ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS FREDERICK (FRED) O. RUUD Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë STATUS OF INTERVIEWS: OPEN FOR RESEARCH Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Interviews Conducted and Edited by: Brit Allan Storey Senior Historian Bureau of Reclamation Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Interviews conducted–1996 Interview edited and published–2007-2008 Oral History Program Bureau of Reclamation Denver, Colorado SUGGESTED CITATION: Ruud, Frederick (Fred) O., ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW. Transcript of tape- recorded Bureau of Reclamation Oral History Interviews conducted by Brit Allan Story, Senior Historian, Bureau of Reclamation, in 1996, in Denver, Colorado. Edited by Brit Allan Storey. Repository for the record copy of the interview transcript is the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland. Record copies of this transcript are printed on 20 lb., 100% cotton, archival quality paper. All other copies are printed on normal duplicating paper. i Table of Contents Table of Contents........................................................... i Statement of Donation..................................................... viii Introduction .............................................................. xi Oral History Transcript of Frederick O. Ruud.....................................1 Born in Waterville, Washington .........................................1 Had a Gift for Math...................................................1 Tour of Duty in the Army at the End of World War II ........................1 Graduated from Washington State College in 1950 ..........................1 Grandfather Was an Engineer ...........................................2 Worked at Grand Coulee Dam...........................................2 ". it was more the psychological motivation than it was the money."...........3 ". until the 1960s, you could always leave the government and earn more money somewhere else . ." ............................................3 "These were social goals and psychological wages that people got from doing work that was really worthwhile . ." .......................................3 Liked Being Able to Publish about the Work Done ..........................4 "We effectively had 1 percent of the national budget in the Bureau of Reclamation. ." .............................................................4 ". all these huge undertakings that were part of a great social and civil expansion, using the resources of the country after World War II. ." ..............4 "The Bureau of Reclamation established the standard for the world in this kind of work, and we put it into effect building things like Grand Coulee. ."..........4 Started with Reclamation as an Engineer Trainee in 1948 .....................4 Decided He Wanted to Be a Mechanical Engineer...........................5 Second Summer, 1949, as a Trainee Worked in the Right Powerhouse ...........5 "I considered myself a very, very lucky man, in that the Bureau of Reclamation gave me an opportunity to work on what I wanted to do as a life's profession . ." ...5 Construction Inspection at Grand Coulee Dam..............................6 "If it's made out of steel, it was ours [mechanical engineers'], except for rebar. ." . 6 Becomes Involved in Testing for Vibrations on Pumps at Grand Coulee Dam .....6 John Parmakian ......................................................7 Special Assignment Section in the Dams Branch............................7 "He had some electronic instrumentation he used, and I was interested in that . ." . 7 "But my claim to fame was running up and down those discharge pipes in the middle of the night carrying the test instrumentation . ."........................7 Michael Straus as Commissioner.........................................8 Inspecting Gates and Valves at Grand Coulee Dam ..........................8 Flooding of Portion of Interior of Grand Coulee Dam ........................8 Closing the Valves to Stop Flooding at Grand Coulee Dam ....................9 ". it's easy to get overly familiar with these things and to forget what a tremendous amount of power is involved in these particular facilities . ." ...........10 Oral history of Frederick (Fred) O. Ruud ii Moved to Denver in 1952 .............................................10 Inspecting Rivets in Construction.......................................10 "You know, for many, many years, the Bureau of Reclamation built riveted pipes, riveted construction, riveted design, and riveted seams . and this was the state of the art before World War II. We [now] have the introduction of electric arc welding by Forney. .".........................................11 Contractors Sometimes Have Issues with Inspection on Reclamation Projects ....11 "They'd bid it in dirt cheap, and then bid on the extras, which were, they claimed, extra compensation, because they didn't feel that they had to meet these standards. Nobody else did it that way except the Bureau of Reclamation." .........12 ". a great many of the facilities that are in there, will be there a long time, because they're built with quality control. ." ..............................12 ". a lot of people would criticize the Bureau of Reclamation for 'gold plating.'" . 12 ". I might observe that there have been at least one failure that was due to a total lack of gold-plating . ." ............................................12 Bias Against Research among Political Appointees .........................13 "I always considered my foundation in the construction inspection to be a really good basis for a lot of decisions that I made . through the next thirty years of my career. ."...................................................13 "So I was always very proud of that kind of standard of performance. ." .......14 Construction Inspection at Grand Coulee Dam.............................14 Music Note Seals on the Gates at the Entrance to Banks Lake.................15 ". the basic thing . when one does an inspection of gates and valves is to make sure they work like they're supposed to, and this involves the very fundamentals of the action of the particular equipment . ."..........................16 Issue with the Feeder Canal for Banks Lake...............................17 ". that's one of the duties that one has as . a government employee . that is if you see something wrong, why, you're required . to do your best job, and that includes a responsible warning. ." ...............................19 In Denver was assigned to "a special assignment section. They were known as the "brains bunch," and they handled technical problems that were too difficult or too dangerous for anybody else . ." ...............................20 One Month after Arriving in the Denver Office a Reduction in Force Was Announced ............................................................20 Attended the University of Colorado Extension Center Working on a Master's Degree ............................................................20 Received a Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1956 ...............21 Became a Registered Engineer by Examination in Colorado in 1954 ............21 Specialty Was Troubleshooting Hydroelectric Problems .....................21 In 1952 Worked on Checking and Revising Formulas for Stress and Strain ......21 People He Worked with...............................................22 "I became something of an expert in stress analysis of hydraulic turbine parts. ." 22 Worked and Published on Wye Branch Design.............................22 "In between, why, we're working on little jobs like what's the force on a piston that causes the link of a hydraulic turbine operating ring to get bent or something like this . ." .....................................................23 "Then I began to work on . hydraulic turbine troubleshooting. ." ...........24 An Early Field Job Had to Do with the Lower Molina Powerplant .............24 Bureau of Reclamation History Program iii "So there's a great amount of conflict, not the least of which had to do with whose job was it? . ."...................................................24 "The problem really becomes how can you win and let the other guy save face . ." 25 Hydroelectric Turbine-setting Criteria ...................................25 Weir below Glen Canyon Dam .........................................25 This Was Mathematical Research, Structural Research ......................28 Checking the Solutions to Problems .....................................29 Runaway Generator at Palisades Powerplant ..............................29 Ferber Schleif.......................................................30 Earthquakes and the Intake Towers for Trinity Dam ........................30 ". I was building cathedrals for the entire time I was working for the Bureau of Reclamation. I had a marvelous job. ." ...........................31 "If you want to achieve a certain level of success, you've got to be willing to pay the price . ." ....................................................31 Construction Engineers Have a Sense of Achievement.......................31 Design Engineers Have a Different Motivation ............................32 "My area I considered to be extremely exciting because it was the really important technical details that were crucial in making extremely important parts of the project viable. .".............................................32 Work at Trinity Dam.................................................32 "I understood all the instrumentation . and knew how to . install them, so I'd get meaningful results that would prove what we're trying to demonstrate theoretically.