Water Resources: Hydraulics and Hydrology
So that's one of the most direct technology transfers that you could possibly think of?
A:
That's fairly recent. Much earlier, in the
hydraulic modeling and river hydraulics in
this country were greatly influenced by European practice, especially German, and in
particular by early Freeman Scholars. John R. Freeman, a graduate of MIT [Massachusetts
Institute of Technology], was active in hydraulic research, and in 19 13, on a trip to Europe,
he was very impressed by the hydraulic laboratory at Dresden. On his return, he began
actively advocating establishment of a national hydraulic laboratory in the United States.
(Freeman was president of ASCE in 1922.) Freeman established three separate traveling
scholarships, and the first six were granted in 1927, including one to Straub. A number of
the early Freeman Scholars were Corps officers or employees or became Corps consultants.
Straub was in Europe as a Freeman Scholar in
1928.
Many of the Freeman Scholars, as well as a number of Freeman's associates, translated into
English the 1926 German bookDie
which described
hydraulic laboratories in Europe. The translation, Hydraulic Laboratory Practice, was
published by
in 1929.
Straub
Now, what about your experiences with Straub? He was at the University of Minnesota?
A:
Yes.
Didn't he have a little hydraulics lab, the original little lab at the Falls of St. Anthony?
A:
the one who built that lab in
193 7 with WPA [Works Progress Administration].
Prior to the war most work at St. Anthony Falls was related to Straub's sediment and river
engineering studies. In 1930's he also translated two German books into English, Franzius's
Engineering and Schoklitsch's Waterways. During the war (1942-45) Straub was
with the National Defense Research Committee in New York. Straub probably was the
person who was most knowledgeable in practical river hydraulics back in the `40's and `50's.
He: was a consultant to MRD and attended meetings in Omaha about once a month when we
were there. There was a lot of controversy at that time as to whether or not the dikes along
Missouri had changed flood levels. I was involved in that study, and he was a consultant
on that project.
Straub was also a consultant to the contractor on closing Gavins Point Dam. Most of the
Corps dams had been closed by contracting the river from both banks.On the Missouri at
Previous Page
