Background

He was born in New York City, the son of George Newell and Harriet (Craig) Fuller. Both his parents were descended from early settlers of Massachusetts.

Education

In 1890 he graduated with the degree of B. S. in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He then studied for a period at the University of Berlin and at the same time had the rare privilege of working in the private office of Piefke, engineer of the Berlin water works.

Career

Upon his return to the United States he began a professional career of more than forty years that was full of varied activity. His chosen field was sanitary engineering and in this he made chief contributions, but his general engineering skill, experience, and good judgment created a demand for his services in other phases of engineering, in commercial activities, and in the affairs of technical societies.

Until 1895 he was with the Massachusetts State Board of Health, being one of the first of a distinguished group of sanitary eagineers and chemists who began their careers with this organization.

His work was chiefly connected with the claborate water and sewage investigations conducted at the Lawrence Experiment Station, and he is credited with some of the most significant findings and reports of those early years. During this period he also lectured at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on biology and bacteriology.

In 1895 he was called to Louisville, Kentucky, to conduct basic studies on water purification, particularly by what later came to be known as rapid sand filtration. Immediately following this engagement, which lasted until 1897, he began similar investigations at Cincinnati, Ohio.

His Report on the Investigations into the Purification of the Ohio River Water at Louisville, Kentucky (1898) and Report on the Investigations into the Purification of the Ohio River Water for the Improved Water Supply of the City of Cincinnati (1899) remain as classic examples of brilliant work and recording in that field.

With his reputation as an expert in water supply and water purification, and in sewerage and sewage treatment well established, Fuller opened a private office in New York City in 1899.

In 1901 he became the partner of Rudolph Hering, an association which continued until 1911, when Fuller returned to independent practice.

He designed the Little Falls filtration plant of the East Jersey Water Company, which was put into use in 1902, and the American Society of Civil Engineers awarded him the Rowland prize for his paper. "The Filtration Works of the East Jersey Water Company at Little Falls, New Jersey, " published in the Society's Transactions 1903.

In 1916 he formed a partnership with Jarnes Robinson McClintock under the firm name of Fuller & McClintock and continued to practise under that firm's name until his death.

He maintained branch offices in Kansas City, Toledo, and Philadelphia.

During the thirty-four years as a consulting engineer following the opening of his New York office he was engaged upon a great number of water supply, sewerage, and other sanitation projects by cities, commissions, and corporations.

His services were also sought in important rate cases and as an expert witness in many court hearings. Notwithstanding an extraordinarily busy engineering career, he found time to promote the welfare of his profession and the public health in general through his technical writings and by reason of his natural leadership.

During the First World War he served as a member of a sanitary committee at Washington which oversaw the planning and sanitation of the various army camps in the United States. As consulting engineer to the Public Health Service and to the construction division of the army, he was responsible in considerable degree for the practices which contributed to the unprecedentedly low typhoid-fever death rate in the army posts.

He was also in a large measure responsible for the development and widespread adoption of the standard methods of analysis of water and sewage sponsored by the American Public Health Association and the American Water Works Association.

The preparation and publication of Water Works Practice: A Manual Issued by the American Water Works Association (1925) was to a considerable degree the result of his initiative and energy.

In addition to a large number of technical papers and reports he was the author of three books: Water Purification at Louisville (1898); Sewage Disposal (1912); and Salving Sewage Problems (1926). The last-named publication was prepared in collaboration with his partner, J. R. McClintock.

Achievements

• He designed and built the first modern water filtration plant, and he designed and built the first chlorination system that disinfected a U. S. drinking water supply. In addition, he performed groundbreaking engineering work on sewage treatment facilities in the U. S. He was President of both the American Water Works Association and the American Public Health Association, and he was recognized internationally as an expert civil and sanitary engineer.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Report on the investigations into the purification of the Ohio River water at Louisville, Kentucky, made to the president and directors of the Louisville water company

    (This book, "Report on the investigations into the purific...)

  • Sewage Disposal

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • Report on the Investigations Into the Purification of the Ohio River Water at Louisville, Kentucky, Made to the President and Directors of the Louisville Water Company

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • Report on the investigations into the purification of the Ohio River water at Louisville, Kentucky, made to the president and directors of the Louisville water company

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Report On the Investigations Into the Purification of the Ohio River Water: At Louisville, Kentucky, Made to the President and Directors of the Louisville Water Company

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Sewage disposal

    (This book, "Sewage disposal", by Fuller George Warren, is...)

  • Sewage Disposal: -1912

    (Originally published in 1912. This volume from the Cornel...)

  • Report on appraisal of property of Hackensack water co., Aug. 31, 1915,
  • Sewage disposal. by George W. Fuller.

  • book

  • Solving sewage problems, by George W. Fuller and James R. McClintock

Membership

Fuller belonged to over a dozen professional associations during his career. Some of his most important contributions were made while a member of the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and the American Public Health Association (APHA).

He was an active member of numerous technical societies in America and of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Great Britain, the Verein Deutscher Ingenieure, and the Association Generale des Hygienistes et Techniciens Municipaux de France.

Connections

Fuller was first married in July 1888 to Lucy Hunter, by whom he had one son, Myron E.

In November 1899 he was married to Caroline Goodloe; their two children were John Kemp Goodloe and Asa Warren.

He was again married in June 1913 to Mrs. Charlotte Bell Todd. They were divorced in July 1918.

In October 1918 he married Mrs. Eleanor Todd Burt, who had three sons, George, Gordon, and Kenneth, by her former marriage. These boys he adopted and they took the name of Fuller.

Father:

George Newell Fuller

mother Harriet (Craig) Fuller

partner:

Rudolph Hering

Fuller and his partner Rudolph Hering were responsible for the design of the earliest Imhoff tank sewage treatment facilities in the U.S., which were located in Chatham, New Jersey and Atlanta, Georgia

1st wife:

Lucy Hunter

2nd wife Caroline Goodloe 3rd wife Charlotte Bell Todd 4th wife Eleanor Todd Burt son John Kemp Goodloe son Asa Warren

Partner:

J. R. McClintock

The last-named publication was prepared in collaboration with his partner, J. R. McClintock.