Biographical Memoirs Volume 48 (1976) / Chapter Skim
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William Frederick Durand
William Frederick Durand
Pages 152-193
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From page 153... ...
Durand's last important assignment was assumed in 1941 at age eighty-two, when Vannevar Bush, Chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, appointed Durand chairman of a committee that was assigned the responsibility of getting a jet engine for aircraft propulsion designed and manufactured in the United States. Durand carried this responsibility, as well as concurrently serving as Chairman of the Engineering Division of the National Research Council, until mid-1945, a few months beyond his eighty-sixth birthday.
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From page 154... ...
He entered the Naval Academy in the fall of 1876. The years at the Naval Academy were a turning point in Durand's life.
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From page 155... ...
He also desired to be in a position to marry and to enjoy family life. A few years earlier a bill had been passed by Congress providing for the detail of officers in the Engineering Corps of the Navy to scientific and technical institutions of learning for the purpose of giving instruction in steam engineering and iron shipbuilding.
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From page 156... ...
His most notable experience in this connection was as a member of the crew of the U.S.S. Dolphin, a so-called dispatch boat, when this vessel demonstrated its structural soundness by deliberately steaming full speed into the teeth of a storm off Cape Hatteras and coming through this ordeal unscathed.
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From page 157... ...
Durand's most important work during this period was his study of the screw propeller. From his early days on the cruise of the Tennessee, Durand had been interested in the screw propeller and its theory of operation.
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From page 158... ...
Some years later Durand applied this same approach to pioneering studies of the airplane propeller, as will be subsequently recounted. Durand's work at Cornell was not, however, limited exclusively to work on the screw propeller, as evidenced by the titles of various papers that he wrote during this period.
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From page 159... ...
However, late in the spring of 1904, fate again intervened in Durand's life, when President David Starr Jordan of Stanford persuaded him to fill the vacancy created at Stanford by the departure of A
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From page 160... ...
In planning for the Panama Pacific International Exposition, held in San Francisco in 1915, the major engineering societies of the United States decided to hold a worldwide Engineering Congress. Durand was appointed chairman of the local Committee of Management and spent much of his time for several years getting together an adequate staff, making plans for the Congress, and inviting delegates from the leading nations to write papers to be read before it.
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From page 161... ...
With the development of the airplane, he began to give attention to the airplane propeller, and in the 1914 volume of the Journal of the Franklin Institute he has a twenty-seven-page paper, "The Screw Propeller; with Special Reference to Airplane Propulsion." In that same year he attended a conference in Washington, D.C., called by Charles D Walcott, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the purpose of which was to consider ways and means for awakening and stimulating interest in aeronautical science, with particular reference to activity on the part of the government.
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From page 162... ...
P Lesley, which extended over the following dozen or so years ~ Over one hundred model propellers were tested in a wind tunnel under widely varying conditions of operation, and principles of design were established.
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From page 163... ...
, an operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences, and was made vice chairman of the Engineering Division, in charge of its Washington activities. The offices of NRC and NACA were in the same building, so his working day was spent shuttling between floors.
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From page 164... ...
Guggenheim, became closely associated with Durand. Some eight years later Harry Guggenheim became president of the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics, which played a critically important role in the development of the science of aeronautics and civil aviation in this country.
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From page 165... ...
This learning of French, Spanish, German, and Italian illustrates how Durand, once having set a goal for himself, had the self-discipline to achieve his objective. In the summer of 1918 the Royal Aeronautical Society of England invited Durand to deliver the Wilbur Wright Memorial Lecture, the first American to be so honored.
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From page 166... ...
Toward the end of 1925 his work for the ASME was largely displaced by his appointment by President Coolidge as a member of a Board of Aeronautic Inquiry. This board was appointed as a response to the public uproar created by the episode in which General Billy Mitchell charged that the military services were neglecting and suppressing aviation in national defense.
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From page 167... ...
This recommendation was promptly implemented and provided the administrative basis for handling military aviation until after World War II, when the Department of Defense was established. In early 1927 Secretary Work of the Interior Department set up a five-man Board of Advisors to make a study of the many problems associated with the development of the Colorado River.
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From page 168... ...
He concluded that airplane design and methods of construction were changing so rapidly that an encyclopedic treatment of these topics would be out of date before the work could be completed. On the other hand, he stated, there was beginning to appear a core of fundamental knowledge springing from the theory of fluid mechanics and the application of such theory to aeronautical problems that was sufficiently basic to be definitely secure from marked change with time.
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From page 169... ...
The work was so well received that early in 1939 the publishers proposed the preparation of a supplementary volume to cover new developments. Again working with von Karman, a plan was blocked out and potential authors contacted.
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From page 170... ...
This multilingual performance was the occasion of much complimentary comment. Other speakers at the conference included President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Hull.
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From page 171... ...
Since 1936 was the fiftieth anniversary year of Sigma Xi, it involved more than the usual activities. For several years around 1937 Durand was occupied from time to time with the problem of how to care for the salmon that were prevented by the Grand Coulee Dam from reaching their normal spawning grounds on the Columbia River, above the dam.
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From page 172... ...
Engineers generally had previously tended to think of the gas turbine purely as a substitute for the reciprocating engine driving a propeller."! Aft was reported by the late Hugh Dryden that, when Bush requested President Roosevelt to make this appointment, the President suggested that a man of Durand's age should be allowed to enjoy his retirement and that a younger man be sought.
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From page 173... ...
The NRC duties involved the supervision of various committees, the drafting of reports, receiving callers, conferring with government officials and civilians, attending meetings, and so on. One of the by-products of these World War II activities was service on a committee set up by the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC)
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From page 174... ...
Many honors came to Durand during his life. In addition to those that have already been mentioned in this narrative, items of special significance include: Gold Medal, American Society of Naval Engineers (1889~; election to membership in the American Philosophical Society (1 9 1 7~; Daniel Guggenheim Medal (1935~; John Fritz Medal (1935~; Franklin Institute Medal (1938~; J
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From page 175... ...
Examples include his influential role in such groups as the Morrow Board, the original Colorado River Board, and the Passamaquoddy Committee, where politically controversial questions of a socio-economic. — engineering character were at issue.
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From page 177... ...
Eng. = Marine Engineering Mar.
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From page 178... ...
Eng., 4:71-73. A study of the element of a screw propeller.
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From page 179... ...
Proceedings, International Engineering Congress, Division of Marine and Naval Engineering and Naval Architecture, vol. 2, paper no.
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From page 180... ...
Eng., b: 104-5. An experimental study of the influence of surface on the performance of screw propellers.
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From page 181... ...
Eng., 10: 329-65. Experiments on the effect of varying the area of screw propellers.
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From page 182... ...
Progressive trials of the Italian torpedo boat Condor. Translated by W
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From page 183... ...
Eng., 6: 211-14. Practical Marine Engineering for Marine Engineers and Students, with Aids for Applicants for Marine Engineers' Licenses.
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From page 184... ...
Proceedings, Washington Academy of Sciences, b:419-21. 1905 Experimental researches on the performance of screw propellers.
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From page 185... ...
With additional chapters on the uses of kerosene and alcohol in internal combustion engines. London, New York: International Marine Engineering.
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From page 186... ...
Navy, b:25-30. Practical Marine Engineering for Marine Engineers and Students, with Aids for Applicants for Marine Engineers' Licenses.
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From page 187... ...
Experimental Research on Air Propellers, II. National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Technical Report no.
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From page 188... ...
Experimental Research on Air Propellers, III. National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Technical Report no.
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From page 189... ...
Comparison of Tests on Air Propellers in Flight with Wind Tunnel Model Tests on Similar Forms. National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Technical Report no.
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From page 190... ...
Protection and Development of the Lower Colorado River Basin. Hearings, Seventieth Congress, first session on H
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From page 191... ...
Eng., 38:323. 1931 Problems of the screw propeller.
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From page 192... ...
In: National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs, vol.
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From page 193... ...
Lewis, 1882-1948. In: National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs, vol.
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