Meyer, Adolf Frederick

Photograph

Dates

Adolph Frederick Meyer 1880 (Cedarburg, WI, USA) - 1962 Minneapolis, MN, USA)

Biography

Meyer graduated from Wisconsin University, Madison, in 1905 with a BSc degree and a CE degree in 1909. From 1905 to 1912 he was an engineer with the US Army. He worked as a consulting engineer until 1917 and then became associate professor of hydraulic engineering at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis. He was briefly Professor of Engineering at the University of Iowa from 1934-35. He developed a governor for the paper industry and set up the Meyer Governor Company company to manufacture the machinery. Throughout his career he continued to work as a consulting engineer based in St. Paul. His clients included large corporations, states and the US Government. By the 1950s he had taken Dugls W. Barr as an associate who continued the practice after Meyer's death. It became the Barr Engineering Company.

In 1961 he received the Award of Merit for contributions to the science of water resources conservation from the American Association for Conservation Information. He was a Fellow of the ASCE from 1959 and a member of AGU and ASME.

Hydrological Achievements

Author of Elements of Hydrology, 1917 while at the University of Minnesota.

Reference Material

Hager, W, 2015, Hydraulicians in the USA, CRC Press.

Major Publications

Meyer, A F, 1913, Mississippi River high dam at St. Paul and Minneapolis, J. Enfgineering Societies 50(5): 192-211

Meyer, A F, 1914, Power development at the high dam between Minneapolis and St. Paul, Trans. AMSE 36: 255-281

Meyer, A F, 1915, Computing run-off from rainfall and other physical data, Trans. ASCE 79:1056-1224.

Meyer, A F, 1917, The Elements of Hydrology, Wiley: New York

Meyer, A.F. and Minnesota Resources Commission, 1942. Evaporation from Lakes and Reservoirs: A Study Based on Fifty Years' Weather Bureau Records. Minnesota Resources Commission.

Links

Adolph F Meyer papers 1901-1971 Minnesota Historial Society [33 boxes]