(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
The Principal Professional Papers of Dr. J. A. L. Waddell, Civil Engineer (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from The Principal Professional Papers of Dr. J. ...)
Excerpt from The Principal Professional Papers of Dr. J. A. L. Waddell, Civil Engineer
History OF the engineering profession raised the question contained in its title and proposed that the Society for the Promotion of Engineer ing Education undertake the preparation and publication of the history. The valuable discussions upon the paper are also reprinted here.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Memorables of the Montgomeries: A Narrative in Rhyme
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
Final Report: The Columbia River Interstate Bridge, Vancouver, Washington to Portland, Oregon, for Multnomah County, Oregon, Clarke County, Washington
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
John Lyle Harrington was an American civil engineer. He was a co-founder of Waddell & Harrington, and also served as a president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and as member of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.
Background
John Lyle Harrington was born on December 7, 1868 in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. He was the second son and second of at least five children of Robert Charles and Angeline Virginia (Henry) Harrington. His father was a descendant of James Harrington, who emigrated from England in the latter part of the eighteenth century and settled in Binghamton, New York. Robert Harrington served in the Civil War with an Illinois regiment before moving to Kansas, where he became a farmer and, for a time, a merchant near Lawrence.
About 1877 the family moved to a new farm in neighboring Johnson County, near De Soto. Young Harrington early demonstrated the drive and initiative that were to characterize his career.
Education
Though his formal education in grade and secondary schools totaled no more than four years, Harrington read widely and purposefully, and at twenty-two he was admitted to the University of Kansas by examination.
He worked his way through college, yet managed to enjoy an active social life and to do enough work in arts, science, and engineering to graduate in 1895 with honors and with three degrees: Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts, and a degree in civil engineering. While in college Harrington had spent two summers working in the office of the noted bridge engineer John Alexander Low Waddell in Kansas City, Missouri.
While with a Montreal company he earned the degrees of B. S. and M. S. from McGill University.
In 1930 he received an honorary doctorate in engineering from the Case School of Applied Science.
Career
During the twelve years after his graduation, in keeping with his habit of systematic self-education, Harrington took a succession of jobs with bridge, steel, railroad, and construction firms in various parts of the country, staying only long enough at each to absorb the experience he felt was useful.
In 1907 he returned to Kansas City, where for the next thirty-five years he was a consulting engineer specializing in bridges: from 1907 to 1914 as a junior partner with Waddell, from 1914 to 1928 as senior partner with Ernest E. Howard and Louis R. Ash, and after 1928 as senior partner with Frank M. Cortelyou. To this work Harrington brought not only a thorough background in civil engineering, but also experience in mechanical engineering gained while employed by the C. W. Hunt Company in New York City from 1901 to 1905.
From 1907 to 1932 he was involved in the design and usually also the construction of more than 225 bridges, including six across the Mississippi, four across the Missouri, and others across such major waterways as the Columbia, the Colorado, the Don in Russia, and the Yalu in Manchuria. Nearly half of Harrington's bridges were movable types (vertical lift, bascule, and swing), for which sound mechanical engineering was vital, but his most important accomplishment was the development of the vertical lift bridge from the basic invention of John A. L. Waddell. In this type of bridge an entire span is raised and lowered vertically by cables running over sheaves in towers at both ends. Counterweights in each tower exactly balance the moving bridge section, very much as in a counterweighted window.
Waddell's South Halsted Street bridge in Chicago, built in 1893, had all the basic features of the type in its modern form. But Waddell was not a mechanical engineer and the bridge was not completely successful; no others were built until Harrington joined the partnership fourteen years later, bringing the mechanical engineering skill to develop Waddell's invention into a rational, well-integrated design. His success with the vertical lift bridge caused it to replace the bascule (or drawbridge) where wider channels were required for navigation. The achievement was unfortunately marred by a controversy between the two men which because of Harrington's inflexibility and Waddell's vanity left a legacy of bad feeling on both sides.
Harrington was dedicated to his profession. From 1926 to 1932 he was a member of the American Engineering Council, an organization devoted to bringing the engineer's knowledge to the service of government. In the midst of his public service his reputation suffered a reverse. Finding himself in debt as the result of some land speculations, Harrington may have been tempted to spread himself too thin in the highway bridge construction boom of the later 1920s.
By 1927 he was involved in the design or construction of more than thirty bridges at one time. Two accidents indicate that even Harrington's incredible drive and energy were not sufficient for this task. In September 1927 one span of his bridge across the Mississippi at Louisiana, Missouri, collapsed while under construction, with the loss of one life, owing to the failure of temporary timber props. In June 1928 his newly completed bridge across the Colorado at Blythe, California, failed when a flood damaged the piers on which the bridge rested. After this time he built few bridges, but his profession did not forget his outstanding earlier accomplishments. In 1930 President Hoover appointed him in 1932 to the Engineers Advisory Board of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. For many years he was a trustee of Robert College in Turkey.
In 1937 he suffered a stroke; a third stroke in 1942 caused his death. He died in Kansas City and was buried there in Forest Hill Cemetery.
Achievements
John Lyle Harrington went down in history as a noted civil and mechanical engineer and bridge designer. He invented three types of vertical lift bridges and designed many important structures, and has written various published addresses. He has also designed some thirty millon dollar' worth of machinery and bridges.
