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William Benjamin Gregory

Born March 13, 1871 Penn Yan NY/USA

Died January 29, 1945 New Orleans LA/USA

Known for: civil engineer, academic, and inventor

William Benjamin Gregory graduated from the Penn Yan Academy in 1890, obtaining a the ME degree from Cornell University, Ithaca NY, in 1894, and made post graduate works there in 1907. He was an instructor from 1894-1897, assistant and associate professor of experimental engineering until 1905, from when he took over as professor and dean in the Engineering Department until 1938, of the Tulane University, New Orleans, LA. From 1902, he also served the US Department of Agriculture USDA as irrigation engineer. He further was consultant of the Mississippi River Commission from 1903 mainly testing hydraulic dredges. From 1928 to 1929 he was a consultant to the US Army Corps of Engineers, conducting hydraulic tests for the Bonnet Carré Spillway, Lower Mississippi Valley. Gregory was president of the New Orleans Academy of Sciences in 1914. He was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, ASCE, Council Member from 1916 to 1919, and vice-president in the term 1920-21.

Gregory was a general engineer who served as a teacher and consultant to the community. His professional interest included sanitary engineering, pumps and their development for engineering practice, irrigation and the optimum effect in the Southern United States, as well as hydraulics. He proposed the so-called Tulane Pitot, and instrument to measure velocity and discharge in pipes and channels, which was less sensitive than the common Pitot Tube, a standard hydraulic instrument. He also developed a rice irrigation system 130 km long with canals and laterals in 1934.

Source: Hager, Willi H. Hydraulician in the USA 1800-2000: A biographical dictionary of leaders in hydraulic engineering and fluid mechanics.

Anonymous (1921). Professor Gregory, Jambalaya yearbook 25: 4 Tulane University: New Orleans: P

Anonymous (1930). William B. Gregory. Who’s who in America 16: 962. Marquis: Chicago.

Anonymous (1945) William Benjamin Gregory: Laboratory named for him dedicated at Tulane. Civil Engineering 15(9): 442.

Gregory, W.B. (1901). Tests of centrifugal pumps. Trans. ASME 22: 262-292

Gregory, W.B. (1907). Mechanical tests of pumps and pumping plants used for irrigation and drainage in Louisiana in 1905 and 1906. Government Printing Office. Washington D.C.

Gregory, W.B. (1908). Cost of pumping form wells for the irrigation of rice in Louisiana and Arkansas. Government Printing Office. Washington D.C.

Gregory, W.B. (1916). Evolution of low-lift pumping plants in the Gulf Coast Country. ASME.

Gregory, W.B. (1927). Pumping clay slurry. Mechanical Engineering 49(6): 609-616.

GREGORY, William Benjamin, civil engineer, academic, inventor. Born, Penn Yan, N. Y., 1871; son of Mary Elizabeth Bush and Ezra Eugene Gregory. Education: Penn Yan Academy; Cornell University, graduated, 1894; post-graduate work in engineering, Cornell, 1907-1908. Married Selina Elizabeth Bres (q.v.) of New Orleans. Children: William Bres, Elizabeth and Angela (later, a sculptor and teacher at Newcomb College). Career at Tulane University: instructor in Drawing, 1894-1897; assistant professor of Experimental Engineering, 1897-1902; associate professor, 1902-1905; professor, 1905-1938; dean of engineering department, 1929; professor emeritus in Experimental Engineering and Hydraulics, 1938; was consulting engineer for the army after retiring in 1939; also consulting engineer for the Mississippi River Commission, the Louisiana State Board of Engineers, the Texas State Board of Water Engineers, and the Sewage and Water Board of New Orleans. Specialized in rice irrigation and drainage work; in 1905 the United States Department of Agriculture published his report, “Rice Irrigation in Louisiana and Texas in 1903 and 1904”. Held rank of major in the army engineers in France in World War I; awarded the Purple Heart; held a commission as colonel in the United States Engineers Reserve Corps. An expert in hydraulic engineering, he was consultant to the United States Army Engineers in hydraulic tests during construction of the Bonnet Carré Spillway, 1928-1929; his report, “Bayous [sic] Courtableau and the Teche and the Vermilion River in Their Relation to Flood Control, etc.” was published in 1929. Assisted in testing of an electric automobile engine designed by Nelson G. Goreau (q.v.). Was a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers; awarded the Warner Medal in 1940 for distinguished work in hydraulic engineering. Life member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Louisiana Engineering Society; member of the French Société des Ingénieurs Civils. Was particularly known for two inventions: the “Tulane Pitot”, a tube for measuring water, an adaptation of which was used in most airplanes to measure speed, and a rice irrigation system with canals and laterals, eighty-five miles in length, which he designed with Merrill Bernard in 1934. Died, January 29, 1945. J.B.C. Sources: New Orleans Times-Picayune, obituary, January 30, 1945; New York Times, obituary, January 31, 1945.

https://www.lahistory.org/resources/dictionary-louisiana-biography/dictionary-louisiana-biography-g/  last accessed on September 9, 2019.