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J. W. Johnson papers
WRCA 047
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Title: J. W. Johnson papers
Date (inclusive): 1863-1999, undated
Date (bulk): 1933-1988
Collection Number: WRCA 047
Creator:
Johnson, J.W. (Joe William), 1908-2002
Extent:
57 boxes
Repository:
Rivera Library. Special Collections Department.
Riverside, CA 92517-5900
Abstract: The collection consists of project files and research files compiled by J. W. Johnson during his career as Professor of Hydraulic
Engineering and as a professional consulting engineer.
Languages: The collection is primarily in English, with some documents in Portuguese and Spanish.
The collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to the University of California, Riverside Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives.
Distribution or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission
of the copyright owners. To the extent other restrictions apply, permission for distribution or reproduction from the applicable
rights holder is also required. Responsibility for obtaining permissions, and for any use rests exclusively with the user
[identification of item], [date if possible]. J. W. Johnson papers (WRCA 047). Water Resources Collections and Archives. Special
Collections & University Archives, University of California, Riverside.
Gift of J. W. Johnson, date unknown.
Collection number updated May 2020. Legacy collection number was JOHNSON. This change was part of a project in 2018/2019 to
update the collection numbers for collections in the Water Resources Collections and Archives.
Processed by Water Resources Collections and Archives staff, 2000.
Joe William Johnson was born on July 19, 1908 in Pittsburg, Kansas. He grew up in Winslow, Arizona, and Los Angeles, California.
He spent his first two years of college at the University of California, Los Angeles,and then transferred to Berkeley, where
he received his B.S. degree in May 1931 and his M.S. degree in May 1934, both in civil engineering.
After graduating, Johnson spent a year at the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Waterways Experiment Stationin Vicksburg, Mississippi.
He then transferred to the U.S. Soil Conservation Servicein Washington, D.C., where he worked on sediment transportation from
1935 until 1942. During this time Johnson was instrumental in the design and operation of a research laboratory for the study
of sediment transport. This research is documented in a number of his early papers.
In July 1942, Johnson was appointed as Assistant Professor in the Division of Mechanical Engineering at the University of
California, Berkeley. He immediately became involved in the intensive study of waves and beaches, which were being undertaken
as part of the major war effort in amphibious operations during World War II. This work for the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Shipswas
conducted both at the Department of Engineering, Berkeley, under the direction of Morrough P. O'Brien,and at the Scripps Institution
of Oceanographyat La Jolla under the direction of H. U. Sverdrup. Some of Johnson's colleagues in this war work were R. G.
Folsom, J. A. Putnam, J. D. Isaacs, W. N. Bascom,and H. W. Iversen.The work was classified, but after the war a number of
technical papers were published on these studies. Johnson's involvement is evident from his papers on wave generation, wave
refraction, and impulsively generated waves (he worked on the latter at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, March-June 1944). A broad
description of the project was published in the article Wartime Research on Waves and Surf, by M. P. O'Brienand J. W. Johnson(The
Military Engineer, Vol. 39, no. 260, June 1947). The research included wave and surf forecasting and associated observations
and measurements, development and installation of wave and tide recorders, littoral currents, waves generated by underwater
explosions, and the effect of the surf on the behavior of amphibious and amphibian vehicles, and on their operation.
In 1946, Johnson was promoted to Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Division. In 1952, he was appointed Professor
of Hydraulic Engineering in the Department of Civil Engineering, where he remained until his retirement in 1975. His colleagues
during this time included H. A. Einstein, P. D. Trask, P. H. McGauhey, G. J. Giefer, D. K. Todd,and R. L. Wiegel(Johnson and
Hans Albert Einsteinhad been colleagues earlier when they both worked on sediment transport for the Soil Conservation Service).
During his tenure at Berkeley, Johnson was continuously active in teaching, research and administration. He served as Director
of the Hydraulic Engineering Laboratory(1959-1967), Chairman of the Division of Hydraulic and Sanitary Engineering (1963-1967,
acting Chairman, 1971-1972), and Archivist, Water Resources Collections and Archives(1963-1973).
Johnson taught both undergraduate and graduate courses in hydraulics and coastal engineering and he supervised a large number
of Ph.D. students. He also believed in the value of continuing professional education for engineers, and lectured in a number
of short courses in coastal engineering given by the University of California Extension Divisionand at other universities.
His research in coastal engineering was prolific, with more than one hundred published papers and technical reports. Johnson
retired from academia in 1975 as Professor Emeritus of Hydraulic Engineering.
During the immediate post-war years, Johnson continued to work with O'Brien, together with a number of young researchers,
including R. L. Wiegel, C. L. Bretschneider, R. C. Crooke, R. C. McCamy, T. Saville, Jr., F. A. Snodgrass, and J. R. Morison.This
was the time of rapid growth in coastal engineering research and the work by the group brought a number of visiting scholars
to Berkeley to study and perform research in this field. These included Kiyoshi Horikawa, Egbert Prins,and Per Bruun.
Because of his thorough knowledge of waves and beaches, Johnson has been much sought after as a consulting engineer. He has
worked on projects as varied as beach erosion in Venezuela; an ore port in Brazil; a harbor in Puerto Rico; port developments
in Mexico, Australia, Egypt, Peru and in the Persian Gulf; small craft harbors in California; wave action at Puerto Matarani,
Peru; harbor sedimentation in Argentina; a port site study in Guatemala; sand dunes in Portugal; a wood chip port in Brazil;
a breakwater in Guam; beach and harbor studies in many parts of the coastal United States; and several projects in Canada.
Johnson's major hobby is the history of hydraulics, especially hydraulic engineering in the "Gold Country" in California.
His papers Engineering Highlights of the California Mining Days(California Engineer, May 1949), and Early Engineering Center
in California, (California Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 29, no. 3, September 1950), are most interesting accounts of
this early work, well illustrated with old photographs. In his 1949 paper, Johnson states:
"To operate the various pieces of mining equipment, relatively crude water wheels called 'hurdy-gurdies' were used extensively.
These wheels operated at relatively low efficiencies, and it was not until 1880 that Lester Peltonof Comptonville developed
the improved impulse turbine bucket, which is now known as the Pelton bucket. Pelton's invention, the use of a center splitter
in the bucket, moved the impulse turbine from the class of a crude, inefficient, home-made hurdy-gurdy to that of an efficient
prime mover. One of the first types of the Pelton Wheel is now on display in the Hydraulic Court of the Mechanics Building
on the Berkeley campus. This small wheel was built from patterns supplied by Pelton and was tested in the University's hydraulic
laboratory in 1883. The results of these tests constitute Bulletin No. 1 of the Department of Engineering."
Johnson found the "hurdy-gurdy" wheel used at the Monarch Mine, Sierra City, Sierra County, California and it is now mounted
over the entrance to the Hydraulic Engineering Laboratory in O'Brien Hall at the University of California, Berkeley. The Pelton
Wheel is on loan to the Oakland Museum of California.
Johnson has also been interested in early photographs of engineering works and natural scenes in California. His report The
Early Pacific Coast Photographs of Carleton E. Watkins(Archives series report no. 8, Water Resources Center, University of
California, Berkeley, 1960) was one of the first to recognize the important work of pioneer 19th century photographer Carleton
E. Watkins(1829-1916). Johnson wrote another paper, Historical Photographs and the Coastal Engineer(Shore & Beach, Vol. 29,
no. 1, April 1961), in which he described the importance of using old photographs in estimating coastal changes. In the article,
he reproduced three sets of photographs taken in the vicinity of the mouth of the Noyo and Big Rivers near Mendocino, California.
Three photographs by C. E. Watkins,taken in 1860, are compared with three photographs taken from the exact same locations
100 years later in 1960 by Eugene Comptonof Berkeley, California.
Johnson became editor of Shore & Beach, the journal of the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association,in 1974, and
remained in this capacity until his "retirement at the age of eighty" in July 1988.
Excerpted from Biographical Sketch of Joe W. Johnson, by Robert L. Wiegel(Shore & Beach, Vol. 56, no. 4, October 1988), which
also includes all of Johnson's professional activities and awards and a bibliography of key papers authored and co-authored
by Johnson.
The collection consists of project files, reprints of articles, technical reports, student term papers and projects, correspondence,
photographs, maps, drawings, etc., compiled by J. W. Johnson during his career as a professional consulting engineer and professor
of hydraulic engineering. Includes material relating to wave studies, littoral drift, sedimentation, flow of water, hydroelectric
plants, harbors, breakwaters, jetties and other hydraulic structures, navigation channels, and shoreline stabilization in
California, South America, Australia, and elsewhere. Of particular significance are studies of the mouth of the Russian River,
Bolinas Lagoon, the Hawaii tsunami of April 1, 1946, the San Francisco ocean outfall at Ocean Beach, the Santa Ynez River
Bridge, and coastal projects in the United States.
The collection also includes Johnson's research files and notes compiled for his two major "hobbies:" the history of hydraulic
engineering in California and pioneer photographer Carleton E. Watkins. These files include extensive correspondence, copy
prints of photographs, research notes, articles, newspaper clippings, etc.
The collection is arranged into six series as follows:
- Series 1. Project Files, Reprints, Technical Reports, etc., 1901-1997
- Series 2. History of Hydraulic Engineering in California, 1879-1978
- Series 3. Materials on Carleton E. Watkins, 1863-1999, undated
- Series 4. Miscellaneous, undated
- Series 5. Wind Speed and Direction, Bodega Marine Laboratory Anemometer, undated
- Series 6. Knave Newspapers, undated
- J. W. Johnson Papers, 1962-1966. BANC MSS 78/119 c, Bancroft Library
- Morrough P. O'Brien Papers, (WRCA 059). Water Resources Collections and Archives. Special Collections & University Archives, University of California, Riverside
- Carleton E. Watkins Papers, ca. 1864-1890. BANC MSS 67/156 c, Bancroft Library
- Carleton E. Watkins Letters, 1880-1890. BANC MSS 78/92 c, Bancroft Library
- The Hearst Mining Collection of Views by C. E. Watkins, 1871-1891. BANC PIC 1905.17175-ffALB, Bancroft Library
- Mendocino Coast Photographed by Carleton E. Watkins, 1863. BANC PIC 1957.026-ffALB, Bancroft Library
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
library's online public access catalog.
University of California, Berkeley. Division of Hydraulic and Sanitary Engineering
Watkins, Carleton E., 1829-1916
Australia
Beach erosion
Bolinas Lagoon (Calif.)
Brazil
Breakwaters -- Design and construction
Bridges -- California -- Santa Ynez River -- Design and construction
Coastal engineering
Harbors -- Design and construction
Hydraulic engineering -- California -- History
Inlets
Littoral drift
Marinas -- Design and construction
Mining engineering -- California -- History
Ocean outfalls -- California -- San Francisco -- Design and construction
Ocean waves
Peru
Photographers -- California
Photography in engineering
Sediment transport
Shore protection
Tides
Tsunamis -- Hawaii
Water waves -- Models
Water-power -- California -- History
Project files
Research notes