23 Facts About Clemens Herschel

Clemens Herschel was an American hydraulic engineer.

Clemens Herschel's career extended from about 1860 to 1930, and he is best known for inventing the Venturi meter, which was the first large-scale, accurate device for measuring water flow.

Clemens Herschel developed this device while serving as director of the Holyoke Testing Flume, a turbine testing facility which he would redesign, which became the first modern hydraulics laboratory in the United States and the world.

Clemens Herschel spent most of his life practicing his profession in Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey.

Clemens Herschel attended Harvard University, where he received his bachelor of science degree in 1860 from the Lawrence Scientific School.

The first part of Clemens Herschel's career was devoted to bridge design, including the design of cast-iron bridges.

Clemens Herschel first tested his Venturi meter concept in 1886 while working for the company, and by 1888 felt he had perfected it conceptually, ultimately naming it in honor of Giovanni Battista Venturi, the eminent Italian physicist who first described the differential pressure phenomenon in a 1797 treatise.

In 1889, Clemens Herschel was hired as the manager and superintendent of the East Jersey Water Company, where he worked until 1900.

Clemens Herschel was responsible for the development of the Pequannock River water supply for Newark.

Clemens Herschel installed two of his largest Venturi meters at Little Falls, New Jersey, on the main stem of the Rockaway River to serve Paterson, Clifton and Jersey City.

Clemens Herschel worked on some of the major water development projects in the world.

Clemens Herschel played a major part in the construction of the hydroelectric power plant at Niagara Falls, which was the first large-scale electric power plant.

Clemens Herschel was appointed to an expert committee that reviewed the plans for the first water tunnel that would deliver water from the Catskill reservoirs to New York City.

Clemens Herschel married Jeannette Begg Hunter of Thompsonville, Connecticut, on March 5,1910.

Clemens Herschel was active in several professional organizations including the American Water Works Association and the New England Water Works Association.

Clemens Herschel was a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in London, and he was elected president of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1916.

Clemens Herschel was one of the first five inductees into the American Water Works Association Water Industry Hall of Fame.

Clemens Herschel was made an honorary member of that organization.

Clemens Herschel was awarded the Elliott Cresson medal in 1889 by the Franklin Institute for his development of the Venturi water meter.

In 1888, Clemens Herschel was presented with the Thomas Fitch Rowland Prize by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Clemens Herschel was made an Honorary Member of ASCE in 1922.

The Clemens Herschel Prize was established at Harvard University in 1929.

Clemens Herschel translated the work into English and titled it Frontinus and the Water Supply of the City of Rome.