1942 WORLD WAR II MILITARY AIRFIELD CONSTRUCTION ARTICLE

[1942 WORLD WAR II MILITARY AIRFIELD CONSTRUCTION; ARTHUR CASAGRANDE; RARE ARTICLE] PROPOSED SOIL CLASSIFICATION FOR AIRFIELD PROJECTS by A. Casagrande, Cambridge, Mass., Sept 5. 1942, in upper right corner U. S. Engr. Off., Division Engr., North Atl. Division, NA 6790, NAD 36/1, 10/8/42, New York, NY, light purple mimeograph pages, 8 pages of text, 8-1/2" x 11", single space, followed by 1 page fold out chart Table 1 –Soil Classification for Airfield Projects, 4 page carbon copy, single space letter dated November 10, 1942, from a major in the U. S. Engineer Office, New York, to The Division Engineer, North Atlantic Division on the point the study has reached to date and plans for further study noting that "Dr.Casagrande [reports] that it is difficult to set up a soil classification which will apply to subgrades, base and surface courses [because of] variations in soils", followed by a copy of a letter from the War Department and a copy of a letter from the Division Engineer Office of the North Atlantic Division on how communications on the study should be handled; RARE, none found for sale (6/2/21), none found listed at WorldCat/OCLC (6/2/21); NOTES: ARTHUR CASSAGRANDE, 1902 - 1981…pioneer in the area of earth fill dam design, the name Arthur Casagrande cannot be separated from that of his fellow countryman, mentor, and colleague, Karl Terzaghi. Together, Casagrande and Terzaghi built the influential discipline of soil mechanics and were personally responsible for the application of their groundbreaking theories to hundreds of large-scale construction projects in America and abroad…Upon completion of his studies [in the Austrian-Hungary Empire Italian section, where he was born] he headed to America and became a steel detailer and draftsman for Carnegie Steel in New Jersey…Though Casagrande did not hold a doctorate, he became a full-time lecturer at MIT in 1926…In 1936 Casagrande also published his influential paper on the characteristics of cohesionless soils affecting the stability of slopes and earth fills. The paper addresses the problem of liquefaction, a phenomenon in which the strength and stiffness of a soil is reduced by earthquake shaking or other rapid loading. Casagrande's fundamental research eventually led to the formulation of criteria and tests that defined the growing understanding of soil behavior under load…Because of the real world applications of Casagrande's work, much of his career was spent consulting on a variety of large-scale construction projects. During World War II the Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation commissioned Casagrande to derive a unified classification system of soils. Other projects included an analysis of soil mechanics in the design and construction of Boston's Logan Airport, the foundation designs for hydropower dams on three continents, and the report to the U.S. Department of the Interior on the failure of Teton Dam in Idaho. (Arthur Casagrande, American Society of Civil Engineers /ASCE website) /// CONDITION: well-preserved, minimal wear. keywords: geology, dam building, landing strip construction