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The Legacy of James B. Francis, Engineer​

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The Legacy of James B. Francis, Engineer​ History The Legacy of James B. Francis, Engineer for the Proprietors of Locks and Canals (PLC); a very large company that built and managed the Not relying on ncut and try" textile industry in Lowell, Massachusetts, he methods, Francis brought a took Francis with him as his assistant. By that time, Francis had established himself scientific mind to bear on a as a skilled surveyor, draftsman and project variety of problems in manager. Also, Whistler appreciated his ability hydraulics and structural to work with people at all levels to get the job done. In his first job for Whistler, Francis built engineering. steam locomotives to provide transport for the textiles produced by the Lowell mills. To engi­ KATHERINE R. WEEKS neer the parts, he stripped down a locomotive imported from England and made detailed legend in New England's Merrimack drawings of all the parts. His staff members River Valley, James B. Francis was a created new parts from his drawings, using , A structural engineer, mechanical engi­ only chisels and files, and successfully recon­ neer, hydraulic engineer and a scientific con­ structed the locomotive. tributor in the fields of hydraulics and hydrol­ At the time, Lowell's canal system consisted ogy. His contributions of safe, efficient and · of the Pawtucket Canal and three subsidiary effective water power and mill structures were canals that served six textile .mills. During vital to the prosperity of the New England tex­ Francis' tenure as assistant to Whistler, three tile industry of the 1800s. more subsidiary canals were built to serve an­ other four mills. Francis also assisted in the lay­ Francis the· Engineer out of building sites, designing foundations, Francis was born in 1815 in Oxfordshire, Eng­ wheel pits, water wheels, belting, shafts and land. At age 14 he apprenticed under his father support beams/columns for the mills. When in Wales in railway and canal construction. The Whistler was hired away in 1837 to supervise a young Francis then immigrated to New York in railway project in Russia, Francis replaced him 1833 with a dream to pursue engineering in the as the chief engineer for the PLC. In 1845, he New World. He was hired by Major George took on an expanded role as Engineer for the Washington Whistler to work on a new rail sys­ Corporations at Lowell. tem linking New York to Boston. When Whistler As chief engineer, Francis oversaw many was appointed a year later as the chief engineer large-scale projects in the effort to provide CIVIL ENGINEERING PRACTICE FALL/WINTER 1998 61 what is now known as the Francis turbine. This mixed-flow turbine boosted power efficiency by changing the flow of water to move inward and downward through the turbine, thus mini­ mizing friction and turbulence .. Francis also designed a 2-million gallon res­ ervoir in an elevated section of Lowell, and laid a 6,000-foot, 12-inch main pipe to the city proper to deliver sufficient water to fight up to two mill fires at once. Once this reservoir was operational, Francis further designed and in­ stalled a sprinkler system to furnish up to 400 gallons per minute to the roofs of the mills. This innovation was so successful that insurance companies began requiring sprinkler systems in all fire-prone areas of industrial buildings. Francis the Scientist Francis continually sought to improve his un- greater water power more consistently to the . derstanding of engineering and the natural sys­ large mills. He rebuilt the Pawtucket Falls Dam, tems in the world around him. Even though he this time providing an area for the impound­ had little formal schooling, he was an avid ment of river water in times of drought. He also reader of theoretical texts, among which in­ created a new Northern Canal to feed three tex­ cluded J. R. Young's Mathematics and Fourney­ tile mills and allow two new mills to be built ron's work on outward flow reaction turbines. along the existing canals. This new canal had a As a result of this reading and of his own experi­ gate house and guard dam, which served to con­ ments, Francis wrote the Lowell Hydraulic Experi­ trol the flow and provide safety from flooding to ments in 1855, which remains an engineering the town and the mills. The canal system as it ap­ classic on the design and testing of turbines. peared in 1848 can be seen in Figure 1. The relatively dry New England summers Perhaps Francis' most famous construction and early falls often forced the mills to shut was the Francis Gate Complex, built in 1850. down due to the lack of water. Collaborating Originally dubbed the "Francis Folly" because with Charles Storrow (who was Engineer for of its size and cost, the gate is most notable for the canal system in Lawrence, Massachusetts), saving hundreds of lives and potential property Francis gained a greater understanding of the damage in Lowell during severe flooding two hydrologic cycle for the Merrimack River wa­ years after it was constructed, and again in 1936. tershed. This watershed of 4,600 square miles The gate as it appeared in the 1936 flood (note . includes not only the northeastern Massachu­ the sandbags upstream) can be seen in Figure 2. setts area, but also southern New Hampshire The Boston Daily Advertiser published a com­ and the New Hampshire Lakes Region. To­ mentary after the first flood praising Francis' gether, the two engineers conducted surveys to decision to "take measures to guard against determine lake volume, fluctuations in dis­ what every one considered a useless expendi­ charge and even impacts from swampy areas. ture of money. Without the Francis Gate, every They collected and codified many hydrologic vestige of the old guard gates would have been measurements including maximum, minimum carried away, and a mighty and uncontrollable and mean discharges, measured rainfall, river would have swept through the heart of evaporation and surface runoff at several dif­ Lowell, destroying everything in its course." ferent sites in the Merrimack River watershed. Efficiency, power and safety were important As a result of their study, the engineers de­ goals of Francis' superintendence of the Lowell signed and created natural reservoirs in many mills. With Uriah A. Boyden, he developed locations and then installed several control 62 CIVIL ENGINEERING PRACTICE FALL/WINTER 1998 . r. ~ . LY ~ r~i.f" Pawtucket N EB ~ --- ...,lllO -1fl0m 21C1,ooo ft WWW W cm Upper Canal Elm1 LowerCanal. FIGURE 1. The Lowell canal system in 1848. gates. Power to the Lowell and Lawrence mills hydrologic system would help engineers create during the dry months thus dramatically in­ water systems that could feed multiple mill sites creased. in two major cities. Not content to settle for mills Francis conducted exhaustive experiments with less than full-time production capability, to create accurate formulas for calculating wa­ he discovered ways to harness and regulate wa­ ter flow over weirs. One experiment included ter s.ources to control the flow of available water measuring gauges, a marine chronometer and into the mill complex throughout the year. electrical signaling devices. This level of instru­ Francis also knew that it was important to un­ mentation allowed a number of observers to si- . derstand all facets of hydraulic systems, from hy­ multaneously and sequentially record water drology to hydraulics to mechanical transforma­ flow in different locations along the Pawtucket tion. With this understanding, Francis was able to Canal. The results of these experiments led to a successfully implement his theories to optimize better understanding of water flow, not only the water power available for mill operation. This over weirs and but also as discharged into and ability to conceptualize, design and build large out of canals, which served to improve the effi­ systems led to his reputation as "America's fore­ ciency of power production. most hydraulic engineer" of his time. Not limiting himself to hydraulic engineering, Recognizing that the next generation needed Francis built a facility to test the strength of iron training and mentoring, Francis enlisted many and wooden beams and industrial support col­ engineers to follow in his footsteps, including umns. Based on the results of his tests, he modi­ Paul Hill (Hoosac Tunnel) and James B. Emer­ fied construction tables for these materials to in­ son (Holyoke Testing Flume, a national labora­ clude larger safety factors. He then wrote On the tory for testing turbines). Francis was known far Strength of Cast-Iron Pillars in 1865 with tables for and wide as a team player and a great leader in the use of engineers, architects and builders. working on the many projects for the Lowell mills. He knew that working together with Francis the Visionary other engineers was vital to the successful com­ Francis saw that understanding the complete pletion of large-scale projects. This knowledge CIVIL ENGINEERING PRACTICE FALL/WINTER 1998 63 FIGURE 2. A photo of Francis Gate complex in 1936. led to his becoming a founding member of both KATHERINE R. WEEKS, B.S. in the Boston Society of Civil Engineers (BSCE) in Civil Engineering from the Univer­ 1848 and the American Society of Civil Engi­ sity of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) neers (ASCE) in 1852. The acknowledgement and M.B.A. from Boston University, by his peers of his engineering and leadership is pursuing a master's degree in geo­ skills was evidenced by his elevation to presi­ environmental engineering from UML. dent of both organizations, in which he re­ mained active until his death in 1892. James B. BIBLIOGRAPHY Francis, a man of leadership, science, and prac­ ticality was truly a great engineer. Carroll, C.F., & Carroll, P.A., A Proposal to Name the Col­ lege of Engineering the James B.
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