First Four Decades of the Hydraulics Division

An account is given of the background of the ASCE Hydraulics Division and its establishment in 1939, as well as of the roles played by F.C. Scobey, B.A. Bakhmeteff, G.H. Matthes, C.H. Paul, and J.C. Stevens in its early years. Attention is also focused on the series of Iowa Hydraulics Conference begun by F.T. Mavis in 1939 and their gradual evolution into the Division’s Specialty Conferences initiated by A.S. Fry in 1950. Both the list of past Division Chairmen and that of Specialty Conference hosts are given in full.