ATKINSON

UNITED KINGDOM (see also List of Individuals)

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2.1.1889 Burton/UK - 21.5.1955 Sandhurst/UK

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John Dekeyne Atkinson was educated in Oundle and Cambridge as an engineer and joined in 1911 the Egyptian Irrigation Service. He transferred to the Sudan in 1915 and was then concerned with a number of irrigation, pumping and canal schemes. From 1929 to 1934 he was Director of the Hydraulics Section and of Hydraulic Research in the Ministry of Public Works, Egypt, engaged chiefly on advisory work relating to the Nile and its canal systems. From 1935 to 1939, Atkinson held the post of chief engineer, Alexandria, and during the next two years was Chief Engineer of the Iraq Irrigation Service. His last appointment was Director-General of Irrigation, Iraq, which he held from 1941 to 1946, when he retired.

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Atkinson was the author of the handbook of Egyptian irrigation published in 1934 and 1935, co-author with A.D. Butcher of the 1932 paper and he co-authored another paper in 1945 on the reconstruction of the Diyala weir in Iraq, for which he was awarded the Telford Premium from the Institution of Civil Engineers ICE. The 1932 paper is one of the very first accounting for scour as experienced downstream of dams. The difference between the plunging flow and the surface jet modes was observed in laboratory experimentation of which the latter typically occurs for a high tailwater level downstream of an outlet and does not cause appreciable scour. It was also observed that scale effects may occur if the scale of the model is too large resulting in effects of viscosity due to too small sediment size. Further, the asymmetric discharge load due to some closed gates may result in problems with surface currents and in scour along the tailwater river bank. It should be noted that the title of the paper involves the word erosion, which was stated in the discussion to be a misleading notion. Atkinson was an Associate ICE Member from 1922 and transferred to Member in 1935. He was also a Member of Société Royale de Géographie d'Egypte.

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_{Anonymous (1956). John Dekeyne Atkinson. Proc. Institution of Civil Engineers Part 1 5: 74. Atkinson, J.D. (1935). Handbook of Egyptian irrigation. Government Press: Cairo.}

_{Atkinson, J.D., Cardiacos, G. (1945). The reconstruction of the Diyala weir. Journal Institution of Civil Engineers 25(1): 22-46; 26(8): 547-549.}

_{Atkinson, J.D. (1948). Some irrigation problems in Iraq. London.}

_{Butcher, A.D., Atkinson, J.D. (1932). The causes and prevention of bed erosion, with special reference to the protection of structures controlling rivers and canals. Minutes Institution of Civil Engineers 235(1): 175-278.}