Page 6 - popsci0364

The Day the Dam Burst
Cut Your Own tention was wrenched from a cavorting
stock market to the horror in California.
There hadn't been a major U.S. dam disaster
Firewood Fast since the Johnstown Flood in 1889.
Why had the St. Francis Dam burst?
The biggest coroner's inquest in the history
of Los Angeles County was launched to find
You'll be amazed at how little effort it takes
to cut wood with the revolutionary Hom elite out. At the same time, California's Gov.
XL-12. In one hour, you can cut more fire- C. C. Young chose four distinguished con-
wood than two men could cut in a full day sulting engineers and two professors of
using a hand saw. And you won't be tired, geology to investigate the disaster.
because although the gasoline-powered
XL-12 will slice through 12-inch logs in 10 At the inquest, 72-year-old William Mul-
seconds, fell trees up to 3 feet in diameter, holland, chief engineer of the Los Angeles
it weighs only 12 pounds.* You'll find it Water & Power Dept., tearfully testified that
ideal for dozens of jobs. Try it at your he envied the dead. His unblemished re-
Homelite dealer, now.
putation of 30 years was in ruins. He took
full responsibility for the dam's design and
location. This he could scarcely avoid
doing. His had been the final approval.
· "If I were to build St. Francis Dam
again, I would build it in the same manner,
but not in the same place. That place where
it was built was vulnerable against human
aggression," he said.
Whatever Mulholland meant by his last
few words, Gov. Young's expert investiga-
tors vividly supported the vulnerability of
the site. The location was incredibly un-
suitable, it was revealed, because it was
subject to water seepage.
The design of the dam, the so-called
gravity type, was "preeminently safe," the
investigators reported. They had tested the
material in the dam and found it capable of
resisting forces "much beyond any stresses
to which it would have been subjected
I under normal conditions."
I HOMELITE :!~~!~~ "There can be no question," the report
10503 Riverdale Ave., Port Chester, N.Y.
I Free valuable Woodcutters' Guide and complete facts on the continued, "but that such a dam properly
I revolutionary XL-12. built upon a firm and unyielding foundation
I would be safe and permanent under all con-
I NAME ..... ...... .... .................. ....... ........ . ceivable conditions, except perhaps faulting
I ADDRESS .. ..• •• .••••..• ••••.•••••• ...••. •.• •••••••••• and earthquake shocks of tremendous vio-
I CITY .....•.•.• •..•• ..••... ZONE ••••.. STATE . ..• •• •••• lence .... "
I There had been no earthquake.
------------------- "iri this case the foundation under the entire
"Unfortunately," the investigators wrote,
*Less bar and chain
dam left very much to be desired."
World's Lightest Direct-Drive Chain Saw The rocky cleft of the canyon, which the
dam straddled, consisted of an insubstan-
HOME-LITE less substantial reddish conglomerate on the
tial mica schist on the east side and an even
west, the report explained. The two rock
formations met, under the west wing of
XL-12 the dam, along a "dead" earthquake fault,
ideally designed by nature for seepage.
To make matters worse, the conglomerate,
180 POPULAR SCIENCE MARCH 1964 CONTINUED