Hydrant Flow Tests – The Corps of Engineers Meets MTV

Back in the dark ages (e.g., the 1980s) before everyone had video capabilities on their cell phones, creating a training video was a big production. Video cameras (and their batteries) weighed about 30 pounds and editing tools we crude.

I was doing a lot of flow testing in those days while working for the Army Corps of Engineers at the Waterways Experiment Station (WES) in Vicksburg, Mississippi. I had some money available and wanted to capture not only the mechanics of flow testing, but how to use the results of such tests in modelling.

I didn't want this to be a boring video with me as a talking head with a shot of a flow test. This was also a at that time, MTV was becoming very popular (Remember when MTV played videos? At least I hope some of you do.), so I wanted to use a lot of short scenes interlaced with music (and perhaps a little humor). This is how I became the writer, producer, director, and narrator for a training video on hydrant flow tests. I was shooting for something like historian James Burke's "Connections" series for engineers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connections_(British_TV_series)

The video production came down to a couple of folks from the WES Graphic Art Department, two of my coworkers, who were the actors, and me. It was one of the most fun projects I have ever worked on. The amazing thing about it is that the video still holds value to this day. While styles and technology have changed, hydraulics hasn't.

My buddy from Bentley, Shar Govindan, uploaded the video on YouTube. Those of you who have a high pain tolerance and want to view it, can find it at the link below. You might even pick up some tips. Enjoy!

"Conducting And Reporting Hydrant Flow Tests" by Dr. Tom Walski (1987) -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aasoxEm4i0c

I want to dedicate this blog to John Sjostrom, one of the young guys in the video. He was amazing, smart, personable, and hard working. He passed away at an early age. He was the kind of person you'd want to hire if you ran an engineering company or marry your daughter if you had one at that age. I miss him.

Read more of Tom's blogs here, and you can contact him at[email protected].

 

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