The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-07-08
...n Governments Send Experts
81 World Wide Celebrity 70
study Dam and Water
Power.
voRE1GN COMMISSION s
q, Xre Much Impressed BY Solution
5 !, concrete Of Difficult Problems
and Rapidly Of Con-
struction.

81
rbat foreign governments recog-
49, tho magnitude Of the greatest
u ..ster power and dam being built here
\ MI, the Mississippi river is indicated
Esss me large number Of very eminent
rnropean engineers coming almost
ss;ly Il study it as commissions from
their government
Most other governments have de-
,,rtm 4, Of public works which has
sss same importance as or own agri-
.ultnral department in the scheme Of
soyernment. The. engineers who are
IN near the top Of that department,
d Germany. Russia. France, and 9th
y countries, are really the salt OF the
snciueering earth and the blue blood
i aristocracy Of engineering science.
rbeva are beginning to come 20 heos
sar 81 the rate OF two or three week.
Germany especially is sending differ
nj men to study different aspects q
~ wotk here, one man being 9 spe-
,ia,ist in navigation problems, another
snacialist in water powers, another
snecialist in locks, and SO forth.
4 Crowd Of interrogation Points.
m masse, they make crowd Of In
terrogation points they 80 into the
most minute details details OF the
chemistry OF concrete, the electricity
&c Of bronze and iron in juxtaposition,
lhe cohesive coefficient OF cement and
silica. and Of two rusted iron plates
on each other. With one glance ov-
or a half mile OF dam as wide as
city lot and as high as q four-story
building, they see three or four cues
tons presenting themselyes-and they
want to know why this Is done thus,
and why the other thing is different
from their own practice When It is
ali explained. they nod appreciative-
Ii, and ii some language not English
exclaim the equivalent Of good
work."
Each one on arrival is shown all
over the miles OF the works by some
member OF Chief Engineer Cooper-s
staff who must pass an examination
on every minute detail Of the colos-
sal work here in the Mississippi. be-
fore he gets around with the eminent
visitor and moreover must make 100
per cent, not only on the descriptive
matter, but on the reasons for every
detail being the way 1t is. All the
modern languages are spoken by one
or another member of the staff OF
Chief Engineer Cooper but these not
ed foreigners generally speak English
very fluently and understand 1t per-
fectiy. at least as long as the escort
sticks to Anglo Saxon roots for the
Germans and Latin roots for the
French
Have Appreciation Of Achievement.
These foreign engineers Of high
rank all appreciate the achievement
of Hugh T. Cooper here in the Mis-
sissippi, as much as they do the Pan
ANA canal where most Of them are
going next. They will make reports
to their governments on their arrival
home
The novel features and the solvin,
Of almost impossible problems. as In
the giant turbines here. and the lock
gates, they are quick to seize and ap
precite. They generally carry homo
drawings of such special features.
The other day. when DR.. Max Schin
ke1, in charge OF the great Kiel canal
and about to build lock that will
MIKE those here and at Panama look
like finger bowls, was. here not sin
Gle steamboat could be found all day
The German engineer asked Eve diff
ferent times why such colossal lock
as that here was built for SO little rin
or traffic.
Noted. Foreign Engineers.
Dr. Max Schinkel. regierungsbau
meister. engineer in charge Of thu
great Kaiser Wilhelm ship canal with
headquarters at KieL Germany
K. Frentzen. chief engineer II
Charge of the canal at Essen-Ruhr
Germany Both he and DR.. Schinke
were especially interested in thu
mammoth Keokuk lock.
Bougougnon, OF Marseilles, chic
engineer Of roads and bridges OF tht
government OF France.
Karl Fuchs, OF Munich. In charge o
hydrotechnics for the German govern
ment
Dr.. Richard Borchers, Prussian gov