Raisins enter the washing system by conveyer at a rate of 200 tons per day.

Halbert Gillette,Sr.,

chairman/chief

executive officer of

Scranton Gillette

Communications,Inc.,

represents the third of

four generations of

Gillettes who have

published WEM over

its 150-year history.

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YYeeaarrss ooff WWEEMM

115500

Combine an active interest in public works, a penchant for writing

and four generations of a family willing to work in publishing and

what do you get? A magazine, Water Engineering & Management,

with 150 years of service to water/wastewater professionals (and

81 years under the Gillette family name).

By Bill Swichtenberg

HISTORY

The patriarch of the Gillette publishinglegacy was H.P. Gillette.A mining engineer-ing graduate of Columbia University in NewYork in the 1890s,he worked with his father(Theodore) after graduation establishingwater systems for small communities.

During this time, Typhoid fever was agreat killer and one of its principle caus-es was drinking contaminated water.Theodore Gillette had established awater treatment company in SouthBellingham, Wash., producing solutionsto help fight this disease.

Taking advantage of surveying skillslearned in college,H.P. also became activein public works and authored severalbooks on construction and the costs asso-ciated that were published by McGrawPublishing Co.He subsequently was hiredas the editor for McGraw’s Engineering-News and moved to New York.

In 1905,H.P. joined with the then mar-keting director of the McGraw Book divi-sion to establish Engineering and

Contracting Publishing Company. Thefirst publication they introduced wasEngineering-Contracting magazine. H.P.became the first president and editor ofthe publication.

In 1922,H.P. bought Water Works mag-azine. Water Works was first published in1882 in St. Louis, Mo. Its focus was on thewater supply industry. One of its chiefrivals was Municipal News, the precursorof Water Engineering & Management.Established in 1853, this newsletter waspublished by the now McGraw-HillCompanies, Inc. H.P. Gillette mergedthese two publications in 1928 to formMunicipal News and Water Works. Thecompany’s name also was changed tothe Gillette Publishing Company.Fourteen months later, the publicationwas renamed Water Works & Sewerage.

Public WorksAlso during this time, the company

published newsletters/magazines on

road construction, railroad constructionand building construction. Combinedwith the water publication, they formedthe basics of public works activities.

“The basis for choosing public works(to write about) was the fact that theseareas of activities traced back to andbefore the Roman Empire and represent-ed activities necessary to the continuedexistence of civilization,”said H.S.Gillette,the current chairman of the board ofScranton Gillette Communications andthe grandson of H.P. “These processeswould be with us forever.”

The magazines originally were movedto the Chicago area to be closer to theMidwest manufacturers of equipmentand supplies, who also were potentialadvertisers. Since cars were not com-mon,Chicago was thought to be the cen-ter of transportation and a more centrallocation for travel than New York.

18 WEM • JANUARY 2003 WWW.WATERINFOCENTER.COM

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Circle 758

1853Launch of today’s Water Engineering &Management magazine. The originalnewsletter,called Municipal News, waspublished by McGraw-Hill.

1882A magazine called Water Works beganpublication in St. Louis, Mo.

1905Engineering and Contracting PublishingCompany was started by H.P. Gillette.The first publication was Engineering-Contracting magazine.

1922H.P. Gillette purchased Water Worksmagazine.

1928Municipal News and Water Workswere were merged to form MunicipalNews & Water Works. Fourteen monthslater, the publication was renamedWater Works & Sewerage. That sameyear, Engineering and ContractingPublishing Company was renamedGillette Publishing Company.

WEM Through

HISTORY

In 1936,E.Scranton Gillette,son of H.P.Gillette, became publisher. Later, in 1953,E.S. Gillette became president and thefirm’s name was changed to theScranton Gillette Publishing Company.

Throughout this period and into today,the company’s philosophy on publicationshas remained unchanged.“Editorially, weare trying to provide continuing educationto the readers in the fields they are associ-ated with,”said H.S.Gillette.

The publications have had controlledcirculation audits since 1922.“We decid-ed to restrict the magazines to only recip-ients active in the field and seriouslylooking for practical information longago,”H.S. Gillette said.

Current ChairmanH.S. Gillette started as a salesman for

Gillette Publishing in 1947. In 1960, two-thirds of Gillette Publishing Co. was sold to

Ruben H.Donnelly,which then was mergingwith Dun & Bradstreet. H.S. Gillette left thecompany to continue his work with Ruraland Urban Roads that was being publishedunder the Donnelly/Dun & Bradstreetname.The two water magazines—Water &Sewerage Works (WEM) and the recentlystarted Water & Wastes Digest—remainedunder Gillette Publishing.

In 1970 when his father took ill, H.S.Gillette left Dun & Bradstreet andmerged several magazines he hadacquired with those of ScrantonPublishing Company. The merged maga-zines assumed the name of ScrantonGillette Communications (SGC) and

WEM • JANUARY 2003 19WWW.WATERINFOCENTER.COM

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continued on page 30

1936Water Works & Sewerage puts out itsfirst Buyer’s Guide as a bound supple-ment to its normal May issue.

1953E. Scranton Gillette, son of H.P. Gillette,became the president and changedthe company’s name to ScrantonGillette Publishing Company.

1954Water Works & Sewerage was renamedWater & Sewage Works.

1978E.S. Gillette became chairman of theboard and his son H.S.Gillette becamepresident. The company was renamedScranton Gillette Communications, Inc.

1981Scranton Gillette Communications,Inc., purchased Water & WastesEngineering magazine. This magazinewas merged with Water Works to formWater Engineering & Management.

2003150th anniversary of Water Engineering& Management.

hout the Ages

moved their location from the city ofChicago to the suburb of Des Plaines (itscurrent location).

After years in publishing,there are stillchallenges and opportunities.“The great-est challenge is to provide usable infor-mation to your recipients,” H.S. Gillettesaid.“You need to keep track of the prob-lems readers face and use all the meth-ods of communication available to con-vey to them the latest solutions.”

In 2001 H.S.Gillette became the thirdfamily member (as well as H.P. and E.S.)to celebrate his 80th birthday still work-ing at the company. “These magazineshave become an advocation as well asvocation,”he said.

The fourth generation of Gillettes cur-rently is working at the company.

Even though Scranton GilletteCommunications has 11 magazines and72 employees, it is still considered asmall family-run company.“Being smallthere are fewer people not directlyinvolved in the operation. Therefore,there are fewer outside interests to directthe attention of operations away fromthe company goals,”H.S. Gillette said.

Unlike many large companies, thesegoals are not solely focused on immedi-ate profits. Gillette thinks that smallerpublishers can take better advantage ofentrepreneurial opportunities.

“The water treatment market hasexpanded beyond just chlorine and cop-per sulfate.There are new methods suchas ozone and reverse osmosis that arebeing utilized,” H.S. Gillette said.“In thesame way,publishing also has expanded.Scientific developments (computers, e-mail and the Internet) help give moreimmediate information to readers.”

Tough economic times have not discour-aged Scranton Gillette Communicationsfrom forging ahead and providing newproducts and services.

“The Chinese have a symbol that canmean both crisis or opportunity. It’s whatyou make of it,”H.S. Gillette said.

About the Author:Bill Swichtenberg is the editorial director of WEM.

30 WEM • JANUARY 2003 WWW.WATERINFOCENTER.COM

HISTORY

continued from page 19

PIPELINE CONSTRUCTION continued from page 16

piece,and installers of such pipelines maychoose to fabricate the pipeline in shortermore easily managed sections.The shortersections are subsequently launched indi-vidually and can be joined together from abarge equipped for this purpose or the sec-tions can be joined together as they enterthe water one behind the other.Regardlessof the method of launching the pipeline,the same basic principles apply, that is, toposition the floating hermetically sealedpipeline over top of the chosen underwa-ter pipeline corridor and then to remove orotherwise delete the buoyancy factor toallow the pipeline to sink to the sea bed.

While laying the pipeline onto the seabed, the auxiliary buoyancy vessels areflooded or otherwise removed from thepipeline. Auxiliary buoyancy vessels gen-erally are designed to be filled with air andtherefore must meet the structural require-ments for pressure vessels.Auxiliary buoy-ancy vessels may not be practical forpipelines laid at great depths because ofthe significant expense to manufacturethem. As previously mentioned, an alter-native to attaching auxiliary buoyancy isto delete some of the ballast weight fromthe pipeline prior to installation.The bal-last weight deleted is installed after theplacement of the pipeline on the sea bed.This can be accomplished by loweringthe ballast weights from the water surfaceand placing the ballast weights on thepipeline with the use of divers or remote-ly operated vehicles. However, thismethod can become economicallyimpractical, depending on the length ofthe pipeline and the depth of the arearequiring post ballasting.

“S” bend sinking is a commonly usedmethod of positioning synthetic pipelines,complete with ballast weighting attached,to the sea bed.“S”bend sinking is accom-plished by introducing water at one end ofa floating pipeline while simultaneouslyventing air from the opposite end. As thewater is introduced the pipeline loses itsinherent buoyancyand the end of thepipeline, where thewater is being intro-duced, sinks to thesea bed.The remain-der of the pipeline is

floating on the water surface, until thewater being introduced propagates fur-ther along the pipeline causing the furtherreduction of buoyancy and allowing thesinking to continue until the entirepipeline rests on the sea bed. During thesinking process,the portion of the pipelinefrom the last point touching the sea bed tothe portion floating on the surface formsthe approximate shape of an “S”. Duringthe sinking process the pipeline is subject-ed to bending stresses throughout the "S"which must be controlled by applyingaxial tension to the pipeline to limit theamount of curvature in the pipeline.Failure to minimize the bending stress inthe pipeline by the application of axialtension will result in pipeline buckling.

Pipelines with offset weightingapproaching 100 percent and laid indeep water may require enormousamounts of tension to be maintainedduring their sinking as a means of main-taining the pipeline curvature within theminimum-bending radius as specified bythe manufacturer of the pipe. If the prop-er tension is not maintained throughoutthe sinking process serious damage tothe pipeline will result. Generally, largetugboats or winches are employed toachieve these tension requirements.

Applying large amounts of axial ten-sion,especially in the case of thin wall syn-thetic pipelines, may not be practical asthe tension requirements may exceed thetensile strength of the pipeline composi-tion.In addition,applying axial tension caninvoke significant costs and often is notpractical from an economical perspective.

Part 2 will describe the design of the new weight-ing process.

About the Author:Allister Thompson is the ballast process inventor andis with Van-Dive Marine Consultants Ltd., Vancouver,BC, Canada.

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