HYDRO-ENGINEERING IN CHINA - SAVAGE, John Lucian.

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Preliminary Report on Yangtze Gorge Project; Number 4 of a small number of copies of this report, by the engineering mind behind the Hoover Dam, on harnessing the mighty Yangtze River for hydroelectric power generation - a vision finally realized over half a century later. We have traced only four other surviving examples, all found in institutions.The author, John Lucian Savage (1879-1967), was an American civil engineer who became the Chief Designing Engineer at the Bureau of Reclamation in 1924. "In this capacity he designed dams, canals, and other irrigation-related structures throughout eleven western states, the most impressive projects being Hoover - the supreme engineering feat of its day - Grand Coulee, Parker, and Shasta dams. Because the first three were respectively the highest, widest, and deepest dams in the world at the time of their construction, Savage and his design team developed trial-load analysis for determining actual versus theoretical stresses in arched dams as well as models for determining concrete deterioration, land subsidence, and increased seismicity caused by the weight of a mammoth dam" (ANB).Since the 1930s, Savage had been fascinated with both the idea of damming the Yangtze and the prospect of co-operation between the Bureau of Reclamation and the Chinese government. Chiang Kai-Shek's administration was equally keen. Amidst Chinese efforts to repel a Japanese invasion, in 1943 the National Resources Commission of Chiang's government invited

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