?
The virtue was that, once validated, the mechanical model could provide information
A
on any flood. A computer would only work if you could write a mathematical equation
to start with. We didn't know enough to write-or felt we didn't know enough to
write-the proper equations for various flood plans. Also, the computer capacity that
was available then limited the number of variables that you could consider. So the
model was really built as a physical integrator instead of an electronic one.
There were two other major activities in that period at WES. One was the silver
anniversary of the station. We worked with the city of Vicksburg to take note of the
occasion and, I would say, had a very
celebration. The other event was the
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