Sherman, LeRoy K
Contents
Photograph[edit]
Dates[edit]
LeRoy Kempton Sherman, 20.07.1869 (Eastham, MA, USA) - 04.01.1954 (San Diego, CA, USA)
Biography[edit]
LeRoy K. Sherman received a BSc degree in 1892 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA, USA. He was from 1895 to 1900 involved in the construction of the Chicago Drainage Canal and its regulating works, then until 1905 in railroad works around Chicago, IL. He then joined the Sanitary District of Chicago in charge of constructing the Lockport water power installation, and of the North Shore Channel. In 1912 he became contractor of the Illinois Rivers and Lakes Committee, and was from 1918 to 1921 assistant chief engineer of the US Housing Corporation, when taking over as the President of an engineering company in Chicago. After 1933 he worked as a consultant and also served the National Resources Committee. He became an honorary member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Hydrological Achievements[edit]
Sherman is best known as the originator of the unit-graph concept for distributing storm runoff volumes in time (now normally referred to as the unit hydrographic) and proponent of the infiltration theory concept of runoff. He also worked extensively on urban catchments and sewers
Reference Material[edit]
Hager, W., 2015, Hydraulicians in the USA 1800-2000, CRC Press.
Anonymous, 1954, L. K. Sherman, ASCE Honorary Member, is dead, Civil Engineering 24(3), 179
Selected Publications[edit]
Sherman, L. K., 1912, Runoff from sewered areas, J. Western Society of Engineers, 17(4): 361-378
Sherman, L. K., 1932, Streamflow from rainfall by unit-hydrograph method, Engineering News Record, 108(14): 501-505
Sherman, L. K., and Horton, R. E. (1933) The Horton method for the determination of infiltration-rates, Trans. Amer. Geophysical. un., 17(2): 312-314
Sherman, L. K., and Mayer, L. C., 1941, Application of the infiltration theory to engineering practice, Trans. Amer. Geophysical. Un. 22(3): 666-677
