Today, an engineer takes a lifetime to create a
town -- and to gain its trust. The University of
Houston's College of Engineering presents this
series about the machines that make our
civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity
George Chaffey and his
younger brother William took up the family trade of
engineering in Canada. During the 1870s they
followed their father, who'd built bridges and
steamships. Then, when George was hardly past 30,
he went to California as chief engineer of the new
Los Angeles Electric Company.
He made Los Angeles the world's first
all-electrically-lit city. Then he and William went
into the California desert. There they built a
modern irrigation system and created an 8,000-acre
Australian settlers faced the same problem of
watering a dry land. In 1884, officials in the
state of Victoria went to California for ideas.
They found the young Chaffeys.
So George and William went to Australia to scout
possible sites for an irrigation project. They
roused suspicion when they went up the Murray River
from Adelaide all the way to remote Mildura
station. People in Victoria began thinking the
Chaffeys were just two Yankee con men.
Then the neighboring state of South Australia
invited them to their land, further down the Murray
River. At that, Victoria swallowed its distrust.
The Chaffeys finally went to work building two
irrigated farm communities along the River.
They moved 3000 emigrants into the region. First
they used steamboat engines to drive the irrigation
pumps. Then they designed a complex system with a
triple expansion steam engine.
The engine maker so distrusted their fancy design
that he wouldn't put his own name on it. Today,
that fine old engine is on display in Mildura. But
it's labeled as a Chaffey engine.
Chaffey's system was a clear success, and the first
crop was spectacular. Then outside troubles came,
and new distrust arose.
First, the produce transport system broke down.
Fruit rotted. There was depression. Banks failed.
By 1896 Australia had laid full blame for disaster
on the Chaffeys. George went bankrupt and returned
to California. Back home he created a huge
irrigation project in the Imperial Valley. He died
a wealthy man.
But brother William stuck it out in Mildura. For
years he worked to rebuild the town and to rebuild
his life. By 1920, Mildura was a stable city,
supplied by rail. That year her citizens elected
him mayor. This engineer had stayed the course;
he'd built a new world; and he'd made it into his
Today, William Chaffey's statue stands in Mildura.
He is, after all, the city's father, and he's
trusted at last. But I wonder if trust was ever
I'm John Lienhard, at the University of Houston,
where we're interested in the way inventive minds