River Commission Research Articles

Barge Watteauv. Barge Syra.

International River Commissions — Central Commission for Rhine Navigation — Jurisdiction of — Actions Arising out of Both Contract and Tort.

Scientific Organisation in India

THE latter part of Prof. Saha's address was devoted to problems of scientific organisation. The present world is a single economic and cultural unit, and this fact should direct political and economic action. Practical problems can be solved only by the application of scientific principles, and a new educational scheme should be devised by a world's congress of foremost thinkers, with the object of training the coming generation to a proper appreciation of the beauty and powers of science. The lack of scientific organisation and preliminary research is particularly obvious in Indian public works, with serious consequences to the vitality of the population and resulting in great waste of money. Prof. Saha supported the formation of an Indian Academy of Science, organised somewhat on the lines of the Royal Society, which would co-ordinate Indian scientific work, and act generally for the promotion of scientific research and its utilisation in national and international affairs. He adduced evidence of the need of such a body, quoting in support of his view the statement of Sir F. Spring on river problems in India, that “more money has been wasted, for want of just such knowledge as a River Commission might provide, than would have sufficed to pay the entire cost of it many times over”.

Organization and work of the United States Waterways Experiment Station at Vicksburg, Mississippi

The United States Waterways Experiment Station is a War Department activity, constructed and operated by the Corps of Engineers, United States Army, in connection with the design, construction, maintenance, and operation of flood‐control works and river‐ and harbor‐improvements, particularly for studies in connection with the comprehensive project for the control of the floods of the Mississippi River. The Waterways Experiment Station is on the outskirts of Vicksburg about four miles from the offices of the Mississippi River Commission. Its operations are controlled by Brigadier General T. H. Jackson, President of the Commission, under the general oversight of the Chief of Engineers, United States Army. The Director of the Station is First‐Lieutenant Herbert D. Vogel, Corps of Engineers, who is especially prepared for this duty by education and training.

The Work of the Mississippi River Commission

The Mississippi River Commission was created by an Act of Congress approved June 28, 1879. It consists of seven Commissioners, three of whom are selected from the Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army; one from the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey; and three from civil life, two of whom must be civil engineers. The basic law required the Commission to “mature a plan or plans as will correct, permanently locate and deepen the channel, and protect the banks of the Mississippi River; improve and give safety and care to the navigation thereof; prevent destructive floods ; promote and facilitate commerce, trade and the postal service.”

The Report of the Committee on Mississippi Flood Control Appointed by the United States Chamber of Commerce

(1) To begin with, the Committee attempted to make a catalogue of the floods which have occurred in the last 200 years. During 150 years of that time, one must depend upon somewhat indefinite historic records, accurate enough, however, to indicate that as often as every ten years or so these floods were very serious. Since 1879, the year the Mississippi River Commission was created, precise data have been available. These show that there have been in the last fifty years seven floods in the main river which were serious enough to be characterized as important. (2) The seriousness of these floods and the resulting damage have satisfied the Committee that the work of protection has been inadequate either in its conception or execution. In trying to satisfy itself upon this point, the Committee came to the conclusion that a work of such magnitude must be under a centralized control with a

First‐order leveling

The general plan of extending the first‐order level net of the United States has been to locate the lines in such a way that eventually no place in the country will be more than fifty miles from a standard bench mark.In prosecution of this plan, 50,000 miles of first‐order levels have been run by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army, the U.S. Lake Survey, the Mississippi and Missouri River Commissions, and a number of the leading railroads. The work enters every State of the union but one—Delaware— and forms over one hundred circuits.

Annual Report of the Mississippi River Commission for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1912

Annual Report of the Mississippi River Commission for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1912

Report of the Mississippi River Commission

Report of the Mississippi River Commission

Annual Report of the Mississippi River Commission for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1906, Being Appendix MMM of the Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers for 1906

Annual Report of the Mississippi River Commission for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1906, Being Appendix MMM of the Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers for 1906

A High-Voltage Power Transmission

In 1891 the Missouri River Commission, United States War Department, completed a survey of the Upper Missouri River, including triangulation, topography, hydrography and check levels. The records of this survey for the first time made available complete engineering information regarding the Upper Missouri River. From Three Forks to a point below Canyon Ferry the field work was under the direction of G. A. Marr, M. Am. Soc. C. E., Assistant Engineer, and was fully reported by the Commission in 1891.‡ The river was then considered navigable to Three Forks, where the main stream is formed by the confluence of the Madison, Jefferson and Gallatin Rivers. From Three Forks to Canyon Ferry, the present location of the dam, the distance along the channel is about 81 miles.

On Flood Heights in the Mississippi River, with Especial Reference to the Reach Between Helena and Vicksburg

In considering the question of high-water heights, it is evident that the best prospect of success lies in the study of the discharges already measured. There are quite a number of data of this kind from the days of Humphreys and Abbot to the present, but of these only a few are of any material service in our investigation. By far the most useful and most accurately determined measurements of this kind are those made in 1882 and in 1884–85 by the Mississippi River Commission, and published in their Reports for 1883 and 1887 respectively. The former are especially valuable, having been made in the greatest flood-year ever known. Accordingly it is upon them that the reasoning of this paper mainly rests.

Levee Theory Tested by Facts

In an unofficial, but authoritative way, the following question has been stated by the Mississippi River Commission, and a majority of that body sustain the affirmative: “Is it in accord with sound principles of engineering, and will it be in like manner conducive to the improvement of the river, to confine the flood volume within the channel by artificial additions to its natural banks?”