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![]() The testing flume as seen from Race Street, circa 1895 | |
Established | 1870 |
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Research type | Industrial |
Field of research | Hydraulic engineering |
Director |
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Address | 102 Cabot Street |
Location | Holyoke, Massachusetts, U.S. 42°11′58″N 72°36′35″W / 42.199580°N 72.609826°W |
Campus | Holyoke Canal System |
Affiliations | Holyoke Water Power Company |
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The Holyoke Testing Flume was a hydraulic testing laboratory and apparatus in Holyoke, Massachusetts, operated by the Holyoke Water Power Company from 1870 to 1932, and used to test the performance of water turbine designs, completing 3,176 tests of efficiency in that time.[3]: 100 It was described by Robert E. Horton in court testimony as the only facility of its kind in the 19th and early 20th century, which made possible the standardization of American water turbines.[4] Indeed Clemens Herschel, who managed and redesigned the facility in the 1880s, later described it in Congressional testimony as the "first modern hydraulic laboratory" in the United States and the world.[5] It was through Herschel's need to determine the water power consumption of different mills, and in this testing system that he would invent the Venturi meter, the first accurate means of measuring large-scale flows, which still retains widespread use in modern technology today.[5][6]
[Mr. Franchot to Albert F. Sickman:] Q. Are you the chief hydraulic engineer in charge of the Holyoke Water Power Company's work at Holyoke, Mass.?
Mr. Marshall: I object to that conclusion. Counsel is trying to put in his mount a certain loud sounding title which he does not possess...
[Mr. Franchot] Q. The question is, what are you?
[Sickman] A. Hydraulic Engineer in charge of the Holyoke Water Power Company's hydraulic work.
While Hydraulic Engineer of the Holyoke Water Power Company, 1879–1889, the writer instituted a system of keeping a daily record of the discharge of the Connecticut River at Holyoke, which was continued after his departure, by his old-time assistant and successor, A. F. Sickman...
Mr. and Mrs. A. F. Sickman of Lincoln street are home from Montreal where they attended the convention of the New England Water Works association which was held in that city
Mr. Sickman was a great nature lover...during the last days of his life he paid particular attention to the collection of wild ferns.
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