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Campus, Stanford University 



Society of Engineers 
Year Book 



928 



NUMBER THREE 



Published b\) 

SOCIETY OF ENGINEERS 

952 PACIFIC BUILDING, 

SAN FRANCISCO, 

CALIFORNIA 



The Cop}) One Dollar 



Acknowledgment 



THE SOCIETY OF ENGINEERS YEAR BOOK 
is entering the third year of its existence. The pub- 
lication in its effort to maintain consistent improvement 
and expansion, is grateful to the members of the 
Engineering Profession for the recognition, co-operation, 
and hearty support they have extended in the interest 
of its assurance and success. 

The Year Book also wishes to present its sincere thanks 
to all its contributors, they who work in the productive 
fields and vineyards of their respective vocational institu- 
tions, for it is largely through their favor and kindly 
assistance given in the form of material presentment, 
that the issue is made possible. 

If this issue may help the evergrowing number of those 
interested in constructive development, even in a small 
degree, to a clearer, comprehensive, and subsequently a 
higher appreciation of their subject matter, then we feel 
that its purpose has been approved and rewarded. 









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CONTENTS 



Page 
PANAMA CANAL SLIDE ECHOES 5 

Bj Dr. C. E. Grunski 
RECENT TENDENCIES IN DEVELOPMENT OF AERONAUTIC ENGINEERING 9 

By Dr. W. F. Durand 
ENGINEERING AND LIFE 12 

By Will J. French 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF AERONAUTICS IN THE UNITED STATES - - - 15 

By R. E. Fisher 
THE TULE ELK. OF CALIFORNIA -21 

By Dr. Barton W. Evermann 
CHINESE PROGRESS - - 23 

Bu Dr. Nc Poon Chew 
THE GROWTH OF A GREAT WATER SUPPLY 27 

By Geo. W. Pracy 
MINERALS AND THE WORLDS PROGRESS - - 30 

By Prof. Frank H. Probert 
PROBLEMS OF METEOROLOGY IN THE WEST 32 

Bu D. W. Little 
"HELP KEEP CALIFORNIA AND THE FAR WEST CLEAN" 3-t 

Bu Philip Schuyler 
PROTECTING THE EAST BAYS MOKELUMNE WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM - 37 

By Edwin L. Driccs 
CITY AND COMPANY PARTICIPATION IN OWNERSHIP 

OF MUNICIPAL LIGHTING SYSTEM 40 

By J. T. Whittlesey 
ELECTRICITY AND THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 41 

By Louis F. Leurey 
THE MOTIVE POWER OF WESTERN DEVELOPMENT - 44 

By George McCormick 
THE ELECTRICAL INDUSTRY OF THE WEST --------- 47 

By J. M. Buswell 
ARE YOU AN ENGINEER? A CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM 49 

Bu Prof. Paul A. Swafford 
MT. DIABLO— HAUGHTY VAGABOND OF PEAKS - 52 

By E. E. Westergreen 
PUT YOURELF IN HIS PLACE' 

By Albert J. Capron 
A. \V. von SCHMIDT, PIONEER ENGINEER 

By Glenn B. Ashcroft 
THE IMMIGRANT ENGINEER - 

By Paul Christiansen 
THE CORROSION PROBLEM 

By F. G. Harmon 
THE CIVIC CENTER OF SAN FRANCISCO 

Bu George E. Tonney 
A FRIENDLY WORD - - 

By Revoe C. Briggs 
SOCIETY OF ENGINEERS; OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES - - - - 

ANNUAL DINNER -------- 

SOCIETY ACTIVITIES 

"AN ENGINEER WHO BUILDED BETTER THAN HE KNEW" - - - - 

Bu R. W. Martindale 

DIRECTORY OF MEMBERS 

LAWRENCE A. TAYLOR 

ADVERTISEMENTS 






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PIONEER WATER POWER DEVELOPMENT, IN CALIFORNIA 
The Old Bale Mill at St. Helena, Built in 1846 



Panama Canal Slide Echoes 



By C. E. Grunsky, Eng. D., 

Consulting Engineer. 




Introductory Statement 

HE IMPRESSION has gone abroad that 

the slides in the Culebra (Gaillard) Cut 

on the Panama Canal were a necessary 

inconvenience and source of expense. 



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as they did the quantity of material that 
would except fur these slides, have had to be re- 
moved from this Cut as planned by the canal engi- 
neer^ : ami that in view of their occurrence it is uni- 
versally recognized that the construction of a sea- 
level canal would have been impossible. This im- 
pression is at fault. Flatter 
slopes would have kept the 
canal banks and hillsides 
stable. Slopes were planned 
at 45 degrees, following 
French precedent. The ex- 
perience of the French engi- 
neers which showed that the 
materials in Culebra Cut 
could not stand so steep was 
ignored. Even a sea-level 
canal could have been built 
without annoyance from 
slides if flat instead of steep 
slopes had been incorporated 
in the canal design. 
The Determination of the 
Type of Canal 
I n 1904 the Isthmian 
Canal Commission sent to 
Panama two of its members. 
Professor YVm. H. Burr and 
Win. Barclay Parsons to act 
with a third, then the Gover- 
nor of the Canal Zone. Gen- 
eral Geo. W. Davis, as a 
Committee for the assem- 
bling of data to be consid- 
ered by the Commission in 
reaching a conclusion as to Dr. C. E. 

whether the Panama Canal 

should be a sea-level or a lock canal. This Com- 
mittee ignored the scope of the resolution under 
which it was appointed, and instead of bringing 
back to the office of the Commission at Washing- 
ton the desired basic data, it brought back only a 
brief report in which the sea-level type of canal 
was recommended. This report was reenforced a 
few weeks later by a progress report from Chief 
Engineer John F. Wallace, in which he recom- 
mended "that no temporary or tentative plan be 
adopted that will interfere with the final adoption 
of the 'sea-level plan' which it is hoped will ulti- 
mately receive the favorable consideration of the 
Commission'*. The Committee report contained 
rough approximations of the cost of each canal type. 

* Past President, American Society of Civil Engineers 

~4 5 




These necessarily took into account the quantity 

of material to be excavated in building the canal. 
When it appeared that the estimates of quantity 

iased on side slopes in Culebra Cut equivalent 
to 45 degrees (1 on 1| the writer, regarding this 
construction impossible, objected to immediate ac- 
tion on the report and it was, in consequence, refer- 
red to the four engineer members of the Commis- 
sion t'li' further consideration. This was early in 
1905. Before a review of the Committee's report 
could be formulated by the Commission's engineer 
members, the Commission was reorganized with a 
new personnel and was given 
a Chairman with dictatorial 
powers. The effect of this 
reorganization was, auto- 
matically, to put into the 
discard the studies as to type 
of canal which had been in- 
augurated by the First Com- 
mission. This problem of 
type was now taken up in a 
new way. It was referred 
to a Board of Consulting En- 
gineers, fifteen in number, of 
whom later in the year the 
following thirteen participat- 
ed in a consideration of and 
a report upon this problem : 
General Henry L. Abbot; 
Wm. H. Burr ; General Geo. 
W. Davis ; Adolph Guerard 
(of France) : Wm. H. Hun- 
ter (of Great Britain): Al- 
fred Xoble ; W'm. Barclay 
Parsons; E. Ouellenac (con- 
sulting Engineer Suez 
Canal) ; Isham Randolph ; 
Joseph Ripley ; Frederick 
P. Stearns ; Eugen Tincaus- 
er i of Germany), and J. W. 
Grunsky Welcker (of the Nether- 

lands). Of these thir- 
teen engineers, eight reached the conclusion that 
the canal should be a sea-level canal. The re- 
maining five, namely: Abbot. Xoble. Randolph. 
Ripley and Stearns declared in favor of the lock 
type of canal. This type wa> also favored by John 
F. Stevens who, in the meantime, had succeeded 
Mr. Wallace as Chief Engineer. The members of 
the Isthmian Canal Commission (five to one) rec- 
ommended to the President that a canal of the lock 
tvpe be built. Thi> recommendation received the 
approval of the Secretary of War. whereupon the 
President transmitted a report to Congress urging 
the adoption of the lock type of canal. The Senate 
voted 36 to 31 tVir the lock type. In the House the 



H- 



approval of the lock type was thereupon concur- 
red in without division. 

Controlling Factors 

The two factors which figured conspicuously in 
the discussion of the respective merits of the two 
canal types were the cost of construction and the 
time required to complete the canal. All the con- 
sulting engineers were agreed that the construction 
of either type was feasible. The group of engi- 
neers which favored the lock type of canal was of 
the opinion that it would take about eight years 
longer to build a sea level canal than a lock type 
canal. The other group thought that the addi- 
tional time that would be required would be about 
two years. 

The principle item of cost in both cases was the 
excavation. It was therefore a matter of some im- 
portance to ascertain with fair approximation how 
much material would have to be handled and dis- 
posed of in making the canal excavation. The 
basic assumption was made throughout that the 
general run of geologic formations on the Isthmus 
could be cut to 45 degree slopes without danger of 
serious slides, and, it was therefore on this assump- 
tion that prospective quantities of excavation were 
estimated and probable costs were determined. 
Had the engineers been better informed; had they 
made side slopes of 1 on 3, or, in places 1 on 4, the 
basis of their quantity estimates, at least in Cule- 
bra Cut, it would have insured stability though at 
a very materially increased forecast of cost. More- 
over, the increase would have been relatively much 
greater for the sea-level type of canal than for the 
lock type. A comparison on this basis would, there- 
fore, have strengthened the position of the advo- 
cates of the lock type. This is well shown in Figure 
1 which presents not only the cross-section of the 
canal about as contemplated after instructions were 
issued to make the bottom width 300 feet, instead 
of 200 feet as originally intended, but also a typical 
section of the canal as projected by the Board of 
Consulting Engineers (modified to 300 feet width), 
and lines showing how the cross-section would 
have appeared if slopes had been made as flat as 
called for by the nature of the ground. 

Reflections of this kind would be of little practi- 
cal value to the engineering profession except for 
the fact that the acceptance of 45 degree slopes for 
estimate purposes, sanctioned by some of the 
world's most distinguished engineers, apparently 



misled those who were later in charge of construc- 
tion. The adoption of these slopes in the final plans 
of work followed without adequate study by the 
engineers in charge who failed to recognize the 
need of further research, in the light of so much 
weighty authority. 

It is a well-established practice of railroad build- 
ers to make the slopes in cuts as steep as the most 
sanguine assumptions will warrant. If. of the mul- 
titude of slopes on the newly-constructed line, some 
fail and break off to flatter slopes, the slides are 
removed. The expectation in such cases is that, 
where here and there a slide occurs, there will be 
scores of other places where the slopes stand and 
where it would have been useless to incur the larger 
expense of providing flatter slopes at the outset. 
In the Culebra Cut, the application of this prin- 
ciple, as is now well known, proved unfortunate 
and has led the great masses of our people and even 
members of the profession who have not themselves 
delved for facts, to accept as final and conclusive 
the statement which has frequently been made that 
the slides were inevitable and that thev could not 
have been prevented. It should interest the engi- 
neering profession therefore to know that there is 
another point of view and that there is an important 
lesson to be learned from the mistakes which were 
made at Panama. 

In 1904, at the time that the writer first examine ' 
the work on the canal, theretofore done under the 
direction of French engineers, there were several 
active slides which gave an excellent idea of what 
should be expected if canal banks were cut too 
steep. Among the most notable was the Cucuracha 
slide, the rim of which was already far back from 
the proposed upper edge of the projected cut. An- 
other which received special attention was opposite 
the village of Culebra where a great block of ma- 
terial had broken from the hill leaving a crack on 
the flat crest of the hill which was here some 300 
feet or more high, about 10 feet wide, a hundred 
yards or more from the brink of the excavation 
slope. This released block had already settled eight 
or ten feet, had crushed the argillacious sandstone 
layers at, and below the level of the bottom of the 
excavation, and had consequently caused a bulging 
up of the canal bottom. The railroad track on the 
bottom of the excavation had been raised some 
eight feet above its intended grade. These and 
other slides gave convincing proof that newly-cut 
hillside slopes as steep as 45 degrees could not be 




Fig. I. The Panama Canal In Culebra Cut 

-•<8f 6 &•■■- 




Fie. 2 — After the First Break 



maintained at all points of the Culebra Cut. The 
excavation in this cut was at the time of this ex- 
amination down to about elevation 150 feet above 
sea level. Over 100 feet more depth was required 
to meet the requirements of a canal of the lock type. 
There was every reason to believe that the crush- 
ing of the original stratified material, by lateral 
pressure of the slide, had not extended to this 
greater depth and that, therefore, at the proposed 
level of the bottom of either a lock type i if canal or 
of a sea level canal, the original gc< • 1 < >gic structure 
would be found undisturbed and stable. 

A friendly argument on the ground, in the canal 
cut i at the base of this slide, in fact,) may serve to 
illustrate the attitude of the engineers with refer- 
ence to canal bank stability at this early period 
of canal planning. Some of the engineer members 
of the Canal Commission contended that such a 
vast moving mass as that opposite Culebra could 
be stabilized and checked from further movement 
toward the canal by suitable provision for inter- 
cepting runoff waters from above and by drainage. 
The writer contended that this would not be feas- 
ible, and that the entire block would have to be 
removed, and that there would then be further 
breaking into the hill with no certainty as to where 
the breaking would be checked, unless provision 
were made, at the outset, for flat slopes which 
would reach the surface of the hill far beyond the 
existing hilltop crack. The writer could get no 
support for his views and finally, being from Calif- 
ornia, created a laugh by remarking: "Perhaps 
such material as we see in the slopes of the Cule- 
bra Cut will stand at an angle of 45 degrees for 
eastern engineers, but I know it will not do so for 
a western engineer". 

A little later, in the summer of 1904, an examina- 
ti' in was made of Culebra Cut for the Canal Com- 
mission by the late A. H. Brigham, an expert on 
hydraulic mining, with a view to determining 
whether it would be practicable to move a portion 
of the material by the hydraulic mining process. 



On the basis df flat >ide slopes he reported that it 
would be practicable to thus handle, into suitablv 
arranged sumps, about three-fourths of all the ma- 
terial that would have to be taken out of the cut. 
This could be done, according to his conclusions, 
at about five cents per cubic yard. He stated, 
however, that the transport of the material thus 
sluiced from the sumps to some place of deposit 
away from the canal prism, was a problem which 
should be submitted to suction dredge experts and 
concerning the cost of which he was not prepared 
to express an opinion. His report may be accepted 
as further evidence that it was early known that 
there was not much hard rock in the Culebra Hills, 
and that flat and not steep slopes were necessary 
to give stability. 

The geologic structure on the line of Culebra Cut 
was not naturally unstable. The bedding was hori- 
zontal or nearly so, and the materials as described 
by the Geologist. Donald F. McDonald, of the Bur- 
eau of Mines. Department of the Interior, consisted 
of "beds and lenses of sandy limestome to calcare- 
ous sandstone, 3 to 10 feet thick, separated by part- 
ings of dark carbonaceous clays and fine bedded 
tuff-". Under this upper member there are "dark, 
well-laminated beds of soft shales, marls and car- 
bonaceous clays, with some pebbly, sandy and tuf- 
faceous layers and a few thin beds of lignitic shale." 
That slides occurred despite the natural stability 
of a formation, as described, should be attributed, 
not to the nature of this formation, but to the at- 
tempt to reduce excavation by making the canal 
slopes steep. 

Two diagrams. Figure 2 and Figure 3, will illu- 
strate the progressive breaking back of the rim of 
the cut. and will serve to explain, too, why the 
slides are so long in coming to rest, and why the 
final slope of the comminuted waterlogged ma- 
terial is sometimes as flat as 1 on 10. 

What Might Have Been 
Had the bank slopes in Culebra Cut been made 




Fig. 3 — The Unstable Slipe 
-4. 7 )§«- 



1 on 3 then for some 40,000 feet, the approximate 
length of this cut, the average dimensions of the 
canal excavation would have been about as follows : 
Bottom width 300 feet; average depth about 130 
feet, and top width about 1080 feet. From this 
stretch of canal, the adopted plan with its projected 
steep side slopes and no breakage outside of the 
planned cross-section called for a removal of about 
77,000,000 cubic yards of material. There have 
actually been removed 148,000,000 cubic yards of 
which 71,000,000 cubic yards were due to slides 28,- 
000,000 occurring during construction and 43,000,- 
000 due to slides since the opening of the canal. A 
canal with 1 on 3 slopes and no slides would 
have required excavation from Culebra Cut 
to the amount of about 129,000,000 cubic yards, and 
would unquestionably have left the canal bottom 
and sides firm and compact, as are the natural geo- 
logic formations, instead of crushed into unstable 
slush of unknown depth. It appears now, as 
shown by these figures, that less excavation would 
in all probability have been required to construct a 
canal with flat slopes than has actually been made, 
and that, consequently, it was false economy and 
a mistake to try to hold the banks at 45 degrees. 

A sea-level canal with bordering hillside slopes 
of 1 on 3 would have required 150,000,000 to 200,- 
000,000 cubic yards more excavation in Culebra Cut 
than a properly dimensioned lock canal. Its initial 
cost would undoubtedly have been more than that 
of the lock canal, but upkeep and operating expense 
materially less. Its capacity would not have been 
limited by capacity of the locks nor by the available 
supply of water, neither would it have been as sub- 
ject to demolition in case of war as the lock canal. 
However, it is not proposed to discuss the economic 
and other aspects as they should have been pre- 
sented, but rather to make record of the fact that 
the canal was not planned with sufficient care, and 
that engineers who know, are not in full accord 
with Colonel M. L. Walker, Corps of Engineers, 



U. S. Army, Governor of the Panama Canal Zone 
who at the XIV International Congress on Navi- 
gation at Cairo in December, 1926, in a communi- 
cation relating to dimensions, operation and main- 
tenance of the Panama Canal (Paper 55) said: 

"It is worthy of note that the two sources of 
trouble the temporary interference by flood, 
and the more prolonged difficulty with 
slides, arc such as would have been immeas- 
urably more serious in connection with a sea- 
level canal. The slides would probably have 
reached such magnitude that the canal at sea- 
level would not have been completed up to the 
present." 

It is quite apparent that the conception which 
Colonel Walker has of the cause of the slides has 
lead him to an obviously erroneous conclusion. He 
is right, of course, if the building of the sea-level 
canal had been attempted with persistent adher- 
ence to steep bank slopes. But in the compactly- 
bedded, almost horizontally-stratified shales, coal 
seams and argillaceous (soft) sandstones of the 
Culebra Cut there would have been possible with- 
out the phenomena of breaking banks an excava- 
tion with flat side slopes to almost any depth. 

The statement which is frequently made that no 
one who is conversant with the conditions at 
Panama as disclosed by the construction of the 
canal, would now question the wisdom of having 
adopted the lock type of canal, can not be too 
strongly controverted. The writer, while having 
insisted on a fair comparison of types and while 
having paved the way for a consideration of the 
type problem by the Second Canal Commission, 
which favored the lock type, was nevertheless him- 
self convinced that the sea-level type was the best, 
was feasible and should have been selected for 
construction. The annoyance which has resulted 
from slides has not modified this conviction. There 
should have been no slides. 






■<\ 8 )3- 



Recent Tendencies in the Development 
oj Aeronautic Engineering 

By W. F. Durand, 
Professor (Emeritus) of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University 




N the quarter century of its life, the air- 
plain- lias passed through several well 
marked phases or periods of evolution. 
For the first few years following the 
achievement of the Wright's, twenty-five years ago, 
it was little more than a means of demonstrating, 
under favorable weather conditions, the bare possi- 
bility of flight. It served as the occasion for so- 
called "airplane meets" where aircraft of strange 
design would, weather permit- 
ting, circle a few times around a 
course marked by pylons or rise 
to altitudes approaching one 
thousand feet. It served like- 
wise as one of the stock attrac- 
tions of county fairs, especially 
when some approach to stunt 
and acrobatic flying began to be 
made. It was, in a sense, not 
much more than a form of toy, 
and of which the future signific- 
ance in the general scheme of 
things was entirely uncertain. 

Despite the thrilling character 
of the achievement as such, there 
was in all of this, nothing defin- 
ite, nothing assured beyond the 
fact of flight as a physical pos- 
sibility. In no sense could the 
airplane be said to have found 
itself or to have established for 
itself any definite place in the 
scheme of things. Gradually, 
however, performance imcroved. 
flights became longer, the Eng- 
lish Channel was crossed, higher 
and higher altitudes were achieved, greater and 
greater useful loads were carried, engines became 
gradually more reliable and the military possibilities 
of the airplane began plainly to be appreciated well 
within the first decade of its life. 

All of this period was, however, one of essay, 
trial and attempt. It was a form of groping in the 
effort to fit this new and wonderful achievement 
into the general picture of our civilization. 

And then, in 1914, came the great war with its 
tremendous urge toward the more effective utiliza- 
tion of this new engine of warfare. The result was 
four years of phenomenal growth in everything re- 
lating to aircraft, especially in its application to 
the requirements of warfare. It is reasonable to 
conclude that in matters of technical development, 
and especially in matters which make for larger 
size and greater weight carrying capacity, or on the 




Dr. W. F. Durand 



other hand, for moderate size with higher speed 
and greater manoeuverability, and all combined 
with greater reliability of engine and improved 
safety in the air, the progress made in these four 
years was far greater than might have been made 
in a period of twice that length without the urge 
and spur of war conditions. As a result of the ex- 
perience gained during these four years of warfare, 
it is fair to say that the airplane, and in this general 
term we must include the seaplane as well, had 
definitely found its place. This 
constituted the second period of 
evolution and served to definite- 
ly fix its value at least in war- 
fare ; and while the picture, since 
the close of the war, has changed 
both in character and degree, 
these later developments have 
only served to fix more securely 
the place of aircraft as an agency 
of warfare. 

Since the close of the war 
and more definitely during the 
recent years, the new lines of 
development have been those 
which have served to fit the air- 
plane more and more effectively 
into the structure of our mod- 
ern peace time civilization. 
These adjustments have result- 
ed from two main lines of ad- 
vance : (1) Improvement in the 
plane itself and (2) Adaptation 
of the plane with its improving 
qualities, to the requirements 
of commercial air transport. 
These more recent improve- 
ments in the plane itself have run, not especially 
to size, but rather to greater safety and reliability 
in operation and to such changes in detail design 
as may best meet the requirements of the particular 
service for which the plane is intended. 

The better adaptation of the plane to the require- 
ments of commercial transport has come with a 
better understanding of the possibilities and limita- 
tions of the airplane as an agency of transport. 
Furthermore the recognition of what is needed on 
the ground in the way of airports, emergency land- 
ing fields, lighted airways, radio beacons, weather 
forecast and service to planes in flight, together 
with the provisions of these facilities, at least in 
measurable degree, have all had their part in mak- 
ing practicable the transport service which the air- 
plane, of itself, stands ready to render. 

As is well known, air transnort in Eurone, 



-4 9 fr- 



through the help rendered by government subsidy, 
developed first and especially as a passenger carry- 
ing service while in the United States, air transport, 
through the intervention of the government 
through the Post Office Department, developed 
first as a mail transport service and has only recently 
begun, either in conjunction with mail transport or 
independently, to develop passenger and general ex- 
press service. 

With this brief sketch of the past, we may turn 
to some present tendencies in the development and 
adaptation of aircraft to meet air transport condi- 
tions and requirements, as well as some directions 
in which further development is much needed. 

In passenger transport service, there is, as yet, 
no approach to anything that can be called a stand- 
ard in size or carrying capacity. The small two, 
three, or four passenger plane is of small signifi- 
cance for regular transport service. The cost per 
passenger is too high. Mail planes with a normal 
load of mail may carry two or three passengers in 
addition and make good business of it, but for rea- 
sonably long flight passenger service, as such, the 
desirable capacity would seem to be ten or twelve 
passengers, with a general tendency toward larger 
capacity where reasonably full runs may be ex- 
pected. To carry six passengers in a sixteen-passen- 
ger plane is, of course, no better business than to 
run a de luxe railroad service on half or third full 
trains. 

For service of this character, the tri-motored 
plane seems also to be accepted as offering distinct 
advantages in the matter of safety and reliability in 
flight. The relative advantages of single and multi- 
motored planes have been much argued and it has 
been urged that with three motors, for example, 
there will be three times the liability or probability 
of engine trouble or failure as with a single engined 
plane, and that therefore the situation in either case 
is about the same. This may be correct so far as 
the mere matter of chance and probability is con- 
cerned. The important point is not so much the 
probability of engine trouble, but the probable con- 
sequences of such trouble. 

With the single engined plane, engine failure 
means inevitably a forced landing and with pos- 
sibly serious consequences. With a three motored 
plane not too heavily loaded, the failure of any 
one motor will not mean a forced landing, and the 
plane should be able to proceed to destination, per- 
haps at reduced speed, or in any case to the nearest 
airport or landing field. 

Another direction in which effort is being made 
to better meet the requirements of commercial air 
transport, and especially with reference to passenger 
service, is in the matter of internal arrangements 
for the convenience and comfort of the passengers. 
At best, transport of passengers by air means 
limited space and freedom of movement, limited 
baggage and generally, less of personal comfort 
than by way of Pullman cars or ocean liner travel. 
The advantages characteristic of air transport fur- 
nish, of course, the compensation, but the need is 
being more clearly realized of meeting these limi- 
tations so far as possible and of providing the air 



passenger with the maximum of personal comfort 
consistent with the limitations imposed. 

One direction in which further development is 
much needed is in the matter of noise. The noise 
incident to air travel comes from two sources — the 
engine and the propeller. It is possible to muffle 
an aeronautic engine the same as it is an automo- 
bile engine. It will mean some loss of power, but 
presumably not more than might be afforded. In 
any event, it is a physical and an engineering possi- 
bility. However, there is small use of muffling the 
engine without at the same time finding some means 
of reducing the noise incident to the propeller. The 
noise produced by the latter is dependent primarily 
on the speed and if low rotative speeds could be 
maintained, the noise would be unobjectionable. 
With the tendency toward higher rotative speeds 
for engine, however, the only possibility of noise 
prevention will be by way of geared engines and 
large propellers turning at such speeds as may be 
found permissible without the production of ob- 
jectionable noise. All of this means additional 
weight, expense and complication and the best com- 
promise between these conflicting and competing 
requirements is yet to be found. 

In regard to the engine itself, the most notable 
trend of development in recent years has been in 
the rapid advance into favor of the air-cooled engine 
of the radial type. Air cooling has the great ad- 
vantage of a notable saving of weight. The engine 
must, however, still be cooled and if the cooling 
medium is to be air instead of water, means must 
be provided for securing an adequate flow of cool 
air about the cylinders of the engine, and further- 
more, means for the most rapid possible transfer 
of heat from the heated cylinders to the cooling air. 
The radial engine with its cylinders with finned 
walls provides admirably for these requirements so 
far as cooling alone is concerned, but admittedly at 
the expense of a definite increase in the resistance 
of the plane to movement through the air. This 
is the price paid for air-cooling with the radial 
engine and recent measurements made by the Na- 
tion Advisory Committee for Aeronautics at 
Langley Field indicate that the price is one of 
serious magnitude. There are indications, however, 
that a part of this price may be saved by suitable 
cowling placed about the engine, thus reducing the 
head resistance while still securing the necessary 
flow of air over the cylinders, and a special investi- 
gation is now under way intended to develop the 
most effective system of cowling to meet these re- 
quirements. 

Another possible solution may be by way of the 
fore and aft aeronautic engine specially designed 
for air cooling. Some experiments with an inverted 
engine of the Liberty type have indicated promising 
possibilities and other studies along the same line 
are in progress. The fundamental condition is that 
the engine must be cooled and if air is to be the 
cooling medium, then the solution must seek the 
most effective way of bringing the air into cooling 
contact with the cylinders of the engine and at the 
minimum cost translated into added power charge- 
able to this purpose. 

One of the most seriously needed lines of de- 



4 10 )§*• 



velopment is that relating to fog or so called "blind 
flying". The control and navigation of aircraft in 
a fog or generally in the absence of outside visible 
points of reference is full of uncertainty and pos- 
sible danger. It is a condition which no pilot likes, 
no matter how skillful or experienced he may be 
otherwise. There are broadly three requirements 
in order to adequately meet these conditions. 
These are ( 1 ) Instrumental means for indicating 
the flying attitude of the plane relative to the 
earth's surface; (2) Means, presumably by way 
of radio, for guiding the plane on the desired 
course; and (3) Means for bringing the plane safely 
to a landing after having reached an airport or land- 
ing field. Space will not permit any discussion of 
these requirements in detail, but it may be said that 
relatively there has been made perhaps the least 
progress on the last. What is needed is some form 
of instrument which will indicate the height of the 
plane above the ground level rather than above sea 
level or some other distant datum, as with all in- 
struments depending on atmospheric pressure. 
This problem is under attack from two directions — 
(1) The formation of an electrical condenser effect 
between the earth and the plane and means of meas- 
uring the distance by way of the variation of value 
of this condition and (2) A "sonic" or echo method 
depending on the emission of a sound from the 
plane and the timing of the echo received back from 
the surface of the earth. 

Neither of these methods has as yet reached a 
point beyond what may be termed hopeful possi- 
bilities but doubtless in one way or another a solu- 
tion to the problem will be found and with it will 
be removed or at least mitigated, one of the most 
serious limitations now remaining to regularity of 
schedule and dependable operation on air transport 
lines. 

A number of other special lines of development 
are directed toward improvement in the way of 
safety — such, for example, as the Handley Page 



slot and special forms of design intended to give 
freedom from the hazard of dangerous spins, etc., 
when flying near the so-called "burble" point. 
Space will permit reference here to these bv name 
only. 

Another development of fundamental importance 
has witnessed the growing use of metal instead of 
wood. Duralumin in bars, sheets and special forms 
has been improved up to a point where several 
builders are using this material practically alone for 
the plane structure. In other cases it is combined 
with wood or with other special alloys. Metal con- 
struction is of special significance for commercial 
air transport due to its longer life compared with 
wood and fabric, and notwithstanding its greater 
first cost, it may well show a marked economic ad- 
vantage due to reduced costs of maintenance and 
longer effective life. 

These are some of the directions in which aero- 
nautic engineering is developing in the effort to 
more effectively and more largely adapt the possi- 
bilities of aircraft to the requirements of our trans- 
port services. 

Having in view the marked advance in the appli- 
cations of aircraft within the last few years and the 
awakening appreciation on the part of the public 
to the possibilities of the lines of effective service 
which air transport stands ready to afford, we may 
be sure that aeronautic engineers will bend every 
effort toward meeting these expectations and re- 
quirements, and that the years in the immediate 
future will witness advance and improvement no 
less notable than that of the immediate past. Air 
transport has now a definitely acquired place in our 
economic and social structure and one which seem.-> 
destined to grow rapidly with the passing years. 
To realize its possibilities most effectively will 
require intelligent use on the part of the public, and 
continued advance and improvement in matters of 
technical design and construction. Both of these 
we may confidently anticipate. 




INjlls Field. San Francijco Municipal Airport 



<ef ii }■> 



Engineering and Life 

By Will J. French, 
Director California Department of Industrial Relations 




a HE training and skill of engineers are 
utilized today as never before in the 
processes that have for their purpose 
the saving of life. This great purpose 
dominates the best activities of men and women 
anxious to prove of service to their fellows. 

It has been truly said that the acid test of civil- 
ization is the conservation of human life. The aim 
of statesmanship is, or should be, the lengthening of 
the days of those who are gov- 
erned or served. Medical history 
is replete with splendid evidences 
of self-sacrifice in conquering dis- 
ease. As far as the eye can see 
on the horizon of life there are ex- 
amples indicative of success and 
of striving to make men, women 
and children happier and entitled 
to spend the evening years in 
comfort. 

The Two Panama Canals 

A Panama Canal cannot be cut 
without the engineer of larger 
vision. It has been tried. Disease 
and lack of sanitation and hygiene 
collected a fearful toll. Failure 
followed. It was shown that skill 
and specifications alone were un- 
successful in attaining the objec- 
tive. In addition must come the 
larger views of life, present and 
to come, and of the application of 
science to the problems in hand. 

Later on the Panama Canal was 
cut. Fever and malaria and the diseases of the 
tropics were challenged as never before. The fight 
was not easy. Brave men gave their lives so that 
experimentation might proceed. The medical and 
engineering professions clasped hands in overcom- 
ing the foes of advancement. Without this team- 
work but little could have been done. 

Rivaling fiction is the complete story of great 
locks, superb masonry, and fine engineering, all 
predicated on civic cleanliness, control of wastes, 
and the removal of plague sources. 

What of The Future? 
Just as the example of the two Panamas illus- 
trates the upward trend of the engineering profes- 
sion, so does the gleam of the future point the way 
to unknown heights. It seems to the layman that 
the time ahead is shrouded in the mysterious. He 
has watched ships sail the skies as well as the seas. 
The marvelous radio throws its unseen voice around 
the world in the twinkling of an eye. Men en- 
tombed in the mine talk to their fellows above 



ground. Neither sun nor ice are insurmountable 
barriers. We stand facing the years with the sure 
knowledge that wonders are to be discovered 
hitherto unthought of, and that to the engineer will 
be assigned the task of unlocking many a door to 
reveal enchanting visions. 

The rule of thumb and the tools of the draftsman 
will still be in vogue, but new standards will govern. 
Not merely will the aim be to construct and pyra- 
mid stories one on top of the other. The partly- 
opened door needs more, and the 
engineers are in the advance 
guard that will respond nobly to 
the calls of a higher form of civil- 
ization. 

Those in authority know who 
to appeal to when the waste places 
have to be subdued and the city 
laid out. Or if the heights have 
to be scaled, or the tunnels bored, 
it is always the engineer who 
guides and controls. His special- 
ized skill is needed, and his ability 
dominates. 

Opportunity in the University 

Not sufficient emphasis lias 
been placed on life in its relation 
to engineering when training is 
under way. From the inception 
of studies there should be pre- 
sented the thought that durability 
and ornamentation, plus strains 
Will J. French and stresses, need centralization 

on the preservation of life. 
An instance of this can be given in considering 
machinery. Once it moved "wide open." Especially 
was this the case in the United States, for the 
opening of a new country and the demands of 
hurried character did not take into view the welfare, 
of men and women. Representatives of older 
lands were shocked at the inattention. They had 
been accustomed to the safeguard and the savin? 
ideal in the construction. 

The adoption of workmen's compensation laws 
and the finer social spirit combined to remove the 
approach. And yet much remains to be done. 
The machine is unfinished which fails of all the 
protection possible. The mine development which 
neglects to provide against the hazards of lire and 
accident, and impure air, is doomed to failure, 
sooner or later. The absence of fire escapes, or the 
oversight in planning stairs or passageways, may 
cause a disaster in which both young and old are 
likely to meet death or injury. 

And so the question should not be merely whether 
the machine will move or produce, but whether, in 




4 12 }>•■ 



its operation, ii protects the worker and benefits the 
public. This standard cannot be too high. Each 
school teacher and each University professor should 
make it his business to see that students view con- 
struction beyond iron or steel. Important as are 
these necessities in the busy world, yet their use 
must not be at the expense of human blood. Safety 
needs to be part of each course through the gram- 
mar and all the higher schools, until the lessons 
shall have been so well learned that they become 
second nature. The engineer is the man who must 
capitalize this social requirement so that its gains 
will be as all-inclusive as is possible. 

Special safety courses in the engineering classes 
will pay untold dividends, not to be calculated in 
dollars and cents, but in the knowledge of the fact 
that the Nation's real wealth has been conserved. 

The Spark of Co-operation 

On all sides it is evident that only by organiza- 
tion can the best results be obtained. The day of 
the individual is gone, so far as promoting is con- 
cerned. If it be conceded that it is better to build 
so that safety and welfare will receive as much 
consideration as the mechanical factors, then it is 
obligatory to consult with others and to call on 
scientific knowledge outside of the engineering 
field. 

Already has been quoted the illustration of the 
Panamas. The same ideal, constructively carried 
out, will make partners out of the doctor, the chem- 
ist and the scientist. Even better than the beauti- 
fully-built water system is pure water. If typhoid 
fever lurks in attractive equipment, the people af- 
fected do not pay attention to engineering precision. 
If the two co-operate, and purity of product is pre- 
sented in pleasing mien, then the appeal is far- 
reaching. There is nothing to prevent this and 
similar combinations. They will meet with instant 
response. The job will be complete and thorough- 
ness will come into its own. The engineer is the 
man to lead the way. He has initiative, training 
and knowledge, because of the rapid strides of his 
profession in modern times. 

A more concrete example is shown by the attitude 
of some of the Canadian provinces which do not 
permit unguarded machinery to enter. It is well 
known that much of this work can be done during 
construction, and better done. In addition, there is 
a permanency not to be found in the removable 
guard. Keen to take advantage of the laws, inven- 
tors and manufacturers compete on the basis of 
having the best-protected machine. This is as it 
should be, for there is offered for sale a product 
sound from the engineer's art, plus attention given 
to the primal call of government. 

Gears can be covered, set screws countersunk, 
scaffolds properly railed, wire meshing and piping 
control danger spots, and other factors introduced 
in the building which will spell protection to count- 
less thousands of working men and women. 

Here on the Pacific Coast, and everywhere else in 
the country, the Canadian lead can be followed. It 
is simple, effective, and starts at the beginning. It 
sets an example for even larger methods in the 
campaign for life preservation. It shows that first 



things come first, and that the eyes of skill have 
been directed to fundamentals. 

Air and Light and Environment 
\\ hen engineers plan for those who, by the na- 
ture of things, must remain more or less confined 
within four walls, it is essential that proper con- 
sideration be given to substantial requirements, if 
health and convenience and contentment are to 
assume their right places in the industrial world. 

Skimping on windows and light wells is an acci- 
dent provoker. Dark corridors and overhanging 
equipment exact many a toll. The flooding of a 
workshop with good light reduces the number of 
injuries, makes the place cheerful and promotes 
happiness. Furthermore, and it is a fact often for- 
gotten in quibbling over initial expense, it materi- 
ally affects production in the employer's favor. No 
man can work well when he is subjected to eye 
strain, or risk, and is continually faced by dis- 
couraging surroundings. 

Eye experts emphasize undue strain on the optic 
nerves as inducive to headaches, failing sight, and 
poor health. All know this to be true. Therefore 
the engineering profession has a special call to per- 
suade builders and employers of the value of proper 
lighting, from the standpoints of both production 
and the general welfare of those who do the work. 

Fatigue is more and more a subject of discussion 
when working conditions are under consideration. 
It is natural it should be so, for many detrimental 
factors to production are involved in the wearying 
of the physical and mental resources. 

Not only do long hours and monotony contribute 
heavily to fatigue, but impure air is a leading cause. 
Fresh air. continually changing without drafts, and 
cleansed in an up-to-date manner, will revivify 
many a jaded man. This feature of employment 
was not viewed as it should be during the earlier 
vears of the country's development. It is not un- 
kind to say that there are many factories today that 
are deficient in this important respect. Each time 
such a factory is located there should be a strong 
effort made to apply the needed remedy. Here, 
again, the insistence of the engineer in the prelimi- 
narv conversations, when building is discussed, will 
prove a vital force for the righteousness of pure 
air. 

Exhaust pipes and fans to remove dusts and 
noxious fumes and gases are to be commended at 
all times. They are warriors of a virile type. They 
lessen fatigue, clear the atmosphere, cheer the 
body and improve the spiritual nature. 

Thirty-odd years ago the writer of these lines set 
type in the 500 block on Clay street in San Fran- 
cisco. Perilous stairs had to be climbed. Windows 
that were never introduced to a washer were con- 
sidered normal. Dark places abounded. Small 
type had to be set by gaslight. The perfumes of 
Chinese fish markets below were wafted upward, 
breeze or no breeze. At least ten hours constituted 
the day's work. Altogether, life amid such an en- 
vironment did 11 >t invoke a poetic muse. 

Along came the cleansing fire of 1906. The old 
was forced to give place to the new. High racks 
of type in dusty cases gave way to neat cabinets 



- ■•■»■{ 1 3 }> 



within easy reach at all times. Engineers planned 
for light and air. Windows of full length gave 
ample light. Cleanliness, long denied, came into 
her own. The transformation was thorough. The 
hand typesetter of an earlier era did not recognize 
his new location for some time, but he soon admit- 
ted the change was for the better. And what was 
the result? More and better work, less sickness, 
brighter surroundings, shorter hours of labor, larger 
pay envelopes, and other features worth-while, gave 
new life to a calling at once honorable and neces- 
sary. 

The engineering profession has rightly given a 
place in the newer scheme of things to environ- 
ment. It belongs there. Open spaces and flowers 
and lawns and artistic corners soothe the tired body 
and the weary spirit. Refreshing as a drink of pure 
water in the desert are those things that appeal to 
one's higher nature. It is rightly so ordained. 
And when joined with safe construction, accident 
prevention, and the health features already men- 
tioned, the picture is finished. 

The Labor Turnover 

Not only is a small labor turnover considered im- 
portant as showing satisfied workers, but it is a fi- 
nancial saver of large proportions. Statisticians try 
to estimate what it costs to train a new man for a 
job. It is hard so to do, for both men and jobs vary. 
It is known that the experienced man is valuable, 
and that his loss means a great deal to an organiza- 
tion in industry. Therefore the longer he stays in 
his position, the better the return for his employer. 

Engineering acumen can bear heavily on this 
problem of labor turnover. Good working condi- 
tions are intertwined with economic satisfaction. 



The engineer is on the watch. He can bring heart 
into his relationships with the employees and soon 
make of them friends iii the true sense. The petty 
and irritating causes of dissatisfaction can be re- 
moved, and harmony, based on justice, introduced 
into any plant. 

The Growth of Engineering 

More and more industrial relations are coming 
into contact with branches of the profession un- 
heard of a few years ago. We now have the 
efficiency engineer, the safety engineer, the sanitary 
engineer, the personnel manager, the employment 
supervisor, and other important officials on many a 
staff. Nearly always these men are trained en- 
gineers in the first place, and they acquire the 
larger visions as modern demands have to be met. 
This speaks well for the engineer. His foundation 
in mechanics and system are utilized in wider fields. 
His special training gives him a start as new ave- 
nues are approached. 

Engineering and life are interchangeable words 
as we look at the methods and innovations of these 
later days. The abolition of disease-inviting sur- 
roundings and the insistence on light and air and 
comfort all promote good health and prolong life. 
The engineer is a missionary of hygiene and of 
longer years. 

Society's Biggest Jobs 

As naturally as can be imagined is the attitude 
of the lay citizen towards the tremendous problems 
that civilization has to face. He looks to the en- 
gineer to solve them. Notable examples have been 
furnished by the World War and the Mississippi 

(Continued on Page 22) 







California State Building. Civic Center. San Francis 



■~4 14 te- 



The Development of Aeronautics in the United States 

and in the West 



By R. E. Fisher, 
Vice-President. Pacific Cas & Electric Co. 




ERHAPS ii" "iie subject commands 
)Jnt\\ public attention more than the possi- 
bilities inherent in commercial aviation. 
A careful study of all that is being 
written on this subject moves one to pause anil 
contemplate with awe the tremendous future 
yet undreamed of in this new method of eliminat- 
ing time and space. 

As the romance of early day hardships and 
sacrifices in communicating with eastern cities 
across two thousand miles of hostile wilderness 
will always stir the pride of the 
westerner, so will the new ro- 
mance of this greater achieve- 
ment stir the imagination and 
add flame to that ever present 
spark of enterprise which will 
place the west in the fore ranks 
of air development. 

In reviewing the progress of 
aviation in the United States 
and more particularly in that 
portion west of the Rocky 
Mountains, we find as an out- 
standing feature that deep and 
ever widening public good-will, 
which brings joy to the hearts 
of aero-enthusiasts and renewed 
hope to the western financier 
and industrialist. To those de- 
voting their lives t" aviation 
and to those ever seeking means 
of bringing the far west into 
closer contact with the great in- 
dustrial centers of the east, 
there is nothing so promising as 

the spontaneous, self-educating r. e. Fisher 

interest which is growing by 
leaps and bounds in the public minds. It is 
this interest which promises individual partici- 
pation in aernoautic development from which our 
present aircraft industries must seek food for 
growth. 

That commercial aeronautics is definitely before 
the American commonwealth and receiving a whole 
souled co-operation never before accorded so 
young an industry, is patent to any one who will 
glance over the activities of the innumerable wel- 
fare organizations, both private and governmental. 
A Bulletin entitled ''Aeronautics in the Govern- 
ment" states, "There is scarcely a department or 
bureau of Federal Government which is uncon- 
cerned with some phase of aeronautics", following 
which it describes the participation of such De- 




partments as the Post Office Department, Depart- 
ment of Commerce, Forestry, Agriculture, Ento- 
mology, Geological Survey, and so on, totaling the 
surprising number of forty-four major and minor 
divisions. There are in the west, not less than 
twenty-five Municipal or State-wide organizations 
incorporating a definite aeronautical program as a 
permanent part of their activities. 

At the time of our last Divisional Meeting in 
Colorado on December 6, 1926, there were con- 
templated throughout the United States thirteen 
privately operated contract air routes, carrying 
mail, passengers and express 
over a mileage of approximately 
thirteen thousand miles per day. 
Today there are twenty such 
lines, covering seventeen thou- 
sand eight hundred and seventy 
miles per day and reaching 
sixty-five million seven hundred 
thousand people, or fifty percent 
of our total population. 

From a recent Department of 
Commerce publication we get 
an authorative statement as fol- 
lows: "The latest information 
shows that the air lines now op- 
erating have gone forward by 
leaps and bounds in improving 
their facilities and service until 
today they are unexcelled in the 
world." 

The Department of Com 
merce has under way thirty 
seven strip maps, the Air Corp" 
fifty-two and the Hydrography 
Office sixty-four. These map 1 
will cover every air lane at prp'= 
ent under contemplation or op 
eration, and a complete coastal survey from Mair>c 
to the State of Washington, via the Panama Canal 

An article in "Management" by Eddie Stinson. 
states that last year five million four hundred 
thousand miles were flown by airway operators 
throughout the world, carrying over two hundred 
thousand passengers, and one hundred twelve tons 
of mail. This mileage amounts to more than a 
trip around the world every day. It is known 
that the unrecorded flights by individual enthusi- 
asts and gypsy flyers more than double this figure. 
An estimate indicates that last year twenty-three 
million three hundred ten thousand miles were 
flown by all classes, seven hundred seventy-one 
thousand passengers and four hundred twenty 
thousands pounds of cargo were carried for a 



IS )»■•- 



remuneration. In addition there was carried one 
and one half million pounds of United States mail. 

During the entire year of 1926 there were four 
million six hundred nine thousand miles flown by 
mail and airway operators. During the first half 
of last year, three million seventy-nine thousand 
miles were flown by similar agencies, indicating 
an increase of approximately one hundred and 
seventy-five percent for the entire year of 1927. 

There were four automobiles built thirty years 
ago and four million last year. The automobile 
business is thirty years old and only three years 
have been devoted to commercial aircraft factory 
production. Up to three years ago all commercial 
work was done in war planes. The greater utility 
of modern commercial planes has more than off- 
set their additional cost because the new light 
planes can be flown for comparatively few cents a 
mile, carrying 100% more pay load. 

Today there are more manufacturers producing 
planes for commercial consumption than there are 
manufacturers producing military aircraft. Not 
only are there more commercial manufacturers 
but the quantity of their product greatly exceeds 
that for military consumption. 

An excerpt from the Annual Report of the Di- 
rectors of Aeronautics states : "The aircraft in- 
dustry is in the position of being far behind on 
orders. It is reasonably expected that the produc- 
tion of airplanes during 1927 will at least double 
that of 1926. This may be too moderate an 
estimate." In 1926 eleven hundred and eighty- 
six planes were produced and valued at eight mil- 
lion eight hundred and seventy thousand dollars, 
enlisting the use of capital to the amount of 
twenty-four million one hundred and sixty-two 
thousand dollars. Last year there were twenty- 
three hundred and fifty-three planes produced and 
valued at thirty-six million seven hundred thou- 
sand dollars. Inasmuch as these figures include 
war planes it is well to compare purely commer- 
cial production. Six hundred and thirty-six com- 
mercial planes were produced in 1926 and six- 
teen hundred and fifty-three last year, or an 
increase of one hundred and sixty percent. The 
rate of increase for the last half of 1927 is three 
hundred percent. The completion of Municipal 
airports should be one the most important factors 
in increasing this percentage for 1928. Airports 
in general were a development so late last year as 
to have little effect upon that year's production. 
Every airport stimulates public interest in flying 
and daily enlists new enthusiasts. It is estimated 
that twenty novices enroll for flying instructions 
every day as a direct result of this stimulus. 

Western Progress 

Geographic isolation has been the greatest single 
drag on the wheels of western commerce. 

The aircraft industry has added to the United 
States business directory, approximately ten hun- 
dred and fifty new enterprises whose sole or par- 
tial income is from aeronautical activities. Of 
these one hundred and sixty are located west of 
the Sierras. States east of the 1'acific seaboard 
average twenty such industries per State. Over 
one hundred and fifty of the one hundred and 



sixty western concerns are located in California. 
Aircraft activities are classed as follows: Manu- 
facturers, Distributors, Dealers, Designers, Re- 
modelers, Aerial Photography, Airport Lighting. 
Hangars, Instruments, Materials, Propellers. Tech- 
nical Books and Periodicals, Spare Parts Dealers, 
Operators, Taxi, Sightseeing, Delivery. Instruc- 
tors, Engineering, Consulting, and Schooling. 

An estimate places the value of planes produced 
in the west at a figure between six and seven mil- 
lion dollars, with a payroll of approximately Foui 
million dollars. 

One western commercial manufacturer deliv- 
ered one hundred eighty planes in December and 
accumulated forty-three orders that they were 
unable to fill. 

A western newspaper states that the Boeing Air- 
craft Company is the largest single industry in 
Seattle, and further that two western contractors 
produce the greater part of military and naval air- 
craft. 

From April 17, 1926 to December 1, 1926 one 
western contract line flew three hundred and two 
thousand miles carrying two hundred passengers 
and seventy-six thousand six hundreds pounds of 
mail and three hundred pounds of express. Dur- 
ing the corresponding nine months of last year 
this Company flew three hundred and forty-nine 
thousand two hundred and seventy miles, carried 
three hundred and seven thousand pounds of mail 
and four thousand five hundred and twenty pounds 
of express. This is an increase of sixteen percent 
in mileage over the original line, seventy-three and 
a half percent in passengers, one hundred and 
twelve percent in mail and fourteen percent in 
express. 

The close of 1926 saw the establishment of 
one hundred and seventy-eight municipal airports 
in western communities and air lanes completed 
to the extent of twenty-seven hundred and sixty 
miles. Today there are two hundred and seventy- 
five airports, while seventy percent of the total air 
line mileage is located in the west ; twenty-five 
percent of all aviation equipment ; and thirty- 
three percent of all aeronautical personnel. It is 
estimated that Boeing carries thirty-five percent of 
all airmail flown in the United States. 

One Company operating in the west totaled an 
income of one hundred ninety-nine thousand eight 
hundred dollars during the last nine months of 
1926. The first half of last year their income was 
two hundred sixty-six thousand three hundred 
dollars, showing an increase of twenty-five percent 
in six months. The revenue of this company of 
1927 was $343,407.00 for the last six months of 
1927 or a total of $609,437.00 for the year 1927. 

Last minute advice from the San Francisco- 
Chicago line shows an increase lust year of fifty 
percent over a corresponding six months' period 
in 1926. Thirty-one thousand one hundred and 
eighty-six pounds of mail were sent east during 
the last half of 1926 and forty-live thousand 
seven hundred and sixty-three pounds last year. 

Mr. Kokker is completing designs even now for 



•>:;( 16 )•>■- 



several multi-motored planes to operate between 
Los Angeles and San Prancisco in accordance with 
the Guggenheim equipment appropriation for that 
purpose.' It is a tribute to western prominence in air 
traffic that the Guggenheim foundation, located 
in the extreme eastern part of the nation, sin mid 
choose this far western line a- the most suitable 
laboratory fur tlu development of <>ur first up-to- 
date inter-cit} passenger carrying air line. 

Insurance 

The forementioned article by Mr. Stinson in 
"Management" for November last year states that 
in eighteen months insurance rates dropped from 
thirty dollars to three dollars per passenger, 
while today an entire operating line has insured 
its year's operation for ten hundred and twenty- 
five dollars regardless of the amount of traffic. 
One company carried ten thousand passengers in 
three months and many carry over one thousand 
a year, making the insurance rate less than a dol- 
lar per passenger. The insurance rate on surface 
carried express in Europe is more than double 
the rate on air carried express. 

An interesting fact has recently been estab- 
lished that the policy contracts of forty-two of 
the fifty leaders in volume of business — have no 
clause eliminating liability from aeronautical ac- 
tivities. The volume of business thus laid open 
to aircraft hazard is sixty-seven and one half bil- 
lions of dollars. Such a step could only result 
from exhaustive investigation of aeronautical haz- 
ards and should satisfy the most skeptical that 
air travel is safe. 

Safety 
The scandal sheet is responsible for the wrong 
impression that flying is more dangerous than 
other means of travel. Insurance rates are a 
direct contradiction to this. All modes of travel 
are hazardous and remember that there are dangers 
in standing still while others are rushing about. 
One air mail pilot was killed in two and a quarter 
million miles of flight, half of which was done at 
night. During the same time fourteen Rural Free 
Deliverers were killed at a perhaps lesser mileage. 

Commander Leighton, United States Navy, states 
that accidents due to motor failure are so infre- 
quent as to be of minor importance in working for 
future safety. Corroborating this it might be point- 
ed out that the Department of Commerce directs 
practically one hundred percent of its regulative 
power toward the production of structurally 
sound planes and properly instructed pilots and 
mechanics. 

Commerce reports show that of the twenty-five 
fatal accidents occurring between January 1 and 
June of last year, thirteen were attributable to un- 
licensed pilots and planes, and seven others to 
structural failures, which in the future will be 
impossible under the rigid requirements now es- 
tablished by the Department of Commerce. 

The Professional Pilots' Association of Los An- 
geles has given us ample reasons to believe that 
with the use of only experienced professional pilots 
and good planes, there is no need to fear for safety. 



The pre-requisite for membership in the Profes- 
sional Pilots' Association is four years of flying 
experience. Of the ninety-three members now 
active in this Association, no one has received any 
injury whatsoever and these pilots have flown over 
ten millions of miles since the organization was 
formed in 1923. 

Cost of Operation 

One Company figures their cost of operating 
single engine transport planes of thirty-five and 
twenty-eight hundredths cents per plane mile. 
Planes of this type carry six or more passengers 
or an equivalent poundage in pay load. This re- 
duces the cost per mile per passenger to five cents 
which is comparable with the present railroad fare 
inclusive of Pullman. Other estimates range from 
this value up to one dollar a mile for single en- 
gined planes and up to one dollar and a half for 
multi-engined planes. Costs on the New York- 
Chicago-Dallas route, exclusive of overhead and 
publicity- is figured at fifty-one per mile. 

According to one manufacturer, it costs from 
twenty cents to thirty-five cents per mile to operate 
their planes. The variation in this figure is due 
to the allocation of overhead which, of course, 
decreases per mile as the number of miles flown 
increases. This plane, in carrying four passen- 
gers and three hundred pounds of cargo reduces 
the rate per passenger mile to the neighborhood 
of five cents and the pound mile to about three 
one-hundredths of a cent. 

Airways maintenance cost approximately one 
hundred, and seventy-six dollars per mile and auto 
roads average thirty thousand dollars per mile. 
The average airport costs less than two miles of 
auto road. The average railroad Pullman costs 
one thousand ninety-three dollars per seat, the 
motor bus five hundred dollars per seat and 
the airplane thirteen hundred dollars per seat. 
This value will come down as production reduces 
the cost of planes. 

Appreciation 

In response to this rapid and sound _ growth 
the business associations and various public spirit- 
ed organizations throughout the west have entered 
upon a systematic campaign of public education, 
bringing to every potential consumer, the proven 
benefits to be derived from airmail, express, and 
passenger services. 

In the past year the Standard Oil Company 
has steadily increased their far-sighted contribu- 
tion to aviation, by air marking five hundred towns 
and stations in California and by publishing and 
distributing fifty thousand copies of information 
bulletins showing suitable landing fields, points 
of fuel supply, telephones, etc. The Department 
of Commerce has mapped and published over two 
hundred fifty local maps on class "A" and emer- 
gency fields and air lanes in ten western states. 

The California Development Association in its 
State-wide campaign for the development of avi- 
ation is at present instituting a campaign asking 
people to fly only in licensed planes with licensed 
pilots. In addition to this they have published 



17 r> 



and distributed to operators, a loose-leaf bound 

set of airports and emergency landing fields 
throughout the State. 

The limitations of this paper preclude separate 
appreciation of the many other organizations who 
have caught the sparks of enthusiasm for this 
promising activity and given unselfishly of their 
time and money. 

Time Saving 

At our last meeting, one of the delegates return- 
ed from Colorado Springs to Los Angeles by way 
of the Western Air Express. At Salt Lake he saw 
his friends off on the train at eleven o'clock in the 
evening, returned to his hotel and a good night's 
sleep. He caught the west-bound plane at seven 
o'clock in the morning and within three hours 
the pilot pointed to the train below carrying those 
who had left eight hours previously. At 11:35 
the same morning he landed in Los Angeles in 
time for a good meal and the train carrying the 
other folks arrived in Los Angeles the following 
morning. 

A President of a mid-western manufacturing 
company, owning plants in Detroit, Indianapolis, 
Cincinnati, South Bend, and Grand Rapids, was 
enabled to visit and transact business in all these 
plants and return to his home within a single 
business day. 

Transportation in northern Canada was cut 
from ten days by dog team to one hour and five 
minutes by plane. 

A mail route in Columbia cut its trip from three 
months to four hours by use of the airplane. 

Testimonials of this nature should alone enlist 
the complete co-operation of every modern business 
man in appreciation of value received. 

Money Saving 
A certain bank located in San Francisco saved 
by sending their draft via air mail, two days on 
the collection time of a seven hundred and fifty 
thousand dollar note. The interest for this time 
amounted to a saving of two hundred and fifty 
dollars. It cost ten cents to send the letter. 

Mr. J. D. Alexander of Denver says: "In my 
own experience in flying I have found that trips by 
air will save enough in railroad fare and salary 
time to pay the cost of an airplane in sixty days", 
in addition, "it puts my nerves in splendid shape 
and furnishes the same tonic that a vacation does." 

A conservative estimate on the use of air mail 
by Bankers and Commercial Houses throughout 
the west indicates a saving of six million dollars 
annually to western depositors. Notwithstanding 
this conclusive evidence it is stated that some air 
lines are still operating at a loss and should re- 
ceive the utmost co-operation in building up their 
pay loads. 

Future Need 

Mr. Coffin states that "the outstanding weak- 
ness of our present American commercial aviation 
is to be found in the lack of public information 
as to the availability and usefulness of these ser- 



vices and in the 1 
existing air lines". 



if patronage accorded 



< )ur greatest lack is public education along air 
line matters pertaining to the utility of aircraft. 
Through some suitable National Agency and 
through local business groups, a properly directed 
plan of education should be adopted and advanced. 
This program should be mainly directed toward the 
prospective investor. There are many who would 
assist in the financial needs of both manufacturer 
and operator were it not for the lack of sound adivce. 
Important business intelligence is scattered through- 
out the country but the Capitalist is too busy to 
scour the Country for this information and he will 
not accept as authorative, the statements of the 
enthusiasts seeking financial backing. We are in 
need of some Agency which will go to the sources 
of fact and stand as an authority behind these facts. 
Many groups are doing this in part but so far they 
have not commanded sufficient consideration. 

However, it behooves everyone capable of enlist- 
ing their dollars in any enterprise so promising to 
bestir themselves and be prepared to listen intelli- 
gently to the next young man who may come with 
worthwhile information. It is the young man, seek- 
ing his future in aeronautics that will seek out and 
find the good opportunities. Those older who have 
already succeeded financially are not so keen on the 
trail but their dollars must be the chief hope for 
the future. We must supply these men with facts 
that they will not doubt, else the enterprise will go 
a begging and never receive the sound business 
background that it so unmistakably warrants. 

Last year saw the prospective investor groping 
blindly in an unsounded depth of doubt and specu- 
lation as to the true value of either aircraft manu- 
facture or operation. To day the careful student 
finds sound proof of the substantial nature of these 
enterprises, and even greater than this, he finds more 
to hope for in the future of this activity, than any 
project peculiar to western needs. 

In twenty-five years the automobile grew from 
infancy to first place in value of finished products 
in American industry. In its growth, the auto 
designer, inventor, and consumer were handi- 
capped with unsolved mechanical problems, re- 
tarded by the lack of good roads and servicing 
equipment along the roads. Today aviation is 
enjoying the fruition of this vast store of mechan- 
ical knowledge and equipment, while it is rightly 
asserted that there is more technical data avail- 
able to the aeronautical engineer than to any other 
field of engineering. It is often said that the air- 
plane is now a scientifically complete fact await- 
ing only its adoption by farseeing capitalists to 
rank with the greatest American industries. 
Capitalists in the far west should be first 
in fore-sight and should see to it that the 
west is held second to none in aeronautical growth. 
1 am proud to report to you gentlemen that west- 
ern capital is going to the bat in supplying this 
need. As fast as sound enterprises are proposed 
we find western capital ready to finance and see 
them through to completion. 

It is stated in the November issue of "Printers 



■■*;{ is }* 



Ink" thai "the present demand For aircraft repre- 
sents but the initial production of a new industry. 
The demand for modern planes, the elimination of 
war surplus, the application of federal inspection, 
promise an increase of which any estimate must 
be but a guess." 

There has been considerable speculation regard- 
ing the center of the aircraft industry. It seems 
that the state of California leads with twenty-one 
establishments producing commercial airplanes. 
One of the largest manufacturers of commercial 
airplanes is the Alexander Company of Denver. 
Colorado. This company stands second in produc- 
tion, completing two planes a day at present and 
preparing to quadruple their total production for 
1928. 

Every city, town, or hamlet is a potential air- 
port, only a few cities are water-ports. When 
we survey the commercial and pleasure craft that 
abounds in any protected water port and from 
this try to picture the quantity of pleasure and 
commercial craft busily plying to and from air- 
ports, which will be as numerous as are the cities 
and towns of this nation, we have a picture beyond 
human power of comprehension. There is every 
reason to expect that small pleasure planes will be 
available at one thousand dollars to twelve hun- 
dred dollars. Such a price will place the possible 
market for this type of plane on a parity with 
automobiles of the thousand dollar to two thou- 
sand dollar class. Accounting for the great utility 
of aircraft for pleasure and long distance travel, 
we may well expect the demand for planes to 
exceed the hundred thousand mark in the very 
near future. This figure is far beyond the pro- 
ducing capacity of our present manufacturers. 

Today it is the uninformed and the natural 
pessimist that doubts the future of aeronautics. 
The game is here and so far it has surely proven 
worth the candle. But bigger candles must be 



lighted to illumine the ever widening fields of 
growth. 

Our Government, our Capitalists, our Business 
Minds, the Aeronautical Experts must form and 
materialize such programs of development as will 
bring to aeronautics food for growth. Good roads, 
federal and state regulations, business aggrc^i\e 
ucss. and mechanical refinement went hand in hand 
to place the automobile where it is. Airways. 
Federal and State regulation, business aggressive- 
ness, and mechanical refinement are similarly 
necessary to aircraft. The knowledge that there 
are airports along the routes at which service can 
be obtained will greatly stimulate cross-country 
flying and add to the utility of the sport plane as 
well as widen our national net work of commer- 
cial lines. 

1928 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 
birth of aviation. This is the first year in the 
history of aviation in which the industry faces 
a demand exceeding the possibilities of supply. 
Perhaps no other National enterprise faces this 
unusual situation. What this may mean from 
the viewpoint of progress to our West, wherein 
distances are our greatest barrier can be but mere 
conjecture, but let us turn fearlessly to the task 
of doing that which we surely can do. and that 

Keep the West at the Fore-ranks of Aeronautical 
Growth 

In closing, may I express the hope, or prophecy 
if you wish, that in the not too far distant future. 
the Mainland and this Paradise of the Pacific may 
be bound together by aerial transportation, re- 
corded in hours instead of days, and we may then 
join with the California Poet in his lines — 

Hawaii — Sun and Dew that kiss it, 

Balmy winds that blow the stars 

In clustered diadems upon its peaks of snow. 

The mighty mountains o'er it. 

Below the white seas swirled. 

Just Hawaii — Aloha — Airport of the World. 




Courtesy of Katwnal Aeronautical As 



■4 19 fc" 




s<3 

I S 

id O 



The Tule Elk of California 



By Dr. Barton Warren Evermann 
Director, California Academy of Sciences 




HERE is abundant evidence showing 
that the California Valley Elk or Tule 
ilk formerly ranged over the entire 
>an Joaquin Valley and adjacent foot- 
hills, and through the valleys of Livermore and 
Sunol across to the Santa Clara and even t<> Mon- 
terey where Don Sebastian Viscaino found them 
abundant when he landed there December Id, 
1602. Quoting Viscaino: "Among the animals there 
are large, fierce bears, and other 
animals called elks, from which 
they make elk leather jackets." 

The late Edward Bosqui, one 
of the charter members of the 
California Academy of Sciences, 
in his "Memoirs", tells about a 
trip he made on foot in Decem- 
ber. 1850. from Stockton to 
Mariposa. As he approached the 
foothills he saw "bands of elk. 
deer and antelope in such num- 
ber that they actually darkened 
the plains for miles, and looked 
in the distance like great herds 
of cattle." On his return in the 
following June, when on Dry 
Creek, some 70 miles from Mari- 
posa, east of the present town 
of Turlock. Mr. Bosqui one 
morning was "suddenly awaken- 
ed by the heavy tramp and noise 
of large animals, and on look- 
ing through the fog which pre- 
vailed I could see indistinctly 
not 30 rods away, giant-like 
figures of elk passing, so to 
speak, in procession before me. They were toss- 
ing their great antlers about and snuffing excited- 
ly. Suddenly, with one accord, and with an 
impulse that shook the ground like an earth- 
quake, they swept out of sight. It was a 
procession of phantoms such as one might con- 
ceive in a nightmare, and left an impression on 
my youthful mind never to be forgotten." 

Speaking of Moraga Valley, just back of Oak- 
land. Mr. Bosqui says : "The hillsides were cov- 
ered with clover and wild oats, and up to 1850 
all the country in and about Moraga Valley was 
the native haunts of wild game — deer, antelope, 
bear and elk." 

In the spring of 1850. William Lewis Manly, 
author of the interesting book, "Death Valley in 
'49", traveled from San Jose presumably through 
Livermore Pass into and across the San Joaquin 
\ alley. He says: "On the summits of the moun- 
tains * * * we saw. standing like guards, 




Dr. Barto 



many large bull elk. * * * On our way, 
droves of antelope could be seen frolicking over 
the broad plains, while in the distance were 
herds of elk winding their way from the moun- 
tains towards the river for water. * * * As we 
came near groves of willow, big, stately elk would 
start out and trot off proudly into the open plains 
to avoid danger. These proud, big-horned mon- 
arch- of the plains could be seen in bunches scat- 
tered over the broad meadow-." 

In the earl}- seventies these 
great herds had become so re- 
duced through indiscriminate 
slaughter that only a few re- 
mained and these were on the 
Kern County land of the great 
cattle company of Miller and 
Lux. Tradition has it that only a 
single pair were left. This story, 
though probably not numerical- 
ly correct, is expressive of the 
important fact that the herd was 
nearing complete extermination ; 
and this meant the extinction of 
the species; for this species of 
elk was found nowhere in the 
world except in this limited por- 
tion of California. About this 
time Henry Miller, a man of vis- 
ion, appeared upon the scene. 
The report coming to him that 
only a few of the animals were 
left, he gave strict orders to his 
cowboys that the elk must not 
F . be disturbed under any circum- 

stances, and that they should 
be given every possible protec- 
tion. His instructions were obeyed and that 
the Tule Elk (whose scientific names is Cer- 
vus nannodesi did not go to join the Great 
Auk and the Dodo fifty years ago. we owe to 
Henry Miller to whom is due all honor as the first 
conservationist of wild life in California. Under 
the protection afforded by Henry Miller and his 
associates and employes, the herd survived and 
increased until there are now probably between 
300 and 400 head, still on the land of 'Miller and 
Lux and that of the Kern County Land and Cattle 
Company. They are found in a rather limited area 
in the west part of Kern County on the rather arid 
plain west of Buttonwillow and Buena Vista Lake, 
and extending into the foothills back toward Mc- 
Kittrick and Taft. Usually they spend the daytime 
there, but at night, especially during the dry sea- 
son, they come down into the valley to drink at 
the big irrigation ditch and to feed in the alfalfa 
and Egyptian cornfields of Miller and Lux and 
ranchers in that vicinity. It has been estimated 



-H§( 21 &H- 



that the damage they do in this way totals from 
$5,000.00 to $10,000.00 annually. 

In 1914 Miller and Lux expressed the wish that 
the herd might be reduced somewhat by moving 
some of the animals to other parts of the state, 
and placing them in federal, state and private 
parks. With the permission of the State Fish and 
Ciame Commission, the California Academy of 
Sciences and Miller and Lux arranged to try the 
experiment of transferring a number of the elk 
to various parks in the state where it was hoped 
they might thrive and increase in numbers and 
contribute to the preservation of the species. 
Carrying out the plan agreed upon, Miller and 
Lux built a large corral a quarter mile long and 
an eighth mile wide, locating it in an alfalfa field 
to which the elk were in the habit of coming at 
night to feed. The end toward the plains from 
which the elk came down was left open for a few 
nights until they got accustomed to the corral, 
then, one night when about 150 were in the cor- 
ral, workmen quickly put up the wire so the elk 
could not get out. When the elk saw that they 
were trapped, the whole bunch bucked the wire 
fence on one side and many of them escaped. 

To catch those that were left was pretty dif- 
ficult. One or more were seen to jump the seven 
foot elk-proof wire fence, clearing it very nicely. 
One young buck was seen to run full speed nearly 
the full length of the corral, strike the wire fence, 
break through, and drop dead, the impact having 
broken his neck. They finally quieted down and 
we were able to entice them to enter a small corral 
in a corner of the large one. Through a gate they 
passed into a large crate on a truck that was kept 
in readiness. When a load was secured they were 
taken down to Buttonwillow and placed in cattle- 
pens which, however, had to be made several feet 
higher than they were. 

After a day or two in these pens they became 
so tame they would feed out of my hand. 

In spite of many difficulties the Academy suc- 
ceeded in transplanting a total of 146 head, which 
were placed in 19 different parks, in most of which 
they have done fairly well. 



Hut thi> transplanting is little more than a tem- 
porary expedient. To save this great game animal 
for all time the parent herd must be saved prac- 
tically as a unit and in the region of its natural 
habitat. Although it is unlawful to kill any elk 
it seems impossible to enforce the law and many 
are killed illegally every year. With the develop- 
ment of the country and the increase in an irre- 
sponsible population in the adjacent oil fields, 
it is only a question of time until the whole herd 
will be wiped out. 

Fortunately, under a recent state law, the State- 
Fish and Game Commission is authorized to estab- 
lish Game Refuges at suitable places in the state 
for the protection and conservation of our vanish- 
ing game mammals, water-fowl, and upland game 
birds. It is entirely practical to establish a great 
Elk Refuge that will accomplish the desired pur- 
pose. A tract of land one mile wide and three to 
six miles long in the Buena Vista Lake region 
should at once be acquired. By including Buena 
Vista Lake the double purpose of an elk refuge 
and a waterfowl refuge would be accomplished. 
The area would be enclosed by an elk-proof fence 
and should contain some land that could be culti- 
vated to alfalfa and Egyptian corn to provide food 
during the dry season. 

The present herd is estimated at 300 to 400 ani- 
mals. With such care as can be given, the num- 
ber will double every four or five years, and it is 
believed the herd will become self-supporting in 
three or four years by selling the surplus animals 
too zoological parks and museums, and by utiliz- 
ing others for their hides, their antlers and as 
food. 

The Tule Elk is in such great and immediate 
danger of extermination that prompt action must 
be taken if the species is to be preserved. To 
permit this noble animal to become extinct would 
be an everlasting disgrace not only to the State 
Fish and Game Commission but to the entire state. 
Naturalists, nature lovers, every true sportsman, 
and the hundreds of thousands of members of Elks 
lodges throughout America will be delighted to 
see such an Elk Refuge established. 



Engineering and Life 



(Continued fi 

floods. Instantly came the cry for a man to lead 
stricken nations out of chaos and, later, to devise 
ways and means to rescue human beings and check 
the raging waters. And so the call was met 
promptly and efficiently in each instance, as similar 
tails have been met before and since, and as they 
will be faced and mastered during many a decade to 
come. 

All of this throws unusual obligations on engi- 
neers as a group. Their high standards must be 
maintained. Training must advance as science 
opens newer ways. The open hand must be clasped 
as invitations come for co-operation from allied life- 
saving groups. Nothing must be permitted to stand 
in the way of that service to human beings which 
represents the best conservation known to man. 



om Page 14) 

The real student learns as well as gives. He cannot 
afford to be limited in his outlooks, lie can sit at 
the feet of man or child if new thoughts come or if 
superior ways are pointed out. 

It would not be fitting to close without a glowing 
tribute to the engineering profession. Innumer- 
able dangers have been confronted and mastered in 
the interests of mankind. A fuller and better civili- 
zation is the result. Not only in high buildings and 
long tunnels is the splendid service-giver known. 
He has a commanding position among all those who 
go out to lead, to rescue, and to comfort. 

In a large measure engineering is also life, for its 
work and its ideals represent the mastery of disease, 
confusion and death. 



22 }>- 



Chinese Progress 

Bu Ng Poon Chew, Lit D. 
Managing Editor, Cung Sai Vat Po. 




IURING the last few years when the 
military phase of the revolution was 
in progress in China, the outside world 

was aware of nothing except that China 
was engaged in factional fight without aim but the 

interests of the military leaders better known as 
"war-lords", and that the revolution, when re- 
duced to the last analysis, amounted to the 
struggle among these war-lords for control of 
Peking; that when one war-lord 
is finished another would arise 
to take his place, so that the 
civil war would continue indefin- 
itely. According to this view 
there was no prospect of peace 
in China, and that China must 
be going from had to worse as 
this struggle kept up. This im- 
pression was formed by the aver- 
age American from reading news 
items in the daily press purport- 
ed to be sent from China. The 
daily press in this country as a 
rule prints very little from 
China except stories of sensa- 
tional nature, the more alarming 
the better. So whatever appears 
in the papers in this country is 
only pertaining to turmoil, ban- 
ditary, anti - foreign activities 
and fightings. While on the 
other hand, they are absolutely 
silent as to the forces that have 
been at work transforming China 
from an old and conservative to 
a radically progressive nation. 

These forces have been at work in a very 
aggressive manner since the dawn of the revolu- 
tion, and their effects could be plainly seen and 
heard, in the intellectual, social, political and ma- 
terial worlds within the whole Republic of China. 
It is indeed a marvel that the intelligent American 
public knew so little of them. 

It is the aim of the writer to devote this paper 
to the material progress achieved by the Chinese 
people during the last few years in the nationwide 
movement of road building and street widening. 

China was for a great number of years a road- 
less nation. Arteries of communication have been 
confined almost exclusively to canals, of which 
China has a wonderful system, rivers and sea- 
coast. The roads there are nothing more than 
trails. To be sure in the years gone by there 
was a great mileage of military highways, once 




Dr. Ng Poon Chew 



upon a time were well paved affording easy mode 
of travel and transportation of commodities. 
Through the inefficiency of the Manchu govern- 
ment, these highways were permitted to fall into 
decay and ruin and to become a hindrance to 
instead of a means of communication. During 
recent years, even the wonderful system of canals 
for which China was famous throughout the world, 
through neglect has become almost useless. 

After the establishment of the 
Republic, the Chinese people 
have become fully aware of the 
necessity of a nationwide system 
of roads and highways for better 
communication, intelligence and 
transportation of commodities 
and for the rapid movement of 
troops in case of war. The 
Chinese people appreciate the 
fact that without better means 
of travel in such a huge country 
as China it is impossible to unify 
the nation into a compact whole. 

Under the influence and en- 
couragement of the Nationalist 
government, China had started 
a few years ago in earnest a 
nationwide movement of build- 
ing roads and widening city 
streets. The best result of 
which may be seen in Canton, 
the capital city of the province 
of Kwangtuug in southern 
China, and also throughout the 
whole province itself. What has 
been accomplished there in 
that short period of time is truly marvelous and 
can hardly be duplicated any where in western 
countries, within the same period of time. 

Canton City has a population of one and a 
quarter million, and was surrrounded by a wall 
from twenty to thirty feet high, built several hun- 
dred years ago. City walls are a common sight 
throughout China. These walls may have served 
a good purpose as a means of defense in ancient 
warfare and even at the present time may help to 
defend the inhabitants against bandit attacks. 
However, since the invention of fire arms city walls 
have become a deadly detriment instead of a means 
of defence, consequently they have become useless. 

Soon after the establishment of the Republic, 
the municipal government of Canton decided to 
remove the old wall, and work of actually tearing 
down the old piles of bricks and stone was soon 
started. There was no opposition from the peo- 
ple. Within two years the old wall disappeared 



-4 23 }v- 



except that part of the wall in the hilly part of 
the city in the north, and that was also taken 
down during the full,. wing- year. The removal of 
the wall was a wonderful business success — it was 
accomplished without any expense to the Muni- 
cipal government. The contractors had agreed to 
remove the wall free of charge just simply for the 
old bricks taken from the wall. These old bricks 
were valuable and the dirt filling inside the wall 
between the brick facings was utilized in filling up 
swampy places near by, making valuable lands 
after the wall was taken down. A new boulevard 
was now built where the wall once stood. 

Canton City today, instead of being surrounded 
by an old, unsightly and uselss wall, is surround- 
ed by a very fine modern boulevard one hundred 
and fifty feet wide with shade trees planted on 
both sides of this modern thoroughfare, making 
a wonderful automobile drive. 

The removal of the old wall has solved the ques- 
tion of congestion within the city. Xow the city 
can expand on all sides. Great activities have 
already been started to open suburban tracts for 
residences beyond the city proper. Chinese real 
estate dealers have adopted American method of 
putting out glowing advertisement and also using 
intensive method of inducing certain psychological 
frame of mind to help them to sell to the public 
"corner lots" in these newly opened tracts. They 
are succeeding. In the "Eastern Hills" district of 
the City, a respectable suburban residential tract 
has been fairly well built up. This district has a 
must modern appearance; the streets are wide and 
well paved, the houses are of foreign style, follow- 
ing closely the Southern California bungalow 
architecture. There is running water, electric 
lights and sanitary to a remarkable degree, afford- 
ing convenience and comfort which a few years 
ago could not be had under any circumstances. 
Many of these houses have telephones and it is 
not an uncommon sight to see automobiles parked 
at the curbings. 

These houses are mostly homes of officials, 
wealthy merchants and returned students from 
America or Europe. If a person who has been 
in Canton and left there some twenty or even 
fifteen years ago, and now just returned there for 
the first time, he could not believe his eyes what 
he saw there now. To him, indeed, the transfor- 
mation of the city is almost a new heaven and a 
new earth. 

All the streets in the ancient cities and towns 
of China are very narrow- and crooked. The 
streets in Canton are no exception. They are 
usually from six to ten feet wide, and they are 
so narrow that they seem to lead you every- 
where but nowhere. There were no four-wheeled 
vehicles of any sort, in fact no four-wheeled 
vehicle was ever seen in that city or in any part 
of the whole province. 

After the completion of the removal of the wall, 
a new movement was on foot for cutting and 
widening the city streets. After the city was 
thoroughly surveyed by an efficient corps of young 
Chinese engineers, new maps were made and 
plans were drawn and what streets were to be cut 
and widened first. Opposition was at once start- 



ed against this enterprise. Mass meetings were 
held and formidable protests were presented to 
the city government. These protests were made 
by property owners and tenants. The property 
owners did not want to have thirty or sixty feet 
of their land taken away, and the tenants did not 
want to be put to the inconvenience of moving. 
This opposition became more and more furious 
but the officials who were mostly young and 
western educated men. were immovable in their 
decision and determination to widen the street-- 
at any cost. 

After certain length of time was allowed the 
property owners and tenants to arrange their 
affairs and belongings, a large corps of engineers, 
contractors and laborers started the work of tear- 
ing down certain portions of all buildings facing 
such streets. At first violence was offered these 
men and for a time they had to have police and 
military protection before the work could be con- 
tinued. 

When the work was well started, those thor- 
oughfares had the very appearance of having been 
visited by a devastating earthquake. Mile and 
mile along these streets, the situation was indeed 
dismal and depressing. What was left of some 
of the building was only broken walls and gaping 
holes. The streets were filled with piles and piles 
of old bricks and debris. 

With remarkable rapidity the scene began to 
change ; disorder to give way to order ; and the 
situation was fast becoming modern. Where 
once were old. dirty, rickety, narrow alleys and 
lanes, there are now broad well paved avenues 
and boulevards. The transformation was mar- 
velous and the effect upon the people of those 
districts through which these new streets were 
cut was no less marvelous. Instead of loss, the 
property owners gained many folds of the value 
of their land by having their properties facing 
a big boulevard or avenue, a like of which they 
had never seen before, and they have become en- 
thusiastic of the turn of affairs and are grateful 
for the change. 

After the first few streets were cut. widened 
and paved and the wonderful effect seen and ap- 
preciated by the city at large, all opposition to 
this enterprise ceased altogether throughout the 
wdiole city. Now instead of opposition it is just the 
other way. the people in all sections of the city 
are demanding that their sections be also cut and 
widened, cut and widened ahead of the other sec- 
tions. 

Today in Canton City, there are thirty-nine 
miles of these new streets from sixty to seventy 
feet wide, while two boulevards one hundred and 
fifty feet wide cross-cutting the city in the mid- 
dle. These new streets are well paved and 
straight and with wide sidewalks, illuminated 
with electric lights. These new streets and ave- 
nues give a new aspect to the city which gives a 
prophetic glimpse of the city what the future holds 
in store for it if the young generation of pro- 
gressive personnel of the municipal government 
is permitted to continue its regime. 

Auto busses are now running along these mod- 



- 4 24 fr- 



ern thoroughfares and are well patronized. These 
auto busses are imported from America by the 
corporation that had obtained the franchise to 
operate electric tram system for fifty years along 
these newly cut streets, while waiting the laying 
of rails, this corporation is permitted to operate 
a system of auto busses. Aside of these busses, 
hundreds of automobiles and heavy trucks may 
be seen running everywhere. 

These evidences of modernization are not con- 
lined to the City of Canton by any means. These 
tokens of real awakening of the old China that 
has been regarded as in deep slumber for centuries 

may be seen in many districts where the influence 
of the Nationalist government is felt. In many 
places, widely scattered places, the people are 
actively engaged in the work that really dupli- 
cate the progress made in Canton. 

Toy Shan, a town of fifteen thousand people, 

and ldO miles southwest of the City of Canton, 



style is getting to be very popular in south China 
to day with the younger generation. 

Many miles of modern highways are radiating 

from this town in several directions have been 
built, and auto stages may be seen carrying pass- 
engers to and fro. The people in this district are 
very active in road construction and more mileage 
is being added very year. The progressiveness of 
this part of China is simply wonderful. 

Forty miles from Toy Shan City, on the way to 
Canton and Hongkong, is the important inland 
port of Kong Moon. It was an old and backward 
town years ago, little was expected of this town 
in the way of modernization. To-day, it has 
taken on the spirit of progress just as earnestly 
as Toy Shan City. A number of streets have al- 
ready been cut and widened, and electric lighting 
system is being organized and installed. A new 
highway is built extending from this port to San 
Wui City, the county seat of a district of the same 




Constructing an Arterial Traffic Street in Canton City 



and the county seat of the district of Toy Shan, 
has actually duplicated the work done in Canton. 
The old wall has been torn down and a fine boule- 
vard is built around the town, many streets have 
been cut and widened and paved; electric lights 
have taken the place of dim kerosene lamps ; a 
modern telephone system is being installed and 
a water system is being organized. There is a 
railroad built by capital raised mostly- among the 
Chinese in America, running by that town. All 
materials, engines and cars were imported from 
America, and no foreigners have ever been con- 
nected with the construction or running of this 
railroad. 

The transformation of this town is as marvel- 
ous as that which has taken place in Canton City. 
A very fine high school building has been put up 
wdiile the city was tearing down and removing 
the wall and widening the streets. This building 
is of semi-foreign architecture. Structures of this 



name, a few miles away. This road is very popu- 
larly traveled by the people between these two 
towns. A railroad has also been built between 
these two points, and a regular commuting service 
is being maintained at the present time. 

At San Wui City, the Municipal government is 
eagerly and enthusistically engaged in removing 
the old wall, cutting and widening and paving 
streets. In a word, towns in this part of China 
have taken on a new life and spirit. The momen- 
tum of modernization is gaining strength every 
day. and it is safe to say that from now on. noth- 
ing will be able to keep China hack. She is bound 
to forge ahead. 

Up in the Yang Tse Valley, this marvelous 
transformation may be also seen, as soon as the 
influence and leadership of the Nationalist govern- 
ment are felt. Almost every where wall-tearing 
and removing activities are seen, where conser- 



■4 25 ]*- 



vatism was once the prevailing spirit, now pro- 
pressiveness is the order of the day. 

Hang Chow, the capital of the province of 
Chekiang, has adopted the program of removing 
the wall and cutting and widening the street of 
the city. An American steam roller has been 
imported and now used in the paving of the new 
streets. This steam roller, as it does the work of 
many men and with wonderful rapidity in per-, 
forming its task, is a sight marvelous to the peo- 
ple. Where this steam roller is working along 
the new streets, men, women and children flock to 
its vicinity to witness this strange engine. These 
simple people get as much pleasure from looking 
at this machine at work as boys in this country 
get from looking at strange animals at a circus. 
Hang Chow, the old city famous for fine silks and 
beautiful embroideries for many centuries, is fast 
being transformed into a new modern city. 

A great movement is actively going on through- 
out the nation for the construction of highways. 
Today, there is not a single province where road- 
building is not going on not even excepting the 
remotest interior parts of China. A new bureau 
in each provincial government has been created 
called "Highway Bureau" whose duties are not 
only to look after the building of new highways 
but also to educate the people to the value of such 
highways as a means of communication and de- 
fense. 

The province of Kwangtung, of which Canton 
City is the capital, has a very efficient Highway 
Bureau. The personnel of this bureau is mostly 
engineers educated in American colleges. There 
are in this province, besides the main bureau, five 
sub-bureaus in different parts of the province. 
This province is divided into five highway dis- 
tricts, so as to facilitate the work of building 
roads throughout the whole province ; ninteen 
hundred miles of modern highways in this prov- 
ince alone have been constructed during the last 
ten years. 

The province of Chekiang which has already 
been mentioned in this paper, has mapped out a 
very ambitious program for the construction of a 
good system of highways throughout the whole 
province during the next four years. During this 
period of four years, the program calls for the 
completion of 8000 li or 2666 English miles of new 
roads. 

The province of Kweichow has also mapped out 



a road building program. It has already finished 
several hundred miles, and American automobiles 
are now seen on these roads, although this prov- 
ince is in the interior of China. The first Amer- 
ican car was a Hudson. It was not an easy mat- 
ter to get this first car into that province, as the 
means of transportation into this part of China 
is far from being good. This first car had to be 
taken apart, and part by part was taken by coolie 
over mountains and streams. When this car was 
again assembled and running along these new 
roads, great was the astonishment among the in- 
habitants along these highways. Yet it was only 
three years ago when the new highway program 
began. Today regular automobile stages are run- 
ning on regular schedules and they have lost 
much of their novelty among the people. 

There is an organization called "The National 
Road Construction Association of China" with 
headquarters in Shanghai, whose object is to 
encourage and stimulate the building of highways 
throughout the whole Republic. This organiza- 
tion has branch offices in many provinces, and 
much literature is printed and circulated through 
these agencies. 

The cost of the building of these highways is 
borne by bonds issued by local district govern- 
ments and subscribed mostly by the people of the 
districts through which these new roads are built, 
and with subsidies from the provincial govern- 
ments. Many of these new highways are similar 
to the privately constructed roads in this country 
where tolls are charged. The redemption of these 
bonds is to be made by revenues from tolls col- 
lected and from special taxes on the localities. 

A large number of motor stage companies 
have been organized in several provinces par- 
ticularly those provinces bordering the coast, and 
increasing number of auto stages are seen run- 
ning along these new roads and always full of 
passengers. This mode of travel is getting to be 
very popular among the Chinese people. 

The automobiles have built up the wonderful 
system of highways in America and likewise auto 
stage travels will help to develop a good system 
of roads for China. A good beginning has been 
made and an example has been set, and it will be 
very easy from now to extend this new modern 
high system throughout the whole of China. 
The new systems of highway will be one of the 
great factors toward making the old China hit' 
a new one. 



-4 26 }!>• 



The Growth of a Great Water Supply 

By Geo. W. Pracy. 
Superintendent City Distributing System, Spring Valley Water Co. 




111''. X iii the year 1860, the Federal census 
takers made their first count of the peo- 
ple in San Franicsco, they Found a group 
of seventy-eight thousand, hardy pio- 
neers already building for the great city to come. 
Today, man) "i" those included in the first census 
are still building and looking with pride on a city 
that has increased almost ten fold in the seventy 
years since the first count was made. 

The development of the city's 
water supply has been as re- 
markable as its growth in other 
directions and the clear and far 
sighted vision of the earl)' devel- 
opers of water becomes more 
and more evident as time passes. 
Like most boom towns, San 
Francisco's first supply came 
from enterprising merchants 
who sold you at your door by 
the gallon or barrel, as your 
needs might be. Those were the 
days "f individual effort, when 
all looked forward to making 
their fortunes and then going 
back home. 

But when the calm followed 
the furor of mining days and the 
agricultural possibilities of the 
state became apparent. San 
Francisco became home to the 
pioneers and her development a 
necessity. The deciding factor 
that led to the construction of a 
water works system was not, 
however, the comfort and clean- 
liness of a domestic supply, but, as in so 
many cases, the necessity of fighting fire. A mush 
room town, all buildings constructed of wood, 
with regard for nothing except to get a usable 
structure, and with a brisk wind blowing off the 
ocean, San Francisco was an invitation for dis- 
astrous fires, several of which swept the city in the 
early fifties. 

In 1858 the first works were constructed, taking 
water from Lobos Creek, a small creek emptying 
into the ocean near Baker's Beach, conducting it 
through a flume and pipe line around past Fort 
Mason and the Presidio and terminating at the 
pumping station on the shores of the bay at the foot 
of Van Ness avenue. Two reservoirs were built on 
the slopes of the adjoining hill, both taking their 
names from the hill and being known as Upper and 
Lower Russian Hill reservoirs. Both reservoirs are 
still an important part of the distributing system, 
the upper now being known as the Lombard Street 
Reservoir and the lower as the Francisco Street 
Reservoir. 




Geo. W. Pracy 



Lobos Creek still supplies water but to the Pre- 
sidio only. Its use as a part of San Francisco's 
water supply was stopped when the area adjacent 
to it and from whence it obtains its supply became 
covered with homes. This supply was developed by 
the San Francisco City Water Company. I. olios 
Creek has a normal flow of two-million gallons a 
day. 

A second ami competing company, came into ex- 
istence in 1860, it being organized by a George 
Ensign and called the Spring 
Valley Water Works, taking its 
name from a spring in the hol- 
low between Clay and Broad- 
way. Powell and Mason streets. 
Besides the spring, they took 
over the supply from Islais 
Creek, the waters being taken 
from the creek at a point west of 
the present Mission street via- 
duct and delivered into a reser- 
voir located in the lot now used 
by the Lux School at Sixteenth 
street and Potrero avenue. This 
creek supplied two - hundred 
thousand gallons of water a day. 

Realizing that these supplies 
were limited and would be. in a 
short time. inadequate, the 
Spring Valley Water Works 
energetically set out to acquire 
lands that would be capable of 
development into water sup- 
plies for the great city that they 
could now see would soon come 



into existence. 



Their first development was in the hills of San 
Mateo County west of the little city of San Mateo, 
on Pilarcitos Creek, a beautiful little stream rising 
in the San Mateo mountains and emptying into the 
Pacific Ocean near the town of Half Moon Bay. 
A large portion of the water shed of this stream 
above the dam. together with the water rights, was 
purchased, and in about 1861 a small earthen dam 
was built across the upper end of the little valley 
and two more million gallons were added to the 
daily supply of the city. This water was brought 
by tunnel, flume and pipe through and along the 
side hills of San Mateo past Lake Merced, finally 
emptying into Laguna Honda, a reservoir which had 
just been constructed in a little canyon west of the 
Twin Peaks and just north of the present Rebel 
Home. This reservoir was built on the site of a 
small lake known as Laguna Honda, a name which 
has become one of general use in this locality and 
which has been given to many and various develop- 
ments in the vicinity. The Laguna Honda reser- 
voir, when built, was thirty feet deep, holding thirty- 



-4 27 }»•■■ 



four million gallons, with its spillway 368 feet above 
the San Francisco city base. Later developments 
have increased its capacity to forty-four million 
gallons and added six feet to the depth of the water. 
This reservoir is now one of the important water 
storage basins in the city. 

From Lake Honda the water flowed through two 
twelve-inch cast iron pipes down Seventh avenue 
and Haight street to the Market Street Reservoir, 
located on the hill at Market, Dolores, Duboce and 
Buchanan streets. This hill has long since been 
destroyed as a reservoir site, the old reservoir being 
almost entirely obliterated. 

In 1865 the San Francisco City Water Company 
was consolidated with the Spring Valley Water 
Works and the development of the supply went on 
under the guidance of the latter company. 

The first piece of major construction work was 
the Pilarcitos Dam, located across Pilarcitos Creek 
below the little, original dam. This dam was started 
in the fall of 1864, an earthen dam, finally built to 
a h eighth of seventy feet, with a length at the crest 
of five hundred and twenty feet and containing 371 ,- 
202 cubic yards. The crest is at an elevation of 
seven hundred feet with slopes of two and two and 
one-half to one. The Lake, when full, has a surface 
area of one hundred and nine acres and contains one 
billion gallons. There are five and two-tenths 
square miles tributary to the Lake, which has an 
average daily yield of five-million gallons. 

This work was the introduction to the company 
of Mr. Hermann Schussler, who later became chief 
engineer and who, for the next forty-five years, was 
to exert a tremendous influence in the development 
of San Francisco's water supply. 

Along with the construction of Pilarcitos Dam, a 
thirty-inch riveted iron line was laid to Lake Honda. 
In making surveys for this pipe line, it was noted 
that the upper portion of the San Andres Valley 
was flat, with a damsite that made it available as a 
source of water supply. This project was studied, 
land purchased, and in 1868 the San Andres pro- 
ject was started. San Andres Dam is similar to 
Pilarcitos, being of earth, ninety-five feet high and 
seven hundred and ten feet long. It contains 529,- 
700 cubic yards with slopes of three and three and 
one-half to one. The crest is at the four hundred 
and fifty foot elevation. The Lake has a surface 
area of five hundred and fifty acres, contains six 
billion gallons and yields four million gallons daily 
from a watershed with an area of eight and four- 
tenths square miles. Besides the dam, this pro- 
ject included the building of College Hill Reservoir, 
of fourteen-million gallons capacity, located at the 
southerly end of the Mission District at an eleva- 
tion of two hundred and fifty-five feet. Another 
thirty-inch riveted wrought iron line was laid into 
town and in 1870 another four-million gallons was 
added to its supply. 

But the consumption steadily increased. From 
two and a third million in 1865, it had gone to six 
in 1870, then to more than twelve in 1875. About 
this time, another earthen dam was built across the 
southern end of the San Mateo Creek Valley, about 
three miles south of the present Crystal Springs 
concrete clam. The Skyline Boulevard now crosses 
over between the Upper and Lower Crystal Springs 
Lakes on this dam. The dam was completed in 



1877, the water being pumped into the Pilarcitos 
pipe line. 

During this same period, the Lake Merced lands 
were purchased, a pumping station was built on the 
shores of the north lake and a pipe line laid to con- 
nect with the San Andres line so that the waters of 
Lake Merced could be pumped into College Hill 
Reservoir. At the end of 1877, the developed supply 
was sixteen and a half million with a consumption 
of eleven and a half million, a campaign of conser- 
vation having decreased the consumption from the 
year previous. 

The next development came in 1885 when the 
forty-four inch Crystal Springs pipe line was laid 
from the Upper Crystal Spring Dam down the val- 
ley, through San Mateo and South San Francisco 
to the newly constructed University Mound Reser- 
voir in San Francisco. This line brought Crystal 
Springs water into San Francisco by gravity and 
did away with pumping the water into the Pilarcitos 
line. 

Across San Francisco Bay, in Alameda County, 
is an area of about six hundred square miles drained 
by Alameda Creek. While the rainfall there is not 
as great as on the west side of the Bay, the greater 
area involved indicated that a water supply, esti- 
mated at one hundred million gallons a day could 
be developed. As early as 1865 the company had 
realized that this source must be obtained but actual 
purchases were not made until ten years later, in 
1875, when the Calaveras Valley was purchased. 
Additional purchases were made at later dates until 
in 1887, and 1888, the original Alameda Creek de- 
velopment was built. This project took water out 
of Alameda Creek at the Niles Dam, thence using 
the old Vallejo Mills aqueduct to the town of Niles 
where the water entered a new thirty-six inch rivet- 
ed pipe line, flowing westerly through Centerville 
and Newark, across under San Francisco Bay, 
through two sixteen-inch submarine pipes, then 
again through a thirty-six inch line to the pumping 
station located about a mile south of the town of 
Belmont. From the pumping station, a thirty-six 
inch pipe was laid to connect to the Crystal Springs 
forty-four inch line. 

While the Alameda work was going on, the 
Crystal Spring Dam was started, the foundations 
being laid in 1887 and construction work being 
carried on in 1888 and again in 1890. This struc- 
ture, the largest of its kind at that time, was made 
of interlocking blocks, the blocks being poured in 
place but spaced so that each block had set before 
another was poured against it and so that each 
block interlocked with all the blocks with which it 
came in contact. While designed for a heighth of 
one hundred and eighty-eight feet, only the first 
one hundred and fifty-four feet were built, making 
the top of the dam two-hundred and eighty-eight 
feet elevation. This concrete dam completed the 
development of the peninsular sources, giving the 
Company four storage reservoirs with a total ca- 
pacity of thirty-two billion gallons and an average 
yield of twenty-nine million gallons per day from 
both Peninsula and Alameda sources. 

In the early part of 1893, the Lobos Creek supply 
was discontinued, leaving the City with an avail- 
able supply of twenty-seven million gallons a day. 






■4 28 }*••- 



The consumption in 1893 was nineteen-million 
which increased to twenty-five in 1899. 

The year previous, further development of the 
Alameda sources was started. This work consist- 
ed of the construction of the Sunol Dam, filter gal- 
leries and a flume down the Miles Canyon, deliver- 
ing the water to the thirty-six inch Alameda pipe 
line at the Niles Screen Tank at an elevation of 
one hundred and eighty feet. 

The Sunol Dam is a submerged dam built across 
Alameda Creek at the upper end of the Niles Can- 
yon, ju>t before it widens out to form the Sunol 
Valley. This dam raises the ground water level 
in the valley until the water flows through numerous 
pipes into the gallery, which is simply a tunnel- 
like -tincture laid for several thousand feet along- 
side of and close to the creek and deep enough 
underground that the dam forces the water into it. 
At the same time two twenty-two inch submarine 
pipes were laid, making four submarine pipes in all, 
and additional pumps put in the Belmont Station 
so that sixteen million gallons a day could be taken 
from the Alameda side of the Bay. 

This work sufficed until 1913, the City in the 
meantime having gone through the earthquake and 
fire of 1906 which resulted in reducing the con- 
sumption so that, while nearly thirty-five million 
gallons were used in 1905, only a little over twenty- 
nine were used in 1906 and it was not until 1910 
that the average daily consumption again went i iver 
the thirty-five million mark. 

In 1913. a motor driven centrifugal booster pump 
was cut into the Alameda pipe line at Ravenswood, 
on the w r est shore of San Francisco Bay, increasing 
the Alameda line capacity from sixteen to some- 
what over twenty-one million gallons. 

About 1905. exploration work was started pre- 
paratory to the construction of the Calaveras Dam. 
This work was interrupted by the earthquake but 



was taken up again in 1910, actual construction be- 
ing started in 1912. 

From time to time during the development of its 
water supply the municipality had made several ef- 
forts tn purchase the property From the company or 
tn develop a municipally owned supply. 

During the last few years of the past century, the 
thoughts of the City turned toward the Twolumne 
River as the source of its supply ami in 1900. active 
steps were taken to acquire that source. Bonds were 
voted in 1910 and work has progressed as rapidly 
as necessary, resulting in the construction of the 
Lake Eleanor and O'Shaughnessy Dams, nineteen 
miles of tunnels and a power house of sixty-six 
thousand installed horse-power. 

Realizing that the solution of San Francisco's 
water problems lay in combining the Spring Valley 
and I letch Hetchy supplies, the City planned their 
work to fit into the existing plant and continued 
their efforts to buy the Spring Valley System. 

When more water was needed, the city officials 
proposed the building of the Bay Division pipe line, 
to carry water from the Alameda properties of the 
Company across the bay and into Crystal Springs 
Reservoir. This work was done in 1925, the line 
containing one hundred and two thousand feet, 
nearly twenty miles, of five-foot riveted steel pipe 
and three thousand feet of forty-two inch cast iron 
submarine pipe. While the pipe was being built un- 
der City supervision, the Company completed the 
Calaveras Dam to its present height of two-hundred 
and twenty feet and replaced the wooden flume 
down Xiles Canyon with a concrete flume with a 
capacity of seventy-million gallons a day. 

The last remaining link in the work was the con- 
struction of a new line from Lake San Andres into 
San Franicsco. This pipe, fifty-four inches diameter 
and eleven miles long was started in February of 

(Continued to Page 43.) 




4 29 )3- 



Minerals and the World's Progress 

By Frank H. Probert 
Dean. College of Mining, University of California 




IIVILIZATION follows the Flag. This 
statement appeals strongly to our love 
of country and loyalty to its em- 
blem. We like to accept it as 
a truth without question or challenge, for to 
everj man the flag symbolizes the traditions and 
aspirations of the land it represents. In times of 
peace it satisfies with a sense of protection and 
security: in war it stirs the lethargic pulse into 
vibrant life, and that its folds may never be stained 
men will fight, suffer, kill and 
gladly offer themselves on the 
altars of war. a supreme sacri- 
fice. Civilization follows the 
flag, but does the flag lead 
through the unknown, uncon- 
quered waste places of the 
earth? Have there not been 
other impelling forces that have 
led the more venturesome al- 
ways a distance from settled 
communities? Historical re- 
search will substantiate my text 
that "Civilization follows the 
pick", for of all the things that 
have contributed to the discov- 
ery of lands, to the change of 
temporal power, to the rise and 
fall i if peoples, to the stimulation 
of industry and to the march of 
progress, the hidden treasures 
of the earth's crust and their ex- 
ploitation have had the most 
potent influence. Mining is 
among the most ancient of all 
the arts ; we read of the use of 
metals in the records of earliest 
times. The precious metals, 
have been for centuries the 
change. The gems and precious stones were sought 
in the dark ages as today, to add to the charms of 
the fair sex and luster to their surroundings. The 
base metals have been turned to the destruction 
of life and property. Without the metals human 
existence would be impossible. This is not a local, 
state or even national subject, it deals with pro- 
gressiveness in development of the human race. 

We are not all mindful of our dependence upon 
minerals and related resources and are apt to be 
provincial. There is gold mined beyond the Sierra 
and oil is not restricted to the confines of Cali- 
fornia. Mining is done in all parts of the world 
but let us hurriedly look into the past and see 
wherein the race has advanced as mineral substances 
became known and were utilized. 

When and where man first appeared upon the 
face of the earth is a secret wrapped in obscurity. 
The anthropologist lias yet to piece together the 




Prof. Frank H. Probert 



gold and silver, 
standards of ex- 



fragmentary evidence so the ethnologist may pre- 
sent in logical sequence the differentiations and 
segregations of human units from which our pres- 
sent-day complex civilization has evolved. Prim- 
itive man was essentially a rural creature, living 
alone or in small communities where the needs for 
human sustenance were readily procurable. Utiliza- 
tion and depletion of the soil caused man to migrate 
and the nomadic life probably retarded mental and 
social development. Our prototypes thrived in so 
far as they were able to reap 
the harvests of the soil, and ag- 
riculture has always been and 
always will be. the basic indus- 
try upon which human life de- 
pends. The first step from zoo- 
mimic man was to the neolithic, 
when natural stones or cleft 
rocks were used as implements 
for the chase, or to wage war on 
hostile tribes, then with increas- 
ing mentality, native metals or 
the simple oxides that were 
readily reducible at low temper- 
ature by wood or charcoal were 
used. Copper is the most abund- 
ant of the native metals, it was 
known in central and northern 
Europe in early historic time: 
tin stone or cassiterite was found 
in certain stream beds; it is 
heavy and would attract atten- 
tion, is readily reduced, and al- 
loyed with copper, it gave to 
the industrially developing peo- 
ple the bronzes. 

The transition to the "iron 
age" took place slowly, and it superseded 
bronze as paths of commerce were opened 
up. The chronology of these ages however 
— stone, bronze and iron, presents marked 
difficulties. Three or four centuries ago only 
seven metals were recognized, gold, silver. 
copper, tin, lead, iron and mercury, but since 1800 
progress has been rapid, for it was about this time 
that coal was first mined. With steel, the railroad, 
steamboat, tunnels, bridges, etc., lessened the gap 
between countries: nations were powerful as they 
could obtain coal and iron. Volta, Galvani, and 
Faraday next gave to the world the result of their 
researches in electricity, copper was demanded, and 
the telegraph, telephone, the transmission line, have 
caused the geographical map to shrink and indus- 
tries to thrive. Steel metallurgy lias advanced so 
rapidly that such metals as tungsten, chromium and 
manganese are of vital importance. 

We have within our personal memories seen the 
wondrous development of liquid fuel, petroleum 



4 30 )§• 



making possible the conquest of the air, rapid 
transportation in areas where the railroad does not 
reach, and even submarine travel. Can there be 
any question whatsoever as to the importance of 
minerals in national life, progress and power? Look 
around and in leisurely moments reflect upon the 
source of the thousand and one things used in daily 
life. Waking from peaceful slumber a brass or iron 
bedstead on which are sheets of linen woven on 
metal looms : the bath room lined with tile or 
cement with plumbing and fixtures of metal, the 
silvered mirror reflecting your face, the razor, with 
which you shave, of steel. At the breakfast table 
you toy with the cutlery while waiting for the meal 
cooked by coal or gas and served on plates of clay 
or other non-metallic but mined substance. The 
street car of steel propelled by electric energy 
brought from its source by copper wire, carries you 
to a ferry whose throbbing turbines are of steel and 
brass and bronze and babbitt. The taxi driven by 
gasoline is paid for in silver coin. The streets, 
paved with asphalt or of cement or maybe macadam 
(mined stone), are lined with buildings of orna- 
mental or fabricated stone and the office thrusts into 
view all manner of things, direct or indirect 
products of the mineral industry. 

Advancement has come with our understanding 
of the properties of minerals. So the prospector has 
gone forth from earliest days, enduring hardship, 
braving danger, buoyed up by hope, blazing the 
trail, encouraging the few, compelling the masses to 
follow, and preparing the stage for great national 
struggles and conquests. The search for metals 
lured the more venturesome farther afield, new 
lands were discovered and so through the countless 
centuries civilization has followed the pick of the 
prospector, and the desire for possession of mineral 
lands has been the cause of strife and warfare since 
history was first written. The influence that one 
state or nation has on world affairs depends pri- 
marily upon the natural resources of the land it con- 
trols, on the initiative and industry of its peoples to 
exploit them and on the ease with which it can sell 
or exchange its products in the world's markets. 
The most densely populated areas of the world are 
those where the raw materials are fashioned into the 
million and one things on which we now- depend to 
satisfy our diverse needs. Agriculture and mining, 
the exploitation of the soil and sub-soil, these two 
industries are the warp and woof of the complex 
fabric of our modern civilization. Human progress, 
industrial activity, commercial supremacy and na- 
tional strength are predicated upon the control or 
possession and the use of natural resources, but 
we are living in a very materialistic age. Intensive 
development of our mineral and agricultural lands 
has been accomplished by the substitution of 
mechanical for the human unit, research and tech- 
nology have progressed to a degree that no state or 
nation, no matter how richly endowed, is sufficient 
unto itself: each is dependent upon the other for 
some essential material, raw or fabricated, without 
which the wheels of industry will soon clog and 
shortly stop. The marvellous developments of the 
last 50 years of transportation, communication and 
industry have compelled a clearer understanding 
between nations and welded them together. States 
are now so absolutely dependent one upon the other 



that interruption in the exchange of products im- 
mediately threatens human existence. No country, 
not even this United States is sufficient unto itself; 
the \\ hole world constitutes one workshop, we must 
think internationally. 

Natural resources may be considered as the en- 
dowment which Nature offers to those diligent in 
search, and mentally and physically equipped to 
exploit them. They may be divided into three com- 
prehensive groupings, agricultural, power and min- 
eral resources. The first two differ from the last 
named in that they are practically inexhaustible. 
The land, with proper care, can be made to yield 
its increase indefinitely, areas may be reforested, 
crops may be rotated to replenish the soil and con- 
stantly give a harvest, arid lands may be made 
fertile, seeds may be transported and under favor- 
able conditions of climate, soil and human skill, 
grains, fruits and vegetables may be perpetuated. 

The natural power resources have been partiallv 
harnessed by industrial man, impressing Nature 
into commercial service. The winds have driven 
ships and ground grain, running streams were di- 
verted to irrigate land and to turn water wheels. 
then as the force of steam was recognized and its 
power fully realized we progressed from simple 
boiler-, to the giant turbines. More recently the 
pent up energy of falling water has been trans- 
formed into hydro-electric power, capable of being 
transmitted long distances to industrial centers 
with but little loss. Water power may be periodic, 
it may fluctuate but it is never exhausted by use. 
So long as the sun shines and clouds gather, just so 
long will there be water power available, either as 
a prime or as an auxiliary source to be converted 
and used in the many forms of industrial, municipal 
or national enterprise. 

The mineral resources are exhaustible by human 
agency. The birth certificate of a mining enter- 
prise is also its death warrant. They are erratically 
distributed in highland and lowland, in the tropics 
and in the frozen north, they cannot be transplant- 
ed nor can man's ingenuity ever duplicate them, or 
make them in any other place than where Nature 
has chosen. The presence or absence of mineral 
resources makes a country strong or weak, they are 
fundamental to national progress. To be great, a 
nation must have the essential minerals and the 
complimentary minerals: those needed in the fabri- 
cation of the many and varied alloys and chemical 
substances, must be readily available. Interna- 
tional trade is highly desirable in order that a 
country most economically producing a desirable 
commodity in competition with others, may receive 
raw materials which it lacks. A monopoly of one 
or more minerals may compel this exchange. In 
the interrelations of nations some of them are bound 
to play a dominant part in the production or manu- 
facture of certain commodities. 

The mere existence of mineral deposits within na- 
tional geographic boundaries, does not make a na- 
tion wealthy or powerful unless it explores, exploits 
and financially controls them. 

The attitude of government, not only that of the 



ti lontlnued on Page 39) 



~€{ 31 fc-- 



Problems of Meteorology in the West 



By D. W. Little, 

Meteorologist, U. S. Weather Bureau 




HE rapid expansion in air transportation 
along the Pacific Coast Airways during 
the past year and particularly during the 
ast three months, makes it imperative 
that an adequate meteorological service be establish- 
ed for safe as well as efficient flying. The Federal 
Government for many years has maintained a 
nationwide network of meteorological stations 
through the Weather Bureau. Logically, therefore, 
an efficient airway service can 
be built up by the Weather Bur- 
eau in establishing local report- 
ing stations, along the airway 
between the regular Weather 
Bureau Station, and by estab- 
lishing an intensive communica- 
tion system. 

The need for such a service 
cannot be over-emphasized. No- 
where in the United States is 
there to be found such a contrast 
between plain and mountain as 
along the Pacific Coast. Num- 
erous mountain peaks from 8,000 
feet to 14,000 feet are found on 
each side of the airway. In fly- 
ing between Los Angeles and 
Portland it is necessary to cross 
four mountain ranges, the low- 
est pass oi which is over 4,000 
feet elevation. Almost one-third 
of this airway is over mountain- 
ous country. 

The ruggedness of the topography together with 
the close proximity of the Pacific Ocean, the mother 
of all storms along this coast, result in some of the 
most difficult flying weather to be found in the 
United States. Clouds, rain, snow, and fog occur 
over the mountainous regions even with the passage 
of small disturbances far to the north. 

In order to give as complete and efficient service 
as possible along the airway from San Diego to 
Seattle, trained meteorologists are to be assigned to 
the airports at Los Angeles, Oakland, Redding, 
Medford, Portland and Seattle. Twice daily, weath- 
er maps will be prepared at these points through 
telegraphic reports from the already existing net- 
work of regular stations and ships in the Pacific 
Ocean. Daily use of the maps by the pilots, togeth- 
er with the flying weather forecasts issued by the 
Weather Bureau Stations, and by establishing an 
tention the causes of changing weather over the 
airway. 

In practice this leads to a certain amount of fore- 
casting ability among the pilots which is a valuable 
adjunct to them. Upper air wind direction and ve- 

NoTE: The Year Book is indebted to Mr. Robl. J. Pritchard, Editor 



locity at various elevations, as obtained by pilot 
balloon readings will also be furnished for various 
stations. This data is of particular value in allow- 
ing the flyer to judge the most advantageous alti- 
tude at which to fly and will aso give him the height 
of ceiling in cloudy weather. 

Best Winds Sought 

For the past year and a half the pilots of the 
Pacific Air Transport have been using the upper 
air wind reports to better their 
already fast schedule. Frequent- 
ly, strong north winds were 
found with pilot balloons at ele- 
vations above 6,000 feet, while 
light to moderate southerly 
winds were near the surface. 
Such information in possession 
of the pilot before each flight 
has actually enabled the Pacific 
Air Transport to save many fly- 
ing hours, decreasing propor- 
tionately the cost of operation. 
In addition, local observers 
will be appointed along the air- 
ways who will send frequent re- 
ports of weather, wind, ceiling, 
visibility, etc., by telephone 
regularly and on call from the 
control stations along the air- 
way. Instrumental equipment 
will be furnished all airway ob- 
servers to eliminate errors of es- 
timation in their reports. A fully 
equipped intermediate airway station will have the 
following equipment: a wind vane for wind direc- 
tion, an anemometer registering surface wind veloc- 
ity, a thermometer and thermometer shelter, aneroid 
barometer, ceiling light for night reports of height 
of ceiling, and small pure rubber balloons with 
hydrogen inflation device for obtaining height of 
ceiling in daytime. 

The Department of Commerce has authorized the 
establishment of short wave radio station at air 
ports designated as control stations, and the)' will 
handle the transmission of reports when the radii > 
installation is complete. 

Block Signal System 

The Department is also designing a block system, 
lights (possibly neon) by night, and panels by day, 
which will inform the flyer in the air the condition 
of the weather in the block ahead. Sudden changes 
of weather will be reported immediately to the con- 
trol stations. 

A Department of Commerce panel station is 
authorized to be established at Livermore, Califor- 

of Western Flying Magazine, for permission to reproduce this article. 




D. W. Little 



■4 32 }y- 



nia, just outside the fog area of the San Francisco 
Bay region. This will be so designed that a flyer 
approaching the Bay district can read the ground 
signals at l.ivermore and know the condition of 
Fog "i" inclement weather at the four major airports 
around the Bay. 

In harmony with this extension of meteorological 
service in aid of aviation, the municipal airports, ti> 




A Beacon on the San Francisco- 
Los Angeles Airway 

which trained meteorologists are to be assigned, 
have agreed to furnish office quarters. This means 
that each major terminal airport will have its own 
meteorological office conducted by the U. S. Weath- 
er Bureau. 

In the case of the Oakland Municipal Airport, the 
Port Commissioners are having plans drawn for an 
extension of their present Administration Building, 
which will double the present office space. 'When 
completed the Oakland Office will have four trained 
weather Bureau men furnishing practically 24-hour 



service, and will be the headquarters for the service 
nil the Pacific Coast Airway. 

The Los Angeles airport situation is still uncer- 
tain, due to the recent voting down of bonds for a 
municipal airport. As long as this question remains 
unsettled the Weather Bureau cannot establish a 
permanent airport meteorological office there. 

The work of establishing the airway service is 
being rapidly pushed. When it is completed the 
information available for the flyer along the airway 
will be the latest and most accurate obtainable. This 
service, together with the lighting, radio, and land- 
ing field projects of the Department of Commerce, 
should eliminate risk and help in a large measure 
t.> establish solidly commercial aviation on the Pa- 
cific Coast. 

As a result of wdiat has already been accomplish- 
ed, San Francisco and Los Angeles are linked by 
an airway second to none in the world. Between 
the two cities, airports and intermediate fields pro- 
vide safe landing places every 30 miles or less. Con- 
sequently no plane flying the route at the usual alti- 
tude is out of safe gliding distance except for per- 
haps a few minutes. 

Every ten miles along the airway towers have 
been installed to mark the route and to provide 
pilots with navigational aides, such as direction of 
wind and its approximate speed. At night two- 
million candle power beacons flash from these tow- 
ers, pointing the way, and by a code of light signals 
permit the pilots to locate themselves. 

There are already installed 36 such beacons be- 
tween San Francisco and Los Angeles. In clear 
weather the pilot has from two to four of these in 
sight all of the time. In addition airports and inter- 
mediate fields are also lighted with less powerful 
beacons. 

Airports are municipal or privately owned fields 
with hangars and administration buildings. On this 
western airway they are found at Oakland, Merced, 
Selma, Visalia, Tulare and Bakersfield. Intermedi- 
ate fields are tracts of level land, 100 to 160 acres, 
leased by the government, conditioned and main- 
tained by regularly employed caretakers. Nine such 
fields are now in operation along the airway. They 
are at Livermore. Westley. Livingston. Earlimont, 
Tejon. Antelope. Saugus and Griffith Park, near 
Glendale. Others are being completed for use as 
soon as possible and even now are suitable for safe 
landings. 

Over this network of fields and beacons, together 
with home airports, the government maintains close 
inspection. Beacons are maintained by the Light- 
house Bureau. Airway mechanics, employed by the 
Department of Commerce, make regular inspection 
trips, continually repairing and improving. 

To supplement the physical airway, the Guggen- 
heim Foundation and the Standard Oil Company are 
providing meteorological information. The oil com- 
pany telegraphs information from each of its pump- 
ing stations along the Bakersfield-Richmond pipe 
line. From these two agencies and the United 



(Continued on Page 72.) 



-Hgf 33 )3»- 



"Help Keep California and the Far West Clean'' 



President. So 



Bv Philip Schuyler 

elu of Engineers, and Editor. We 



.tern Construction News 




jjUST as the Pilgrims looked upon the 
"New World", America, as a God-sent 
paradise, compared to the conditions 
under which they had lived in Europe — 
California and the Far West are to us, "God's 
Country", We are justly proud of our heritage, 
and boast of its cleanness and health. But, in our 
enthusiasm to lure all our relatives and friends to 
share our happiness, we overlook the fact that pol- 
lution and disease follow closely upon the heels 
of population density. All authoritative prognosti- 
gators agree that the cities in the Far West are 
destined to be the largest in the world. Alas, that 
this should be so. Nevertheless, we have invited 
the world to come and live with us, and we must 
prepare for their influx — and, influx 
it will be, for it is coming faster 
than any of us realize. 

Pollution and all that follows, 
has time and again in the centuries 
gone by, decimated cities. It 
is true we have made rapid pro- 
gress in the "art" of sewage dis- 
posal, since the first sewers were 
constructed seventy-five years ago, 
(except those built by the Romans, 
etc.) But, until recently the gen- 
eral method of disposal has been 
by dilution in rivers, lakes, harbors, 
nr the ocean. Thus sewage dis- 
posal to all except a very few, be- 
came something "out of sight, out 
id mind", except when the odor 
nuisance became offensive. Thus 
did the great cities of the Middle 
West, such as Chicago, Minne- 
apolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, etc., grow and pros- 
per ; thoughtlessly dumping their sewage and trade 
wastes into the great Mississippi and her tributaries, 
and pumping the polluted water back for their 
domestic water supplies. Finally, and quite sud- 
denly, a few years ago. the people awoke to the 
seriousness of the pollution, and found they must 
spend hundreds of millions in rectification, with 
but meager knowledge of how to go about it; 
whereas a few hundred thousand spent in earlier 
research would have prevented the pollution and 
saved much of this huge outlay. 

Pollution is an insidious monster and has al- 
ready become a serious problem in the Far West, 
especially California, where we have few big rivers 
for dilution ; and climatic, crop, and industrial waste 
problems different from other parts of the United 
States. 

Realizing what California was facing, a few of 
the sanitary engineers in the State — Charles Gil- 
man Hyde, professor of sanitary engineering, Uni- 




Philip Schuilf.r 



versity of California; Chester G. Gillespie, director 
of the State Bureau of Sanitary Engineering; Wil- 
fred F. Langelier, associate professor of sanitary 
engineering. University of California; and the writ- 
er — started a movement to secure State-aid for a 
systematic program of scientific research to deter- 
mine more efficient and economical methods of 
sewage and trade waste treatment and research. 
A bill was introduced in the 1925 State Legislature, 
which though it failed of passage for lack of sup- 
port, at least brought the subject before the people. 
The following two years were spent in enlisting 
the support of additional sanitary engineers, such 
as, Clyde C. Kennedy, consulting municipal engi- 
neer, San Francisco ; W. T. Knowlton, sanitary en- 
gineer, city of Los Angeles; Leon B. Reynolds, pro- 
fessor of sanitary engineering, 
Stanford University ; A. K. War- 
ren, chief engineer, Los Angeles 
County Sanitation Districts; An- 
drew M. Jensen, commissioner of 
public works, Fresno ; Harold F. 
Gray, consulting sanitary engineer, 
Oakland ; H. B. Hommon, district 
engineer, U. S. Public Health Ser- 
vice ; F. H. Fowler, consulting en- 
o-ineer, San Francisco; and W. I. 
Locke, attorney at law and secre- 
tary of the League of California 
Municipalities. 

The endorsement of the League, 
and of the San Francisco and L>s 
Angeles Sections of the American 
Society of Civil Engineers, was se- 
cured : A bill was again intro- 
duced in the 1927 Legislature, 
but was allowed to die in corn- 
it was found that it lacked 
sufficient support to secure its passage. 
Thereupon the League of California Munici- 
palities appointed a special committee on 
publicity, with W. T. Knowlton as chairman; 
which committee, divided into three divisions — 
Southern, Central, and Northern California — have 
held monthly meetings, in which all interested in 
sanitation have been invited to participate. A num- 
ber of special articles enumerating the problems, es- 
pecially in the matter of trade wastes, which re- 
search must solve, have been prepared and pub- 
lished in "California Municipalities" and "\\ esteni 
Construction News". The support of the Governor 
of California, C. C. Young, and of Alex R. Herron! 
Director of Finance, has been enlisted, and we have 
their assurance that some monies. $50,000 to $75,000, 
will be included in the 1929-1930 Stale budget, 
which will enable the State Board of Health through 
the Bureau of Sanitary Engineering, to start this 
much needed research. Nevertheless, the endorses 



mittee when 



34 )»••- 



merit l>\ resolution of every city, town, and sanitary 
district in California, is to be solicited; ami there- 
fur every engineer, and every citizen interested, 
should personally lend his support to this move- 
ment, in order that Governor Young and the 1929 
State Legislature may feel justified in making this 
appropriation. 

The object of this State-aid research is to pro- 
vide the "tools" with which consulting sanitary 
engineers and city engineers, can mure intelligently 
design efficient and economical sewage treatment 
plants. 

Proposed Plan of Research 

Although it is not possible to prescribe in ad- 
vance definite and fixed lines of procedure in the 
conduct of an experimental investigation, it is pos- 
sible to delineate in broad outline the general pro- 
cedure to be followed. 

First, there will he a certain amount of stud}-, in 
the laboratory, of a number of important underly- 
ing factors in sewage and trade wastes treatment 
and disposal. The results of these studies may 
later he tried out in the field on a larger scale. Also, 
in the laboratory, methods successfully used in oth- 
er parts of the world may be given a small-scale 
try-out under conditions simulating as closely as 
possible our own conditions in this State. Later, 
these ideas may also he tried out on a larger scale 
in the field. The laboratory, therefore, will serve 
to develop new ideas and facts, and to test on a 
small scale ideas and methods of possible applica- 
tion under California conditions. 

Second, studies will be made on working-size ex- 
perimental plants located at the source of special 
industrial wastes. Such plants will be flexible in 
operation, so that the conditions of treatment and 
disposal may be varied widely to develop the maxi- 
mum amount of information with a minimum cost 
of installation. 

Third, existing sewage treatment plants in which 
trouble with industrial wastes is experienced, may 
by special arrangement with the authorities con- 
cerned be operated under the direct supervision of 
the State in such a manner as to obtain data of 
great practical value. 

Co-operative Assistance Research 

It has been suggested by various persons that in 
the conduct of the sewage and trade wastes research 
proposed and advocated by this Committee, a cer- 
tain amount of co-operation and assistance, finan- 



cial and otherwise, may he expected and received 
from various industries, municipalities, and other 
organizations directly or indirectly interested. 

In certain forms such co-operation in this rest-arch 
i^ to be desired and encouraged, hut should he an 
adjunct of. and not a part of the proposed state- 
aid. 

In the first place, it is impossible to depend, even 
in part, on co-operative contributions in money as 
a means "f financing the proposed research. It is 
imperative that the State, itself and solely, supply 
each biennium the minimum amount of money 
necessary for the proper conduct of the investiga- 
tions. Only on that basis can assurance be had of 
a successful prosecution of the investigation, with 
proper continuity and efficiency. Contributions in 
money from co-operating interests might be given 
in one year and withheld in another year when 
most needed; might be more or less in amount than 
required: might be hedged about with impossible 
restrictions ; or might cause legal difficulties if 
merged with state funds. To depend even in a 
small part on co-operation in this form would risk 
the total wrecking of the investigation at perhaps 
the most critical time. 

Any co-operation, no matter in what form given, 
-hould he directed either 

(a) to reducing the time necessary (and ulti- 
mately the cost to the State) to obtain the facts 
and methods required, or 

i In to extending the investigation to cover the 
subject more thoroughly or more extensively than 
would be possible with state funds only. 

The best results in co-operation will be obtained 
if a particular industry or municipality assists by- 
means of plant, equipment, supplies, or services ap- 
plied to a particular phase of the investigation, 
which can best be studied in that particular indus- 
try, municipality, or locality. In all such cases the 
State would supply the plan of precedure, the ex- 
pert supervision and direction, the interpretation of 
results, and all or part of the personnel. This form 
of cooperation will be more readily given, and given 
more abundantly and continuously, for obvious 
reasons. It avoids, also, any possibility of legal 
complications in the handling of funds. 

''Keep California and the Far West Clean" for our 
children and the generations to come, is the slogan 
of this worth-while movement. Do your part, no 
matter how small it may appear to he. 



— 4 35 }> 



Protecting the Eastbay's Mokelumne 
Water Supply System 



Edwin L. Dricgs, Designing Engineer, 
East Day Municipal Utility District. 




SATISFACTORY design for a public 
water supply system must include, not 
only the essential features of a perma- 
nent, safe and sufficient quantity of 
water at all times, its transportation, purification 
and distribution; but also the secondary or protec- 
tive features necessary to insure the pipe line and 
structures against deterioration and accident and 
the water from contamination and loss. In the de- 
sign of the East Bay Aqueduct, 
recently completed to furnish the 
cities on the east side of San 
Francisco Bay with a supply of 
mountain water from the Mokel- 
umne River much thought and at- 
tention was given to these secon- 
dary considerations. 

This aqueduct is 93.8 miles 
long, of which 12.7 miles is tunnel 
and concrete aqueduct and the 
remaining 81.1 miles is a steel 
pipe extending from the Lancha 
Plana tunnel at the outlet of Lake 
Pardee down and across the San 
Joaquin Valley and up into the 
foothills on the west side of the 
valley to the entrance to Walnut 
Creek tunnel. The first few miles 
of the line is located in the foot- 
hills, has steep grades and crosses 
several water courses. After 
leaving the hills the line is nearly 
level across many miles of rich 

agricultural lands and a like Edwin l - Dr,ccs 

amount of peat lands. To cross 
the valley meant crossing five rivers or river 
branches, three of which are navigable and two 
non-navigable. 

An earthquake, fire or flood might cause a break 
in the line, which would not only interrupt the sup- 
ply and seriously endanger the remainder of the line, 
but might cause a great deal of damage to property 
if proper safety measures were not provided. It is 
the purpose of this article to describe certain of these 
safety devices and the problems arising in their de- 
sign. 

Vacuum Relief Valves 

A frequent cause of failure in the operation of a 
long line of steel pipe is that due to outside pressure, 
largely atmospheric, tending to collapse the pipe. 
Under normal operating conditions the pressure in- 
side of the pipe is greater than that on the outside, 
but in case of a sudden break in the line, the velocity 
of the water may suddenly increase or even reverse 




its direction of flow. This sudden change would 
cause a partial vacuum in the line, especially at high 
points, which changes the resultant pressure from 
inside to outside of the pipe. The maximum pres- 
sure possible is that due to atmospheric pressure 
plus the weight of the external covering over the 
line. For small pipes this is not an excessive load 
but for a \ s " steel plate and a 60" line or larger, the 
loads are dangerous unless protective measures are 
taken to prevent the formation of a vacuum within 
the pipe. An accident of this sort 
happened in Feb. 1914 when a 
rl 1 in the Antelope Valley caus- 
ed a break in the Los Angeles 
Aqueduct with a resulting col- 
lapse of nearly two miles of steel 
pipe. The worst combination of 
conditions for pipe failure occurs 
when the pipe shell is thinnest, 
the slope the steepest, and the 
break the most complete. On the 
Mokelumne pipe line this combi- 
nation is most likely to occur in 
the first six miles of the line 
where the location is thru the 
foothills with slopes up to 25°. 
Frequent drainage crossings oc- 
cur where the line is carried on 
concrete piers above ground. A 
sudden break in the line due to an 
earthquake, landslide or flood 
washing out some of the piers or 
carrying away a section of the 
pipe might result disastrously to 
a large portion of the line if the 
high points were not protected by 
vacuum relief valves which allow air to en- 
ter the pipe when the pressure becomes great- 
er on the outside of the pipe. Six-inch valves 
were used thruout the entire length of the line and 
the number required were determined as follows: 
All points in the line where a change in slope oc- 
curred were investigated. Breaks in the line were 
assumed at controlling points on either side of the 
point under consideration. The velocity of the 
water in the line before the break occurred was 
computed and on each side of the change in 
slope the velocity was figured after the assumed 
break had occurred. If the slope and break were 
such as to cause the water to leave the point faster 
than it was supplied, sufficient vacuum relief valves 
were furnished to admit the necessary amount of 
air to fill the space. 

In level sections of the line across the valley 
where computations showed that no valves were 



€{ 37 )J» 



needed one valve was placed every half mile as a 
precautionary measure. 

Anchors 

A long pipe line with steep slopes must be prop- 
erly anchored to prevent creeping of the line and 
the resulting excessive stresses which may, later, 
when the line is loaded, cause a break. An empty 
pipe line on a steep slope will creep down hill with 
an increase of temperature. A fall in temperature, 
causing a shortening of the line, will tend to pull 
the line back up the hill if the high end is anchored, 
or, what amounts to the same thing, is continuous 
over the top. As a result of this creeping a long 
line of pipe laid down hill will have an internal ten- 
sion in the line at the summit ; while a long line of 
pipe anchored at the bottom and laid uphill will 
tend to buckle at the lower end under the resulting 
compression. An anchor, by restraining the line, 
localizes the stress, and if properly constructed will 
have a sufficient number of anchors to prevent the 
stress becoming excessive at any one point. An 
unburied pipe line requires anchors at the high anil 
low points to prevent the line lifting off the support- 
ing piers, at the high points during the day and at 
the low points during the night. The anchor at the 
high point, should also be large enough to overcome 
the lifting of the pipe due to water pressure after 
the line is filled. 

Since the designer seldom knows the time of day, 
the season of the year, and the conditions under 
which the line is to be laid, especially whether up 
or down hill, the question of the size and location 
of anchors is largely a matter of judgment. From 
the standpoint of anchorage, a buried line is very 
much safer than an unburied one because the earth 
cover acts as an anchor and the variation in temper- 
ature is less. 

Automatic Synchronous Stop and Relief Valves 

Should a break occur in a long line of pipe laid 
across the San Joaquin Valley, considerable damage 
to land and crops might result from the escaping 
water, even tho the valves at the dam were closed 
at once. Ordinary valves along the line would 
necessitate some automatic means of closing them. 
This would prevent the escape of water but would 
not prevent water hammer in the line with the re- 
sulting higher stresses in the pipe. Ordinary gate 
valves would therefore mean heavier pipe to take 
this additional load. To prevent this difficulty a 
new type of valve has been designed called an 
"Automatic Synchronous Stop and Relief Valve". 
These valves are placed in the line at four points 
where natural drainage crosses the right-of-way, 
and each consists of two valves, one butterfly and 
one needle valve rigidly connected. The butterfly 
valve is placed in the main pipe line and is nor- 
mally open. The needle valve is placed in a tec 
connection and is normally closed. These valves 
are so geared that one valve opens as the other 
closes, and when operating slowly diverts the 
water from the main line to the by-pass without 
changing the velocity of the water in the main line 
or creating water hammer. The butterfly valve in 
the main line is located in the throat of a venturi 
meter which is connected by pressure lines to a 
mercury chamber containing a float. As the 



velocity of the water increases the difference of 
pressure created between the throat of the meter 
and the pipe causes the float to rise. This float 
closes a switch which energizes a solenoid and 
closes another switch in an electric circuit, thereby 
starting a motor which operates the valves. After 
the position of the valves has been reversed the 
motor operates a limit switch which stops the 
motor. A break at any point in the line by increas- 
ing the velocity of the water in the line toward the 
break automatically operates the nearest stop and 
relief valve between the break and the dam thus 
stopping the flow of water towards the break. 
Valves below the break are not effected. 

River Crossings 

One of the most difficult portions of the East Bay 
Aqueduct was the three river crossings of the San 
Joaquin, Old and Middle Rivers. These three rivers 
are wide, deep and navigable, necessitating the lay- 
ing of the pipe line below the river bed. In the case 
of the San Joaquin river, the War Department re- 
quired that the pipe be laid below the proposed 32' 
deep water channel, which means that the pipe is 
15 to 18 feet below the present bed of the river or 
nearly 40 feet below sea level. This required heavy 
equipment for the deep excavation below the river 
bed. To make investigation or repairs to such a 
line after being placed in operation would be dif- 
ficult. It would take some time to rent or buy 
equipment of sufficient size to handle such work and 
to maintain such equipment as a permanent part of 
the project would be out of the question from the 
financial side alone. To procure such equipment 
when needed and to uncover and repair the line 
across the river would take so long that the district 
might be faced with a water famine by the time 
normal operation was restored. To avoid any such 
possibility therefore, two lines have been placed in 
operation under each of the rivers, so arranged that 
either or both of the lines may be operated. These 
two lines are connected at each bank thru a Tee 
connection. Normally both lines are flowing, but 
either line may be cut out, opened and pumped dry 
and entered for inspection and repairs without in 
any way interferring with a continuous flow thru 
the other line, except for a few hours necessary to 
make the change. 

Protecting the Pipe Shell 

Steel corrodes in the presence of water and 
oxygen, and since this condition exists in a buried 
or exposed pipe line in operation it will rapidly 
deteriorate unless protected. This deterioration is 
greatly accelerated if sea water or alkaline salts are 
present. Pipe lines located thru salt marches, peat 
lands, or alkali lands as a general rule have the 
shortest lives, and under such conditions pipe lines 
have been rendered useless in ten years. The 
larger portion of the Mokelumne aqueduct across 
the San Joaquin River valley is buried and more 
or less alkali is encountered in spots along this por- 
tion of the line. Some 14 miles of pipe between 
the San Joaquin River and Indian Slough passes 
thru peat lands in the delta of the river which is 
effected by the tides from the bay at this point, 
and contains more or less salt. Approximately 10}/> 
miles of this distance the pipe is carried above 
ground while east of Holt the line is buried. On 



-4 38 }>- 



both the buried and unburied portions the pipe 
shell is protected by a covering both inside and out 
side of Hermastic. This Hermastic consists of a 
mixture of petroleum asphalt, dehydrated tar and 

mineral tiller. In order that this covering be effec- 
tive the bond between the Hermastic and the steel 
must be good, otherwise blisters will form on the 
surface of the pipe which in time will peel off allow- 
ing water to come in contact with the steel shell. 
To get a good bond the pipe must be clean and the 
Hermastic applied hot. The pipe is first cleaned of 
dirt and mill scale, then heated to a temperature of 
about 450° in an oven kept as near as possible at a 
temperature of 800° F. and afterwards dipped into 
.i cistern of Hermastic at a temperature of 450 to 
500° F. The pipe is then allowed to stand until the 
Hermastic is cool, after which it is spirally wrapped 
by machine with Pabco pipe covering. This Pabco 
covering is a felt saturated with a high melting 
point bituminous solution and is bonded to the 
pipe with a hot stream of asphalt applied at the time 
of wrapping. The pipe covering is applied as a 
protection to the Hermastic. 

Pipe Bents 

A pipe line carried above ground on piles is more 
easily inspected and repaired than a buried line and 
not being in contact with the soil the pipe is not 
effected by alkali or other corroding elements found 
in the earth. On the other hand an uncovered line 
is an obstruction to travel across the right-of-way. 
to the passage of stock, and to farming operations, 
and the line being exposed to the sun the water 
becomes heated. West of Holt the pipe line is car- 



ried across the peat lands, above ground on pile 
bents. 'I',, have buried the line here would have 
meant placing it below the normal ground water 
level, which is near the ground surface. This 
would have been expensive to lay, or later to repair 
on account of the pumping necessary to expose the 
pipe. .Most of the soil along this portion of the 
line is peat which burns readily when dry. To 
have carried the line over these peat lands without 
some fire protection, would have meant running the 
risk of having the piles burnt off during dry weather, 
thus breaking the line and flooding the country. 
To guard against this contingency 1395 pile bents 
had the soil excavated to a depth of three to five 
feet below the ground surface and three feet back 
from the bent on all sides and the hole backfilled 
with sand. Approximately 13 cu. yds. of sand was 
used at each bent for back filling. East of Holt 
where the line is buried in peat land, it was found 
necessary to backfill the trench with sand, which 
had to be hauled in for that purpose, in order to 
have sufficient weight to hold the pipe down when 
empty. 

Conclusion 

Other protective features that are not necessary 
on pipe line No. 1 are being designed or have been 
installed on the concrete aqueduct, the tunnels, and 
the supply lines within the city limits which operate 
under different condition ; but the brief description 
here given of some of these features is sufficient to 
show that this is a very important part of the 
design of a water supply system. 



Minerals and the World's Progress 



(Continued fi 



land in which the mineralized masses occur but of 
the country financially responsible for the under- 
taking, is far reaching in its effect on the possibil- 
ities of exploitation. Commercial control is in no 
way related to national boundaries. The great 
aggressive powers are reaching out, with both state 
and private capital, quietly, surreptitiously but in- 
cessantly. Money is power, invested capital de- 
mands certain rights, the wage earners dominate 
community life and mould public opinion, and so 
in many ways the national policy may be determined 
by extraneous influences. We, in the United 
States, with our surfeit of national resources, have 
perhaps been blind to this constant invidious power 
exercised in other countries in this regard. 

It should be part of the political and commercial 
program of every country to investigate its own 
potential resources, to stimulate and foster the 
development of such as it can produce at a profit in 
competition with the world, to be advised of the 
disposition of raw materials and products made 
therefrom in foreign lands, and to cultivate trade 
relationships such as will insure the ready flow of 
exchangeable goods. A nationalistic policy must 



however be developed in order that the immediate 
and future needs of industry may be satisfied. 

We must properly orient our national problems 
to the world problems. These are predominately 
economic and require, as Mr. Hoover has said 
"quantitative and prospective thinking and organ- 
ization". We are no longer secure in our isola- 
tion ; science and engineering have obliterated dis- 
tances, the peoples of the earth are knit together, 
if not by tongue, creed or race, by business enter- 
prise, by industry, by the exchange of products. 

The United States is today the creditor nation. 
In order to enjoy its prestige, in order that it may 
alleviate delicate situations elsewhere, it should 
not only explore its resources but look to distant 
fields for investment. In promoting foreign enter- 
prise, American men and capital must be satisfac- 
torily protected. Our people and properties must 
not be jeopardized by prejudicial regulation or dis- 
criminative restriction by any foreign power. The 
fact is incontrovertible that national needs are in- 
terlocking, one industry dovetails into another and 
only by correlating the units can we have a peace- 
ful, progressive world in which to live. 



_.<gf 39 }.>.. 



City and Company Participation in Ownership 
of Municipal Lighting System 



Bij J. T. Whittlesey, 
Consulting Engineer, San Francisco. 




NSTEAD of a duplication of any exist- 
ing capital or investment either by the 
lighting company or by the city or 
individuals for street lighting equip- 
ment, it is possible, I believe, to make a distinct 
line of demarcation between the property to be 
owned by the city, necessary for a municipally 
owned and operated street lighting system and the 
property owned and maintained by the lighting 
company. 

The equipment which it is necessary for the city 
to own and maintain in order to properly light 
the streets consists of the fixtures or standards 
with lamps, and does not necessarily include the 
distribution system required to deliver current to 
the lamps. A very definite line can, therefore, be 
drawn between the distribution system and the 
fixtures, leaving the former in the ownership and 
under the control of the lighting company, and 
providing for the purchase, maintenance and oper- 
ation of the fixtures by the city. 

The lighting of the city streets is a municipal 
function and should be entirely under the control 
of the city as certainly as the cleaning of the 
streets, policing and traffic control, with which the 
lighting of the streets is closely related. 

It has been found almost impossible for a city 
to obtain a properly lighted street system under 
the existing lighting contracts with public utility 
companies, and the practice now is for the city 
either to own its system or install lights in the 
important streets by assessment against the prop- 
erty under the improvement acts. One difficulty 
with lighting the Streets under a contract, which 
includes the furnishing of all equipment by the 
company and maintenance and operation, is that 
the capital account is never written off and is 
always building up, although the equipment is of 
short life and must frequently be replaced. The 
rates necessarily include a depreciation charge 
which the company may us for replacements but 
which does not ever result in a reduction of cost 
or of the capital account. Many progressive public 
utility companies have recognized these facts and 
are quite willing to have the municipality or citi- 
zens provide the capital for the lighting standards, 
the company supplying the current either at a flat 
rate per lamp or by meter. 

Because of the fact that electric lighting stand- 
ards and equipment are of short life due to phys- 
ical flepreciation and change in style, it is not a 
proper capital investment to be financed by long 



term bonds. The assessment, therefore, against 
property owners for the cost of installation to be 
paid over a short period of years is the right way 
to finance such an investment. 

A complete lighting system costing several mil- 
lion dollars in any city of size would be largely 
a duplication of existing facilities and investment 
and would add hundreds of miles of wire to be 
installed on additional poles or joint poles through- 
nut the overhead district and in new conduits, 
manholes and ducts to be laid in the underground 
district. This duplication of capital and equip- 
ment is certainly objectionable and should not be 
made unless necessary, and I believe that the plan 
I have suggested of the division of ownership be- 
tween the company and the city is practical and 
should be considered and adopted if possible, 
rather than involving a city in a large and un- 
necessary expenditure for a complete street light- 
ing system. 

Of the total investment in any street lighting 
system much less than a half is usually in the 
poles and fixtures, and the price to be paid for 
such equipment could easily be agreed upon be- 
tween the parties. The basis could be the repro- 
duction cost depreciated, to be submitted for arbi- 
tration or decided if necessary by the State Com- 
mission. To the price paid the company for the 
existing fixtures, it would in many cases be neces- 
sary to add a sum sufficient to replace obsolete 
equipment and to provide more poles and better 
lights demanded by the public. 

As estimated above, I do not propose that bonds 
be issued to pay the cost, but that it should be 
financed under an Improvement Act, or similar 
procedure, creating a lighting district for the whole 
city and assessing against the property the cost 
of the poles and fixtures located on the respective 
blocks. In this way the cost of the equipment 
in the residence sections would be small, depend- 
ing upon the type of fixture now in use or which 
might be substituted by the city under its general 
plan of improvement subject to a certain amount 
of choice by the property owners in each section. 
Standards, however, should be adopted and all 
equipment purchased and installed by the city so 
as to keep down the cost and secure competition 
and also to maintain the proper degree of uni- 
formity. 

T do not recommend the installation by the 
city, as is often done when lights are installed by 
private parties under Assessment Acts, of the 
conduits and cables except in occasional instances. 



-4 40 }>•■ 



The disconnected short sections of underground, 
often installed by contractors by competitive bid- 
ding, do not conform to any standard nor form 
part of a complete system of distribution. Paid 
For by property owners, they may remain their 
property or be assigned to the city or to the com- 
pany, and the responsibility of maintenance is often 
undecided, which results in trouble and divided 
authority. The general plan should be adopted of 
installing only the poles or fixtures and requiring 
the lighting company to connect them up to exist- 
ing mains as may be convenient. The current 



conl. 1 then he purchased upon the estimated Kilo 
Watt Hour consumption of the lamps, which is 
sufficiently accurate and would eliminate cost of 
of the usual circuits and installation of meters. 

This, I feel, is an economically sound plan, and 
offers a method easily financed by which a city 
may secure ownership and control of its street 
lighting without injury to the public utility and 
mutually advantageous to all parties — the com- 
pany, the city government, and the public in 
general. 



Electricity and the Industrial Revolution 



B\> Louis F. Leurey, 
idling Eleclrical Engineer, San Fra 



California 




^SN the extraordinary economic and social 
development now going forward in 
I America, and to a lesser extent through- 
out the world, electrical energy is 
playing a primary part in the tremendous acceler- 
ation which this movement has taken on within 
the past five years. We have 
all seen either in the manufac- 
turing world or in its resultant 
effect upon the sale of commod- 
ities, the extraordinary replace- 
ment of man power by process 
machinery which has developed 
gradually for many years, but 
which seems to have acquired 
special acceleration within the 
five years past. 



Throughout the whole realm 
of American industry this trans- 
formation has taken place at 
such rapid rate as to become at 
least a temporary menace to the 
stability of our business life. 
Not only has this replacement 
of man power by machinery pro- 
duced greater and greater quan- 
tities of goods per square foot of Louis F. Leurey 
factory space, but has also ac- 
complished this greater production with fewer 
and fewer men per unit of output. We witness 
therefore, a movement which with one stroke, not 
only increases the production of goods, but also 
simultaneously reduces our domestic buying 
power. 




the great electrical manufacturing and operating 
companies, who, in their desire to increase effic- 
iency and cheapen their own product have put into 
the hands of general manufacture, a tool that they 
never dreamed would produce such astounding ef- 
fects in American and World Markets. 

To trace this interesting move- 
ment to its source, and then to 
follow its present day develop- 
ment and application will be 
the purpose of this article. 
Power Production 
In the early days of Power 
Production in the United States 
electrical energy was generated 
almost exclusively by the use of 
fuels to operate steam driven 
generators, but in later years, 
due to the extraordinary de- 
velopment in electrical tech- 
nique permitting economic long 
range transmission, water power 
has been an increasing factor in 
the production of electrical 
energy in our nation. Incidently 
today over one-third of the kw. 
hours produced are secured from 
hydro-electric sources. 

The following data on produc- 
tion is taken from Statistical 
Bulletin No. 2 of the National 
Electric Light Association and covers produc- 
tion for 1926-1927: 



It is not realized by the general public that this 
revoluntionary process of increasing production 
with decreasing man power is largely a result of 
the concentrated effort and technical research by 









, In. i . 








'27 ovr 


Generating 


1927 


1926 


Increase '26 


Capacity, kw 


25,420,000 


23,733,000 


1,687,000 7.1 


Ivilowatt-hrs 








Generated 








By Fuels...... 


46,543,740,000 


43,247,306,000 


3,296,434,000 7.6 


Water 










27,791,330,000 
.74,335,070,000 


24,527,906,000 


3,263,424,000 13.3 




Total .... 


67,775,212,000 


6,559,S58,000 9.7 



Transmission Networks 
Due to the limitations of the art of transmis 

* Past President, Society of Engineers. 

4 41 fa~ 



the early hydro-electric stations were located neces- 
sarily at power sites relatively near to distribution 
centers. The effectiveness of this source of produc- 
tion from an economic standpoint was so pronounc- 
ed that an ever increasing pressure of demand was 
put upon electrical manufacturers and inventors to 
continually raise the voltage and increase the trans- 
mission radius for hydro-electric energy. 

Electrical manufacturers and engineers met this 
problem in magnificent fashion, and although there 
have been temporary set backs, year by year we 
have seen an increase in working voltages made 
feasible, and with this realization we have seen 
the development of remote sites that hitherto 
have been considered impossible to develop 
with economy. The availability, however, of 
higher voltages brought new problems in its 
wake, namely — the interconnection of the 
ever growing electrical systems into high ten- 
sion networks, where, not only was the problem 
one of distance, but was also complicated by the 
ever increasing volume of energy to be trans- 
mitted. 

The interconnection of these vast systems some- 
times extending beyond the boundaries of States 
and even beyond the boundaries of adjoining 
Nations has called for the highest ingenuity on the 
part of Electrical Engineers and Designers to pro- 
vide facilities that would quickly and adequately 
switch in and out major units of this great net- 
work. It was soon realized that to do this success- 
fully would be beyond the capacity of manual con- 
trol ; and Electrical Engineers plunged with all their 
energy and zeal into the design of automatic relays 
and controls which would perform with a speed not 
possible to the human hand the separation of dis- 
abled sections of a large system without impair- 
ment to service requirements. 

Automatic Generating Plants 
Another important feature of the latter day 
development of hydro-electric practice has been the 
utilization of relatively small sources of hydro- 
electric energy adjacent to major generating 
or transmission systems. These sources very 
often cannot bear the cost of full attendance 
throughout the 24 hours and it becomes 
necessary by the design of automatic devices to 
install these plants so that they can successfully 
start and stop themselves without the presence of 
human operators. In addition to automatic stop- 
ping and starting these plants had to be equipped 
with numerous automatic devices so as to success- 
fully disconnect themselves from the system upon 
the development of any internal troubles. 

Born of necessity to meet a growing demand the 
modern transmission network with its accompani- 
ment of hydro-electric, and steam generating 
stations, automatic hydro stations, and the neces- 
sary substations for railway, light and power has 
brought into being a vast array of dependable 
automatic equipment which is capable of performing 
all necessary functions not only as well as a human 
attendant but with a degree of dependability and 
precision which has never been attained in manual 
practice. These tools have now been put into the 
hands of the Industrial Electrical Engineer for 
application in another field not even remotely con- 



ceived by the original designers of the pioneer auto- 
matic equipment. 

Steam Generation 

In the field of steam generation electrical desig- 
ners have had to meet a different set of problems 
from those facing them in the long distance trans- 
mission, and hydro-electric field. While it is true 
that there are an increasing number of large steam 
plants located at the mouth of distant coal mines, 
the great majority are still located within the con- 
fines of large cities and devote their output largely, 
if not exclusively, to the requirements of these 
cities. The problems in this phase of electrical de- 
velopment have been two-fold, first, to secure the 
greatest possible efficiency in the burning of fuels 
for the production of energy, and second, to pro- 
duce steam electrical generators of giant capacity 
in huge stations of such tremendous concentration 
that the problem of electrical control becomes of 
paramount importance. 

There are today installed in modern American 
steam generating plants machines having 94,000 kw. 
capacity in a single turbo-generator and other plants 
where with multiple cylinders capacites as high as 
200,000 kw. are developed in a single unit. Steam 
power plants of 1,000,000 kw. capacity are now in 
sight and the problem of controlling these huge con- 
centrations of energy is an acute one, but has been 
met step by step through rapid development in 
electrical design. While the modern steam plant 
has not called into being such a complete array of 
automatic devices as the hydro-electric plant with 
its transmission network it has, on the other hand, 
played a tremendous part in the acceleration of in- 
dustrial electrical development by lowering the cost 
of power at the great centers of industry and thus 
stimulated rapid introduction of electrical motors 
and electrical control necessary to initiate the In- 
dustrial Revolution. 

Industrial Electrical Development 

It must not be understood from the foregoing sec- 
tions of this article that electrical designers in the 
Industrial Application Field have stood still and 
waited for ideas to fall into their laps from their 
brothers engaged in the generation and transmis- 
sion fields ; because they have independently and 
from the native requirements of Industry produced 
many important automatic and specialized controls. 
No one, however, would admit quicker than the 
present-day Industrial Electrical Engineer that he 
owes a tremendous debt to designers in the field 
of generation and transmission for the development 
of automatic devices and controls which have per- 
mitted him to produce the astounding effects that 
we see around us to-day in American industrial life. 

Neither would it be fair to convey the idea that 
it has been solely through Electrical Applications 
that Industrial growth has been stimulated ; be- 
cause in the final analysis the Mechanical Engineer 
will always dominate the field of Industry. No one 
was quicker than the Mechanical Engineer, how- 
ever, to sense the value in concentration of equip- 
ment, and perfection of control, that could be se- 
cured by electrical means. Before this tool was 
available Mechanical Engineers from force of ne- 



■•■<( 42 }8*" 



cessity had developed the endless platform system 
of production by which output could be synchron- 
ized through purely mechanical means. The 
clumsiness and inflexibility of this system was 
early realized and engineers are now turning to the 
refinements of electrical control where sychronism 
of output can be secured from groups of production 
equipment without connecting them by mechani- 
cal linkage. 

Automatic Control 

Some plants naturally lend themselves more 
readily to automatic control than others, but it 
would be difficult to point to a single industry in 
the field today that would not show marked in- 
crease in production from the use of automatic 
electrical control. 

In the past five years it has dawned on Industrial 
Engineers that the advantages of automatization 
did not depend solely on incidental labor saving, but 
were derived largely from collateral sources other 
than reduction of the labor element. Among the 
major benefits that accrue from automatization is 
concentration in the use of floor space with all the 
resultant saving due to handling product over 
shorter distances and the reduction in capital outlay 
for buildings and real estate. Another major ad- 
vantage of successful automatic control is the 
synchronizing of output from related production 
groups even when those groups are located in 
distant buildings. 

Aside from these important collateral advantages 
which have yielded a high return in lowered cost, 
has been the ability to improve uniformity of prod- 
uct by the partial or total elimination of the human 



clement. All modern factories are designed more 
or less upon the continuous flow basis, with each 
department in the factory designed to pass on suf- 
ficient amount of parts to maintain the average 
output. 

It has been practically impossible to secure this 
result with human fallibility occurring at various 
points along the line but by the use of automatic 
equipment at key stations, supervised by human 
intelligence an astounding degree of synchronism 
is now possible, maintaining a steady flow of goods 
and parts from the modern factory with a uniform 
output of completed product. 

Conclusion 

What efl'ect this astounding revolution in Amer- 
ican Industry will have upon the social and 
economic life; of the nation remains yet to be seen 
but some of these manifestations are already^ appar- 
ent and the handwriting is on the wall for all those 
who will but read. In the Retail Field the Chain 
Store operators, with their quantity sales idea, and 
their direct purchases from the Manufacturer have 
revolutionized this phase of American economic 
life; and the small corner merchant and the old 
fashioned jobber are now but museum specimens. 

In a similar manner the extraordinary develop- 
ment in electrical motorization and automatic elec- 
trical control has put into the hands of the 
Manufacturers a tool for economic production to 
match the efficiency of modern selling methods. 
The Manufacturer large or small who is blind to 
this movement bids fair in a short time to join the 
Corner Grocer and the old fashioned jobber a* 
exhibit "C" in the great American writeoff. 



The Growth of the Great Water Supply 



(Continued from Page 14.) 

this year, water being run through it for the first 
time on July 9th. 

San Francisco can now depend on a developed 
supply of sixty-six million gallons daily with a 
pipe capacity into the city of eighty million gallons 
a day to take care of the heavy draft during the hot 
days. 

On Mav 1st of this vear, a very effective cam- 



paign was put on, resulting in a vote of four to one 
to purchase the properties of the Company and also 
to lay a pipe line across the San Joaquin Valley. 
the last gap standing in the way of bringing Hetch 
Hetchy water into the City of San Francisco. We 
can now look forward without fear, knowing that 
abundant water awaits the needs of this ever grow- 
ing community. 



-4 43 fr- 



The Motive Power of Western Development 

By George McCormick. 
General Superintendent of Motive Potvcr, Southern Pacific Company 




N August 19. 1863, the freighter "Herald 
of the Morning" slowly made its way 
through the Golden Gate. It docked at 
§^|l] San Francisco after the long voyage 
"round the Horn" from New York. 

With difficulty there was unloaded from the hold 
the first Central Pacific locomotive. It was chris- 
tened "Governor Stanford," in honor of the then 
Governor of California, who with C. P. Huntington, 
Charles Crocker and Mark Hopkins, was responsible 
for the daring plan to build a railroad over the 
Sierra-Nevada mountains to the East. The first 
rails for the railroad also were unloaded from the 
ship. 

The locomotive and rails were transferred to the 
schooner "Anna R. Forbes" for shipment to Sacra- 
mento. The cargo was docked there on October 7, 
1S63. The locomotive almost was lost in the river 
in unloading. However, it was set up finally and 
its trial trip was held with ceremonies on Novem- 
ber 11 of that year. The "Governor Stanford" may 
be seen today in the museum at Stanford Univer- 
sity, California. 

The locomotive "C. P. Huntington" or Central 
Pacific No. 3 (it was renumbered later Southern 
Pacific No. 1) was placed in service in 1864. It was 
29 y 2 feet in length, weighed 39,000 pounds and 
could haul four cars weighing 22 tons each at 35 
miles an hour up a grade of 26 feet to the mile. It 
still is in serviceable condition, but is used only for 
exhibition purposes. 

A short time later the first typically freight loco- 
motive was received by the railroad. It had six 
driving wheels and was considered a wonder of 
the day because it could haul 18 small freight cars. 
This freight engine was named the "Conness" for 
one <>f California's United States senators. 

The early locomotives were picturesque in ap- 
pearance. They had the large diamond shape smoke 
stacks. Brass fittings and gay paint made them 
exceedingly ornate. While it was the firemen's job 
to keep the brass polished, it is said that some engi- 
neers were so proud of their engines that they 
worked mi days off to help polish them. 

Instead of merely having serial numbers as at 
present the pioneers "f the rails had names. Some 
of them were of historical significance and others 
indicated the emotions evoked in the minds of those 
win i first beheld them. 

Aiming the first engines were the "Pacific," "T. 
I). Judah," "Piute," "Amazon," "Tamaroo," "In- 
dustry," "Colossus," "Tip To])." "Red Deer." "Griz- 
zly," "Jupiter," "Storm," "Whirlwind" and "Vesuv- 
ius." 

Wood was the fuel for the first locomotives. 



familiarly known as "hayburners." Large quan- 
tities of wood were piled along the tracks for use 
of passing trains and the firemen of those days had 
a real job. 

Marking completion of the country's first trans- 
continental rail highway, the famous Golden Spike 
was driven at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869. 
At that time Oregon was a land of forest. Cali- 
fornia's valleys were great expanses of grazing 
and grain lands. Arizona, Nevada and neighboring 
states were thought of only as desert regions in 
which men risked their lives in search of rich ores. 

With the completion of the overland railroad, the 
the Southern Pacific and Central Pacific began the 
great task of extending the railroad tracks to vari- 
ous sections of the West. 

Settlers followed the extension of the rails. Small 
communities that were built chiefly as railroad 
towns grew into vigorous, substantial cities. The 
prairie schooners in which goods were freighted, 
slowly disappeared, along with the romantic stage 
coach and pony express. 

While the communities of the West were ex- 
panding in size and in business importance, the 
people grew to realize more and more how much 
their prosperity depended on the ability of the 
railroad to meet their transportation needs. 

As western pioneers in the business of transpor- 
tation. Southern Pacific railroad officers and em- 
ployes worked to produce better and more powerful 
locomotives so that large train units might be 
handled. At the same time the size of cars was 
increased. Heavier rolling stock made heavier 
rails necessary and the strength and smoothness 
of the supporting roadbed had to be increased. 
That process of improvement, making for efficiency 
and economy of operation, is being carried forward 
steadily by Southern Pacific today. 

One of the most interesting of the early loco- 
motives built by the Central Pacific at the Sacra- 
mento Shops was "El Gobernador." which was in 
actual service from 1884 to 1893. This "iron mon- 
ster." was then said to be the heaviest and most 
powerful locomotive in the world. When loaded it 
weighed 234,000 pounds. The latest "Southern Pa- 
cific type" locomotive weighs 736,100 pounds. 

Tourists were amazed at the size of "El Gober- 
nador." It was considered too big to be turned on 
a turntable for fear it would tip over and was kept 
on the main line, all trains taking sidings when 
meeting the big engine so there would be no danger 
of it leaving the rails. 

During 1886 and 1888 a number of "4-4-0" type 
locomotives were built at Sacramento. (This type 
classification indicates the grouping of the wheels 



-4 44 f> 



— four leading engine truck wheels and four driv- 
ing wheels with no trailing truck wheels.) In order 
tn relieve the overheating of the brasses and jour- 
nals due tn the locomotives being so heavy in front, 
A. J. Stevens, Master Mechanic of the Southern 
Pacific, put in longer axles which save a bearing 
mi each side of the wheel. 

These locomotives were mid in appearance, with 
(inly nne dome mi tup. The boiler had a straight 
top with short front end and diamond stack. Count- 
er weights mi the drivers, instead of being next tn 
the tire of the wheel, were placed in the wheel cen- 
ter between axle and tire. 

Thirteen locomotives of the "2-8-0" type, fami- 
liarly known by enginemen and trainmen as "mon- 
keyhogs", were built at Sacramento during 1887 and 
1888. They were equipped with A. J. Stevens valve 
gear and originally had steam brakes. They had 
19 inch x 30 inch cylinders set mi an angle, 51 inch 
drive wdieels. and weighed 202,850 pounds loaded 
Three or four of them are now being used by out- 
side firms tu whom they were sold. 

During the 35 years after the first locomotives 
were operated out of Sacramento in building the 
trans-continental line there was much progress in 
the development of western transportation. By 
1894 thirty-ton cars were being used. The locomo- 
tives were heavier and had more than twice the 
power i if the earlier ones. 

The "4-6-0" type of passenger locomotive and the 
"4-8-0" type for freight service were the pride of 
the rails at the time. 



Passenger locomotives of the "4-6-0" type were 57 
uet. 3 inches in length, weighed 239,680 pounds and 
were capable of hauling six coaches weighing 30 
tons each at a speed of 50 miles an hour up a 
grade of 26 feet a mile. These engines handled the 
first Sunset Limited trains. 

Freight engines of the "4-8-0" type of 1894 were 
on feel 9 inches in length, weighed 272,300 pounds 
and could haul 65 cars weighing 30 tons each at a 
speed of 10 miles an hour up a grade of 26 feet a 
mile. 

But the demand continued for greater and greater 
service tn supply the increasing transportation 
needs of the \\ est. Western fruits and products 
generally were gaining more attention in the East 
and each year still greater quantities were handled. 
The West also needed larger supplies each year 
from eastern manufacturers. 

During the last 35 years railroad progress kept 
pace with the development of the country. In fact, 
locomotive construction made its greatest strides 
during this period, so that locomotive development 
came to be a milepost of progress. 

The Southern Pacific locomotives of today truly 
are giants of the rails. 

The must powerful and economical non-articu- 
lated (single engine unit) locomotive yet designed, 
was placed in service in 1925 by the Southern Paci- 
fic Company tn handle heavy trains over mountain 
sections of the West. 

It is known as "Southern Pacific type" or "4-10- 




Vpper Left: The "Governor Stanford", shipped around the Horn lo San Francisco in August 1863 
November II. 1863. Upper right: The "Conness" first freight locomotive received by S. P. It 
Lower: Modern Southern Pacific Type Locomotive, most powerful single unit kcomotive vet built, 
weighs 736,100 pounds. 



nd placed in service at Sacramento 
>uld haul six small freight cars. 
I is 101 feet 2 inches in length and 



%{ 45 }> - 



2." This locomotive is of new design, combining 
all latest developments that have passed the ex- 
perimental stage to increase both economy and 
hauling capacity. 

It has a third cylinder placed inside the main 
frames slightly above and between the two outside 
cylinders. Boiler pressure has been increased to 
22~> pounds. The locomotive is 101 feet 2 inches in 
length over all and weighs 736,100 pounds. It will 
further increase efficiency in handling heavy 
trains. 

At a speed of 25 miles an hour, up a grade of 116 
feet a mile, the new locomotive has 25 percent more 
hauling capacity than that of any locomotive prev- 
iously built for Southern Pacific Company. 

The most powerful locomotives in passenger serv- 
ice prior to the advent of the Southern Pacific type 
three-cylinder locomotives are known as the "4-8-2" 
or mountain type. They are 97 feet 6 inches in 
length, weigh 610.300 pounds and are 20 times more 




"C. P. HuNTINCTON" or Central Pacific No. 3, placed 
in service in 1864 

powerful than Southern Pacific No. 1. Each can 
pull 14 modern passenger cars, weighing 70 tons 
each, at 50 miles an hour up a grade of 26 feet per 
mile. 

Their great power enables these locomotives to 
handle heavy trains with ease. New appliances and 
refinements in design assure smooth starting and 
stopping, thus adding to the comfort of passengers. 

A new record for a regularly maintained loco- 
motive run was established by the "4-8-2" engines 
the latter part of 1923. On this run the 881 miles 
between Los Angeles and El Paso is made without 
change of locomotives. Heretofore a relay of four 
locomotives had been considered necessary in speed- 
ing trans-continental passenger trains across the 
mountain and desert territory between the two 
cities. 

The "4-8-2" type passenger locomotives are a 
companion type to the tremendous "2-10-2" freight 
locomotives that Southern Pacific has placed in 
heavy freight service during the last two years. 

These powerful freight locomotives are 97 feet 9 
inches in length and weigh 623,200 pounds. They 
can haul 96 modern freight cars, weighing 50 tons 
each at a speed of 10 miles an hour up a grade of 
26 feet a mile. 



Experts of Southern Pacific have given years 
of intensive study to the task of designing the most 
efficient and ecenomical locomotives for both freight 
and passenger service. 

They improved the "4-6-2" or Pacific type of pas- 
senger engines which are making high records in 
handling the San Francisco Overland Limited, the 
Gold Coast Limited and other trains between Og- 
den, Utah and Sparks, Nevada, and in various other 
parts of the West. 

All of these late type locomotives are equipped 
with auxiliary booster engines, super-heaters, feed 
water heaters and other recently approved devices 
for increasing economy and power. 

Running gear, frames and other parts have been 
designed with a view of making them as light as 
possible, without sacrificing strength. Piston rods, 
driving axles and main crank pins are of heat treat- 
ed steel hollow bored. Another weight reduction 
was attained through use of high tensile strength 
steel in the connecting rods. 

The booster engine is a separate two-cylinder 
steam engine geared to the axle of the trailing 
truck wheels. It assists the main engine in handl- 
ing trains, both in starting and on heavy grades. 

Each modern locomotive is equipped with a feed 
water heater which performs the double operation 
of pumping water from the tender to the boiler and 
heating it on the way. It utilizes exhaust steam 
from the main cylinders to heat the water. Part 
of this steam is condensed and returned to the boiler 
for use again, thus reducing sediment and the 
amount of water required to operate the locomotive. 

While constantly striving to develop the finest 
new locomotives. Southern Pacific is not neglecting 
its old ones. Many passenger and freight locomo- 
tives that have been in service for some years are 
being "rejuvenated" by the addition of superheaters, 
feed water heaters, booster engines and other mod- 
ern appliances. 

These as well as other improvements of a highly 
technical nature are made with the view of giving 
improved service to shippers and added comfort 
to passengers of the Southern Pacific. 

Because of the great distance from the chief 
markets of the country the Pacific Coast depends 
more for its prosperity upon good and adequate 
transportation than other sections. 

A vast, well-built transportation machine and a 
highly efficient organization are required to take 
fruit fresh from a Pacific Coast orchard and move 
it over two or three ranges of mountains, carry it 
across deserts and plains with such dispatch that it 
may be placed on someone's breakfast table in New 
England as fresh and appetizing as if it had just 
been gathered from the orchard. Southern Pacific's 
swift, powerful locomotives help make possible this 
triumph in transportation. 

The progress of any country, it has been said, 
is indicated by the progress of i(s transportation 
service. Surely this may be applied to the West 
and its pioneer railroad, the Southern Pacific. 






-4 46 



The Electrical Industry of the West 

B\) J. M. Buswell, 

General Inspector. San Joaquin Light & Potoer Corp. 




tWi i rapid has been the development within 
djk the electrical industry here in the "Elec- 
trical West" that its history is not only 
full of fine achievraents but inspiring to 
those who are today engaged in the solution of the 
problems presented by its greater opportunities. 

This has always been a gulden west — rich in vis- 
ion, rich in resources, rich in faith and endeavor — 
laboratory whose spectacular developments and 
achievements have not only justified confidence and 
recognition but furnished the inspiration and en- 
couragement to an ever increasing rate of doing. 

The electrical industry of the west has had this 
vision, resource and faith and our laboratory has 
won the recognition of the eastern engineers, de- 
signers and builders, who years ago consented to 
study our conditions and to work with us. 

Here long and interconnected high voltage trans- 
mission of electrical energy has been the inspiration 
of "giant power" and higher voltages. 

This has presented not only structural and insu- 
lation problems but those of successful control of 
the circuits. 

To maintain stability — and be able to disconnect 
them, satisfactorily, there have been developed, for 
instance, step-up and step-down transformers in 
very large units, with ratio-changing devices and 
such electrical and mechanical characteristics as 
adapt these machines to use under the various and 
varying conditions imposed upon them. 

Rotary condensers, also in large units and with 
defined characteristics, are employed to stabilize 
these modern transmission systems. 

Then the circuit breakers, required at times under 
transient conditions to open successfully what cor- 
responds to many times normal load in a small 
fraction of a second. 

Not least of all. by any means, is the develop- 
ment of protective relay and control systems, and 
remote supervised control and report systems, these 
sometimes employing radio (carrier current) trans- 
mission. 

Although we are blessed with an abundance of 
potential "water power", we are also blessed with 
several oil and gas fields that make possible, witli 
shorter transmission, tremendous blocks of power 
at costs comparing closely with those of "hydro- 
power" when delivered to the market. We have no 
coal problems and no ice problems to speak of. 

The electrical industry here serves all classes — 
the metropolitan, compact, city ; the scattered agri- 
cultural users for irrigation and drainage ; railway : 



the industries, including gas and oil production it- 
self. 

Nowhere has so vast an area, much of it yet 
undeveloped, been so well served electrically, no- 
where have the demands of a vast and developing 
territory increased so rapidly, as here, requiring 
tremendous strides to keep up with it, tremendous 
vision and planning for the future, and taxing the 
ingenuity, resourcefulness, skill and knowledge of 
engineers and scientists. 

To operate these systems without interferring 
with wire or wireless communication has been no 
small problem, but also these great electrical sys- 
tems themselves necessarily employ extensive com- 
munication networks of their own and thus these 
two great branches of the electrical industry have 
gone along together, developing a great "Electrical 
West". 

Few realize the extent to which scientific study 
and research, checked and proven by elaborate 
application tests and demonstrations, have been 
employed in the development of the industry, unless 
they are somewhat closely connected with that 
development. 

While we still are learning some new things from 
practical experience, most we gain from experi- 
ence now is modification of assumptions arrived 
at through research. 

In other w r ords, where once we gained progress 
largely through cut-and-try methods, so to speak, 
learning slowly what we could do, and often by 
bitter lessons what we must not do, now engineer- 
ing study and scientific research guide us. 

Research work of high order, going on all the 
time, point to improvements, refinements and new- 
things. 

A problem comes up and we want to know if we 
can do certain things. The question is studied 
by highly trained minds and the conclusions or 
assumptions are submitted to elaborate scientific 
tests for which extensive arrangents are made and 
costly equipment developed. 

The obsolescence of equipment is not now so 
rapid, although the industry is making more rapid 
development than ever. 

In addition to the scientist and research engineer 
employed in the laboratories of our industry, there 
is the Fellow of the great engineering college, con- 
stantly engaged in conceiving and developing 
theories and in proving and applying them, and in 
testing the practical things that result from them. 

The result is that when a great, costly plant goes 
into operation it behaves about as expected — if it 



- <( 47 }•* - 



develops some ills these, in turn, are analyzed in the 
laboratories until understood and the remedies 
determined. 

The West has offered a wonderful field for all 
of this. 

For what might be termed the lay engineer, even, 
to comprehend all that is represented by one of our 
present day power station transformers, its charac- 
teristics, including efficiency, its flexibility with 
ratio-changing devices, its protection from the tre- 
mendous stresses it may experience, would be a 
revelation of romance and achievement. 

One such unit may be the connection for a tre- 
mendous block of power between the 220,000, the 
110,000, the 70,000 and the 10,000 volt networks of 
a system and have tap-changing devices designed to 
change the ratio of the transformer under load. 

It may have a separate harmonic-current circulat- 
ing winding, to absorb, as it were, from the lines it 
is connected to, the cause of some of the interfer- 
ence with neighboring speech-communicating cir- 
cuits. 

It will have been designed so as to impede or 
balance properly the various electrical and mechan- 
ical stresses, to dissipate the heat losses, provide for 
the exclusion of moisture and, at the same time, 
furnish inexpensive relief for the product of inter- 
nal explosion. 

It will have provision for accurate indication of 
internal temperatures and for actuating protective 
and control relays. 

Our great high voltage transmission systems, 
spanning long distances, cannot be regarded or 
operated as solid connections between stations and 
they are generally operated in gangs or loops or an 
even more extensive network and are so sectional- 
ized and "protected" that a failure somewhere will 
be at once isolated without interruption of service 
to nor affecting the balance of the system. 

The very intricacy of these protective relay and 
control systems at each station and between stations 
is amazing, even to the majority of power station 
men. 

These protective relay systems are so arranged 
as to be punctual but not too delicate; to be cor- 
rectly selective and operate, in proper sequence, 
the devices designed to limit or absorb a distur- 
bance or isolate the cause, according to character 
and relative severity and duration of the distur- 
bance. 

We have some of the largest steam units using 
steam at what may be termed modern temperatures 
and pressures, burning crude oil or natural gas 
from our oil fields and delivering electrical energy 
into our great systems which are interconnected 
throughout the Pacific Coast states and into 
Mexico. 

Into this transmission network is also fed the 
energy generated by some of the largest and high- 
est head hydro-power units. These are served by 
railroad-sized tunnels and daring penstocks, high in 
mountains where, to reach the sites, some of the 
most scenic of mads have been built. 

While all this has been "going on" the industry 
has also been ever busy developing more and bet- 
ter utilization equipment and appliances — witness 



the domestic refrigerator, range, laundry equip- 
ment and conveniences. 

Witness also the "farm aid" the electrical in- 
dustry has provided and the development of special- 
use motors, furnaces and light units, for various 
industries. 

Without violating modern demands fur standard- 
ization, the list of available lighting units alone, 
for every use, is enormous and lighting has become, 
really, a highly specialized branch of the industry. 
Not just home, store or factory lighting but scien- 
tifically correct lighting of these and also for display 
effects ; street, automobile, signal ; aviation fields 
and courses ; theater and studio effects ; for dental, 
surgical and therapeutic as well as various special 
industrial, professional, military and naval uses. 

All of the developments of the electrical industry 
pass the most satisfactory efficiency tests and con- 
form to fairly strict standardization. 

The efficiences obtained from primemovers and 
generators, from transformers and electrical utili- 
zation equipment, are astonishing. The specifica- 
tions, and performance-test reports almost spell 
perfection. 

Not least worthy of mention are the indicating 
and recording instruments that have been developed 
and have made possible the continued research and 
study of things electrical. 

For instance, an instrument for producing, on 
one record, the amplified trace, in perfect scale and 
synchronism, of the magnitude and duration of, say, 
nine or ten fundamental and transient character- 
istics of a high voltage circuit, over the time period 
of a phenomenon to be studied. A precise picture 
of the conditions and effects, as they occured, de- 
veloped and diminished. 

An instrument that makes the scientist's eyes 
gleam with a vision of what it can open up to him, 
of how his experiment will be graphically recorded. 

The electrical phase of the industry has been 
emphasized most so far but it is proper to include 
the mechanical, civil, structural, chemical and 
metallurgical engineering that have been employed 
in all this advancement in the electrical industry, 
just as, while regarding the West as the great fertile 
field of the industry we must recognize the fact 
that "The Electrical West" is only a part of "The 
Electrical Industry". 

Also acknowledgement must be made of the part 
played, in all this pageantry of splendid achieve- 
ment, by the communion, the co-relation, the in- 
spiring and intelligent co-operation, secured by and 
through the organizations within the industry. 

To the papers of engineering societies, electric 
light associations and inter-company committees! 
the free intercourse between all those engaged in 
research, and the many ways in which all these 
agencies have provided for frank comparison of 
experiences and knowledge, successes and failures, 
may be attributed our brilliant success. 

It is a truly enlightened industry that has ban- 
ished from within itself all medieval mystery and 
secrecy, thereby enabling itself to serve better in 
lighting the world and lightening the burden of 
those who work. 

In all of this, we are proud of the part our West 
has played, the leadership it has displayed and the 
field it has offered, the results it can show. 



-<{ 48 }>•• 



Are You An Engineer? 

By Paul A. Swafford, 
Department of Civil Engineering, University) of California. 




=[HERE IS C( (NSIDERABLE feeling on 

the part of many of those who are en- 
fl gaged in the technical branches of En- 
ineering that "the Profession" does 
not receive the recognition that it deserves. Many 
clamor about being underpaid and others feel that 
they do not receive the rank they merit. 

Mfosl of us who practice some phase of the broad 
field of Engineering are quite jealous of the desig- 
nation "Engineer" which we like 
to attach to our names, feeling as 
we ill i so, that the term exalts us 
above our fellow men. We like 
to feel that we are quite different 
from the "rank and rile". This is 
quite natural and human, but, 
since such a feeling is human, it is 
likely to be based upon error. 

The true meaning of such an 
appellation is a much larger mat- 
ter than the simple definition 
found in the dictionary. If we 
read the dictionary it appears 
that even one who invent- a 
sprinkler or "trick" hairpin is an 
Engineer — in other words, he is 
one who is ingenious. To us who 
like the title of "Engineer" the 
word conjures up an idea of 
dignity and strength, of high 
ideals and honor, of skill and 
achievement above the ordinary. 
What then, is wrong with the 
Profession ? 

There is nothing wrong with 
the Profession ! The trouble is in 
the minds of the many who wish to wear the title. 

We cannot go back to the very beginning except 
to state the fact that there is in the makeup of every 
normal human being the feeling that he is more im- 
portant than anyone else — that thing we call self- 
interest. We can begin, however, at the point where 
the young man enters a University or College to 
study what we call Engineering. 

There are two groups of young men who come 
to a University to study Engineering — those who 
have just graduated from High School and who arc 
pursuing their education continuously from be- 
ginning to end without any practical training or 
experience to guide them, and those who have had 
some experience, ranging from a few weeks to sev- 
eral years, in some kind of Engineering work. 

Those in the first group choose Engineering 
rather blindly. Their choice comes from a notion 
of the romance in Engineering, from a liking for 
mathematics, physics or drawing, because some- 
one in their family has been a successful Engineer, 
or because of parental wishes. The second group 




Prof. Paul A. Swafford 



choose Engineering for two reasons: namely — 
because they like the work and because, having 
worked in Engineering lines, they realize their limit- 
ations in technical knowledge. 

Both groups of students pursue the same cur- 
riculum depending upon the major branch of Engi- 
neering in which they wish to prepare themselves. 
This, regardless of the practical knowledge they 
may or may not have, because the University can- 
not deal with the special cases that arise except in 
a small way where the regimen 
of courses will not be interrupted. 
Courses in a University under- 
graduate Engineering Curriculum 
are designed to give fundamental 
training in the principles of 
mathematics, physics, chemistry, 
mechanics, in general Engineer- 
ing subjects as electricity, 
strength of materials, structural 
analysis, surveying, and in some 
more or less specialized phases of 
the major branch studied as Rail- 
road, Sanitary. Petroleum. Hy- 
draulic or Electrical Engineer- 
ing. There are many places in 
the curriculum where the student 
may, by an elective system, in- 
clude languages, law. ethics, art 
and other of the more liberal parts 
of education which are so neces- 
sary to the proper balance of the 
human mind. The ultimate aim 
of such courses being to develop 
a broad minded, clear thinking 
unit in our social scheme. 
Mo-t of the teaching is done in class groups 
where the attempt is made to deal with the "aver- 
age student". The result of such methods is that 
the sluggard and weakling will either drop out of 
the race, or worse, just hang on at the borderline. 
The mediocre or average student will go thru the 
course passably. The keen-minded, able student 
will be retarded in his progress by the slower and 
often meaningless struggles of the less able. 

Referring back to the two groups of students it 
is not possible to say that either one is better or 
worse than the other. Good and bad are found in 
both groups. One important factor which affects 
their success as students is found in their attitude 
toward their courses. In the majority of cases the 
students look upon problems and other parts of 
their work as something to "get behind" them with 
as little effort as possible. They do not care how 
or by what means they do this — borrowing from 
one another, group solution of a single, small 
problem, preservation of the solutions of problems 
in textbooks for the "coming generations" (in many 



---:{ 49 ^~ 



cases thi> last has been so thoroughly dime that 
excellent textbooks have had to be discarded). 
The curious thing about it is that the students do 
nut mean to be dishonest. It just seems to be a 
custom among them to feel that instructors are 
people to be circumvented and that problems are 
tasks inflicted to take the pleasure out of college 
life. It is apparent that such action on the part of 
students destroys much originality of thought. 
Most of their work is blind imitation and substitu- 
tion in formulae, very little of the real substance 
of the subjects being actually absorbed. 

In the group which has had some experience 
there is frequently a feeling that some of the sub- 
jects required by the curriculum are unnecessary — 
for instance, one man may be interested in rein- 
forced concrete design and construction and feels 
that he is wasting his time in studying surveying 
or geology. He does not get the true relationship 
of the parts, either as a student or as a practitioner, 
and he is always wondering why something is 
awry. 

When it comes to choice of electives which 
should broaden the student's mind the usual feeling 
is that anything other than strictly technical sub- 
jects, or on the other hand "pipe" courses for the 
lazy, are beside the question. The direct re'sult of 
this condition is that the product of an Engineer- 
ing College is usually a narrow technician. 

The good student is not necessarily a man who 
receives the highest grades in his work. Many of 
the most thoroughly serious and worthwhile men 
receive average grades. However, if one should 
investigate the causes of the lower grades they will 
find that the attempt to do individual work, effort 
to do honest work and the struggle to make a 
living are chief among them. Though quite freq- 
uently granted, the highest grades are not always 
"earned". 

At the end of four or five years the survivors are 
given degrees, usually that of Bachelor of Science 
in Engineering, regardless of the individual 
achievements of the students. This is the result 
of "mass education" — the result of going thru pre- 
scribed motions for a few years. 

This is a sorry picture, but I do not wish to be 
classed as a pessimist, or as a "mud-slinger". It is 
not true of all students in our Universities, but as 
an average it is startlingly correct. There are 
many fine young men, both in Engineering and in 
other lines, in our schools who make the education 
of our young people worthwhile, but they are in 
the minority. I believe it is safe to say that some- 
where between ten and twenty percent of the 
students who go to our Universities come in this 
group. The remaining eighty to ninety percent 
imbibe a little vague information and acquire the 
name of having "gone to College", but little else. 

With a great feeling of temporary enthusiasm 
and self-esteem these young graduates step out into 
the world to make their way. The common notion 
is that they are a lot better than the rest of the 
world and that they are conferring a favor upon 
employers by "accepting a position". In most in- 
stances these young men know very little and are 



at first a liability rather than an asset to the 
employer who hires them in the hope of developing 
them into valuable men. 

Commencement, to so many, means the end of 
intellectual endeavor, whereas it should mean just 
what it says — a beginning. So many of our young 
engineering graduates cease to study into the in- 
tricacies of their chosen profession after they have 
received their "sheepskins". It is a sad mistake. 
With the grounding in the principles of engineer- 
ing fresh in their minds the young Engineers should 
make it a part of their job to learn something each 
day which will prepare them for the advancement 
they crave. 

The humble position and the usually small salary 
are quite irksome to the young man who has just 
passed thru the exalted status of Senior and Gradu- 
ate. He doesn't like to feel that he is just one sta- 
tion removed from office-boy or janitor. Soon, if 
he is not courageous, he finds himself quarreling 
with his job. He finds himself fretting and chafing 
because he is not chief of the department. He is so 
busy fussing and fuming that he forgets why he is 
being paid wages. 

After a while the young Engineer-graduate either 
feels that he is too good for Engineering or that 
there is no opportunity for him in Engineering and 
drifts into other lines of endeavor where he thinks 
he can make better progress. Sometimes he does 
succeed in other work — all men who study Engi- 
neering courses are not fitted for the work. He 
then tells his friends that there is nothing in 
Engineering but hard work, little reward and no 
glory. 

Another man will forget his ambition, if he ever 
had any to lose, and jog along in the job of drafts- 
man, rodman, instrumentman, or some other sub- 
ordinate technical line which does not tax his mind 
and which could be filled by any bright boy with 
a High School training. He does just what he is 
told to do. He seldom, if ever, has an original idea 
which he puts into practice. He feels that if his job 
holds out from month to month, or from year to 
year, that that is all he can hope for. He calls him- 
self an Engineer when he is only a more or less 
skilled workman of the "mechanic" type. 

This man is frequently imbued with the idea that 
he is mistreated if he has to work more than eight 
hours a day. He does not like to work overtime 
and will almost never think of his work from five 
o'clock in the evening till eight or nine in the 
morning. Social activities engross his time, especi- 
ally his "leisure" time, to the exclusion of serious 
and constructive thought. He often spends a 
goodly portion of his employer's time in discussing 
the box-scores or the political situation with others 
in the office, interferring with those who want to 
work conscientiously, lie calls his employer "The 
Old Man" and usually does not like to see him come 
into the drafting-room, lie lacks that earnest and 
respectful cordiality which should exist between 
the employer and the employee, lie takes no real 
interest in his work, lie forgets that, though his 
employer may really be quite friendly toward him. 



4 50 }>■■ 



he i- being paid for "service rendered". He for- 
gets that his efforts should contribute in the suc- 
cess of the project or establishment, or else his 
services arc of no value to 1 1 i — employer. 

There are many "angles" to the job of an Engi- 
neer. Probably the must difficult and important 

part of the job is the human side. The must diffi- 
cult human being to know and to organize is one's 
self — and that is the Engineer's first duty, lie 
must train himself to observe quickly and clearly. 
He must become well grounded in the technical 
side of his work. lie must learn to be tactful and 
resourceful. Me must learn to cooperate with 
those engaged in the same and in allied work. He 
must be tolerant and patient. He must be loyal to 
the firm employing him. He must establish a rep- 
utation for reliability and integrity. He must fill 
his [dace in the community as a good citizen. 

If he hopes for advancement he should study 
organization and efficiency of plants and equip- 
ment. He should be ready to serve in his capacity, 
or in any other, in an emergency or under stress of 
limited time. He should develop his judgment of 



men and circumstance-. He should have, and 

develop, initiative both technically and as a leader 
of men. 

Above all things he must be interested in his 
work. The time element should enter only as a 
marker of achievement. His work, to be success- 
ful, should be a pleasure to him — he should never 
look upon the thing he has chosen to do as a task, 
lie should take a real pride in his work, to the end 
that each piece of work will be an improvement 
over that which preceded it. He must let the job 
be his main interest, not the thought of how much 
or how little he is getting for it. He should put 
conscious effort into his work. Forget self! 

This business of being an Engineer is by no 
means a simple thing. Much of the reward is in 
accomplishment. To those about to begin and to 
those already in Engineering — just measure your- 
self by the "yardstick" given here and see if you 
measure up to what you should be. If not, then 
try to meet the requirements that lead to the dig- 
nit}' of the title — Engineer! 

( lur job is what we make it! 




University of California 



■ — Courtesy of National Aeronautical Assocalii 



■4 51 &••• 



Mt. Diablo — Haughty Vagabond of Peaks 



Bu E. E. Westergreen 




ONTRA COSTA'S historical landmark, 
Mt. Diablo, is so definitely identified 
with a branch of engineering that it is 
always deserving of treatment in an 
engineering journal, particularly in one that is 
edited and printed in the San Francisco bay region, 
a geographical unit of Northern California of which 
this interesting mountain may be said to be the 
Eiffel Tower. 

Mt. Diablo's crown rises to an approximate 
height of 4000 feet above the level of San Fran- 
cisco Bay. The journey from the Ferry Building 
to the summit of the peak by automobile may be 
made in less than two hours. It is a delightful and 
inspiring ride, almost every foot of which may be 
made in high gear. 

From the summit one may look down upon the 
bay and, with the aid of glasses, very nearly identify 
the ferryboat upon which a short time before one 
crossed that body of water. 

The distance traversed is less than forty miles. 
The ascent of the 4000 feet is largely confined to 
an eleven-mile climb from either the Walnut Creek 
or Danville toll gate to the top. The grade runs 
between six and seven per cent and the road is so 
good that one hardly appreciates the altitude to 
which one has been carried until the beauty of the 
panorama that is revealed at the summit bursts 
upon one. 

On the way up the mountain side one gets in- 
numerable suggestions of the marvelous view that 
must finally be obtainable there, but the full glory 
of it is hidden until the very pinnacle is attained. 
There, an unobstructed panoramic view of sur- 
passing loveliness, embracing the entire 360 de- 
grees of the circle, is unfurled. 

Instinctively one feels that here surely is the top 
of the world. The rest of it — in every direction — 
appears to lie below. As one gazes upon that view 
it assumes the aspects of a gigantic relief map. It 
is this very effect that has given to Diablo the name 
of "the mountain of the aeroplane view." 

Before the white man came, when the Miwok 
tribes roamed the great delta country up and down 
the courses of the state's two major rivers, Mt. 
Diablo then, as it does now, loomed against the 
western horizon as a magnificent mass. To the 
primitive minds of the aborigines the peak typi- 
fied, in its constantly changing atmospheric moods, 
the spirits of gayety and laughter. 

At the approximate point where the city of Rio 
Vista now fringes the Sacramento River was a 



village of those Miwoks known to all the other 
scattered settlements of their tribesmen as the Hul- 
pumni. Over them that huge, isolated pile had a 
remarkable influence. 

Around it was woven many of their myths and 
legends, weird and gay. In a sense that towering 
peak was almost their deity. They called it Koo- 
Wah-Koom, the mountain of laughter. One of 
their myths had it as the first point of land to 
emerge from the receding waters of the earth ; it 
was the home of the Great Condor, father of Wek- 
Wek the first falcon, who in turn was the father of 
Coyote from whom came man. 

Only the loosest shreds of those myths and 
legends remain. But Koo-Wah-Koom has endured 
and is today, as it was in the day of the unmolested 
Indians, an object of unusual charm and challeng- 
ing interest, the Mecca of thousands of tourists 
every year who cannot resist the urge to drive to its 
inspiring summit. 

Diablo is one of the outstanding mountains of 
the west. Its very name is wrapped in the lore of 
the early Spanish inhabitants. Don Gaspar de 
Portola first glimpsed its purple crown from the 
San Mateo hills in 1769, but its discovery is cred- 
ited to Father Juan Crespi, associate of Father Juni- 
pero Serra, and Captain Don Pedro Fagas who at- 
tained its summit in 1772. In the footsteps of the 
good padre and the gallant captain came the Spanish 
Dons. One hundred years later the Anglo Saxon 
was supreme in the land of the west. 

Besides its legendary background Mt. Diablo 
possesses a geological and historical interest which 
probably surpasses that of any other mountain in 
the world including even the famous Fujiyama of 
Japan. 

Geographically it is an object of unusual interest 
as all surveys of Northern California and all of 
Nevada are founded upon the Mt. Diablo Base and 
Meridian which cross at its summit. 

Mt. Diablo is described by geologists as one of 
California's most unusual exhibits, being the re- 
sult of two wholly different earth movements ; one 
vertical and the other lateral. The former is said 
to account for the remarkable sandstone formations 
in the Garden of the Jungle Gods on the south slope 
of the mountain and in Pine Canyon. Judged by 
them it is evident that at one time great internal 
forces in the earth's crust sheered and lifted 3,000 
feet the sandstone that once was the ocean bed. 

The lateral movement accounts for the main peak 
and its surrounding crags. To date the mountain 



-4 52 fr- 










■^JU* 








is said to have wandered some twenty miles from 
its original location, which geologists designate as 
some point in northeastern Solano County. This 
movement is declared to have spanned a period of 
time approximating 100,000 to 150,000 years. 

I. ami in the vicinity of the mountain has been 
and is still slowly crinkling and rising due to a 
constant folding and breaking of the earth's crust, 
declare the geologists who have made a study of 
that region. 

Diablo lias created an apparent feeling of unrest 
amongst its own brood of little Foothills and val- 
leys. They, too, have become infected with this 
wanderlust, it seem--, even taking to evoluting into 
something different from what they are. The val- 
leys have acquired the habit of going up and over 
themselves, shoving off the foothills next to them 
and standing triumphantly atop some vanquished 
hill, which in turn sinks down contenting itself for 
a time with being a little valley. 

The old theory of volcanic origin of the mountain 
no longer prevails among modern geologists. 

( me of the most notable features of Mt. Diablo, 
one that has claimed the attention and aroused the 
admiration of scientists and laymen alike, is its 
isolation from other regions of highlands such as 
surround other famous mountains. In Alaska, in 
the Sierra Nevada, in the Alps, in the Pyrenees, 
among the greatest mountains of the world, the 
great peaks lose some power of attraction because 
from their tops the beholder sees only the tops of 
other mountains. 

Diablo is different. Its aloofness affords a scope 
of vision that is unequalled, even though the visitor 
stands upon the crest of Mt. McKinley, Rainier. 
Shasta, Whitney, or any of their kingly brothers. 

Mt. Diablo figures in the history of California 
from pioneer days. It was in 1851 that its pinnacle 
was chosen by Colonel Leander Ransom, Assistant 
United States Surveyor-General, as the pivotal 
point for all surveys of Northern California and 
the State of Nevada, an area embracing more than 
37,000.000 acres. Ransom Point on the mountain is 
dedicated to the memory of that pioneer engineer of 
the state. 

It fell to the lot of the Society of Engineers to 
originate and carry out that dedication in October 
1926. Approximately 200 members of the Society- 
participated in the ceremony. Besides the dedica- 
tory address, which was delivered by the Society's 
former president, Mr. Glenn B. Ashcroft, govern- 
ment officials and prominent citizens of the State 
attended and eulogized the pioneer engineers, paid 
tribute to the engineering professions and lauded 
the Society's efforts to memoralize the very import- 
ant work performed in the west by Colonel Ran- 
som. 

In his official report Colonel Ransom commented 
on the marvelous view from the top of the moun- 
tain. Many noted men and women have since added 
their testimony to its pre-eminence. 

J. D. Whitney, the famous geologist and after 
whom the highest peak in the United States was 



named, wrote: "There are few, if any, points on 
the earth's surface from which so extensive an area 
may be seen . . . hardly much less than that of the 
whole state of New York." 

George Davidson, noted geographer, for many 
years a professor in the University of California, 
said : "( )ne can see a larger area of land and water 
from here than from any other point in the world 
because of the atmospheric condition and Diablo's 
is, ilati >n." 

The late 1'rofessor Josiah Royce of Harvard in 
his history of California, notes that, "From the 
summit of this peak . . . one can best of all view that 
portion of the state with which early American 
life had most to do." 

Former United States Senator James D. Phelan 
says in his recent book: "Diablo has all the stern 
grandeur of Vesuvius without its ferocity." 

A letter from Thomas Starr King to the Boston 
Transcript, December 31, 1861, contains the follow- 
ing: "Let us watch for the first appearance of Mt. 
Diablo. From San Francisco we can see only its 
dome rising back of a long range of lower and 
nearer hills. We have now turned the flank of that 
range and in a few minutes shall see it start out 
from base to summit. Ah, the view begins ; we 
catch sight of the plain on which it rests. It ripples 
gently from the bay into the interior ; then comes 
an encircling outwork of plateau, the embankment 
of which is cut freely into ravines, and then the 
climbing line of the mountain. Finally it rises and 
springs to a second summit, the true peak, nearly 
4000 feet above the water whose smoothness we 
are cutting in our haste to gain the pier. We have 
reached the mountain's base and are in doubt in 
this delicious air, amid the soft and finished land- 
scape, if we have not been driven by some benefic- 
ient sorcery into an enchanted land, while over all. 
the top of Diablo is burning with the Tyrian fire 
of evening." 

Professor Whitney's own estimate of the total 
area that can be seen from Diablo is 40,000 square 
miles. This means that the area to be seen from 
the summit, all lying within California, is equal to 
the combined surfaces of New Hampshire, Ver- 
mont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, 
New Jersey and Delaware. The aggregate of those 
seven states is 41.019 square miles. 

On a clear day the visitor to Diablo's summit, 
looking to the southeast at the end of a 600-mile 
vista of the Sierra Nevada, can make out the tip of 
the mountain which was named for Whitney. It 
is 218 miles away, but its summit, over-topping all 
others in the United States, soars to 14,501 feet. 

Diablo's extent of view is due to a fortuitous acci- 
dent of position. California is something like 900 
miles long and 200 wide, bending at an obtuse angle 
about two-thirds from the northern limit. On the 
coast side are ranges broken into by San Francisco 
Bay. On the eastern edge are the Sierra Nevada 
hedging in the State. At the north. Coast Range 
and Sierra join. At the point where the angle falls 
to the south there is another juncture and all below 
that is Southern California. In the middle is a great 
trough as flat as a prairie. 



■■<{ 53 }Se-- 



On the western edge of this, beside one of the 
arms of San Francisco Bay, stands Mt. Diablo, No 
neighboring peaks shut off the view. One of the 
nearest is Mt. Hamilton at whose 4,200-foot top 
is the Lick Observatory. But Diablo has an un- 
obstructed sweep of the vast, flat valleys which once 
were grain fields and now are orchards — the Sacra- 
mento Valley to the north and the San Joaquin to 
the south. Beyond them are the Sierra Nevada. 

From Diablo's summit one may look into thirty- 
five of California's fifty-eight counties. Some of 
them lie spread out flat ; some are included by grace 
of a fractional area spurting up in the form of a 
needle peak, visible beyond the piled rolling hills 
and the curve of the earth. The theoretic range of 
vision is only sixty-five miles each way. But the 
earth here is not flat ; it is saucered and the rise of 
ground and swell of mountains upset the engineers' 
tabulated calculations. 

Many educators declare that an hour spent upon 
Diablo's summit provides a better lesson in local 
geography than any text-book. 

It is 156 years since the first white men looked 
down on the region in which Caucasion life in Cen- 
tral California had its beginnings and they did 
their looking from Mt. Diablo. 

The Franciscans had reached farther and farther 
north with their chain of missions, picking out the 
fat places of the new land. In 1772 Father Juan 
Crespi and Captain Don Pedro Fagas obtained per- 
mission from Junipero Serra, founder of the mis- 
sions, and with a corporal's guard set forth explor- 
ing northward. Crespi and Fagas adventured into 
the San Francisco bay region and, turning eastward, 
climbed Mt. Diablo. They were the first whites 
there. 

Today there is a scenic boulevard winding up Mt. 
Diablo, with two arms. It passes at one place 
through a group of rock formations known now as 
the Garden of the Jungle Gods. There are rocks as 
big as buildings whose resemblance have won them 
such names as El Perro, which is Spanish for dog; 
La Balena, whale ; and La Rana, frog. There is a 
Devil's Slide which, though smaller, is very sim- 
ilar to a formation in Weber Canyon, Utah, of the 
same name. Besides, there are Gibraltar Rock, 
Elephant Rock and Seal Rock. On the west slope 
is Turtle Rock and much higher up are The Out- 
post, Devil's Pulpit and massive and dignified 
Ransom Point. 

That the Mt. Diablo region was the original Bret 
Harte country of California appears to be estab- 
lished beyond controversy. The most dependable 
authority on this subject is the Life of Bret Harte 
by Henry Childs Merwin, who says: 

"Bret Harte and his sister arrived in San Fran- 
cisco in March, 1854, stayed there one night and 
went the next morning to Oakland, across the bay, 
where their mother and her second husband. Col- 
onel Andrew Williams, were living. 

"In 1856, being then 20 years old, Bret Harte 
left the house of Colonel Williams (his stepfather), 
and thenceforth shifted for himself. His first en- 



gagement was as a tutor in a private family at 
Alamo." 

Merwin's biography appears to be carefully writ- 
ten and there is much evidence to prove that he had 
access to intimate passages of the Harte family his- 
tory. 

It is significant that several of Bret Harte's early 
books dealt with the life and scenes of the Mt. 
Diablo region suggesting that he was familiar with 
that part of Contra Costa county. 

But how did Mt. Diablo get its name? 

It is a simple matter to account for the name of 
almost any other mountain such as Hamilton, 
Tamalpais. Whitney. Shasta, Lassen, Rainier, or 
of any of their lofty contemporaries in the various 
ranges of the country. 

With Diablo it is different, just as the mountain 
is wholly different from all other peaks both in 
structure and position. 

The writer has his own theory as to the origin 
of the name Diablo, but so far he has found only 
one other person who shares that opinion, a Pres- 
byterian minister of Danville, California. 

There are four legends of record that seek to 
account for the unusual name of Mt. Diablo, only 
one of which has a real, literary background, Bret 
Harte's The Legend of El Monte Diablo. Even 
Harte apologizes for his tale in its introductory 
paragraphs by stating that "the reader will detect a 
lack of authenticity." Otherwise it is one of his 
most fascinating works among his lesser literary 
productions. Most Californians are familiar with 
it. 

Of the three other legends, one that seems plaus- 
ible, relates that in 1769 the Spanish padres were 
in the habit of receiving gifts of gold from the 
Indians which the latter gathered on Mt. Diablo. 
Fearing that the gold might prove "the root of all 
evil," the padres decided to frighten the Indians 
out of gathering it further. Poisoned gold was 
placed in water troughs used by dogs. Subse- 
quently the animals died, whereupon the Indians 
ceased their gold digging and designated the peak 
Diablo, the mount of the devil. 

Another legend relates to an expedition against 
horse thieves, who were said to have their strong- 
hold in Mt. Diablo, by a posse of early San Joaquin 
valley ranchers. As the latter approached the crags 
of the mountain above Marsh Creek canyon further 
pursuit was interrupted by tremendous rumblings 
and thunderous roars accompanied by great belches 
of flames from a cavern in the mountain side. In 
fear the pursuers fled naming the mountain Diablo, 
the home of the devil, and abandoned their attempt 
to exterminate the robber band. 

Still another refers to a military expedition in 
1806 against the Bolbones Indians, carried on for 
some time unsuccessfully because the red men were 
always aided by a strange being in diabolical garb 
and plumage which would suddenly appear out of 
nothing and execute a wild and vigorous dance. 



■<{ 54 }§►•■ 



The Indians always succeeded in frightening off the 
invading hordes. Also the}- always let it be known 
that their strange ally made daily appearances on 
the mountain. Finally Lieutenant Gabriel Moraga 
headed a military expedition which wiped out the 
red skins. In the meantime the mountain was 
named Diablo on account of the devilish looking 
dervisher. 

The Society's interest in Mt. Diablo was greatly 
enhanced two years ago when plans for a granite 
marker at the summit of the peak were announced 
by the members of the first Mt. Diablo Park Com- 
mission. Jo Mora of Carmel, noted California sculp- 
tor, was selected to design and complete the mar- 
ker. It was through the influence of the Society 
that Mora's design included a panel dedicated to 
the w<irk of the pioneer engineers, whose courageous 
efforts and achievements played an important part 
in laying the foundations for the establishment of 
law and order in the west. 

There appears never to have been a time when 
Mt. Diablo did not command an unusual interest. 
Ever since man first set eyes upon the magnificent 
peak it has beckoned him and he has maintained 
a beaten trail to its summit. From the days of the 
hardy pioneers poets, artists and historians have 
paid tribute to it. 

Repeatedly its summit has been contemplated as 
a place of practical service to the inhabitants of 
the vast area which it overlooks. At the present 
time it is being considered as the site of a fire look- 
out station. It is also considered an ideal location 
for the establishment of a great meteorological lab- 



oratory. Recently its summit was utilized by the 
Department of Commerce as the site of a 10,000,- 
000 candle power beacon, erected by the Standard 
( >il Company, as a guide to aviators. 

\\ bile the people of Central California are proud 
of Diablo and appreciate its grandeur, there is a 
very definite feeling throughout the state that the 
fullest advantage of this noted landmark has not 
yet been obtained. 

A bill, introduced by State Senator Will R. Shar- 
key of Martinez, was passed by the legislature in 
1921 which set aside some 800 acres at the summit 
as the nucleus of a state park. It was then hoped 
that the entire mountain would be acquired by the 
state in a few years and converted into public play- 
ground, but up to the present time no further pro- 
gress has been made towards that end. 

An opportunity to achieve the ultimate objective 
of Senator Sharkey's original Mt. Diablo bill will 
be preseqted to the voters of the state in the pro- 
posed $6,000,000 bond issue which will have a place 
on the November ballot. 

Yet, under private ownership, the splendid scenic 
boulevard system enables thousands of visitors to 
enjoy this unusual mountain the y r ear round. That 
visitors from every corner of the globe are con- 
stantly lured to its inspiring height is evidenced by 
the register maintained at the summit. 

Universally the comment is that Diablo, which 
through a strange caprice of nature stands alone 
and apart from all other mountains, offers the vis- 
itor a scenic feast that has its equal nowhere else on 
the globe. 



Lake Tahoe 




A.KE TAHOE, most beautiful of the 
lakes in the high Sierra-Nevada Moun- 
tains is today the mecca of world tour- 
ists and the center of summer and win- 
ter sports for all Californians. 

One of the chief beauties of Lake Tahoe lies in 
the clearness and purity of its water and the won- 
derful coloring, varying, on a clear day, from the 
deep blue of the main lake to the crystal green of 
Emerald Bay. Its surface which stands 6,225 feet 
above sea level, covers 109 square miles. The 
water is of unusual depth, sounding of 1,635 feet 
was obtained a short distance from Hot Springs, 
in what is perhaps the deepest part, but the con- 
tour of the bottom is not accurately known. Ac- 
cording to a generally accepted statement this lake 
never freezes over in winter probably on account of 
its great depth. 

The mountains around the lake rise abruptly and 
culminate in Mount Rose, in the Carson Range, at 
10,800 feet. The Sierra-Nevada bordering the lake 
is a double range of almost north-south ridges. The 
statement sometimes made that "Tahoe is an old 
volcanic crater" is not true. The entire lake lies 
in a structural depression — a dropped block of the 
earth's crust. 

The region about the lake shows evidences of 



volcanic activity of various kinds and the lake water 
has probably been dammed at times by outpourings 
of lava. In fact, distinct beaches that mark former 
lake levels are found up to about 100 feet above 
the present lake and it is believed that the waters 
formerly rose to still greater heights. The -lava 
dams which held these high waters were cut 
through by the waters flowing through the ages. At 
Tahoe City the most distinct of these old beaches 
is a terrace 35 to 40 feet above the level of the lake, 
and it is this terrace that makes the level ground 
on which Tahoe Tavern is built. 

The lake abounds in fish which include several 
species of trout. Shoals of the smaller fish may be 
seen along the shore and may be watched even at a 
considerable depth through the clear water as they 
dart over the boulder-strewn bottom. 

Once isolated in the mountain wilderness this 
famous lake is now comfortably accessible to all 
who would seek along its beautiful shores the bene- 
fits of its peace and quiet. A night's journey from 
San Francisco, the tourist awakens to peer at the 
lake's shores from his sleeper window. For those 
who enjoy a water ride, the lake offers one of the 
finest all day steamer trips to be had any where. 

Engravings for the cover on this issue of the Year 
Book were presented to the SOCIETY OF EN- 
GINEERS by the SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 



-4 55 }>- 



Put Yourself in His Place 



By Albert J. Capron, 
Secretary, Society of Engineers 




ODAY, when so many are working for 

some one else, and because of this, 

assume an attitude of criticism toward 

the employer, one may well take stock 

of himself before attacking another. 

Let us assume, for the first part, that there is 
only one reason for your being employed and that 
is to make a profit for your employer. If that be a 
fact, and we may well assume it is. then it becomes 
us to "render unto Caesar things 
that belong to Caesar". 

I know there is a great deal of 
talk about the evils (?) of capi- 
tal, but without it there would be 
little or no work for any of us. 
Capital is necessary in order to 
make business, and it seems that 
most of us have neither the abil- 
ity nor the opportunity to become 
capitalists, hence we must per- 
force make the best of a condition 
which already does and for that 
matter has always existed. 

Having then seen, as we do, 
money amassed, it follows it must 
either become active or lie in 
banks where it does no good 
either for the owner or the work- 
ing man. 

The natural thing or outlet, 
therefore is to put it to work. 
With this capital, then, we see 
manufacturing plants, railroads 
and the like and that is where the 
employe comes in, you and me. 

Skilled and unskilled labor finds 
an outlet for its energy and the 
employer finds a place for us 
where we may earn our daily gread, not by loafing 
on the job, drawing pay for it, but giving back to 
the employer, something, a profit on his investment. 

Having provided a place for you, does it not be- 
come you to render some profitable return to him? 
Moreover it is a fact that the greater the returns 
which you give him the better your pay and more 
favorable consideration he gives you. 

A profitable employe is a favored one. 

The mediocre one holds an indifferent position 
and is the first to be discharged when business 
slows up. 

A profitable business is a going institution. 

It has permanency and with this the honest 
employe has a part, creditable to all concerned. 

The bane of a business is criticism by the em- 
ployes of the ways and means set up by the em- 
ployer. 

Too oft the employe finds fault with the man- 
agement and the way he does business. 




It seems not to occur to ib, that did we have the 
ability to manage a business we would be the em- 
ployer instead of the employe. Our dissatisfied 
attitude works injury to both parties. 

There are two kinds of business institutions: 
One the family type where the employes are per- 
sonally interested in the success of the business, 
and the other, not always so successful, where there 
is less if any, of that "family feeling or spirit" and 
the employe is interested only in his pay check. 

The telephone companies, if I 
may say so are a sample of the 
"family type". With them each 
employe works as brother to 
brother, each after a probational 
period of service, becomes a sort 
of family member and it is a rare 
thing that such an employe is dis- 
charged. 

He is merged into the organiza- 
tion. A great many of them own 
stock and are directly interested 
in the success of the organiza- 
tion. 

If ever there has been a strike 
among them, I do not know of it. 
The P. R. R. is another of these 
family type or organizations, 
many of the employes own stock 
therein. 

The smooth working of these is 
familiar to all. 

Their success is noticeable as 
against the other types. 

All this brings us back to "put 
yourself in his place". Would 
you, providing you were promot- 
ed to chief, still have that fellow 
ces us wondrous kind", 
become dictatorial, harsh and 



Capron 



feeling that "ma 

( )r, would yoi 
unkind to your employe? 

Too many have become the latter kind of a 
"boss". 

Put yourself in his place and I ask you what 
would you do did you become the management? 

Too few can apply that manner of psychology 
that makes for congenial service and a good plac» 
lor an honest workman. 

Changing places would be a test of your char- 
acter. 

When you have thought you had cause for com- 
plaint, did you ever for the moment put yourself 
in his, the employer's place. 

What would you do under the circumstances? 

It is begging the question to say "there is no 
chance for me higher up so why discuss the ques- 
tion". 

Yet there is a chance to promote yourself, as it 



-4 56 }>•■ 



were, and many a man started at the bottom. 
Most of these have not been spoiled by success. 
Some have, it is true, and their success is a debat- 
able question. 

It is not a far cry to note that a large percentage 
of the higher ups have come from the bottom. 

Schwab is one of these and he lias made the 
largest measure of success as a leader in the busi- 
ness world. 

It is suggested thai you carry your message up- 
ward as you rise in position and prestige, not for- 
getting your objective while on the way. It is eas} 
to criticise but what would you do under the cir- 
cumstances? That is the question. The most suc- 
cessful concerns are those where co-operation is the 
watchword. Taking an interest in the business is 
worth considering. You may he an employe but 
the greater the success of your organization the 
better off you are. 

A quotation from "The Silent Partner" will lit 
in here, jot it down in your mind, use it when in- 
clined to "gossip". 

"THE TONGUE". Net the tongue in your 
shoe, nor the tongue in the lowly wagon, hut 
the tongue in your mouth is the thing that 1 
want to talk about. 

The human tongue starts more trouble than 
friends or finance can stop. 

It i-. the tool that can do more harm in a day 
than you can correct in man}- years. Lin- 
coln said little, and Grant less; Washing- 
ton talked only when necessary, and Coolidge 
is as silent as a steam calliope with a broken 
boiler. 

The more men talk the less time they have 
to think. 

If you are a great talker, you are not a 
great thinker. 

Listen to yourself, and get your own 
weights and measures." 
You help tn make the business a success. 
You and you alone should give value received. 
One of the worst things an employe can do is to 
gossip. 

The whole morale is broken down by such con- 
duct on the part of an employe. 

Recently I knew of an employe, a man of great 
ability, who, almost from the first day of service, 
began asking other employes, "what pay do you 
get?" When informed went right to the employer, 
disregarding the fact that he was new on the job, 
and complained that so and so was getting more 
money than he and demanded his be increased to 
their rate. 

He lasted on that job less than one month. 
His attitude was destroying the morale of the 
organization. The employer saw it and notwith- 
standing he was a capable man, fired him off the 
job. with the statement that they were running the 
business and when he was worth more he would 



gel it. but rather than allow his baneful influence 
to continue separated him from the organization. 

It is worth more to the employer to pay you more 
than were you worth less, cannot you see that 
point? 

It is to their interest to recognize this and usually 
it is done with little delay. 

Make yourself worth more and you will get more. 

When a force is cut down due to circumstances, 
the least worthy man is discharged. Will you be 
that man ? 

.Success is the easiest thing attainable. 

Men work harder to make a failure than they do 
to achieve success. Think that over, it will do you 
gi .. id. 

Always keep in mind your value, not from your 
own point of view, but that of the employer. Your 
value to the concern is not what you think, but the 
employer's view of the matter. 

Put yourself in his place always remembering 
that there is only one reason for your being em- 
ployed and that to make a profit out of your labor. 

The more profit you make for them, the more 
profit there is for you and for that matter the more 
permanent your job. 

Take note of the men over you. 

Who are they and how did* they arrive. 

(live of your best. All the world is not selfish 
but you may be. Andrew W. Mellon has said that 
"success lies in private initiative". 

Whether you will continue to grow, depends 
upon yourself. 

No man can make us — we make ourselves. 

Worth is not slow in being recognized. 

There is room at the top — the bottom is crowded 

The higher you go the more your responsibility, 
but the greater your satisfaction in travelling up- 
ward. 

The world is looking for successful men. 

Are you that man? 

Since there are so many mistakes to be made why 
make the same one twice. 

James A. Farrell, President the United States 
Steel Company, worked for $4.65 per week. once. 

What made him President, do you think? 

We have our opinion. 

What is yours? 

You are an employe today. You can, if you will, 
be the employer tomorrow. That is up to you, but 
always keep in your mind the thought, "put 
yourself in his place". 

WE MAKE OURSELVES. 

Pluck wins, it always wins. 

Tho days be slow and nights be dark. 

'Twixt days that come and go, 

Still pluck will win, its average is sure, 

lie wins the prize wdio can the most endure. 

He who works and watches 

AND NEVER SHIRKS. 

— Albert J. Capron, Sec. 



-<g{ 57 }•*••■■ 



A. W. von Schmidt, Pioneer 



Engineer 



A Biographical Sketch Compiled b\, 

Glenn B. Ashcroft, Member 

Historical Committee 




i XE day, late in the summer of 1S~. ; . 
August 17th to be exact, the Wells 
Fargo & Company stage from Ouincy 
was bowling along a mountain grade a 
few miles above Oroville. Two passengers rode 
beside the driver; within the carriage were five 
others of whom two were ladies. Ten thousand 
dollar's worth of gold dust was stowed away in the 
treasure box. 

Suddenly the stage came to an abrupt stop at 
the gruff command, "Throw up 
your hands !" uttered by a 
masked man at the roadside who 
reinforced his order with a shot 
gun levelled at the driver's 
head. The stage door opened ; a 
large, determined looking man 
sprang out, cocking his pistol as 
he did so, and with a shout, 
"drop that gun", he made for the 
would-be bandit. Surprised for 
the moment by the unexpected 
turn of affairs, the highwayman 
lowered his weapon; the driver 
seized the opportunity to whip 
up his horses to a gallop and 
disappear along the road, leav- 
ing his intrepid passenger and 
the robber to settle the affair. 
The latter, however, had seen 
enough and not waiting to try 
conclusions he sprang into the 
underbrush and disappeared be- 
fore his adversary could get a 
shot at him. 

The hero of this incident was 
Colonel Allexey Waldemar von 
Schmidt, who modestly declined 
all offers of salvage and de- 
clared "That he was not in the business of defeat- 
ing highwaymen and that the incident only sprang 
from his natural disposition not to surrender with- 
out a fight." 

( (fficials of the Express Company were determin- 
ed, however, not to lie balked in their intention to 
acknowledge the valuable service thus rendered to 
them and carried that intention into execution 
some weeks later by presenting Colonel von 
Schmidt with a watch and chain made to their 
order in the East at a cost of one thousand dollars 
and described as being a "Cold hunting case Jer- 
gensen watch, adjusted, stem winding, minute re- 
peater, independent second, with chain and seal 
of exquisitely wrought California gold quartz, en- 
graved as follows: Presented to Colonel A. \\ . 
von Schmidt as a tribute to his resisting at the 
peril of his life, the demands of highwaymen For 




Glenn B. Ahicroft 



Wells Fargo <.v Company's treasure box and con- 
tents on the Quincy stage, near Live Yankee 
Ranch. California, August 17, 1875. Lloyd Tevis, 
President." 

Nothing serves better to illustrate the character 
of A. W. von Schmidt than the above episode. 
lie was a large muscular man, over six feet two 
inches in height, of indomitable will and deter- 
mination to whom physical fear of any man 
or force in nature was wholly unknown. 
He sprang from a line of fight- 
ing ancestors. Morn at Bauski 
(near Riga), Courland. Russia. 
August 25, 1821. he was at the 
age of six years brought to the 
United States by his parents 
who settled first near Yincen- 
nes, Indiana, but later removed 
to the eastern states. 

The father. Christian Peter 
von Schmidt, though of German 
lineage as the name implies, had 
been a Russian subject and had 
fi mght gallantly for his Czar in 
the war against Napoleon. At his 
own expense he had equipped a 
volunteer regiment of 400 men ; 
had become its colonel and with 
it taken part in the battle of 
Waterloo and the capture of 
Paris which followed; had been 
awarded three royal medals for 
bravery ; but his independent 
spirit chafed under the political 
repressions of the times and so. 
seeking personal liberty, he emi- 
grated to the United States in 
1827. He was a Civil Engineer 
and Surveyor and practiced his profession for many 
years at New York, Washington, I). C, and various 
other places. 

The young vim Schmidt received such rudi- 
mentary education as the frontier settlement af- 
forded. Later at eastern institutions of learning 
and presumably under the guidance of his father 
lie acquired the thorough knowledge and technical 
skill that was destined to carry him to the summit 
of fame in the Slate of his adoption. 

When the news of gold discovery in California 
reached the Atlantic seaboard, von Schmidt, then 
a young man of twenty-eight years of age. im- 
mediately started for the land of promise and 
made the long voyage around Cape Morn in the 
schooner, "Pleiades". Putting into Mazatlan Foi 
water and supplies, the ship was condemned, as 
being unseaworthy, by the Mexican officials, and 



-4 58 }:* 



the stranded immigrants were left to make theii 
waj onward as best they could. 

A small, Holland built barque of eighty-five 
tons burden, the "Fanny", also laden with treasure 
seekers put into Mazatlan at 1 1 1 i — time and 
to this vessel the passengers of the "Pleiades" were 
transferred. The "Fanny" got under way on April 
23, 1849, loaded with the almost incredible number 
i'i 450 people and destined for a long and tempes- 
tuous voyage that reduced the provisions to the 
vanishing point and the passengers to despair. 
Through all these troubles the young von Schmidt 
never lust his courage nor his confidence in their 
safe arrival and thus by his example of fortitude 
and cheer did much to support the more timorous 
and despondent ones. In the last extremity the 
ship finally made the port of San Francisco on 
.May 24. 1849. 

Safely arrived at last, he immediately commenc- 
ed to practice his profession of Civil Engineer and 
Surveyor. It was said of him at this period that 
"He was strung, hardy, energetic, fearless, pos- 
sessing to an unusual de- 
gree the qualities w h i c h 
distinguish the mure suc- 
cessful pioneers of the 
State and at the same time 
endowed with a trained mind 
connected with a skilled pro- 
fession." 

During the next halt dozen 
years he worked over a large 
section of the state as a dep- 
uty U. S. Land Surveyor 
under Surveyor General 
Mandeville and Colonel Jack- 
Hayes. In 1855 he ran the 
eastern extension of the 
Mount Diablo Base Line 
from the San Joaquin Valley 
o v e r the Sierra Nevada 
Mountains to the Nevada 
State line ; soon afterward he 
completed the surveys of the 
Owens River Valley for sev- 
enty-five miles south o t 
Mono Lake, including por- 
tions of the first, second and 
third Standard Parallels. 

South. He established in 1856 the boundaries of the 
Rancho San Miguel, now a portion of San Francisco, 
as well as those of various other Spanish land 
grants. 

In all this, his work was characterized by ac- 
curacy and precision, and his field notes by a clear- 
ness of expression that occasionally displayed his 
command of vigorous English, as for instance in 
the following quotation from his notes on the sur- 
vey in the Owens River region: "to a point about 
15 chains west of a large geyser in full operation. 
throwing up mud and water with considerable 
force. At short intervals large quantities of 
steam issue from the 'Machine' supposed to be at 
work inside; thence to the outlet of a lake .i links 
wide leading to a hot marsh and Steam W< irks. 
Just a hell of a place. Brimstone mixed with hell 
fire, etc.'' 

lie early became interested in the water supply 




Col. A. W 



problem of s.m Prancisco. At first, the city was 
supplied with water brought in barges across the 
(■olden Gate from the Marin shore and retailed 
from carts. A little later the small local supply 
from Lobos Creek was utilized, and the Spring 
Valley Water Company then in its infancy was 
furnishing a small additional amount from a de- 
velopment of Llais Creek in the Mission district 
fool lulls. 

Von Schmidt became the first engineer of the 
Spring Valley Water Company and formulated 
the plans for its future growth. Under his direc- 
tion they commenced the development of the first 
reservoir in San Mateo county, known as the 
Pilarcitos, and by flume and tunnel water in ample 
quantity was brought to the center of the city. 
This event, no doubt, added to the enthusiasm 
with which the 80,000 inhabitants of San Fran- 
cisco celebrated the Fourth of July, 1862. 

He worked for various mining companies in 
California and Nevada designing flumes and ditch 
systems and built a pumping plant that furnished 
water to White Pine and ad- 
jacent mines. 

The one great dream of his 
life, which he never aband- 
oned till the day of his death. 
was his daring plan for turn- 
^m ing the water of Lake Tahoe 

thru a tunnel onto the Pacific 
Slope of the Sierra Nevadas 
and the use of it for irriga- 
tion, mining, and a perpetual 
domestic supply to San Fran- 
cisco and intervening cities, 
lie made extensive surveys 
for this project and built a di- 
version dam on the Truckee 
river (1872) which stood in- 
tact until 1899, when in 
building a railroad along 
the river a portion of the old 
structure was blasted away. 
Remnants of it may still be 
seen. His estimates of cost 
$30,000,000— while not seem- 
3\ Schmidt ing so very large in these 

days of huge hydro develop- 
ments, were deemed prohibitive at that time, and 
the plan was reluctantly abandoned. He had the 
vision, and could he have been as fortunate in find- 
ing financial backing as did the projector of the 
Central Pacific Railroad, who can say what im- 
press might have been left by him on the develop- 
ment of Central California. 

His venture at Hunter's Point, however, was 
wholly successful. He conceived the idea of a 
dry-dock that would accommodate the fleet of 
Clipper Ships then plying between San Francisco 
and the Atlantic ports, and with the financial back- 
ing of an old mining friend construction was started 
in 1864. Funds ran out and the miner was super- 
ceded by James B. Haggin and Lloyd Tevis. With 
their assistance the dock was completed in 1868 
and served its purpose for many years until a larger 
one. built within the last decade, obliterated all 
traces .if the earlier one. 



-•-$ 59 - 




Boundary Monument 

on California - Nevada 
Stale line. Set by Col. 
von Schmidt in 1872. 



By this time the young engineer was enjoying 
a well earned local reputation and was about to 
embark upon an enterprise that soon brought him 
into national prominence. This was his plan for 
the destruction of "Blossom Rock" and his suc- 
cessful accomplishment of it. Blossom Rock was 
long a terror to all navigators entering San Fran- 
cisco harbor. Situated in the main ship channel to 
the westward of Alcatraz Island, its top at low tide 
just below the surface of the water, it was a most 
dangerous thing for any luckless ship to strike upon, 
and many had done so be- 
fore Colonel von Schmidt 
presented to the U. S. Gov- 
ernment his plans for com- 
plete removal of the ob- 
struction. His proposals 
were finally accepted and a 
contract price of $75,000 
agreed upon. The original- 
ity of the plan and its meth- 
od of execution attracted 
nationwide attention at the 
time. Brifly summarized 
they were as follows : A 
survey having disclosed 
that the surface of the* rock 
( about ISO feet by 90 feet) 
was fairly level and of soft 
material, he constructed a 
large scow and upon it a 
double walled coffer dam 
about eight feet by eight 
feet, the bottom of which 
was armed with long iron 
spikes; this he towed over the spot and sunk 
to a bearing by piling in loose rock; a 
hole was then cut through the bottom and an 
"Iron Turret" cemented into the rock; through this 
well hole the excavation proceeded until an irregu- 
lar cavern some 140 feet by 50 feet had been cut to 
a depth of 37 feet below low water; this cavity was 
then charged with 43,000 pounds of black powder 
placed in sealed casks and connected by insulated 
wires arranged for discharge by electric battery. 

However familiar all this sounds to the engineer 
of today, it was at that time the first case of sub- 
marine blasting conducted in that way ; hence the 
progress of the work was eagerly watched by the 
townspeople and many eminent engineers came to 
inspect it. As the time approached for firing the 
blast, interest rose to a high pitch ; much speculation 
as to the final result was indulged in ; and at last on 
the appointed day, the whole town turned out en 
masse to witness the spectacle. The local press of 
that day devoted many columns to the new event; 
from these we can here record but the briefest 
extracts: "Probably 50,000 people witnessed the 
grand spectacle, such a sight as never was presented 
in this city before. .Mono- every street rattled 
thousands of wagons and carriages and horsemen 
dashed rapidly here and there. Dense crowds lined 
the wharves, hills, and all points of vantage and 
crafts loaded with sightseers covered the bay. Sev- 
eral fights took place on Telegraph hill among the 
roughs, bnl no particular damage was done." The 
blast was se! off at live minutes past two I'. !Y1., 
August 23, 1870. "A large circular volume of water 



about 400 feet in diameter shot into the air to the 
height of about 100 feet, while in the center and 
amalgamated with the water could be seen black 
volumes of smoke and a sheet of stones, the latter 
ascending far above the water and presenting on 
the whole the appearance of a vast, volcanic erup- 
tion. Immediately after the explosion every steamer 
and tug boat blew their whistles and dipped their 
colors. Bells were rung, guns fired and a general 
feeling of delight and admiration seized every spec- 
tator. The crowd now broke over the hill and com- 
menced the descent to the city. The jam was fear- 
ful and pickpockets enjoyed a harvest. Women 
with children in arms and small boys were jostled 
until they were willing to fall out and wait until the 
rush was over. A man who had partaken of too 
much "pop" missed his footing on a narrow path 
and rolled down the side of Telegraph Hill several 
rods into a hole. Several parties were jostled and 
crowded off the steep embankment on Montgomery 
street, but no one sustained serious injuries." 

Colonel von Schmidt, who had backed this enter- 
prise with his own money, since the contract stipu- 
lated that no payment would be made until suc- 
cessful termination of the work, had exercised such 
foresight and skill that not a single accident oc- 
curred to mar the progress of the job, and after 
clearing away the debris he was able to satisfy the 
government officials in charge and collect his fee in 
full, lie patented the methods he had used, but 




Remains of Von Schmidt Dam, Truckee River, first project 
of Sierra Mountain Water for the Bay Cities. 

apparently all the reward he ever reaped from this 
was litigation. 

In 1872 and '7?> under contract with the U. S. 
Government von Schmidt established the boundary 
line between the States of California and Nevada. 
Extending from Oregon to the Colorado River, this 
involved the determination of the 120th degree of 
longitude west of Greenwich and the location of 
about 613 miles of line, much of it over almost im- 
passible mountains or desert wastes. Posts were 
set at ever)- mile where possible and permanent 
cast iron monuments erected at intervals. Many 
days were spent in checking up the bearings by 
astronomical observations, and in the words of 
VOD Schmidt, "No pains were Spared to run this line 
correctly. 1 ran the line myself in person, assisted 
by a most competent engineer, Mr. John IX Hoff- 
man, to whom I am indebted for the topographical 
portions of the work." Two of his sons, Edward A. 
and Alfred \V. assisted the field party. 

Prom engineering Colonel von Schmidt branched 

(Continued on Page 71.) 



■•<{ 60 }> •• 



The Immigrant Engineer 

By Pall Christians] \. 
Engineering Department Don> Pump & Diesel Engine Co. 




IK expression [mmigrant Engineer 
may seem to be adding an additional 
burden to an already crowded vocab- 
ulary of engineering term-. However, 
the very considerable number of engineers who 
have immigrated to this country may justify such 
a group name. A few observations dealing with 
their more common experiences and view points 
may prove i if interest. 

The immigrant engineer probably differs little 
from other immigrants coming from abroad, ex- 
cept that he is usually younger and often his train- 
ing will have given him a working knowledge of 

the English language. The latter is further helped 
by the fact that technical terms are largely inter- 
national. If the immigrant hails from the British 
Isles the language handicap i-. of course, elimi- 
nated, or at the worst onesided. Depending on 
hi- age. the immigrant at first passes thru a 
rather trying period where the only compensation 
for his involuntary isolation are the many new- 
interesting impressions he received. 

Probably the engineer adjusts himself more 
quickly to American life than any other immi- 
grant. To begin with. America is to him the 
promised land of engineering. At least he so pic- 
tures it before leaving his native country. And 
broadly -peaking this is, of course, true. No other 
country possesses the combined natural resources 
and industries nor can offer a similar field for 
applied engineering. The often heard expression: 
"See Naples and "die" might appropriately be 
changed by the engineer to: "See Pittsburgh and 
die" .Manufacturing plants and basic industries of 
which before he only knew from text books, he 
now -ees in operation all around him. 

It i> probably fair to say that it is not the elite 
of any nation who immigrate, though after-war 
conditions and other causes have changed this 
somewhat. As a rule the older, more substantial 
stock remains, at times on account of inherited 
social advantages, but often due to a deeper at- 
tachment and loyalty to the country of his fore- 
fathers than the immigrant possesses. The latter 
i- usually of a more restless and adventurous 
type. He has wanderlust in his blood and coming 
usually from the middle or the poorer classes, he 
sees small chance to better the position into which 
he was more or less born. He therefore figure- 
that he lias little to lose but much to gain and 
sets out to realize this gain. In addition, mosl 
European countries have readied a limit in ex- 
pansion and are depressing to the young engineer. 
Few of them have any of the basic industries as 
coal and iron and little expansion can be under- 



taken in the way of railroad building, power 
development and other engineering activities. 
And what engineer does not feel capable of great 
things after he has received his degree or diploma! 
With a slide rule in his hip pocket and the latest 
edition of llutte under his arm he is willing to 
give a hand, and expects to be welcomed, in any 
part of the world where real engineering work is 
to be accomplished. 

The relative merits of American and European 
engineering school- is a question on which one 
may hear rather heated discussions. Usually each 
party is expressing a natural loyalty to his alma 
mater and usually each has only a scant knowdedge 
of any institutions other than those of his own 
country. In some respects the European schools 
would appear to be more thorough as they no 
doubt give the student a more cultural and less 
specialized technical training. There is hardly 
any question but that the American engineering 
school turns out a far more practical engineer at 
the time of graduation than the European does. 
The common practice here of students working 
their way thru college, a practice that is rather 
looked down upon at European schools, is com- 
mendable if not too strenuous. It brings with it 
a better appreciation of the value of technical train- 
ing. Which school turns out the best engineer 
depends more on the individual student than on 
any method of training. The earnest student, the 
born engineer, will get as much out of his course 
at a second rate school as the less interested stu- 
dent will from the best school in the country. 
And is it not true that wdiat stays with most 
engineers from their student days is not so much 
the highly technical subjects studied as the con- 
tact with a few real engineers who knew how to 
apply theory to problems of their own practical 
experiences. 

If the immigrant engineer is able to spend some 
time at an American school it is about the best 
investment he can make at the time. What will 
likely most impress, and at the same time handi- 
cap him, is the speed with which each subject is 
covered, the quick thinking that is encouraged. 
Of course the disadvantage of setting the student 
a specified task each day is that it encourages a 
get-by attitude with only a superficial interest in 
the subject. A less rigid system with more respon- 
sibility placed upon the individual student no 
doubt has its advantages. 

So far it has been assumed that only the young 
engineer immigrates and this is largely true of 
the non-English speaking group. If a man is 
past the age of twenty-five he usually finds it dif- 
ficult to adust himself to new environments. He 



<{ (d }>- 



finds it hard to learn a new language, at least 
without a pronounced accent. 

Most immigrant engineers realize the value of 
not associating too much with people of their own 
nationality during their earlier years here. Of 
course, where there are large foreign settlements 
this is not an easy thing to do and often they 
are misjudged by their own friends. However, 
it is a necessary attitude for the immigrant to take 
in order to quickly adjust himself to American 
life. And usually he finds the average American 
fully as fairminded and square to deal with as his 
own countrymen. Often when immigrants relate 
being taken advantage of it is by people of their 
own nationality. 

It is natural that during the first few years the 
immigrant tends to be critical and at times of- 
fensively so. Habits of fifteen to twenty years 
standing are difficult to change, and when we real- 
ize that to a large extent he is forced to judge 
our actions by his own experiences under entirely 
different environments, we can understand that 
his problem is not an easy one. 

His first problem is, of course, to obtain work 
of some kind. And no matter how potentially 
capable a man may be, it takes time to learn new 
ways of doing things. Learning a new language, 
like learning to drive an automobile, is a matter 
that at first requires conscious thinking at each 
turn. At first the immigrant is forced to translate 
his thoughts into English and the result is usually 
what could be expected. Until he reaches the 
point where he is able to think in English he will 
be considerably handicapped. Usually three to 
four years are required to entirely master this 
problem. 

By this time it suddenly dawns upon the immi- 
grant just what kind of a fellow the American 
working alongside of him is. And the surprise is 
that he finds the imagined difference between them 
has largely disappeared. Now he understands why 
his American friends is more interested in the 
latest baseball news than in what settlement has 
been reached between Italy and Jugoslavia. Until 
then he feels as if he had been living on a two 
dimensional plane. Now he begins to see thru 
things. 

A great many immigrant engineers unconscious- 
ly handicap themselves by not dressing neatly 
when applying for a job. In Europe it is some- 
how thought that when a man can affix a "cand 
polyt." or B. Sc. to his name, it automatically 
adds a certain distinction to his appearance and 
completely draws attention away from his baggy 
trousers and unpolished shoes. Actually the man 
may be a neat and painstaking worker but ap- 
pearances are decidedly against him. 

Another characteristic attributed to young engi- 
neers, and with considerable justification, is that 



they are highly technical and not very practical. 
However, he usually starts in a position where a 
little textbook engineering does no great harm, 
and the contact with actual problems soon makes 
him realize that a very considerable part of engi- 
neering knowledge never was put in print. 

Where an employer has to choose between an 
American and a fairly recently arrived immigrant, 
it is obvious that he will consider other factors 
besides technical ability and training. The immi- 
grants shortcomings in language and unfamiliarity 
with American business methods must naturally 
be balanced by other strong assets, As a general 
rule his nationality is not held against him. 

Traveling and the knowledge of at least one 
other language besides the mother tongue has a 
broadening effect and is bound to react to ad- 
vantage in a man's work. Also a young immi- 
grant is less likely to be bound by family ties and 
local interests to any one locality, and by working 
in different industrial centers he of course broadens 
his experience. 

How does the immigrant engineer rank as a 
superior? No doubt a good many of them, due 
to their broad experience and contact with many 
different types of people, make very capable and 
well liked executives. But a great many tend to 
become dominated by their particular job and ex- 
pect to succeed by hard work alone, from them- 
selves and from men working under them. 

The final conclusion we are likely to reach is 
that engineers are very much alike whether they 
came to this country naked or with their trousers 
on. Their success will depend on something less 
accidental than nationality. The average engineer 
is likely to be honest, hard working and idealistic. 
What Dwight Goddard says in his book "Eminent 
Engineers" of John Ericson of "Monitor" fame 
might apply quite generally: "As an engineer he 
saw things as he thought they ought to be, rather 
than as they are. He was a mechanical "seer" 
and therefore forever at war with the faulty 
present". 

W r hether an engineer makes a success of life 
naturally depends on other factors than his 
chosen work. Also success is a very relative term. 
However, his success will be largely guided by 
his attitude toward his daily work and the engi- 
neering profession as a whole. Probably no bet- 
ter summary of the scope of engineering was ever 
written than the one by Vladimir Karapetoff in 
his lecture "The Human Side of the Engineering 
Profession". He closes his paper with the fol- 
lowing. "The true purpose and value of engineer- 
ing activity lie in providing better and easier ways 
for satisfying ordinary human needs. This pro- 
vides more leisure and opens new possibilities 
for a higher spiritual and intellectual development 
of humanity". 



■<{ 62 Jbh- 



The Corrosion Problem 



By F. G. Harmon, 
Field Service Engineer, National Tube Co. 




IE day is fast approaching when effic- 
iency experts, engineers and economists 
will survey the major commercial and 
technical activities of mankind in an at- 
tempt to decrease costs and eliminate wastage. In 
fact, this day is practically upon u> now. and we 
continually hear more and more about decreased 
costs, increased service and conservation of ma- 
terials. With this attitude gradually growing upon 
the engineering minds of the country; it is not at 
all surprising that the subject of corrosion is being 
given more attention. 

It has long been realized that corrosion is one 
of the large sources of wastage to industry and to 
the consuming public in general. No absolute 
figures are available, but when the many metal pro- 
ducts used in the country today are recalled to 
mind it is possible to realize that the destruction 
of these by corrosion assumes proportions of con- 
siderable financial importance. 

Corrosion has been in existence since mankind 
made the first metal article and has increased with 
the increasing use of metals. Under exposure to 
the elements and to conditions found in every day 
life, all metals corrode. The metals most generally 
used contain iron as their basic constituent. "While 
iron and its alloys are not necessarily more easily 
corroded than other metals in common use today, 
they are nevertheless so much more generally used 
that the results of corrosion are more often observed 
in the case of iron. The corrosion of iron and steel 
has, therefore, received more attention on the part 
of investigators and students and more is known 
about the causes and preventives of the destruction 
of iron than of other metals. In a brief article little 
can be given regarding the details and development 
of the science of corrosion engineering in general, 
although some remarks can be directed toward the 
specific case of the corrosion of ferrous metals ; i. e., 
iron, steel and their alloys. 

About ten or fifteen years ago considerable at- 
tention was directed toward the study of corrosion 
of ferrous metals. This was academic in nature 
but with the passage of time more and more has 
been learned about this subject, until today most 
of the major factors of importance are comparatively 
well understood. It was first necessary to correlate 
observation with some theory which would explain 
the processes by which corrosion takes place. The 
present generally accepted theory of the causes of 
corrosion is known as the Electro-chemical Theory 
and satisfactorily explains the various reactions of 
corrosion and the various anomalies which are often 
experienced in this connection. 

With the establishment and general adoption of 
a workable theory has come notable progress in the 



field of corrosion prevention. This has now develop- 
ed to the point where knowledge is available to 
prevent much of the corrosion which is taking place. 
There is much education to be done before the avail- 
able knowledge will be generally applied by the en- 
gineering public, and it is general experience that 
knowledge of how to do a thing is available a num- 
ber of year- before the thing is generally clone. 
Nevertheless, it is now safe to predict that before 
many years have passed much of the wastage and 
economic loss due to the destruction of materials 
by corrosion will have been overcome. 

Investigation has disclosed a great many condi- 
tions which may cause corrosion. As many as forty 
different factors which may support the corrosion 
reactions have been listed.* A few or all of these 
may or may not be present in an individual case of 
corrosion, but because of their complexity and num- 
ber, they are complicating and have militated 
against an easy understanding of the problem. 
It has been found, however, that three or four of 
these causes are predominant and that in many 
cases by offsetting these comparatively few causes, 
corrosion can either be controlled or largely pre- 
vented. 

It has been found that there is no appreciable cor- 
rosion in the entire absence of moisture. Moisture- 
free conditions, however, seldom occur in nature 
and it is practically impossible to effect such a con- 
dition in practice. However, the success of paints 
in preventing corrosion of metals exposed to the 
atmosphere and like conditions has been dependent 
upon the efficiency by which moisture could be ex- 
cluded from the surface of the metal. Paints ap- 
plied to a moist surface have offered little protec- 
tion, whereas paints applied to a perfectly dry sur- 
face have been much more successful. Much study 
has been put upon the efficiency of proper vehicles 
and pigments so that a paint might be produced 
which would exclude moisture from metal surfaces 
for the longest possible time. As progress has been 
made in this direction, the protective life of paint 
has been increased. 

There are many conditions, however, where it is 
practically impossible to exclude moisture from 
metal surfaces. Pipe lines carrying water, steam 
and gas in buildings, and pipe lines buried in thf 
ground and laid under water, are among the great 
class of materials whose surfaces cannot be. in the 
light of our present knowledge, effectively protected 
from moisture. Thus, under these conditions, it is 
necessary to look for other methods of corrosion 
prevention. 

It is worth while to note in passing that moisture 
by itself is not corrosive, but that it is the dissolved 
substances which are carried by the moisture which 

(Continued on Page 69.) 



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ENTER 



Plan or The Civic Center 



The Civic Center of San Francisco 



By Georce E. Tonney, 
Past-President, Society of Engineers. 



INTRODUCTION 

San Francisco is a city of topographical contrasts. Within its confines may be found all the diversified physical features representative 
of a continent. An array of colorful hills, varying in height to nine hundred and fifty feet of elevation, are as miniature mountain ranges; 
sands of the desert are fantastically patterned in flowing contours; oc-casional streams are its portrayal of rivers, while other traits of nature 
have deftly brought forth lal(es, forests, plains and well defined valleys. Her ocean shore line, interrupted by promotories and headlands is 
again regular and unbroken; her harbor indented by bays and lowland recesses. Here, with all its varieties of vegetation, climate and 
physical conformation, combined into a small area of forty-two squire miles, is a sub-continent. In this single natural region has been 
brought into existence, ingeniously adapted to its environments, and surroundings, a modern assemblage of institutions and enterprises, the 
substance and preferment of a great municipality. All this well calculated to improve, expand and periodically modify according to the 
tremendous influx of new creations so primarily essential to the materialism of present day life. And by the heritage of these premises, 
so must we expect to direct, predicate and utilize our movements, amSitions, and fundamental objectives in a corresponding degree relative 
of their establishment. 




|AN FRANCISCO, through certain 
phases of city planning, has definitely 
established and arranged by centraliza- 
tion, the physical structures of its ad- 
ministrative elements into an institute bodj of 
the permanent order. These structures, as es- 
tablished, are representative of a movement, char- 
acterized by a spirit of pride and 
energy, to present in monumen- 
tal form, public edifices exposi- 
tional of beaut}', utility and 
progress. This particular en- 
terprise is a concrete example of 
the advanced tendencies of the 
American city to devise service- 
able schemes relative of civic 
improvement and planning. In 
its scale of operation. San Fran- 
cisco perhaps occupies a posi- 
tion foremost among the cities 
of the country, and in the com- 
parative newness of its plan, 
may be said to be pioneering, 
for there is little elsewhere com- 
parable or emulative. 

The Civic Center, as an in- 
stitution and as an adornment 
to the cities of the Old World 
has played an active part in 
their affairs for centuries. In 
the past, the American city with 
every individual to suggest and 

require a different arrangement, was reluctant to 
accept the European idea of art, uniformity and de- 
tailed arrangement, as a legitimate inheritance. 

The location of the site of the Civic Center, its 
extent, and formal plan of adornment was preferred 
and recommended by Consulting Architects* of the 
Board of Public Works in 1912. The Architects in 
their choice of this particular location were parti- 
ally governed by circumstances incidental to the 
project. The City was the owner of valuable 
ground, the site of the old City Hall destroyed by 
the fire of 1906. and it was generally assumed that 
this propertv should be utilized as a portion of a 

* John Galen Howard. F. H. Meyer, John Reid. Jr. 




George E. Tonney 



new plan of development. Considering the ad- 
vantage of this proposal and its eventual position 
in an outline of requirements, it was recommended 
that additional property, by purchase, be extended 
westerly to Van Ness Avenue. A sufficient area 
being added to meet the architectural forms and 
treatments of their proposed scheme of develop- 
ment. Prominent among the requirements was 
very obviously, a plan by which 
the modern idea of convenience 
and accessibility might be 
realized. This site by reason of 
its centrality and directness ap- 
peared to offer the most favor- 
able requisites, and in consid- 
eration of its advantages and 
facilities, the City unhesitat- 
ingly endorsed public expendi- 
ture to definitely establish and 
to partially serve its promotion 
and improvement. 

During the period of develop- 
ment and construction of the 
Civic Center, the features, in 
detail, of the scheme proposed 
by the Consulting Architects. 
have been maintained. Struct- 
ures designed to fulfill our mod- 
ern needs and to better express 
and reflect an order of the vari- 
ous phases of life's affairs, in- 
dicative of faith, confidence and 
responsibilities have arisen, and 
we actively participate in their formation. Grouped 
about the spacious plaza, containing five acres in 
the form of a square, four public edifices impres- 
sively present themselves to the eye and mind. In 
the order of their construction they are, the City 
Hall. Exposition Auditorium. Library and the Cali- 
fornia State Offices. 

The City Hall, rightfully predominating the 
group by position and proportion, conveys an ex- 
pression of dignity, grace, and repose, an architec- 
tural achievement which readily appeals to cul- 
ture; and a lasting satisfaction. The Auditorium 
is representative of strength and durability. The 



-*§{ 65 fo~ 



Library substantially expresses the character of an 
institute body accompanied by a countenance of 
refinement and knowledge. The State Building is 
suggestive of energy. But the requisites of these 
public buildings are not merely to be expressed in 
attributes of harmony, proportion, and quality, for 
out of our necessities has grown certain prefer- 
ments essential and vitally characteristic of our 
daily life. With exacting utilitarian requirements, 
forming a close relation between architectural back- 
ground and certain human factors expressed in 
terms of convenience, comfort, and adaptability, we 
may assume that these structures are effectively 
planned. And, whatever may be the aspect of 
things presented in the surroundings, either in 
architectural or landscape treatment, there is no 
evidence of costly profusion or expression of ex- 
travagance. This distinguishing feature may ap- 
pear more and more appropriate or rather in keep- 
ing with the American conception of a Civic Cen- 
ter, for the basic principal involved is that of a 
business institution, this to all intents and purposes 
economically designed. 

Upon entering the plaza from an)' of the ad- 
joining streets, one immediately senses a feeling of 
freedom in a receptive atmosphere, for the noise 
and turmoil of the city streets seems to fade within 
the expanse of the open court. The major build- 
ings, with ample distance between, appear in their 
separation, to broaden the area of enclosure and 
give distance to the range of vision. The adjacent 
structures, having a uniform and limited depth, 
preserve an open sky line. The court is free from 
elaborations and enclosures, affording an unob- 
structed exposure of the surroundings. The earth 
portion of the landscape unit has been so assidu- 
ously cultivated as to yield an abundance of seas- 
onal flowers, with luxuriant foliage, aglow with 
the rare colors of nature. One need not be aesthetic 
to appreciate the influence of the surroundings, for 
here is a happy combinatioin of all qualities essen- 
tial to things harmonious and attractive to enjoy- 
ment and satisfaction. 

The immediate relation of the Civic Center to 
Market Street and Van Ness Avenue, as well as its 
proximity to their intersection, is reminiscent of 
the vision and presentments of the late Daniel H. 
Burnham. The crossing of these important thor- 
oughfares was chosen by Mr. Burnham in 1904 as 
the perimeter of distribution, and for a serial oi 
radial arteries, the center of his proposed city 
plan. In 1913, Mr. Bion J. Arnold reported for the 
City in "Transportation Facilities" this vicinity as 
the proper location for a passenger traffic station. 
Significant of these formal declarations, an unre- 
tarded advancement of business enterprises into 
this district is presently being accomplished by a 
series of permanent beneficial progressions. The 
Hotel Whitcomb, Masonic Temple, and the Calif- 
ornia State Automobile Association offices are 
noteworthy establishments. The erection of one 
of the largest theatres in the country is now under 
way. The Hotel Taylor is an assured project. The 
Emporium department store, by proposal of a 
structure of unusual proportions, bears promise For 
the future. Such structures of commercial and 
social welfare, so attractive to great crowds of peo- 
ple, represent the onward growth of the city thru 



natural channels of expansion occasioned by thriv- 
ing substances and an ever increasing population. 
We do not mean, however, that this progress is nec- 
essarily the result of an influence extended by the 
presence of the Civic Center, but it exemplifies 
previous opinion, and the ultimate inclusion of the 
latter into a uniformly developed section of vigor- 
ous activities is apparent. 

To the concern of Mr. Burnham's conception nf 

distribution, Market Street, by reason of its length, 
width and union with all major traffic arteries, i> 
the axis of city communication. In reciprocal rela- 
tion, the shopping, financial and administrative 
centers of the city, at present co-ordinate with, or 
are adjacent to one-half its length. The con- 
tinuity of these areas along its entire length, or 
within its approximation, may be the resultant of 
future development and by point of its position, 
the Civic Center, mid-distant of its uninterrupted 
length of four miles, may eventually become the 
pivot of business operations. 

The development of the Civic Center since its 
inception some fourteen years ago, has progressed 
with equal regularity. The advance has been easy 
to register. The buildings it possesses are the re- 
sult of logical demands and are designed to perma- 
nently and adequately meet the agencies they are 
serving. 

During the past decade, the entire forces of our 
public administrative departments have witnessed 
a period of transfiguration. The extraordinary ex- 
pansion and multiplication of our representative 
organizations have caused them to operate their 
current affairs in new channels of energy and in- 
spirations. No longer is a public edifice merely a 
receptive of necessities and a musty store room for 
records and accumulations, but an efficient clear- 
ing house for information, education, business 
counsel and skilled service. This is particularly 
true of the engineering departments where poten- 
tial professional problems are given systematic 
study and the recording and dispensation of their 
findings have become accepted practice. 

Our Federal Government has initiated, stimulated 
and placed into motion countless services in the 
form of information, publications, and research 
bureaus, and has made them available to all 
classes in all walks of life. These methods and ex- 
amples of business operations have gradually ad- 
vanced to our local departments and have become 
a definite part of their daily duties and functions. 
With these present day progressions, inheritances 
and incorporations together with their inspirations 
comes a demand for increased space and accommo- 
dations. When its present structures become in- 
adequate or are no longer capable of having addi- 
tional units, the Civic Center, to maintain its order 
of appointment, must necessarily experience an era 
of territorial expansion. 

If consideration is extended to the High School 
of Commerce, the Civic Center now has five build- 
ings to its credit and within a few months, three 
more will lie in the process of construction. As the 
latter were fostered and financed during the past 
several years, it is proper that they should be 
included in this constructional period. With the 



...^ r,6 }y~ 




City Hall 



BalfewAl & Brown, Architect* 



completion of these structures, the Civic Center will 
be the possessor of eight major buildings, devoted 
solely to public service, the result of a growth cover- 
ing its fourteen years of existence. 

Apparently this period of activity represents an 
early stage of its development. Requests for struc- 
tures to house County Offices, Fire and Police, 
Health, Education and other departmental services 
are current and numerable. Their individual cer- 
tainty may be a question of speculation and opin- 
ion, but in general, the demands clearly indicate 
that other public buildings will follow in a program 
of further expansion. 

The Federal Building and the War Memorial 
are the new additions soon to take their places 
among the present group of buildings. 

The Federal Building will be constructed by and 
under the supervision of the United States Govern- 
ment for the purpose of housing its local representa- 
tive bureaus and departments. The affiliation of 
this structure as a component of the Civic Center 
is of vital concern. Its element of national char- 
acter and sphere of influence was recognized and 
formally acknowledged by the City, the City by 
manifest presenting to the government a suitable 
building site, its area equivalent to an entire city 
block. The decision of the Federal Government to 
concur with the City bears special significance, for 
the erection of its representative offices here, will 
complete the unification or bringing together into 
a composite group, the Municipal. County, State 
and National governments, or their respective 
agencies of operation. 



The War Memorial will consist of two buildings, 
the Grand Opera House and the Legion Hall. 

These edifices are made possible by the instru- 
mentality and effort of individual, semi-public and 
public co-operative movements. The structures 
will occupy property especially purchased for their 
erection ; two city blocks, consisting of five acres ; 
by position direct westerly of Van Ness Avenue 
and the City Hall. 

A Grand Opera House was proposed in the orig- 
inal plan of the Civic Center and its subsequent 
inclusion in the Memorial was regarded as appropri- 
ate, its promotion being almost unanimously sup- 
ported by public opinion and effort. With its erec- 
tion, the City will enjoy the distinction of possess- 
ing the first municipally owned Grand Opera House 
in the country. 

By structure these edifices are designed and will 
be dedicated, to serve in a spirit of benefaction, the 
highest order of attainments, and by their presence 
and occupation, will eventually in the annals of 
time, become the subject of recollections and tra- 
ditions incidental to a fascinating and romantic his- 
tory. 

The Civic Center was born out of necessity and 
out of this necessity arose conditions and from 
these conditions have sprung opportunities. The 
advantageous location of its site, the extent of its 
area, the appropriate character of its structures, its 
past growth and promising prospect of amplifica- 
tion are proof of its material substantiality, and 
encouraging of its affluence and success. What 



4 67 h - 



stronger argument could be advanced in favor of 
its support and welfare as an institution recognitory 
of administrative regulation, approval and adjust- 
ment. The present structures, in their importancy. 



justify one of the motives inherent with its pur- 
pose. 

The Civic Center of San Francisco probably has 
more preferred advantages and opportunities than is 



■lllliiife 




Library Building 
Ceorge W. Kclham, Architect 



form a nucleus subject to greater scales and accom- 
plishments. But these objectives, in a sense relative 
of success, cannot be realized without compromise 
and provision. 

Oscar Wilde said : "There is only one definition 
for art and that is harmony". The Civic Center 
destined to become a municipal show place of 
America is deserving of proper assistance. A great 
material and artistic benefit would be the result of 
a settlement for a more harmonious relation be- 
tween its setting and its neighborly surroundings. 
Its ultimate separation from the efflorescent growth 
of uncertain types of structures and non-descripts, 
immediate of its location, is a problem of boundary 
and guidance. The execution of this control, by a 
medium of zoning, deputation or regulation, would 
enhance the value of the present structures and 



accorded to any other city in the country. As a 
salutary institution and as an example of construc- 
tive planning, with manifold assets, its is destined 
to become foremost of a similar municipal enter- 
prise ; an inspiration to further civic progress here 
and elsewhere. 

And in this day as great public beneficial institu- 
tions and enterprises are created by reason of opin- 
ions, efforts, purposes, and industrially fabricated, 
if worthy of merit, history and traditions, become 
benefactors of future generations. And for the 
present these movements and intensities result in a 
common good to the benefit of mankind, for every 
pioneer energy, has for its motive, more conven- 
iences and greater comfort for the business and 
pleasure of its people. 



Exposition Auditorium Building 
Consulting Architects, P. P. 1. E. 




68 }i< 



The Corrosion Problem 



(Continued from Pa - 



actually cause the corrosion. However, since in 

practice moisture always carries these corrosive 
substances, there are but few cases where corrosion 
dues not occur in the presence of moisture. One 
mch case is to be found on the surface of iron or 
steel buried in cement. The cement is generally 
moist, so the metal surface lias moisture in contact 
with it. but in this case very little, if any, corrosion 
takes place. This is due to the fact that certain 
constitutents of the cement are dissolved in the 
moisture and these constituents are not merely non- 
corrosive in nature but are actually corrosion in- 
hibitive. The corrosive agents which may be in the 
moisture at the time the cement is poured attack the 
reinforcing metal and arc destroyed. No new mois- 
ture comes in contact with the metal surface and 
therefore the original moisture, rendered harmless 
by the corrosion inhibiting nature of the soluble con- 
stituents of the cement, does not attack the metal. 
Such metal is often almost completely protected 
from corrosion. 

Another cause of corrosion, and probably the one 
most generally experienced, is the presence of dis- 
solved air (oxygen) in contact with the metal sur- 
face. Air is soluble in water to a considerable ex- 
tent and water universally carries air in solution. 
Such air is invisible and cannot be detected visually 
any more than can sugar which has been dissolved 
in water. Air first dissolves in water when rain 
drops are formed in the clouds, and the dissolving 
operation continues wherever water is exposed to 
the air. unless the water may have become air satu- 
rated. Air consists essentially of oxygen and nitro- 
gen gases, the oxygen representing about one-fifth 
of the air by volume. The nitrogen gas. although 
it is soluble in water, is inert and has no apparent 
effect on corrosion reactions. The oxygen gas. how- 
ever, after dissolving in the water, is capable of sup- 
porting the corrosion reactions and results in the 
destruction of iron (or other metals) and the forma- 
tion of rust. Rust is essentially an oxide or hydrox- 
ide of iron, depending upon conditions. 

Since water is nearly universal in nature, and 
since water nearly always carries oxygen in solu- 
tion, it can be seen that the presence of dissolved 
oxygen is a basic cause of most corrosion. This 
factor is of such primary importance, in fact, that 
in some cases it has been possible to practically 
eliminate corrosion by removing dissolved air from 
water which is to come in contact with metals. 

In closed systems such as the hot-water supply 
system of a building, it has been possible to pre- 
vent corrosion in pipes by so treating the water as 
to remove the oxygen gas from it. Water treated in 
this way i^ comparatively inactive and the rate of 
corrosion is negligible. 

There are two methods of preventing corrosion 
in closed systems by removing dissolved oxygen 
from the water. One method of protecting a hot- 
water supply system from corrosion makes use of a 
storaee tank filled with a lars^e volume and surface 



of some ferrous metal. The water space is so 
designed that the hot water will be held in storage 
and in contact with the large metal surface for a 
considerable period ,,1' time, say, one to two hours. 
The dissolved oxygen in the water attacks the metal 
in the storage tank and causes it to rust, but during 
the reactions accompanying this action, the oxygen 
is removed from the water and therefore can do 
ii' further damage. If the tank is properly designed 
so that the water lies in contact with the metal for 
a sufficient length of time, the dissolved oxygen 
will be completely removed and the water which 
enters the hot water piping system will be non- 
corrosive. Such contrivances have been used with 
evident success in many parts of the country and 
are designated under the class name of "deacti- 
vators". 

Another apparatus for accomplishing the same 
result in such systems is known as the "deaerator". 
In the deaerator hot water is sprayed into a vacuum 
chamber at a temperature slightly above the boiling 
point corresponding to the vacuum maintained in the 
chamber. Part of the water thus flashes into steam. 
This action results in releasing the oxygen and other 
dissolved gases present and breaks up a consider- 
able part of the decomposable salts that may be in 
the water. The gases released in the vacuum cham- 
ber are drawn off by a pump or ejector and ex- 
pelled to the air. The deaerated water pumped to 
the system is non-corrosive. Deaerators require 
continual operation, but are more practical in larg- 
er installations where considerable volumes of 
water are used than the deactivator which would 
obviously occupy a large amount of space. Both 
of these appliances give good results, and since 
they are now developed beyond the experimental 
stage the}' offer almost a universal solution of the 
corrosion problem in hot water supply pipes of 
buildings. This development, alone, is of signal 
importance, as in the past considerable trouble has 
been experienced in this connection. The use of 
such apparatus will become more and more gen- 
eral as the engineering public becomes familiarized 
with the economic value of preventing corrosion in 
buildings. 

Another cause of corrosion which is less uni- 
versally^ experienced but which may be of consider- 
able importance is the presence of acids dissolved 
in water. Most natural waters carry little, if any, 
free acid, although acid waters are occasionally en- 
countered. Many waters, however, carry salts in 
solution which may decompose under certain condi- 
tions with the formation of acid. The waters found 
on the Coastal slopes of the State of California are 
mostly of this class. These waters carry consider- 
able amounts of dissolved carbonates and bicar- 
bonates of a decomposing nature. When such 
waters are heated or are used in a boiler, the car- 
bonates and bicarbonates decompose to a greater or 
lesser extent with the formation of carbon dioxide 
gas. Carbon dioxide gas in the presence of water is 



4 69 h- 



an arid, and acids readily dissolve all of the gener- 
ally used metals. 

A good example of this action is to be found in 
steam systems. Water of the nature referred to 
above is fed to a boiler where it is heated up to the 
boiling point. As the water rises in temperature 
the dissolved gases, including oxygen, are expelled 
to the steam space in the boiler. When the water 
reaches the boiling point it begins to vaporize and 
steam is given off to the steam space. As the water 
continues to boil, particularly if it be under high 
temperature and pressure, some of the carbonates 
and bicarbonates dissolved in the water will begin 
to break down with the formation of carbon dioxide 
gas, which will also be liberated into the steam 
space. The steam will therefore carry, not only 
water vapor, but also oxygen and carbon dioxide 
gas. 

If at any point throughout the system the steam 
is permitted to condense, the oxygen and the carbon 
dioxide will tend to go into solution in the con- 
densate with the result that the condensate may be 
very corrosive in nature. This is the prevailing 
situation found in heating systems throughout this 
district, where steam is generated at high temper- 
atures and pressures. Little trouble is experienced 
in the steam supply lines, but much trouble is ex- 
perienced, due to the cutting out and clogging of 
steam return lines. In this case, as in most other 
cases of corrosion, when the causes have once been 
definitely determined, it is possible to devise some 
preventive. There is ample knowledge available 
today to overcome such corrosion by the application 
of proper boiler feed water treatment or deaeration, 
or perhaps a combination of both. 

The student of corrosion finds it is generally 
necessary to face each case of corrosion as an indi- 
vidual problem and to discover the true causes. 
After this, it is often possible to find some practical 
means of prevention. In general, it can be said 
that there are three methods of overcoming cor- 
rosion. The first method as previously mentioned 
is to insulate metal surfaces from the corrosive 
media in such a way that the metal will not be at- 
tacked. This is the theory behind painting and the 
other methods of coating which are generally used. 
If it were possible to develop an absolutely ef- 
ficient coating, this method would be a practical 
solution of the corrosion problem under many con- 
ditions. Knowledge has not yet advanced to the 
point where it is possible to construct a coating 
which is absolutely impervious over long periods 
of time. However, great advances have been made 
in this connection in the past few years and it is 
possible that the time will come when this method 
of corrosion prevention will be the most common 
and the most effective. 

Another general method of corrosion prevention 
is the removal of the causes of corrosion. It is to 
this class of corrosion preventives that the deacti- 
vator and deaerator belong. In addition to this, 
there are many precautionary steps which have been 
taken, particularly in the mechanical field, to con- 
trol corrosion along similar lines. These do not fall 
in any one class, and therefore are not so apparent 



to the general observer as the class of corrosion pre- 
ventives previously mentioned. 

Another method of corrosion prevention has been 
the development of corrosion resistant metals. To 
the public mind this seems to be the best and most 
desirable method of overcoming the corrosion evil. 
However, to the metallurgist and to those who have 
studied the corrosion problem, it offers the least 
promise of any of the general methods of corrosion 
prevention. While the metallurgists of today do 
not claim that they have learned all there is to know 
about the innumerable alloys which may yet be 
developed for specific purposes, nevertheless knowl- 
edge has progressed to the point where it is pretty 
generally believed that no one metal can be pro- 
duced which will be resistant to corrosion under all 
conditions. 

The phenomenon of corrosion takes place by a 
series of basic reactions which, however, vary so 
greatly under different conditions that they are 
scarcely recognizable as the same. As a result, a 
metal which exhibits marked corrosion resistance 
under exposure to the atmosphere may show a great 
lack of durability when buried in the ground or ex- 
posed to water. Other metals which may be resis- 
tant to the attack of fruit acids may show little dur- 
ability against inorganic acids. Such experience is 
universal in the attempts that have been made to 
develop corrosion-resistant metals. For example, 
copper bearing steel is highly superior to other 
ferrous metals in its ability to withstand corrosion 
in the atmosphere, vent gases, flue gases, etc., and 
yet it exhibits no superiority to the other ferrous 
metals when buried in the ground or used in a 
water system. Stainless steel is an example of a 
metal which exhibits very desirable corrosion- 
resistant properties when exposed to certain fruit 
juices and to oxidizing conditions, and yet which 
shows no great corrosion resistance when exposed 
to hydrochloric acid or to soluble chlorides, such as 
those found in sea water. 

Thus, while there are many available metals and 
alloys which are resistant under a specific set of con- 
ditions, there are many other conditions under 
which they are no better than ordinary materials 
and some under which they are even worse. It is 
possible that, after a great deal of study, there may 
be developed sufficient knowledge so that the en- 
gineering public will be acquainted with those par- 
ticular materials which can be used for a specific 
purpose with the best results. However, the effects 
of commercial promotion and advertising will work 
against the establishment of any such condition in 
the near future. Most such metals are expensive, 
due to the large amounts of heat and labor involved 
in their production, and it is generally felt that 
more rapid advancement will be made toward the 
solution of the corrosion problem by the other 
means mentioned. 

In this day of scientific co-operation and research 
it is greatly to be deplored that, to dale, no general- 
ly supported and unbiased group effort has been 
directed toward a comprehensive study of the cor- 
rosion problem. In the past few years several tech- 
nical societies have been active in this connection 



■4 70 }%- 



and have attempted to study some of the major 
corrosion problems affecting their particular field. 
However, little attempt has been made as yet to 
correlate the experience and findings of these vari- 
ous technical societies. It is to be hoped thai before 
long a broad and capable research organization can 
he developed for the accomplishment of this. Such 
an organization might well receive governmental 
support in connection with the policies of our re- 
cent administrations which have been directed tow- 



ard conservation of materials. Such an organiza- 
tion would merit the support of industries and 
large consuming interests which are vitally interest- 
ed in the corrosion problem, and could have the 
sanction and support of the technical societies. The 
coalition of ideas, together with the attention of 
the best investigative talent, would result in great 
benefit to the people of this country and would go 
a long way toward establishing economy of oper- 
ation and conservation of metals. 



A.W. von Schmidt, Pioneer Engineer 



out into the shipping industry (as his eldest son, 
Edward, was already a Captain | and became the 
owner of the barkentine "Frances Palmer" and the 
schooner "Ariel" which made voyages to the Islands 
and to South American ports. His youngest son, 
Walter, a most promising lad who at 17 years of 
age had commanded the "Ariel" on three voyages, 
was washed overboard and drowned, and this so 
disheartened the elder von Schmidt that he closed 
out his shipping interests and turned his attention 
to other matters. 

Assisted by a brother, Julius, who was a skilled 
draftsman, he invented and patented a suction 
dredge which if not the first in the world was the 
first successful one on the Pacific Coast. This 
machine was put in operation in 1876 on the river 
levees above Antioch. It was improved later and 
for many years the "von Schmidt dredge" was a 
familiar sight about the bay and in the Oakland 
Estuary where much work was done under govern- 
ment contracts. 

Amid all these strenuous labors Colonel von 
Schmidt found time for numerous civic and social 
duties. For many years he maintained offices in 
the old Pioneer building at Montgomery and Jack- 
son streets. No one had to guess where he stood 
on questions of law and order. He headed a com- 
pany of men which he had organized for the pro- 
tection of life and property, and assisted in quelling 
the incipient riots started by the "rough neck" ele- 
ment in the community. He early (1857) joined the 
Society of California Pioneers, taking an active 
interest in its affairs and serving a term (1871-2) 
as President. For many years he was a member 
of Mount Moriah Lodge No. 44 F. & A. M. ; Cali- 
fornia Commandery No. 1. K. T. : and a Noble of 
the Mystic Shrine. His title of "Colonel" was an 
honorary one derived from the fact that he was a 
veteran officer of the Seventh Regiment of Militia, 
New York City and that he served as Colonel and 
Engineer on the Staff of several Governors ot 
California. His mother was buried in the Con- 
gressional Cemetery at 'Washington. D. C. His 
father came later to California and died at San Fran- 
cisco in 1855. Colonel von Schmidt was married 
in Benicia on August 21. 1853 to Frances Everallyn 
Mott. She was born in New York City, Septem- 



ber 17. 1836, a daughter of Captain Issac Mott 
formerly a sea captain and later a merchant at 
Mazatlan. When the Mexican war broke out he 
removed to Honolulu and later came to San Fran- 
cisco in 1847. By this marriage Col. von Schmidt 
had four children : Edward A. : Alfred \Y. ; Walter; 
and Lillian Frances, the latter being the wife of 
Major C. L. Tilden of Alameda. 

lie spent the later years of his life in Alameda, 
saddened by the death of his wife and two of his 
sons, hut maintaining his great mental vigor to the 
very last. He died May 26, 1906 in the 85th year 
of his age. At this time the ashes of burned out 
San Francisco were scarcely cooled, and in the tur- 
moil of that great catastrophe the death of such a 
well known man as A. W. von Schmidt did not 
attract the general attention that it would other- 
wise have done. Funeral services were conducted 
jointly by Mount Moriah Lodge of San Francisco 
and Oak Grove Lodge of Alameda and the body laid 
to rest in Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland. By 
singular chance the funeral eulogy was pronounced 
by Major Edward A. Sherman of Oakland, the last 
survivor of that ship load of immigrants that sailed 
through the Golden Gate on the 24th of May, 1849. 
He said. "I feel like Uncas, the last of the Mohicans 

. I stand alone here as the sole survivor of 

that company of 450 men who met aboard that 
ship 'Fanny' in Mazatlan fifty-seven years ago to 
come to California to seek their fortunes." 

And since that day he too has passed on to re- 
join the rest of his comrades of the great majority. 

Author's Note: — The material for this article has 
been assembled from various sources through the 
friendly co-operation of many individuals among 
whom particular mention may be made of Major 
C. L. Tilden. President Board of State Harbor 
Commissioners. San Francisco; Otto von Geldern, 
Consulting Engineer, San Francisco ; John Hubach- 
er. Superintendent. Hunters Point. Dry-dock; Mil- 
ton J. Furgeson, State Librarian. Sacramento; Mrs. 
Van Sicklen. Assistant Secretary, Society of Cali- 
fornia Pioneers; C. F. McGlashan. Attorney, Truc- 
kee ; Ross E. Browne, Mining Engineer. Oakland; 
and Edward O'Day, Spring Valley Water Com- 
pany. San Francisco. 



-4 71 f>- 



A Friendly Word 



R. C. Briggs 



Sale Engine 



By Revoe C. Briggs, 
Water Resources Branch, U. 



S. Geological Survey. 





( ) THE many 
lay friends of 
the Society of 
Engineers, — 
greetings and goo d 
wishes. To my fellow en- 
gineers, — just a friendly 
and confidential word. In 
recent years our profes- 
sion has been indulging in 
considerable introspec- 
tion, has found opportun- 
ities for betterment, and 
has advanced in public re- 
gard. But there is still 
room for progress and I 
wish to emphasize one 
more fault that we must 
conquer, one that has received little mention. I re- 
fer to the habit of too freely criticizing our fellow 
engineers, not only to other engineers but to out- 
siders as well. 

We wish to secure a closer professional unity. To 
do this we must be a little more tolerant, a little 
broader, a little more charitable. I do not mean that 
we should compromise with incompetence or in- 
dulge ignorance. But we should recognize that the 
other fellow may "know his onions", too. 

The engineer makes war upon mistakes and er- 
rors. They are his sworn enemies. He is continu- 



ally on the hunt for them for the sole purpose of 
eliminating them. In supervising his subordinates' 
work his quest is for errors and he finds enough, 
very often too many. Then comes the natural tend- 
ency towards the attitude "if you want anything 
done right do it yourself". However this attitude 
may be and often is carried too far. There is dan- 
ger in reaching a state of mind that is doubtful and 
even contemptuous of anything and everything the 
other fellow does. I know too many engineers who 
have this spirit and it is deadly to professional co- 
operation and unity. 

One of New York's leading bankers, W. L. De 
Bost, recently said of engineers : 

"I observe great individuality of thought among 
you. In ability to agree with each other. In your 
analytical and honest minds you have an habitual 
attitude to overcome. That is, you will give sup- 
port to nothing that is not absolutely correct. Now 
I admire that trait, but you push it too far. You 
let some slight imperfection distort your view of a 
program in its broad measures. Get out of your 
heads that everything must be perfect before you 
will have anything to do with it. Cease criticism 
of each other for unimportant details. Agree on 
general principles, leaving the elements that may 
be in doubt to be worked out later as exigencies 
dictate. Get the habit of working together on gen- 
eral programs." 

No better counsel than this has even been given 
to us. Let us heed it. 



Problems of Meteorology in the West 



States Weather Bureau, pilots may keep themselves 
informed of wind direction and velocity, cloud and 
fog conditions and other weather factors for every 
mile of route. 

In selecting the San Francisco to Los Angeles 
route for intensive and early development, the gov- 
ernment and co-operating institutions were actuat- 
ed by a combination of ideal conditions: weather, 
and the lack of large centers of population within 
three hours by air. They expect to promote an un- 
precedented amount of air traffic over the improved 
airway. 

Projected routes, similar improvements over the 
northern and the eastern or trans-continental routes 
are contemplated. Bids for erection of beacons and 
construction of intermediate fields between San 
Francisco and Redding will be opened by the mid- 
dle of July. 

On this route airports are now in existence at 
Willows, Corning, Red Bluff and Redding. Inter- 



(Continued from Page 33.) 

mediate fields will be placed at Concord, Fairfield, 
Capay and Williams. Beacons will be installed at 
ten mile intervals. 

In the near future the same work will be done 
on the transcontinental route, between San Fran- 
cisco and Blue Canyon, Placer county. Then the 
air mail schedule will be modified to permit planes 
leaving San Francisco at night and delivering mail 
in New York in the morning — an actual 36-hour 
trans-continental service. 

These California airways, when completed, which 
will be within a few weeks, will have a total mileage 
of approximately 1800 miles. The astonishing mag- 
nitude of these western air routes is shown in the 
comparison of the total distance of lighted airways 
in California. If stretched into one route they would 
reach from Baltimore to Cheyenne or from Boston 
to Key West. They might also string along from 
New York City to Fort Worth or light a path from 
Portland, Maine, to New Orleans. 



-«f 72 }>■ 



An Organization Devoted to the Interests of Professional Engineers 

Society of Engineers 

Regular meetings are always held the second Tuesday evening, 
each month. Blue Room, Palace Hotel 

Secretarial Office: 

952 Pacific Building, San Francisco 

Telephone Sutter 5819 

Board of Direction 

rilll. IP SCHUYLER. President 

GLENN B. ASHCROFT, Vice-President 

W. G. RAWLES, Treasurer 

ALBERT J. CAPRON, Secretary 

L F. BEAM AX GEO. H. GEISLER 

A. E. ZIMMERMAN A. A. RuBISH 

GEO. Iv TONNEY, Past-President 

Qualification 

R. C. BRIGGS 

Membership 

D. E. PRENVEILLE L. A. DEMERS NORMAN H. HEGGIE 

Luncheon 

PHILIP SCHUYLER, President 
GEO. H. GEISLER WALTER LANDERS 

C. S. ADAMS. R. G. GREEN 

Historical 

G. B. ASHCROFT, Chairman 
A. E. ZIMMERMAN PAUL CHRISTIANSEN R. G. RAWLES 

Public Affairs 

LOUIS F. LEUREY. Chairman 
H. D. MILLER A. A. ROBISH 

T. F. BEAMAN OTTO YON SEGGERN 

Educational 
A. A. ROBISH 

Entertainment 

GEO. H. GEISLER. Chairman 
A. A. ROBISH L. H. POWELL 

H. D. NOREN H. J. TANNER 

W. G. RAWLES 

Year Book 

GEO. E. TONNEY. Chairman 
PAUL CHRISTIANSEN H. C. FORNEY 

G. B. ASHCROFT SYEN E. ODEMARK 

Past Presidents 

fNO. II. KNoWLES. 1919 CHARLES H. LEE. 1924 

W. S. WOLLNER. 1920 LOUIS F. LEUREY. 1924 

G. CHESTER BROUN. 1921 VOLNEY D. COUSIN, 1925 

WM. H. PHELPS, 1922 C. H. TUCKER, 1925 

GEORGE MATTIS, 1923 G. B. ASHCROFT. 1926 

GEORGE E. TONNEY. 1927 



*{ 7.i )§«•- 



Annual Dinner 



CAFE FIOR D'lTALIA 
April I Oth, 1928 

Philip Schuyler, Toastmasler 
Saxophone Solo ._.__-- 

Piano Accompanist ------- 

The Imitating Engineers ----- 

Road Construction in the Interior of British Columbia 



H. W. Corner 

G. E. Thomas 

Glenn B. Ashcroft 

Reginald H. Dill 



In a Class All by Himself, The Incomparable — (Professor Schnitzel) Sam BERNARD 

The Desert Song, (Selection from Romberg) ... CALIFORNIA Trio 

Cecil Rauhut, Violinist; Laura Anna Cotton, Cellist; 

Maxine Cox, Pianist 

Three Vocal Solos by - - - - LAURA Anna COTTON, Vocalist 

(A) Aria, from Samson 6t Delilah, Saint Saens. 

(B) "Cielito Lindo", (Mexican Love Song), Fernandez. 

(C) Vocal Ensemble, "Song of Hawaii". 



Excerpts from the Grand Opera, "Faust", (Gounod) 
A Bunch of Dates 

Engineering Experiences . _ _ _ - 

The Great Illusionist - 

Our Own Poet Laureate 

Trip On a Whaler in 1882 (Second Half) 

A Legend From India - 

Saxophone Solo ------ 

Piano Accompanist - 



California Trio 

Walter Landers 

Louis F. Leurey 

John Scott Barker 

Jay F. Beaman 

Geo. H. Geisler 

Albert J. Capron 

H. W. Corner 

G. E. Thomas 



-4 74 f>- 



Society Activities 

LECTURES 

Delivered at Societ]) Meetings 
Blue Room, Palace Hotel 

September 15, 1927 — Walter D. Jones, Technical Expert. W. P. Fuller & Company, "The Method 
of Manufacturing Paint." Illustrated l>y moving pictures. 

October 11. - - Val J. Salmon, "A Trip to the High Sierras", illustrated by moving pictures. 
Jes>e 1\. Brown, "The Proposed Park at Mount Tamalpais." 

November 8, - - Theodore M. Matson, Engineer San Francisco Traffic Committee Survey, 

"Traffic Conditions in San Francisco." Illustrated by moving pictures and 
diagram slides. 

December 13. - - Lieut. -Commander Gorman, United States Coast Guard "Northland", "The 
Cruise of the Northland to Alaskan Waters." 

February 14. 1928 — E. G. Sheibly, Chief Engineer and Superintendent of Safety Division of 
Industrial Accident and Safety Commission, State of California. "Physchology 
vs. Safety Engineering." 

G. Chester Brown. Past-President Society of Engineers. ".Mining Conditions 
in California." 

March 13. - - - Col. Andrew S. Rowan. I'. S. A. retired. "How I Found Garcia in 1918." 

May 8, - - - - Charles H. Lee. Past-President. Society of Engineers, "The St. Francis Dam 
Disaster." Illustrated by moving pictures and diagram slides. 

June 12. - - - Donald Gibson, "The Engineer's Place in Developing Aviation." 
Prof. W. J. Connel, "The Relation between Engineering and Law." 
Musical Program by Students of Polytechnic College of Engineering. 



EDUCATIONAL VISITS 

January 21. 192S — -Alameda Estuary Subway. 

March 8, - - - United States Battleship "California." 

May 12. - - - Market Street Railway, Cahle Power House, Washington and Mason Streets 

August 19. - - Great Western Electric Chemical Company, Pittsburg. 

September 2, - - Annual Picnic. La Honda. 



4 75 }§» 



"An Engineer Who Builded Better than He Knew" 



B\i R. W. Martindale 




ETWEEN the years 1665 and 1685 A. D. 
by order of Louis XIV of France, sev- 
eral cast iron transmission lines were 
gj installed for the purpose of supplying 
water to the Town, and the famous fountains of 
Versailles. In all there were laid (within the 
years mentioned) 26,000 feet of cast iron pipe trans- 
mission mains 20" diameter. These lines are still 
in faithful service after 260 years. Upon examin- 
ation about fourteen years ago the cast iron pipe 
was found to be in as good condition as the day it 
was laid. 

The long service of these cast iron pipe lines may 
be visualized by several historical events which 
have transpired since their installation. 

The French Revolution was fought. 
Napoleon lived and died. 
The steam engine was invented. 
The Declaration of our Independence 
was signed. 
The Engineer for Louis XIV evidently left 
no Hand Book of water works practice to be used as 
a guide, and indeed if he had, succeeding generations 
of engineers would doubtless have considered such 
a primitive hand book of little or no value in up to 
date installations. Few if any of our rank and file 



remember this historical outline of probably the 
most effective pipe line ever constructed. The 
engineering profession might well be proud of this 
almost forgotten pioneer cast iron pipe line builder. 

One might surmise, however, that this man (this 
engineer) was a student and consequently had 
knowledge of permanence of cast iron through 
its earliest use. He probably knew of the 
famous cast iron pillar of Delhi believed 
to have been erected about 1000 B. C. (3000 
years ago) and which pillar from recent 
observations will last forever. Recently someone 
in writing of this pillar stated that each year it was 
buttered by pilgrims during their worship at Delhi. 
It may be that this coating of butter takes the place 
of a protective coating, though the cast iron pipe 
line at Versailles has no evidence of ever having 
had any coating of any nature thereon. 

One wonders how to figure the yearly cost basis 
of the Versailles line. One could imagine the horror 
at the time of the citizens of France at the ex- 
penditure of so much money for a cast iron pipe line 
when something else cheaper would have done the 
work. The citizens of France now "point with 
pride" to their beautiful fountains and laud Louis 
XIV and his engineer as two men who builded bet- 
ter than they knew. 



Co-operation 

"Without you, Gentlemen of the Engineers, 
without your co-operation, without your science, 
the War could not have been won. Your help will 
be indispensable in the future, as it has been in 
the past, and your country relies upon your 
prompt response should a necessity arise." This 
was the tribute Marshall Foch paid the engineers. 

The engineer and the architect, the pioneers of 
engineering construction yesterday, today, and 
tomorrow, in war and in peace, and yet how few 
structures bear their names. The Holland tunnel 
in New York, the Moffat tunnel through the 
Rockies, the Eads bridge over the Mississippi, the 
Mulholland dam in Los Angeles, the OShaughnessy 
dam in the Sierra Nevada and a few others. 

Congress has given the names of Roosevelt and 
Coolidge to two of the big irrigation project dams. 
and in every community we have the Washington, 
Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, etc., schools. 

And yet we have had for centuries engineers, 
architects, and constructors, of outstanding achieve- 
ments, whom we have never fittingly rewarded. 
Why not give the names of these men to the struc- 
tures they have built? Some of our bridges, tunnels, 
dams, breakwaters, and monumental buildings 
could readily be renamed, and to some of the most 



important works under construction the names of 
the men who conceived and built them should be 
given, and now, while they are still with us. — 
Western Construction News Editorial. 



Employment Service Bureau 

Conducted by the Society of Engineers 

It offers a confidential, centralized service from 
which employers of Engineers may. without charge, 
procure from its membership, selected, experienced 
and specially trained men in all branches of the 
profession to fill such positions as may be offered. 

Desiring the services of draftsmen, designers, 
detailers. office and field service men on location, 
construction and maintenance, salesmen, valuation, 
accounting experts, etc., affiliated with civil, 
mechanical, electrical, mining, architectural, struc- 
tural, irrigation, and hydraulic branches of the 
Engineering professii in. 

Inquiries confidential : Address Albert J. Capron, 
Secretary, 952 Pacific Building, San Francisco, Calif. 
Phone Sutter 5819. 



•<8{ 76 }>•- 



Metal Flume Change Made 

Desirable by Larger Demand 




jWING to the necessity of a larger ca- 
pacity, the "l.c Grand Flume" of the 
Merced Irrigation District was recent- 
5] ly increased in size From a No. 204 
(129.9" dia.) to a 240 (152.8" dia.) The new 
flume has a carrying capacity of 300 second feet 
as compared with 220 second feet for the orig- 
inal flume. 

Of particular interest is the fact that the new 
and larger flume was installed on the same sub- 
structure, merely using new stringers and cross 
hars. Of course, the method used in this case 
would he practicable in only a few instances as 
conditions control the practice to quite an ex- 
tent. 

Because of the comparative narrowness of the 
original substructure, the new Armco flume has 
assumed a slightly U-shaped form. Its appear- 
ance is excellent, however. 

The original Armco flume will replace a metal 
box flume which has about completed its period 
i if usefulness. 




Above — Side view of the new Le Grand Armco Flume (No. 240) 
of the Merced Irrigation District, Merced, California. 

Belutv — Intake of the new Le Grand Flume. 




Aerial Photography 

-<■{ 77 }>- 



DIRECTORY OF MEMBERS 



Adams, Clarence S., M. E. 

Columbia Steel Co. 

Pittsburg, California 
Adams, Thomas J., Chemist 

Crockett, California 

C.-H. Sugar Co. 
Adamsen, Jas. J., C. E. 

1035 Haight Street, San Francisco, California 
Adishian, P. K. 

Caterpillar Tractor Co. 

1545 East Fourteenth Street, San Leandro, California 
Aeppli, Ernest, C. E. 

1308 Cole Street, San Francisco, California 
Ahnger, Geo. A., M. E. 

C.-H. Sugar Co. 

P. O. Box 436, Crockett, California 
Albers, Robert W.. C. E. 

National Parlf Service 

bib Market Street, San Francisco, California 
Alejo, Joe B., Electrical 

1353 Bush Street, San Francisco, California 
Alin, Ake L.. E. E. 

1202 Spaulding Building, Portland, Oregon 
Alvord, Banj., C. E. 

Pacific Stales Telephone <S- Telegraph Co. 

140 New Montgomery Street, San Francisco, California 
Amos, E. W., Supt. Agencies — Insurance 

526 Pacific Building, San Francisco, California 
Anaya, Marvin, Mechanical 

1441 Ellis Street, San Francisco, California 
Andrews, Alan K., Civil 

26 Garfield Street, Santa Cruz, California 
Andrews, Berger, C. E. 

East Dap Municipal Utility District 

2402 Twenty-seventh Avenue. Oakland, California 
Andrewson, John W., Civil 

Sugar Pine Lumber Co. 

5219 Fairfax Avenue, Oakland, California 
Anlonenko, Basil P., C. E. 

Colden Cate Ferry 

1114 Octavia Street, San Francisco, California 
Armstrong, Jno. W. F„ E. E. 

Creal Western Power Co. 

1>AAA Rhoda Avenue, Oakland, California 
Arelius, Hugah N. M. E. 

Western Sugar Refinery 

29 Park Hill, San Francisco, California 
Arnold. Ralph R„ C. E. 

County Engineer 

P. O. Box 631, Martinez, California 
Ashcroft, Glenn B., C. E., Structural Designer 

Henry Myers, Architect 

1823 Alameda Avenue, Alameda, California 
Balfour, J. A., Civil Engineer 

Helch Helchy Project 

Livermore, California 
Barry, George R., Student 

739 Sixth Avenue, Oakland, California 
Baughn, Eck., M. E. 

Byron Pump Manufacturing Co. 

5287 Manila Avenue, Oakland, California 
Beaman, J. F., C. E. 

California Highway Commission 

1306 Peralta Street, Berkeley, California 
Becker, J. Ernest, M. E. 

Pacific Gear & Tool Works Co. 

380 Dolores Street, San Francisco, California 
Beckwith, G. L„ Student 

2301 San Antonio Street, Alameda, California 
Bedell, Clifford F„ Civil 

Santa Cruz Co. 

Route I, Box 67, Santa Cruz, California 
Bedolfe. Herbert M„ Civil Engineer 

708 Rose Avenue, Breckenridge, Texas 



Beiter, Rudolf E„ M. E. 

Associated Oil Co. 

69 Casa Way, San Francisco, California 
Beinhauer, Wm., Civil Engineer 

U. S. Engineers 

Rio Vista, California 
Beloy, Paul E., M. E. 

1369 Hyde Street, San Francisco, California 
Bellisario, Ned, Student 

37 Crest Avenue, Richmond, California 
Bendel, E. H„ M. E. 

Niles, California 
Benish, Richard J., Student 

132 Lake Street, Oakland, California 
Benson, Norman, Superintendent Construction 

1450 Leavenworth Street, San Francisco, California 
Bennett, Fred C, Civil Engineer 

1333 California Street, San Francisco, California 
Bergschold. Nils O., C. E. 

417 Market Street, San Francisco, California 
Bernard, George R., Electrical 

Pacific Slates Telephone & Telegraph Co. 

170 Belvedere Street, San Francisco, California 
Bernard, Harold T., Electrical 

Apart. 44, 1051 Post Street, San Francisco, California 
Bewley, F. E., Architect 

Southern Pacific Co. 

569 Kenmore Avenue, Oakland, California 
Bichet, Stewart A., Civil 

1201 Pine Street, San Francisco, California 

Bishop, H. N„ C. E. 

Consulting 

P. O. Box 587, Sunnyvale, California 
Blackburn, Wm. R., Civil Engineer 

Laclal Corp. 

4504 Cabrillo, San Francisco, California 
Bold, Joe A., Student 

3421 East Eighteenth Street, Oakland, California 
Borradori, Samuel, Student 

1575 Alice Street, Oakland, California 
Bosa, Louis, M. E. 

776 Bush Street, San Francisco, California 
Bosia, Louis Chas., M. E. 

Shell Oil Co. 

776 Geary Street, San Francisco, California 
Booth, Jr., Edwin, C. E. 

845 Waverly. Palo Alto, California 
Bowen, Clare N., Civil 

San Francisco, California 
Bunting, Thos. B., Civil Engineer 

Eiks Club, Marysville, California 
Burgess, Clarence E., Civil 

Alameda County Engineering Office 

P. O. Box 36, San Lorenzo, California 
Burke, Jas. J., M. E. 

Caterpillar Tractor Co. 

Route 4, Box 270, Hayward, California 
Bradley. Willard. C. E. 

California Highway Commission 

2301 Eightieth Avenue. Oakland, California 
Bramble, L. R., Civil 

3015 Grove Street, Oakland. California 
Branch, Robert E„ M. E. 

Production Engineer 

1151 Regent Street. Alameda, California 
Brazeal, R. H., Student 

115 Ronada Avenue, Piedmont, California 
Brier, William Wallace. C. E. 

Consulting 

1802 Le Roy Avenue Apartment No. 6, Berkeley, Calif 
Brown, Orville A„ C. E. 

2815 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, California 
Brown, Philip W., Civil 

465 Ellis Street, San Francisco, California 



••■*§{ 78 )->■■ 



Francisco, California 



ver Co., Camp No. 2 



Brings. R. C., C. E. 

I S. C. 5. 

Room 303 Custom Ho 
Bruno. |ohn. Sludent 

3604 Dimond Avenue, Oakland. California 
Brookey, Waliei \\ .. Civil Engineer 

\\ esllev. California 
Brouse. E. \\ ., C. E. 

231 Nichols Avenue. Syracuse. N. Y. 
Bryant. Ernest Roland. Electrical 

I 101 Sutler Street. San Francisco. California 
Bryant. Robert T., Architectural 

6433 Salem Street. Oakland. California 
Campbell. A. P.. C. E. 

2306 Rose Terrace, Berkeley. California 
Capron. Capt. Albert J.. Secretary, 
Society of Engineers 

952 Pacific Building. San Francisco. California 
Carte, Ross. C. E. 
Consult,,,? 

2129 Clinton Avenue. Alameda, California 
Casorla. Ivan. Civil 

3101 Sumner Street. Oakland, California 
Chalfant. A. J., C. E. 

Care Feather River Po 
Quincy. California 
Chapman. Victor. Student 

Clayton. California 
Charlton. Kenneth G.. Electrical 

1622 Harrison Street. Oakland. California 
Chapman. Chas. E.. Student 

Tiburon, California 
Chase. Dee W.. C. E. 

2703 Fulton Street. Berkeley. California 
Child. McLaren C. Student 

Care Mr. McKennett. San Carlos. Arizona 
Chrimes. J. \V., Civil Engineer 
Mills Estate 

1203 O'Farrell Street. San Franctsco, California 
Christiansen. Paul. M. E.. 

Dow Pump &■ Diesel Engine Co. 
1036 Polk Street. San Francisco. California 
Clark. Baylies C. Mining Engineer 
City Engineer. Sacramento 

3535 Washington Street. San Francisco. California 
Clark. Robert S., M. E. 
Bowie Switch Co. 

5977 Shafter Avenue. Oakland. California 
Clarke. J. H. W.. M. E. 
Madrono Dredge Co. 

Junction City, San Francisco. California 
Cochrane. Clifford W.. Civil Engineer 
Board of Appraisals 

2242 Polk Street. San Francisco. California 
Colby. Chas. W.. C. E. 

Jno. D. Callowav. C. E. 

2908 Ellsworth Street. Berkeley. California 
Cole. James F.. Civil 

Sugar Pine Lumber Co.. Minarets, California 
Concannon. Charles F„ Student 

5462 Barrett Avenue, Richmond. California 
Condon. Tom, Civil 

Engineering Department of Western Pacific Railway 
care Mr. Gloster. Mills Bldg., San Francisco, Calif. 
Conley. Jack S.. Student 

Oakland Poly. College. Oakland. California 
Cooledge. Victor R.. Civil 
Southern Pacific Co. 

918 Curtis Street. Berkeley. California 
Corcoran. E. G.. Student 

2228 Seventh Avenue. Oakland. California 
Cowles. John, M. E. 



Consulting 

543 Forest Avenue. 
Crowell, L. E., Student 

1310 Madison Stre 
Cross, J. W., C. E. 

California Highway Comm 

Albion, California 



Palo Alto. Califor: 
t. Oakland. Callfo 



Crowley. John J., Civil 

1611 Washington Street. San Francisco. California 
Crowley, J. J., Civil Engineer 

1271 Thirtieth Avenue, San Francisco. California 
Cotter. Albert R.. Student 

1116 Grant Avenue. Klamath Falls. Oreoon 
Cutler. Samuel L.. C. E. 

Camp Pardee. Valley Springs. California 
Dahl. Bjarne C. C. E. 

Box 2636. Honolulu. T. H. 
Dalve. Leonard L, Civil 

Pacific Portland Cement Co. 
628 Maple Street, Redwood City. California 
Daniels. W. R.. C. E. 
Consulting 

1250 Thirty-seventh Avenue. Oakland. California 
Danna. Louis. Electrical 
Columbia Steel Co. 

1004 Masonic Avenue, San Francisco, California 
Davis, Arthur P., 

Chief Engineer and C. M.. East Bay Munic. Utility Dist 
505 Santa Ray Avenue. Oakland, California 
Davis. Richard Dee, Student 

1448 Jackson Street. Oakland. California 
Davis. Sarkus H.. Electrical 

170 Otis Street. San Francisco. California 
Dawson. J. B., C. E. 

Assl. Div. Eng. Southern Pacific Co 
120 Bancroft Road, Burlingame. California 
Degnan, Leland William, Student 

5363 Bond Street. Oakland. California 
Delius. H. A.. E. E. 

Leland 6- Halev. Construction Engineers 
1471 Portland Avenue. Berkeley. California 
Demers. Lester A.. C. E. 
Instructor 

care Heald's Engr. School. Larkm & Sutter Streets. 
San Francisco. California 
Desmond. A. J.. Civil Engineer 

915 Court Street, Redding. California 
DeCroft. Horace M.. M. E. 

Morrison Tractor & Equipt. Co lnc 
Plant Engineer 
Nelson. B. C. 
De Velbiss. C. Dudley. C. E. 
Construction 

Builders Exchange. Oakland. California 
De Voney. John. Civil 
American Can Co. 

1748 Tenth Avenue. San Francisco. California 
Dice, Jos. O.. Student 

427 Homer Street. Palo Alto. California 
Dieterich. J. W.. Engrs. — Supplies 

75 New Montgomery Street. San Francisco, California 
Dill. Reginald N„ Civil 

West KoatenM P. & L. Co. 
Nelson. British Columbia 
Dinkins. Delbert F.. E. E. 

P. O. Box 58. Bakersfield. California 
Dombitsky. Charles W.. M. E. 

Western Butchers Supplv Co. 
156 Fourth Street. San Francisco, California 
Dondero, F. C. Student 

117 Lake street. Oakland. California 
Dorcas. W. A.. C. E. 

611 Eighth Street. Marysville. California 
Douglas, Norman D., C. E. 

California Highway Commission 
2114 N Street. Sacramento California 
Dresel. Gustav. M. E. 

Pacific Stales Telephone & Telegraph Co. 
1646 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco California 
Dresel. Rodolfo. M. E. 

Care P. G. & E. Co.. Oakland. California 
Driggs. Edwin L. C. E. 

East Bay Municipal Utility District 
601 Ray Building. Oakland. California 
Dufour. Paul E., C. E. 

Care State R. R. Com.. State Building, 
San Francisco, California 



- 4 70 )§» - 



Drew. F. L.. C. E. 

1167 Oxford Street. Berkeley. California 
Dunninglon. Frank C, Student 

2537 Ellsworth Street. Berkeley. California 
Dysinger, Glenn S., Civil 

3032 Champion Street. Oakland. California 
Eddleston, Neville B.. Student 

603 Sycamore Street. Oakland. California 
Eddy. Arthur E.. M. E. 

Care Seth Thomas Clock Co., 
9 West Forty-fourth Street, New York, N. Y. 
Elliott. Charles. Civil 

Southern Pacific Co. 

1402 Cole Street, San Francisco, California 
Ekblom. Charles. Asst. M. M. 

323 East Ninth Street, Pittsburg, California 
Ehrhardt. H. J.. Civil 

1110 Linden Street. Oakland. California 
Erickson, Clarence E.. Civil 

974 Pine Street. San Francisco, California 
Ervin. Hugh M.. Civil 

541 Sixty-third Street. Oakland. California 
Eslermann, Jos. M.. Student 

Box 1064, San Francisco, California 
Eshleman. Wallace C, C. E. 

659 Melville. Palo Alto. California 
Farmer. Geo., Civil Engineer 

Box 1163. Salinas. California 
Faries. Cuthbert W.. C. E. 
Feather River Power Co. 

1203 Hobart Building. San Francisco, California 
Fenger. Emil, Civil 

East Ball Municipal Utility District 
2516 Ridge Road. Berkeley. California 
Fernandez, Juan R., Electrical 

Apart 3, 2250 Hyde Street, San Francisco, Call 
Ferrebee. H. H.. Civil 

Theho. Starr & Anderlon 
729 Jones Street, San Francisco, California 
Fields. W. E.. Civil 

3884 Brighton Avenue. Oakland. California 
Fischer, Adolph R., Student 

473 Hayes Street, San Francisco. California 
Fishei. R. E.. Vice-President 
Pacific Cos & Electric Co 
245 Market Street. San Francisco. California 
Fitch. Herbert R.. Student 

2083 Rosedale Avenue, Oakland. California 
Flood, Neil. Civil 

1235 Regent Street. Alameda, California 
Forney, H. C, M. E. 
/. C. C. Appraisals 

535 Stockton Street. San Francisco, California 
Forsburg. Geo. W.. C. E. 
City Engineer. Albany 
1116 Curtis Street. Albany. California 
Fox, S. R.. M E 
Consulting 

4009 Harding Way. Oakland, California 
Fox. Harry O, Civil 

2609 Regent Street. Berkeley. California 
Fox, George L-. Civil 

California Highway Commission 
1024 N Street. Sacramento. California 
Franklin. Clifford N.. Architect and Superintendent 
Southern Pacific Co. 

Room 1064. S. P. Building. San Francisco, Cali 
Fraser. Donald J., Civil 

Great Western Power Co. 
431 Sutter Street, San Francisco, California 
Fraser, William, M. E. 
Pickering Lumber Co. 
Standard, California 
Freuler, George H.. Student 

2044 Thirty-fourth Avenue. San Francisco, Calif. 
Frontinsky. Michael, Student 

154 Eighth Street, Oakland, California 
Furderer. A. |„ Electrical 
Pac. El. Mfg Co. 
589 Castro Street. San Francisco, California 



Frykland. Basel N.. Civil 

Southern Pacific Co. 

37 Rigg Street. Santa Cruz. California 
Gansiko. Jose. C. E. 

218 Capitol Street. Yallejo, California 
Gama. G.. Civil 

Southern Pacific Co. 
2703 Laguna, San Francisco. California 
Gardner. Fred V., Student 

Route I. Box 469. Hayward, California 
Germeshausen, Kenneth, Student 

2051 Telegraph Avenue. Oakland. California 
Geisler. Geo. H.. Refrigerating En"ineer 

Consulting 

571 Twenty-third Street. Oakland. California 
Gelling. Waller E.. Civil 

1216 Pearl Street. Alameda. California 
Gibson. Fred W.. Civil 

Western Pacific Railway 

Care R. S. Gloster, 

925 Mills Building. San Francisco. California 
Gilbert, Henry D., Civil 

Larkin and Suiter Streets. San Francisco, California 
Gilika, Sam, Civil 

Caterpillar Tractor Co. 

1629 Eighty-first Avenue, Oakland. California 
Gill. Walton W„ Civil 

Alameda County 

5959 Shafter Avenue. Oakland. California 
Gillis. Charles E.. Civil Engineer 

Hetch Hetchy Junction. California 
Glas. Analol. M. E. 

Western Sugar Refinery 

274 Roosevelt Way, San Francisco. California 
Glendinning, Albert. Electrical 

2621 Fifty-fifth Avenue. Oakland. California 
Gl.dden. Harold A.. E. E. 

V. S. B. F. 

2228 Dana Street. Berkeley. California 
Glinchikoff. Alex. I.. C. E. 

Columbia Steel Co. 

Pittsburg, California 
Goodwin, Philip R„ C. E. 

U. S. R. S. 

5127 Coronado Avenue. Oakland. California 
Graff, Hans. C. E. 

U. S. Engineers 

3350-A Twenty-third Street. San Francisco, California 
Grant. Wallace A.. C. E. 

Superintendent Construction 

1623 University Avenue, Berkeley. California 
Gray. N. A.. C. E.. Consulting Engineer 

Columbia Steel Co. 

Pittsburg. California 
Gray, Tone R.. E. E. 

Pacific States Telephone & Telegraph Co. 

3967 Sacramento Street. San Francisco. California 
Green. Robert G.. Cartographer 

Rand McNally Co. 

3453 Twenty-sixth Street. San Francisco, California 
Grelhel, Bernard W„ Electrical 

757 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley. California 
Grun'£. George, Electrical 

3120 Franklin Street. San Francisco. California 
Gruenwald. Donald C, E. E. 

Pacific Cas & Electric Co. 

496 Fairbanks Avenue. Oakland. California 
Gueffroy. Werner A.. Civil 

270 Sanchez Street, San Francisco. California 
Guida, Frank. Electrical 

American Can Co. 

1471 McKinnon Avenue. San Francisco. California 
Gulsch. Vivien A.. Student 

138 East Twelfth Street. Oakland. California 
Hack. Waller. Electrical 

157 Fillmore Street. San Francisco, California 
Hagopian. Harry. Electrical 

776 Capp Street. San Francisco, California 
Hammond, Rufus M., M. E. 

2035 Channm.j Way. Berkeley. California 






4 so }> 



Halstead. Charles B„ M. E. 

Don, Pump & Diesel Engine Co. 

1 S 10' _ Park Slreel. Alameda. California 
Hansen, Axel. Electrical, Student 

267 Euclid Avenue. Oakland. California 
Hansen. Leslie A.. Student 

3829 Brookdale Avenue. Oakland. California 
Hanson, John H., Civil 

402 East High Street. Ml. Vernon, Ohio 
Hardy. Fred L.. Electrical 

651 Scott Street, San Francisco, California 
Harlin, Thomas. M. E. 

Caterpillar Tractor Co. 

1738 Eighty-second Avenue. Oakland, California 
Harmon, Forrest G., C. E. 

Tech. Service Engineer, National Tube Co. 

1430 Russ Building. San Francisco, California 
Harper. Geo. P., Civil Engineer 

110 Webster Street, San Francisco, California 
Harrison. William. M. E. 

575 Elizabeth Street. San Francisco, California 
Hartley. Marion. Electrical 

1778 O'Farrell Street. San Francisco, California 
Harris, Rex F.. Electrical 

1101 Sutter Street, San Francisco. California 
Harris. Roy Monte. Civil 

1226 Church Street, San Francisco, California 
Harrison, Bradshaw, C. E. 

California Water Service Corp. 

825 West Magnolia. Stockton, California 
Hart, Walter K.. Student 

1647 Ninth Street. Berkeley. California 
Hawkins. A. L., Civil Engineer 

California Highway Commission 

Calistoga, California 
Hawthorne, Thomas, C. E. 

U. S. R. S. 

208 East Ninth Street, Ellensburg, Washington 
Hayes. Charles W.. M. E. 

Schlage Lock Co. 

919 Rutland Street, San Francisco. California 
Hayne. Wm. C. E. 

Department Public Works 

1 I I Boyson Street, Yallejo. California 
Haynes, Harold, Civil 

Consulting 

21 Napier Alley. San Francisco. California 
Healy, Arthur C. Mechanical 

444 Hyde Street, San Francisco, California 
Heath. James L.. Student 

1302 Twelfth Street, Oakland. California 
Hebbron. J. E.. Civil 

Southern Pacific Co. 

1516 Larkin Street. San Francisco, California 
Heberling, Guy H„ Civil Engineer 

539 Homer Avenue, Palo Alto, California 
Heffernan, Thomas R.. Electrical 

1104 Gough Street. San Francisco, California 
Heggie, Norman H„ C. E. 

Holdner Construction Co. 

Crescent City, California 
Heinbockle. Wayne H., Student 

2823 Central Avenue, Alameda, California 
Heinkel. Geo. W.. M. E. 

1260 One Hundred and Third Avenue. Oakland. Calif. 
Held. Herman E.. Electrical, Student 

668 Forty-fourth Avenue, San Francisco, California 
Henderson, R. S., C. E. 

Assistant Engineer Southern Pacific Co. 

116 Emerson Street, Palo Alto. California 
Heyder. Henry. M. E. 

Caterpillar Tractor Co. 

3241 Prentiss Street. Oakland, California 
Hickman, Francis W., M. E. 

Pacific Cas & Electric Co. 

Care Columbia Hotel, 411 O'Farrell Street. 

San Francisco, California 
Higgins, James E., Civil 

Southern Pacific Co. 

516 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco, California 



Hill. Arthur O. Student 

2728 East Sixteenth Slreel, Oakland, California 
Hill, George S„ C. E. 

Consulting 

36 Diamond Street, San Francisco, California 
Hilton, E. M., Sanitary Engineer 

National Park Service 

Box 106 Yosemite, Yosemile Nat. Park, California 
Hinnanl. E. R., C. E. 

Care C. H. C. Redding. California 
Ho, Henry H.. Student 

2728 Channing Way. Berkeley. California 
Hodgkins, W. C, E. E. 

East Day Municipal Water District 

2429 Central Avenue, Berkeley, California 
Hodgkinson, Marion, Civil 

Keddie, California 
Hodgkinson, Whitney C. Civil 

Creal Western Power Co. 

2429 Central Avenue, Berkeley, California 
Hoehn, Jr.. Charles P. A.. Electrical 

639 Twenty-ninth Avenue, San Francisco. California 
Hogan. Melvern S., Student 

1533 Henry Street, Berkeley, California 
Hogg, Jas. B., Student 

3545 Hampton Avenue, Oakland, California 
Holmes, Harry H., Student 

2128-A Clinton Avenue, Alameda, California 
Hook. W. Lloyd, Superintendent Construction 

U. S. F. S. 

418 Vernon Street. Oakland, California 
Houston, Douglas O., Civil Engineer 

Box 664. Madera. California 
Howard. Oliver O., Civil Engineer 

15 Mendocino. Willits. California 
Hubbard. Geo. R„ C. E. 

California Highway Commission 

Cordelia. California 
Huber. Otmar H.. M. E. 

American Can Co. 

1000 Sutter Street, San Francisco, California 
Huber, Henry R., Student 

129 Thirteenth Street, Oakland, California 
Hudson, Raymond A.. E. E. 

Pacific States Telephone & Telegraph Co. 

549 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, California 
Hulsmann, Giles F-, Electrical 

1024 Pacific Avenue, Alameda, California 
Hunderup, Kennedy, Civil 

353 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, California 
Hunt. Leonard W.. Geologist 

Care California HighwaV Commission 

San Luis Obispo, California 
Hyams. L. K., M. E. 

Michel & Pfeiffer Iron Worl ( s 

579 Forty-fourth Avenue, San Francisco, California 
nouye, Harry, Electrical 

1 643- A Webster Street, San Francisco, California 
akobsson. H. A., Superintendent Construction 

Care Lingreen & Swinerton 

California State Life Building, Sacramento, California 
ames, Adelbert E., M. E. 

Baker Hamilton Pacific Co. 

36 Cook Street, San Francisco, California 
ames, Franklin, Student 

433 Central Avenue, Oakland, California 
ames, Richard N„ Student 

433 Central Avenue, Alameda, California 
ensen. A., Student 

1215 Grand Street, Alameda, California 
ensen, Oliver, Student 

662 Fifty-second Street. Oakland. California 
imenez. Julio, Civil 

Pacific Cas 5- £/eclri'c Co. 

2918 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, California 
ohnson, Emanuel, C. E. 

939 Mission Street. San Francisco, California 
ohnston. Frederick, Superintendent Construction 

2336 Oregon Street, Berkeley. California 



-4 81 }> 



Johnson, H. C, C. E. 

East BaV Municipal Utility District 

2449 Dwighl Way. Berkeley. California 
Johnson. Herman. Student 

I 101 Sutter Street. San Francisco. California 
Johnson. Ralph B.. C. E. 

U. S. Department Public Works 

626 North Eleventh Street. Richmond. California 
Johnson. W. H., Civil Engineer 

La Moine. California 
Jones. Phil R.. M. E. 

Chief Engineer Pac. Division, Sanitary Mfg. Co. 

616 Thirteenth Street. Richmond. California 
Kaarlele. Edward R.. Electrical 

1101 Sutter Street. San Francisco. California 
Kahn. George D.. Electrical 

Room 1616. 995 Market Street. San Francisco. Calif. 
Kain, Clifford H., C. E. 

Consulting 

P. O. Box 71. San Carlos. California 
Kane. Joseph A.. C. E. 

Union Oil Co. 

568JA Fifth Street. Richmond, California 
Karvonen. Archie W., Electrical 

Apart. 44. 1051 Post Street, San Francisco, Calif. 
Kay, Albert E.. Civil 

California Highway Commission 

i 108 Settle Avenue, San Jose, California 
Keehner, L. W., Student 

R. F. D. No. 1. Roseville, California 
Keller. Fred H.. Mechanical 

786 Forty-third Avenue, San Francisco, California 
Kennedy, F. E., C. E. 

Contra Costa Co. 

27 Green Street. Martinez, California 
Kent. Wm. H.. M. E. 
Caterpillar Tractor Co. 

447 Callan Avenue. San Leandro, California 
Kergel, John H.. Civil 

Beamer Park, Woodland. California 
Kern. Mark. C. E. 

Southern Pacific Co. 

1544 Page Street. San Francisco, California 
Kiefer. John E., Civil 

Western Pacific Railway 

1005 Hyde Street. Apart. 1, San Francisco, Californii 
Kiely, John, Electrical 

44 Clara Street. San Francisco, California 
Kiely, John B.. Student 

Hetch Hetchy Junction, California 
Kienzle. Fred, M. E. 

Ad. 600 West I 14th Street. Apart. 5-W. 

New York, N. Y. 
Kinney. Herman B., Architectural 

4236 Foothill Boulevard, Oakland, California 
Kinter, Dean W.. Civil 

U. S. Motors 

951 Eddy Street, San Francisco, California 
Kittrell, Jack W., Civil Engineer 

1126 Grand Avenue. Everett, Washington 
Khngen. Leendert. M. E. 

'Shell Oil Co. 

1535 Pine Street. Martinez. California 
Klotz. Rudolph A.. Student 

527 Alacatraz Avenue, Oakland. California 
Knapp. |r.. Sewell A., M. E. 

Shell Oil Co. 

152 Moss Avenue, Oakland. California 
Knudson, Kay B.. C. E. 

Box 221, Palo Alto, California 
Konevega, Vladimir. C. E. 

Pacific El. Mfg. Co. 

2579 Bush Street, San Francisco, California 
Kostritsky, E. F., C. E. 

3810 Sacramento Street, San Francisco. California 
Kotta. Rafael J„ M. E. 

873 Broadway, San Francisco, California 

Kotta. Rudolph D\. E. E. 

873 Broadwav, San Francisco. California 



Kramer, Harry A.. C. E. 

Pacific Cas & Electric Co. 

4226 Twenlv-fourth Street. San Francisco. California 
Krueger. Frank. M. E. 

Pelton Water Wheel Co. 

2726 Folsom Street. San Francisco, California 
Kunlenko, Kuzma, R. R. Engineer 

2507 West Avenue. Los Angeles. California 
Lacey. Ira H.. Civil 

149 Third Street, San Francisco. California 
Lamb. Albert L-. Civil Engineer 

140 Chestnut Street. Yuba City. California 
Landers. Walter. Civil Engineer 

California Highway Commission 

67 North Market Street, Redding, California 
Lane. Rex E., Chief Engineer 

Care Madera Sugar Pine. Madera. California 
Langhein. George, Mechanical 

3442 Maine Street. Oakland. California 
Langworthy. Clyde F.. Civil Engineer 

1021 Shasta Street. Redding. California 
Larson. Victor E.. Student 

1501 Madison Street. Oakland. California 
Law, James. Student 

287 Harvard Street. Oakland. California 
Layland. Charles L., C. E. 

Guggenheim Bros. 

Care Yukon Gold Co.. Ampang. Selangor. F. M. S. 
Lazear. Wm. H., Civil 

Oliver Cont. Filler Co. 

6 Oak Vale Avenue. Berkeley. California 
Le Borone, Cyrus Henry, Electrical 

472 East Santa Clara Street. San Jose. California 
Leister, B. H.. M. E. 

Standard Oil Co. 

242 Turk Street. San Francisco, California 
Lennen, Wm. E., Civil Engineer 

215 South Fourth Street. Montabello, California 
Leurey. Louis F., E. E. 

Consulting Engineer 

58 Sutter Street. San Francisco. California 
Leyer. F. H.. M. E. 

5000 Webster Street, Oakland. California 
List, Fred M., Student 

852 Arlington, Berkeley. California 
Littleton. Alfred, Student 

3676 Nineteenth Street. San Francisco, California 
Livenaood, James K., Civil 

2328 Jefferson Street W.. Phoenix, Arizona 
Londsen, Leo D., Electrical 

1791 Pine Street, San Francisco, California 
Lozier, Allen S., C. E. 

Consulting 

Route 4. Box 236, Santa Cruz, California 
Luczynski. Harry A.. Electrical 

787 Forty-first Avenue. San Francisco, California 
Macintyre, J. G. S.. C. E. 

3033 Harper Street, South Berkeley. California 
Macleod, Hugh, Civil 

2524 Sixtieth Avenue. Oakland. California 
MacManaman, Harry S.. Superintendent 

Colden Cute Atlas Materials Co. 

1685 Sutter Street. San Francisco, California 
Malo, Jose M., Student 

22 Laurel Avenue. Mill Valley. California 
Markoff, M. D.. Student 

2216 Parker Street. Berkeley. California 
Marcella, George. Electrical 

907 Fortieth Avenue. Oakland. California 
Marsac. Gerald. C. E. 

Consulting 

1935 West Sixty-second Street. Los Angeles. Californi 
Martin. Stiles, Student 

1114 Pine Street. San Francisco, California 
Martens, F. C. M. E. 

Cater pillai Trai lor Co. 

4 id A Fillmore Street. San Francisco. California 
Marvin, Bernard. Civil 

604 East Seventeenth St. eel. Oakland. California 






4 82 \, 



Mis. n Guy I ■'.. C. E. 

■ Commission 

P. I I B « I 18, Mill Valley. California 
I .Icon. Student 

157 Be.lita Sheet. >.»n I rancisco. California 
Mason. Merritt M.. C. E. 

22C8 \\ ard Street. Berkeley. California 
Mead. Kenneth H.. Civil 

Dam ( 

4 Bennett Avenue. San Anselmo. California 
Melcher, Wm. E.. Student 

25-44 Parker Street. San Francisco. California 
Meldrum. Edward A.. Student 

843 \ an Ness Avenue, San Francisco. California 
Mendozo. Val P.. Student 

Care Heald's Engineering School 

Sutter and Larkin Streets. San Francisco. California 
Messner. Paul. Student 

614 D Street. San Rafael. California 
Meuter. Homar. Student 

436 Santa Clara Avenue. Alameda. California 
Mlhara. Kazuo. Student 

141/ Laguna Street, San Francisco, California 
Miles. David F.. Civil Engineer 

Nevada Slate HishaaM 

P. O. Box 175. Truckee. Nevada 
Miller. Harvey D.. Civil 

A .'ir Yor\ Life Insurance Co. 

2641 Marlin Street. Oakland. California 
Miller. Harrv F.. Civil Engineer 

Caie Miller cv Lux. Inc., 

Los Banos. California 
Millner. Byron, Civil 

Pacific Cas & Electric Co. 

1461 Plymouth Avenue, San Francisco, California 
Moland. George R.. Civil 

3255 Laguna Street. San Francisco. California 
Moller. Dan_ H.. Civil Engineer 

Box 297. Camp Union. Bremerton, Washington 
Monlero, Leon, Student 

285 Newton Avenue. Oakland. California 
Monzingo. John J., C. E. 

Tax Clerk W. V. T. Co. 

Care Molino and Mirabel Avenues, Mill Valley, Calif. 
Morris. Clifford R.. Civil 

53 Union Street. Nantuckett. Massachusetts 
Morehouse. Charles R.. Student 

230 Divisadero. San Francisco, California 
Monmoto. George M.. Student 

795 Tenth Street. Oakland. California 
Morisette. Hector L.. Civil 

Southern Pacific Co. 

Third and Townsend Streets, San Francisco, California 
Molt. Sene. Civil 

u. s. c. s. 

401 Custom House. San Francisco, California 
Muggli. John H.. M. E. 

'Shell Oil Co. 

115 McKinr.on Street. Martinez. California 
Muir. David. Civil 

Shell Oil Co. 

9 York Street, Berkeley. California 
Mullen. T. F„ Mechanical 

264 Twenty-eighth Street, San Francisco. California 
Murphy. Henry J.. M. E. 

502 Union Pacific Headquarters Bldg.. Omaha. Nebr. 
Mullenix. Marion. Student 

Care Heald's Engineering School 

Larkin and Sutter Streets. San Francisco. California 
Murray. A. D.. Civil 

Southern Pacific Co. 

P. O. Box 1777, San Francisco, California 
Myron, Edwin B.. Structural Engineer 

Southern Pacific Company 

Room 1064, San Francisco. California 
McAbeer. Fred A.. Student 

1410 Seventy-fourth Avenue. Oakland. California 
McGuire. H. J.. E. E. 

3872 Nineteenth Street. San Francisco. California 



McDonald. H. F.. Civil Engineer 

Care California Highway Commission 

Orick. California 
MrFarland, R. C. C. E. 

California Highrvav Commission 

743 Rodnev Ave.. Estudillo Estates. San Leandro. Calif. 
McKay. Jas. M.. C. E. 

Care County Engineer. Martinez. California 
McKenzie, Gordon \V„ Chief Engineer 

Care Pickering Lumber Co., Standard. California 
McKeon. Edward F.. Student 

1699 Oakdale Avenue. San Francisco, California 
McNitl. Frank. Student 

644 Oak Street. San Francisco, California 
Nass. Lloyd M., Student 

123 Lake Street. Oakland. California 
Neffe. Horrace, Electrical 

277 Cazaneau, Sausalito. California 
Nelson. George. M. E. 

Beth. Steel Co. 

1087 Market Street. San Francisco. California 
Nevius. S. B.. C. E. 

Care Sidney E. Junkins., Ltd. 

605 Metropolitan Building. Vancouver. B. C. 
Newlove. M. E.. Student 

78 Davis Street. Santa Cruz, California 
Nickel. Harry G. Civil 

Los Banos. California 
Nickel. Walter F.. C. E. 

5an Mateo Co. 

352 Everett Avenue. Palto Alto. California 
Nilsson. Walter. Civil 

Box 193. San Carlos. California 
Nordlund. T. Gereau. Civil 

Standard Oil Co. 

1301 Bonito. Berkeley. California 
Noren. Harold Dimond. Student 

1837 Seventh Avenue. Oakland. California 
Nunez. Leslie. Civil Engineer 

Concord. California 
O'Brien. Edward. Student 

5803 Mendocino Avenue, Oakland. California 
Odemark. Sven N., C. E. 

Southern Pacific Co. 

1045 Franklin Street. San Francisco. California 
Okulow. Nickolas K.. C. E. 

1553 California Street. San Francisco. California 

Olayos. John M.. Civil 

3907 Twentieth Street, San Francisco, California 

O'Malley. M. M.. Civil Engineer 
Moccasin. California 

Omsted. Harald. E. E. 

Southern California Edison Co. 

Camp 7. Big Creek. California 
Oribin. Ernest. Student 

30 Monticeto Avenue. San Francisco. California 
Orme. Harrv D., Civil Engineer 

P. O. Box 315. Tehachapi. California 

Orr. J. H.. Civil Engineer 

Div. X.. California Highway Commission 
Sacramento. California 

Osbourne. Alan, M. E. 

Consulting 

434 Central Avenue. Alameda. California 
Page. F. E.. Student 

~ 1622 Harrison Boulevard. Oakland. California 
Paoe. Harold L.. Student 

273 Mather Sheet. Oakland. California 
Palmer. Harry H.. C. E. 

545 O'Farrell Street. San Francisco. California 
Paras, Jr., Jose. Student 

1051 Annerly Street. Piedmont. California 
Park. Kenneth F.. Civil 

2100 M Street, Sacramento, California 
Pearson. Vernon E.. Civil 

Southern Pacific Co. 

2960 California Street. San Francisco. California 



~4 83 h 



Peacock, James H., Student 

1505 Jackson Street, Oakland, California 
Peck, George D., Student 

1213 Seventy-fifth Avenue, Oakland, California 
Perelomoff, D. M., C. E. 

P. O. Box 452, Berkeley, California 
Peter. Carl A., Student 

2361 Howard Street, San Francisco, California 
Peterson, John W., Student 

1 101 Sutter Street, San Francisco, California 
Peterson, York, City Engineer 

211 North Pine street, Santa Maria, California 
Pettebone, O. R., E. E. 

Care Oliver Cont. Filter Co. 

Oakland, California 
Phillips, Raymond L., Civil 

Building Inspector, City of San Francisco 

149 Detroit Street, San Francisco, California 
Pierce, R. F., Student 

1420-A OTarrell Street, San Francisco, California 
Pierce, Sumner W., Salesman 

Soule Steel Companv 

1525 Broadway, Alameda, California 
Piersol, Arnold B., Student 

822 Fourteenth Street, San Francisco, California 
Pillars, Harry M., M. E. 

Refrigerating Engineer 

924 Curtis Street, Berkeley, California 
Pinckert. Walter F. E. E. 

0//i'ce Engr. Salt River Water Users Assn. 

504 N. Culver Street, Phoenix, Arizona 
Piper, Dean I., C. E. 

Care California Highway Commission 

Bishop, California 
Plant, Tracy R., Valuation 

/. C. C. 

1118 Union Street, Alameda, California 
Popow, Achim J.. C. E. 

Norris K. Davis 

2408 McKinley Avenue, Berkeley, California 
Post, R. C, Engineers' Supplies 

75 New Montgomery Street, San Francisco, California 
Potter, Lewis C, Civil 

400 Oak Street, San Francisco, California 
Powell, Louis H„ Student 

1900 Clinton Avenue, Alameda, California 
Prenveille, D. E. M. E. 

Caterpillar Tractor Co. 

4001 Woodruff Avenue, Oakland, California 
Preston, Harald, R., Civil 

Loveland Engineering Co. 

622 Charles Street, San Francisco, California 
Preston, Pierce R., Civil 

Santa Rosa, California 
Price, R. F., Electrical 

1420-A O'Farrell Street, San Francisco, California 
Proctor, J. F., Architectural 

138 East Twelfth Street, Oakland, California 
Providoshin, Paul S., Architect 

1863 Hayes Street, San Francisco, California 
Pruellage, Frank J., Student 

4200 Masterson Street, Oakland, California 
Purcell, Ernest, Civil 

Southern Pacific Co. 

1905 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco, California 
Purser, George, Civil 

875 University Avenue, San Jose, California 
Puzey, Rolla J., Civil 

Care E. J. Morser, C. E. 

425 Gough Street, San Francisco, California 
Ramos, Vidal D., Student 

317 Sea View Avenue, Piedmont, California 
Rapson, Victor C. W., C. E. 

70 Gillis Avenue, Epsom, Auckland, N. Z. 
Rasmussen, Leonard A., Student 

544 East Fourteenth Street, Oakland, California 
Rath, A. F., C. E. 

Care Arizona Highway Commission 

2033 North Mitchell Street, Phoenix, Arizona 



Rawles, Win. G„ C. E. 

East Bay Municipal Utilitv District 

Room 601, Ray Building, Oakland, California 
Ray. Don C, Public Relations 

Pacific Cas & Electric Co. 

245 Market Street, San Francisco, California 
Reed, Raymond A., Civil 

Pacific Can Co. 

2311 Broadway, San Francisco, California 
Reed. R. B., C. E. 

4418 Twenty-third Street, San Francisco, California 
Rees, Jr., David, Civil 

1306 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, California 
Reichmuth, Anton L., Civil 

342 Eighth Avenue, San Francisco, California 
Reilly. Jos. R., Civil 

920 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, California 
Reinhard, John W., Student 

36 Alma Street, San Francisco, California 
Richofsky, Carl, Civil 

647 Sixteenth Street, Richmond, California 
Riegger, Fred, Student 

1057 Cole Street, San Francisco, California 
Riksheim, P. K., Architect 

1053 Bush Street, Apart. 4, San Francisco, California 
Robertson, Donald M., M. E. 

Caterpillar Tractor Co. 

1655 East Fourteenth Street, San Leandro, California 
Robinson, James H., Civil 

City of San Francisco 

Hetch Hetchy Junction, California 
Robish, A. A., C. E. 

Coast Counties Cas cr Electric Co. 

726 Sutter Street, San Francisco, California 
Rogers, Geo. E., C. E. 

Texas cr Pacific Railwav 

1003 T. & P. Building, Dallas, Texas 
Rordorf, Oscar H., Civil 

California Highway Commission 

977 Santa Rosa Street, San Luis Obispo, California 
Ross, Floyd I., C. E. 

Care Ulen Contracting Co., 

Manizales, Columbia, S. A. 
Rostet, Toivo E., Student 

353 Newton Avenue, Oakland, California 
Roth, Theodore H., Student 

71 Tenth Street, Oakland, California 
Rothrock, Walter C, Civil 

Bucl(bee Thorn Co. 

1054 Ellis Street, San Francisco, California 
Rudolph, J. D., Civil Engineer 

Hotel Congress, Sacramento, California 
Saarinen, A. J., Civil 

Associated Oil Co. 

1250 Jackson Street, San Francisco, California 
Solomon, M. D., Mechanical 

856 Bush Street, San Francisco, California 
Salmon, Val J., C. E. 

Hunter cr Hudson 

2940 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, California 
Santiago, Emeterio R., Civil Engineer 

Route B, Box 252, Salinas, California 
Saxby, Harvey B., Mechanical 

1817 Alice Street, Oakland, California 
Savage, R. E., C. E. 

Care Stale R. R. Commission 

State Building, San Francisco, California 
Schilder, Albert C, Student 

R. F. D. Route 1, Box 124, 

Palo Alto, California 
Schremp, L. L., C. E. 

Walnut Creek, California 
Schubert Carl, Chief Engineer 

Sugar Pine Lumber Co. 

Minarets, California 
Schuyler, Philip, Editor 

Western Construction News 

114 Sansome Street, Room 1010, 

San Francisco, California 



-4 84 



Scholt, Ralph, Civil 
San Mateo Co. 

Care County Surveyor, Redwood City, California 
Scholten, H. A.. Assistant Engineer 

Southern Pacific Co. 

421 Baker Street, Apart. I, San Francisco, Califon 
Schwede, Frederick August, C. F. 

Port of Oakland 

Box 56, Station A, Berkeley. California 
Scripko, N. A.. C. E. 

National Park Service 

1283 Forty-fifth avenue, San Francisco, California 
Seggern, Otto von. C. E. 

Southern Pacific Co. 

P. O. Box 14, Mill Valley, California 
Sedych, M. D., C. E. 

2160 Post Street, San Francisco, California 
Seraphin. Anthony L., Electrical 

1103 D Street. Hayward. California 
Severe, Louis J., C. E. 

2333 Twenty-seventh Avenue, San Francisco, Califo 
Shea, H. J., Civil 

Great Western Potter Co. 

P. O. Box 310, Menlo Park. California 
Shervington, Charles A.. Student 

5907 San Pablo Avenue. Oakland, California 
Sheusner, J. H.. M. E. 

Caterpillar Tractor Co. 

2355 Polk Street, San Francisco, California 
Shields. Ralph I„ Civil 

437 Jefferson Avenue, Redwood City, California 
Shimkin, B. M.. C. E. 

164 Sixth Avenue, San Francisco, California 
Shovar, Clarence B., M. E. 

National Lead Co. 

5318 Wentworth Avenue. Oakland. California 
Simpson, Eugene H., C. E. 

U. S. Patent Office. Washington. D. C. 
Sleeper, Charles L., Civil Engineer 

Box 180, Upper Lake, California 
Smallwood. Thos. Q., C. E. 

East Ba\i Municipal Utility District 

Palace Aparts.. Oakland, California 
Smith, Dwight A., Consulting Engineer 

578 Fourth Avenue, San Francisco, California 
Smith, Morton B., E. E. 

/. T. Thorp Co. 

2364 Hilgard. Berkeley. California 
Smith, W. Tait, Student 

1945 Grove Street, San Francisco, California 
Solovietf. Stephen G., C. E. 

1739 Pine Street, San Francisco, California 
Sorensen, G. W., Student 

1722 Dwight Way, Berkeley, California 
Sowash, George, C. E. 

California Highn>a\ 

1548 Monterey Str 
Spoline, J. A.. Student 

2051 Telegraph A 
Spratling, Alex, Student 

1021 Chestnut Street, Chico, California 
Sprinz, Harry, Civil Engineer 

Aptos, California 
Stearns, Everett M., Student 

Box 425, Weed, California 
Steams, Ernel E., Civil Engineer 

Sprague River, Oregon 
Stearns, Raymond E., Student 

1488 Alice Street, Oakland, California 
Steiner, Carl F., Student 

129 Thirteenth Street, Oakland, Californi 
Stephenson, L. J., Civil 

Care Thebo, Starr & Anderlon, 

Sharon Building, San Francisco, Californi 
Stocks, A. J., C. E. 

California Highway Commission 

Care Oakland Tobacco Co., Oakland. Ca 
Stockstill. C. L.. Architect 

156 Beulah Street. San Francisco, Califo 



et, San Luis Obispo, California 
enue. Oakland. California 



Storrs. Harry A.. C. E. 

East Bay Municipal Utility District 

1546 Spruce Street, Berkeley, California 
Stransky. A. C. Civil 

California Highway Commission 

1103 Florodora Avenue, Fresno, California 
Summers, Harold A., Civil 

General Delivery, Oakland, California 
Sundman, Gunnar, Civil 

Standard Oil Co. 

265 Fourth Street. Richmond, California 
Sutcliffe, H. T, M. E. 

Pacific Cas & Electric Co. 

2435 Union Street, Apart. 12, San Francisco, Calil 
Swafford, Paul A., 

Prof. Civil Engineering, U. of C. 

Hotel Donogh, Apart 213. 

Shattuck Ave.. Bancroft Way. Berkeley. Californi, 
Sweeney, Orville. El. Student 

486 Rolph Street, San Francisco, California 
Tanase. Thomas T., Student 

174 Sixth Street, Oakland, California 
Tanhueco, Ignacio C, Student 

828 Washington Street. Oakland, California 
Tanner, H. J., C. E. 

Associated Oil Co. 

250 Kearney Street. San Francisco, California 
Tasaka. A!. G, Electrical 

120 Brentwood Avenue, San Francisco, California 
Taylor, J. W.. Civil Engineer 

Rackerly. Yuba Co.. California 
Teltord. Edwd. T., Civil Engineer 

3621 First street. San Diego, California 
Thomas, Howard K., Civil Engineer 

Route D, Box 234, Fresno, California 
Thomas. Leonard H., C. E. 

3742 Grand Avenue. Oakland, California 



-. Richm 


ond, California 


Student 




nue, San 


i Francisco, Califi 


Student 





Thomas. Willis, C. E. 

5upl. Estate 

534 Ripley Aveni 
Thompson, Ormond P 

1382 Masonic Av 
Thompson, Walden J., 

Orcutt, California 
Toby, Max E., M. E. 

Caterpillar Tractor Co. 

1443 Forty-eighth Avenue, S 
Todd. Walter, Civil-Contracting 

1827 Forty- first Avenue, Oakland. Califo 
Tolipas, Demetrio G, Student 

'4099 Howe Street, Richmond, California 
Tompkins. Phil E.. M. E. 

Pacific Coast Chemical Co. 

2116 San Jose Avenue. Alameda. Californi 
Tonney. Geo. E„ C. E. 
Spring Valley Water Co. 

425 Mason Street. San Francisco, Californi. 

Trevor, Harry R., M. E. 

Care Engineering Depart, South 
Bakersfield, California 

Tripp, Don E., C. E. 

1720 Larkin Street, San Fran. 

Troedson, Carl A., Student 

181 Byron Street. Palo Alto, California 

Tronoff, Theo. V., C. E. 
Consulting 
2812 Ninth Street, Berkeley, California 

Troxel. Elmer P.. Civil 

5755 Broadway, Oakland. California 

Tschudy. L. C. C. E. 

Care Feather River Power Co., 
Storrie. California 

Tschudy. Wm„ E. E. 
Consulting 
675 Nineteenth Avenue, San Francisco, C 

Turner, H. Payne, Student 
Lompac, California 



California 



Ca 

Pacific Co. 

o. Californi, 



- -=:f 85 }>•■ 



Twisselman, C. A., Student 

2231 Blake Street, Berkeley, California 
Underwood, R. H.. C. E. 

3924 South Harvard Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 
Van Acker. Julius J., Civil 

Southern Pacific Co. 

1-46 Lennox Way, San Francisco, California 
Van Bebber, W. C, Electrical 

1006 Larkin Street, San Francisco, California 
Van Leeuwen, E. G., C. E. 

California Highwav Commission 

1035 Peach Street San Luis Obispo, California 
Venel. Nick. Civil Engineer 

Department Public Works 

Box 193, Vallejo, California 
Vaughan, Charles A.. C. E. 

Care California Highway Commission 

Redding, California 
Vasey, Robert F., Student 

634 East Forty-fifth Street, Oakland, California 
Vietz, W. C, Civil 

3001 Madera Avenue, Oakland, California 
Vincent. D. B., C. E. 

424 Sixtieth Street, Oakland, California 
Vind, Herbert J., Student 

940 Leavenworth Street, San Francisco, California 
Vinding, R. H„ Student 

2125 Kitteridge Street. Berkeley, California 
Volio, Enrique, Student 

61 I Jean Street, Oakland, California 
von der Lippe, Paul, M. E. 

Care P. G. & E. Co. 

Martell, California 
Von Olzen, Geo. F., Aviation 

1508 Madison Street. Oakland, California 
Vollmer, Edward V., Student 

533 Boulevard Way, Piedmont. California 
Vrendenburg, Edrick W„ M. E. 

Cowcll Lime &• Cement Co. 

Cowell, California 
Weddle, Hermon W„ M. E. 

2618 College Avenue, Berkeley, California 
Walcot, John B„ Civil 

Miller & Lux Inc. 

Los Banos, California 
Walker, Fordyce E., Civil 

Southern Pacific Co. 

1532 Malvia Street. Berkeley, California 
Wallace, John, E. E. 

Pacific Stales Telephone <S" Telegraph Co. 

140 New Montgomery Street, San Francisco, California 
Walters. Philip, Civil 

1624 Sacramento Street, San Francisco, California 
Wansbury, Thomas, Civil 

Southern Pacific Co. 

4331 Nineteenth Street, San Francisco, California 
Waters, Marshall J., Civil 

629 Third Avenue, San Francisco, California 
Watson. Charles H., M. E. 

602 Mason Street, San Francisco, California 
Watson, E. J„ M. E. 

Cuggcnheim Bros. 

972 Bush Street, Apart. 21, 

San Francisco, California 
Wilby, B. R., Mechanical 

Judson Iron Worlds 

1516 Moraga Street, San Francisco, California 
Wickman. L. F., Student 

3669 Penneman Avenue, Oakland, California 
Wihl, Otto H., Radio Operator 

556 California Street, San Francisco, California 

Wilber, Charles L„ Civil 

No. 7 Tenth Avenue, San Mateo, California 

Wilhelm, Geo. Chief Engineer 
East Day Water Co. 
Oakland, California 

Wilkie. Fred H.. M. E. 

6601 Deakin Street, Oakland, California 



Willett. Robert O.. Student 

129 Thirteenth Street. Oakland. California 
Williams, Milo B., C. E. 

Consulting 

1038 Mills Building. San Francisco, California 
Williamson. H. P., C. E. 

Dvar Bros. 

3589 Fruitvale Avenue, Oakland, California 
Willman, H. Leo. Civil 

Instructor Oakland Public Schools 

1523 Bonilo Avenue, Berkeley. California 
Wilson. James J., Architect 

1283 First Avenue, San Francisco, California 
Wilson. Merle E., Civil 

California Highway Commission 

91 Walnut Street, Santa Cruz, California 
Wilson, Robert S„ C. E. 

2315 College Avenue. Berkeley, California 
Winnegar, Wm. A., Civil 

California Highway Commission 

Care C. H. C. Mountain View, California 
Winters, Starling, Student 

6426 Benvenue Avenue, Oakland, California 
Witherell. |. C. Student 

1809 Filbert Street. Oakland, California 
Wehrheim, Henry G, Student 

228 Grand Avenue. San Rafael. California 
Weimann, Alfons, Student 

340 Nineteenth Street. Oakland, California 
Wells, Benjamin S.. E. E. 

Pacific Slates Telephone Sr Telegraph Co. 

1623 Beverly Place, Berkeley, California 
Wencke, F. W.. C. E. 

4152 Twenty-third Street, San Francisco, California 
Werber. Albert W., C. E. 

Consulting 

1170 Munich Street. San Francisco, California 
Wesley, Frederick C, Architect 

549 Kearney Street, San Francisco, California 
West, Edwin A., Student 

1920 Eleventh Avenue, Oakland, California 
Westergreen, E. E., Publicity Manager 

701 Central Bank Building, Oakland, California 
Wherry, Francis W., Civil Engineer 

Pismo Beach, California 
Whittlesey, James T„ C. E. 

Consulting Engineer 

Care Engineers Club, 206 Sansome Street, 

San Francisco, California 
Whiltcmore, Frank E.. M. E. 

Columbia Steel Co. 

550 Miller Avenue, South San Francisco, California 
Wolff. Theodore. Student 

192 Sixteenth Avenue, San Francisco, California 
Wong, George S-, Student 

545 Grant Avenue. San Francisco. California 
Wright, Sherwin H., E. E. 

1100 S Avenue. Wilkinsburg Station. 

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 
Youngman Le Roy, M. E. 

2220 M Street, Sacramento, California 
Youngman, Walter C, Student 

3246 Logan Street, Oakland, California 
Yost, Don A., Student 

2618 Sixty-fourth Avenue. Oakland. California 
Zadelhoff, J. L. van. Appraisals 

Tax Factors. Inc. 

79 New California Building. San Diego, California 
Zimmerman, Albert E., M. E. 

Pelton Water Wheel Co. 

36 Columbus Avenue. San Francisco, California 

Zube, Ernest, Student 

1837 Seventh Avenue. Oakland, California 

Zwack, Lewis B„ Civil 

1428 Golden Gale Avenue. San Francisco, California 
Zweifel, Fred A.. M. E. 

Southern Pacific Company 

1165 Bush Street, San Francisco, California 



■"•Of 86 }>- 



LAWRENCE A. TAYLOR 




AWRENCE A. TAYLOR, chemical engineer and general man- 
ager of the Sharpies Specialty Company of San Francisco, passed 
away > >n September 2.x 1928, as the result of burns received two 
H days previously while completing the development of a process 
For the recovery of crank-case oil at the plant of the Industrial Lubricants 
Incorporated at San Francisco. 

Lawrence A. Taylor was horn in Kansas in 1888, and as a youth took part 
in the upbuilding of the state. At one time, during the colorful days when 
cow-punchers tried to bring cattle afflicted with Texas cattle fever into the 
State, he helped to defend the border. 

lie later moved to Portland, ' >regon, and entered the employ of the rail- 
roads; later working his way through Purdue University. 

Family finances forced him to leave college before graduation and he 
found employment with the White Motor Company, aiding as an engineer 
in the development of the White Motor Truck; he still later was employed 
installing Diesel motors for the Fairbanks-Morse Company at Portland, < )re. 

For the past six years he had been general manager of the Sharpies 
Specialty Company of California, centrifugal engineers, manufacturers of the 
Sharpies Super-Centrifugal and agents for the Fletcher Bulk-Centrifugal. 

While in this employment he developed many new chemical processes. 
( hie of the principal ones being a process which greatly improved the quality 
in the manufacture of olive oil, while another greatly increased the yield in 
the manufacture of fish oil. In addition he was well known in the lubricating 
oil and marine field. 

Taylor was a large man, being six feet in height, with aquiline features 
and quizzical blue eyes. He was always well-dressed, active, eager and deter- 
mined. He was keenly interested in his work and whatever he laid his hand 
to, was done to the best of his power and ability. Lawrence A. Taylor was 
one who. having taken the plow in his hands, turned not back. 

Taylor was a member of the Mechanical Engineers' Association, an 
associate member of the Marine Engineers' Association and a conscientious 

Mason. 

A good engineer, and a kingly man has gone. What all who knew him 
miss the most from their lives is the keen interest, aliveness and strength of 
character that characterized Lawrence A. Tavlor. 



4 87 ^ 



I Welcome... 

Engineers are always wel- 
come to visit any of our 
i five plants. The picture 
i shows party headed by 
I Chief Engineer G. A. El- 
j liott and Assistant Chief 
| Engineer T. W. Espy of 
j Spring Valley Water Co. 
| at our South San Francisco 
j plant, after inspecting 
! method of fabricating 
j Lock-Bar Steel Pipe. We 
fabricated and installed 1 1 
miles of 54" pipe, as illus- 
trated, adding 30 M. G. 
D. to the capacity of 
Spring Valley's transmis- 
sion lines into San Fran- 
cisco. 




WESTERN PIPE & STEEL CO. 



of California 



444 Market Street 
San Francisco 

South San Francisco 



Factories : 
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Los Angeles 
Phoenix 






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Men who wish to concentrate in Engineering and who 
desire to go into Engineering practice will find just what 
they want at HeaLd's. Young men are prepared for 
Engineering positions at least two years before they could 
qualify through the usual four-year UNIVERSITY COURSE 

Send for Catalogue 



HEALD'S 



F.NCINKI-'.RING, 
AUTOMOBILE and 
AVIATION SCHOOL 
N i gh t S ch o o I Dap S c I, o o I 

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Thos. B. Bridges, President Greystone 2920 









Telephones: 
Glencourt 4775-4776 

Printers and Publishers 3& 

of 
BOOKS HOUSE ORGANS 

PUBLICATIONS FOLDERS 

BROCHURES BROADSIDES 

CATALOGUES PROGRAMS 



\ Twenty Years in Oakland }• 



518-20-22 Broadway 






The Laimp of Memory 

Like the other fine arts, architecture is a spon- 
taneous product of a cultivated mind; one of thf 
fruits of <>ur spiritual nature, one of the privileges 
of our birthright in the edifices which man builds 
For liis own habitation, or for national uses, <>r for 
the ceremony of religion, he aims at something 
beyond mere convenience and utility, even at the 
expression of ideas of beauty and grandeur, or 
something that will contribute to his joy, will ele- 
vate and dignify him, and serve as a tit representa- 
tive of his hopes and beliefs. 

— RUSKIN, Seven Lamps of Architecture. 



Class in Parliamentary Procedure 



Annie L. Barry, Instructor 






Glenn B. Ashcroft 
J. F. Beaman 
Paul Christiansen 
Geo. H. Geisler 
R. G. Green 



Walter Landers 
D. E. Prenveille 
A. A. Robish 
Geo. E. Tonney 
Otto von Seggern 



A. E. Zimmerman 






| PhotostatCopies 

Blue Printing 

Our equipment is the largest and most modern 
available. 

Strecker Blue Print and 
Photo Copying Co. 



ENTIRE fourth floor 



1 42 SANSOME ST. 



DOUGLAS 2255 



"..The Trackless Trolley is gone, 



^QnfciMMh^^'. 




fca£ 






lyi^H 



but giving the 
same depend- 
able service un- 
derneath the fill 
the 

Armco 

Corrugated 
Culvert 

may be seen to- 
day a reminder 
of days gone 
by." 



Armco Culvert 18 in. dia. No. 115 gauge 
installed in Laurel Canyon near Holly- 
\\ l. California, in 1910. 



Modes of travel come and go, but 
Armco Corrugated Culverts serve < 



California Corrugated Culvert 
Company 

WEST BERKELEY -:- LOS ANGELES 






! I 

I I 

I I 

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INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS 

of electricity 

58 Sltter Street San Francisco 









i I 

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HARVEY D. MILLER 
NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE CO. 
Shreve Building 
210 Post Street, : : San Francisco. Calif. 









Polytechnic College of Engineering... 4[ 



The School 




Engineers Recommend 
Thirteenth and Madison Streets, Oakland, California 



ft 



98 — Chartered to Grant Degrees, 1911. — Generally known as tli ■■ 
best equipped school of its kind west of Chicago. 



K K A I- E N G 1 X E E H I \ <i 



COLLEGE 



El 



ntaining high standard courses in the technical sciences, concentrating in 

ctrical. Civil, .Mechanical, Architectural, Mining, Structural and Aeronaut - 
al Engineering-. Also special courses in Airplane Mechanics. Machine Shop, 
Auto Mechanics, Draughting, etc. 

Graduates of this College go into Engineering positions with the largest 
corporations in the country where opportunities for promotion are reasonably 
certain. 

We omit Military Training, Foreign Languages and Physical Education 
and save the student much time. 



WRITE 

W. E. GIBSON, President 



!•' u i; 



FREE 



C A T A L O G 

W. I. WOOD, Reg 






Opportunity 



They (In me wrong who say I come no more 
When mice I knock and fail to find you in; 
For every day I stand outside your door, 

And bid you wake and rise to light and win. 

Wail not fur precious chances passed away, 
Wee]) nut for gulden ages on the wane; 

Each night I burn the record of the day. 
At sunrise every sou] is born again. 

Laugh like a boy at splendors that have sped, 
To vanished juys be blind and deaf and dumb; 

.My judgments seal the dead past with its dead. 
But never bind a moment yet to come. 

Though deep in mire, wring not your hands and 
weep, 

I lend my arms to all who say: "I can." 
Xn shamefaced outcast ever sank so deep 

Hut he might rise again and be a man. 

Dost thou behold thy yOuth all aghast? 

Dost reel from righteous retribution's blow? 
Then turn from blotted archives of the past 

Ami Find future's pages white as snow. 

Art thou a mourner? Rouse thee from thy spell ! 

Art thou a sinner? Sins may be forgiven! 
Each morning gives thee wings to flee from hell' 

Each night a star to guide thy feet to heaven. 
—WALTER MALONE. 

A copy of "Opportunity" was presented to the Society by courtesy of 
Mrs. E. D. McCullough. Custodian of the Fleishack.er Memorial Hall. 






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More than 3,500,000 TRIDENTS are now in service 
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There are already over 50.000,000 feet of this pipe 
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For long and permanent flow lines Sand-Cast 
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The permanence, non-corrosive qualities and ease of 
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v_ 



IT is impossible adequately to pro- 
mote the prosperity of our cities 
without the effective organization 
of business men, who not only 
understand needs and possibilities ; 
but who are most competent to give 
direction to municipal effort. The 
development of the sense of civic 
responsibility always follows such 
co-operation and the gains to the 
community far exceed the mere 
material benefits to business enter- 
prise. In the last analysis, the 
soundness of our national life will 
depend upon the standards main- 
tained in our cities in which so large 
a degree are concentrated the ac- 
tivities of our expanding population. 
—CHARLES EVANS HUGHES. 






J