A Practical Treatise on Water-Supply Engineering; Relating to the Hydrology, Hydrodynamics, and Practical Construction of Water-Works, in North America. with Numerous Tables and Illustrations
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John Thomas Fanning was an American architect and hydraulic engineer.
Background
John Thomas Fanning, was a direct descendant in the seventh generation of Edmund Fanning who settled at New London, Connecticut, in 1653, lived for some years on Fisher’s Island, and then became one of the original proprietors of Stonington. The son of John Howard Fanning, a skilled mechanic and contractor for buildings, by his first wife, Elizabeth Pridde, John Thomas Fanning was born at Norwich, Connecticut, and resided in New England until 1886, after which time he made his home in Minneapolis.
Education
He studied architecture and engineering.
Career
He began his practise in Norwich, where he acted for eight years as city engineer, planning the city’s water supply and its cemetery. This work was interrupted by the Civil War, during which he served as a member of the 3rd Connecticut Volunteers and later as field officer in the 3rd Regiment, Connecticut Militia. At the close of the war he was retired with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. After the war he resumed practise in New England, first at Norwich, and later at Manchester, New Hamphire. He began to specialize in hydraulics and constructed the water-supply system at Manchester. He soon found his services were in demand all over New England and in New York State for the solution of hydraulic and water-supply problems. In 1885 Fanning went to Minneapolis to report on a power development of the St. Anthony Falls, and after that time, with his residence in Minneapolis, he acted as consulting engineer on many large water-power projects in the West, most notable of which were those on the Weenatahee River, the Missouri River at Great Falls, Montana, at Flelena, Montana, at Spokane, Washington, and on the Mississippi River at Minneapolis. He continued, however, to go to all parts of the country to solve city water-supply problems. Some of the cities which employed him on the planning and construction of their water supply and purification systems, in addition to Minneapolis, were Des Moines, Omaha, and Birmingham, Ala. He also made a report on an additional water supply for Rockford. Fanning had the reputation for being unusually generous with the help and time he was always ready to give to the younger members of his profession. He served for a year as president of the American Waterworks Association shortly after it came into existence, and was consulting engineer for a time for the Great Northern Railroad, the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railroad, and the Minneapolis Union Railways. In addition to his text-book on hydraulic and water-supply engineering, he contributed technical papers on the subject to the Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Achievements
His contribution to fluid mechanics and hydraulic engineering is in the Fanning friction factor which is used by engineers in the present age to calculate the frictional pressures losses in flows inside pipes.
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This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
Membership
He served for a year as president of the American Waterworks Association shortly after it came into existence. He contributed technical papers on the subject to the Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Connections
On June 11, 1865, he married Maria Louise Bensley of Rhode Island.
