CONNECTIONS

T h e E E R I Oral H i s t o r y Series

John A. Blume
p+&\‘8b-
CONNECTIONS
The EERI O r a l History Series

John A. Blume
Stanley Scott, Interviewer

€BEarthquake Engineering Research Institute

Editor: Gail H. Shea, Albany, CA
Cover and book design: Laura Moger Graphics, Moorpark, CA
Copyright 0 1994 by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
and the Regents of the University of California.
All rights reserved. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are
reserved to the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute and the Bancroft Library of the
University of California at Berkeley. No part may be reproduced, quoted, or transmitted in
any form without the writtcn permission of the Executive Director of the Earthquake
Engiiiecring Research Institute or the Director of the Bancroft Library of the University of
California at Berkeley. Requests for permission to quote for publication should include
idcntification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and
idcntification of the user.
’l’he opinions expressed in this publication are those of the oral history subject and do not
necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
or the University of California.
Scott, Stanley, 1921-
John A. lNuine/Stanley Scott, interviewer.
y. cm. -- (Connections: the EERI oral history series)
Includes index.
ISBN 0-943 198-44-5
1. Blume, John A. 1909- --Interviews. 2. Civil engineers-
-California--Interviews. 3. Earthquake engineering--California-
-History. 4. Earthquake resistant design--History. I. Blume, John
A., 1909- . 11. Title. 111. Series.
“‘A140.R64S36 1994
624‘ .OY2 --dc2 0 94-39697
IBI CIP
Published by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
499 14th Street, Suite 320
Oakland, CA 94612-1934
Tel: (510) 451-0905
Fax: (5 10) 45 1-5411
EERI Publication No. OHS-2
Printed in the United States of America
12 34 567 8 00 999897 9695 94
Acknowledgments
The help, encouragement, and editorial feedback of EEFU Executive Director Susan K.
Tubbesing, the EERI Board of Directors, and Publications Committee Chairperson
Gerald Brady were instrumental in both establishing Connections: The EERI Oral History
Series and in bringing this volume to publication.
EERI also gratefully acknowledges partial funding of this project by the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

V
The EERI Oral
Historv Series J
This is the second volume in Connections: The EERI Oral Histoly Series. T h e Earthquake
Engineering Research Institute has initiated this series to preserve some of the rich history
of those who have pioneered in the field of earthquake engineering and seismic design.
T h e field of earthquake engineering has undergone significant, even revolutionary, changes
since individuals first began thinking about how to design structures that would survive
earthquakes.
T h e engineers who led in making these changes and shaped seismic design theory and
practice have fascinating stories. Connections: The EERI Oral History Series is a vehicle for
transmitting their impressions and experiences, their reflections on the events and individu-
als that influenced their thinking, their ideas and theories, and their recollections of the ways
in which they went about solving problems that advanced the practice of earthquake
enginecring. These reminiscences are themselves a vital contribution to our understanding
of the development of seismic design and earthquake hazard reduction. T h e Earthquake
Engineering Research Institute is proud to have that story be told in Connections.
T h e oral history interviews on which Connections is based were initiated and are being carried
out by Stanley Scott, research political scientist at the Institute of Governmental Studies at
the University of California at Berkeley, who has himself for many years been active in and
written on seismic safety policy and earthquake engineering. A member of the Earthquake
Engineering Research Institute since 1973, Scott was a commissioner on the California State
Seismic Safety Commission for 18 years, from 1975 to 1993. In 1990, Scott received the
Alfred E. Alquist Award from the Earthquake Safety Foundation.
Recognizing the historical importance of the work that earthquake engineers and others have
been doing, Scott began recording interviews in 1984. T h e wealth of information obtained
from these interviews led him to consider initiating an oral history project on earthquake
engineering and seismic safety policy. Oral history interviews involve an interviewee and
interviewer in recorded conversational discussions of agreed-upon topics. After transcription,
revision, and editing, the interviews and the tapes are placed in the Bancroft Library at the
University of California at Berkeley for research purposes and scholarly use. Occasionally,
interested professional organizations sponsor publication and wider distribution of inter-
views, as the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute is doing with Connections.

vii
In due course, the Regional Oral History Office of the Bancroft Library approved such an
oral history project on a continuing, but unfunded, basis. First undertaken while Scott was
employed by the Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California at Berkeley, the
effort has been continued on his own, following his retirement in 1989. Modest funding for
some expenses has been provided by the National Science Foundation. The John A. Blume
Foundation also made a contribution.
Scott’s initial effort has grown into a more extensive program of interviews with earthquake
engineers who have been particularly active in seismic safety policy and practice. Key mem-
bers of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute became interested in the project when
asked to read and advise on the oral history transcripts. The suggestion that EERl publish
interviews with Henry J. Degenkolb, and perhaps others, led to a formal decision that EERI
initiate an oral history series, which continues with this volume.
The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute was established in 1949 as a membership
organization to encourage research, investigate the effects of destructive earthquakes and the
causes of building failures, and bring research scientists and practicing engineers together to
solve challenging engineering problems through exchange of information, research results,
and theories. In many ways, the development of seismic design is part of the history of EERI.
EERI Oral History Series
Henry J. Degenkolb 1994
John A. Blume 1994
Interviews completed or nearing completion include:
John E. Rinne Michael V. Pregnoff
George W. Housner William T. Wheeler
William W. Moore
Interviews with several others are in progress.

viii
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments V

The EERI Oral History Series vii

Foreword xi
...
Introduction xi11

A Personal Introduction by Joseph P. Nicoletti xv

Chapter 1 Before College 1
Chapter 2 Years at Stanford 7
Chapter 3 Starting Out as an Engineer 15
Chapter 4 Hangs Out Own Shingle 27
Chapter 5 Committee Work and Seismic Codes 35
Chapter 6 History of EERI 49
Chapter 7 Seismic Work for Nuclear Testing 55
Chapter 8 Return to Stanford for Doctorate 63
Chapter 9 Nuclear Power Plant Design 67
Chapter 10 Tall Buildings, Irregular Structures,
Excessive Energy, Challenging Design Problems 75
Chapter 11 The Blume Firm and the JohnA. Blume
Earthquake Engineering Center at Stanford University 87
Chapter 12 Combining Work and Travel 93
Chapter 13 Selected Papers and Writings 99
Chapter 14 Observations and Retrospections 123
Photographs 133
Selected Bibliography 143
Index 149

in.
Foreword
The interviews with John A. Blume were all conducted in his comfortable home in
Hillsborough from March 1987 through January 1988. The sessions typically ran
one-and-a-half to two hours. John talked extemporaneously, using only a brief topical
outline that he had sketched out, often on the back of an envelope. His conversation
was extremely well organized, which typifies the way he has always worked, organized
his thoughts, and handled discussions. For the most part the transcribed text required
only very minor subsequent editing. The initial transcriptions of his remarks were clear
and lucid enough to appear in print virtually unchanged.
In between interview sessions,John did a good deal of homework, checking old files,
and referring to publications and lists. In reviewing the transcripts, he read successive
drafts punctually and carefully, correcting where necessary, and sometimes adding new
material when he wanted to elaborate a point, or shed additional light on a topic.
Because of John’s other commitments, the interviews were spread out over more than a
full year. When the protracted interview sessions began drawing to a close, I felt real
twinges of regret, as I had come to look forward to those meetings with considerable
anticipation. They were thoroughly interesting, stimulating, and challenging. For me,
they were really enjoyable-fun rather than work. InterviewingJohn was something
like sitting with a good old friend or well-traveled uncle and prompting him to recount
his adventures over the years. His penchant for being well organized made the inter-
views, in many respects, among the easiest to conduct of all the oral history sessions I
have been involved in. Moreover, in the process I learned a lot more about earthquake
engineering and the conditions that influence the practice of earthquake engineers.
This oral history series chronicles the thinking of such prime figures as John Blume-
and other remarkable practitioners like Henry Degenkolb, Mike Pregnoff, and William
Moore, to name only a few. Perhaps these men and their history may help many
students along on the road to becoming better engineers. In the process, they will also
learn more about some wonderful human beings-and fine engineers-and see
powerfully reaffirmed the truth that there is much more to the practice of structural
engineering than following the codes or learning textbook techniques of design.

xi
The philosophical, humane, ethical, socially responsible side of good engineering
practice shines through in the recollections and reflections contained in this oral history
series. This is, indeed, one of the great strengths and values of the whole oral history
enterprise: its ability to open new windows on the lives of distinguished predecessors
and contemporaries.
Rubbing elbows with a discipline’s elder statesmen in this way helps us see how they
conducted highly successful practices and professional lives. Oral history helps shed
light on aspects of a discipline that may be discussed informally, but are usually not
written down or addressed in books and journal articles. Personal memoirs like these of
John Blume capture and record such evidence, saving otherwise transient information
for the permanent record, where it has great potential for use in helping inform and
educate new generations of professionals.

Stanley Scott
Research Political Scientist, Retired
Institute of Governmental Studies
University of California at Berkeley

xii
Introduction
The extraordinary career of John A. Blume, which spans more than fifty years, is
characterized by his contributions to dynamic theory, soil-snucture interaction,
and the inelastic behavior of structures. His seemingly limitless energy and
determination enabled him to be both a researcher and practitioner, and to
excel in both.
Blume entered Stanford University as a freshman in January 1929. He graduated
with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Engineering in 1933. While studying for his
Engineer’s Degree, Blume worked with Lydik Jacobsen, a mechanical engineer,
mathematician, and early proponent of dynamic theory. Blume came to see that
far-reaching advances in structural performance could be made by combining
dynamic theory and structural engineering.
Rlume’s thesis, “The Reconciliation of the Computed and Observed
Periods of Vibration of a Fifteen-Story Building,” was a pioneering effort in the
dynamic analysis of a highrise building. Blume was convinced that in order for
buildings to withstand severe earthquake loading, both elastic and inelastic ranges
of motion had to be understood and considered in design. This was a revolutionary
theory that Blume would continue to refine and push for inclusion in building
codes and engineering design practice for the next fifty years.
Thirty years after leaving Stanford, Blume returned for his Ph.D., taking a half-
time course load while running his business full time. His dissertation was entitled
“The Dynamic Behavior of Multistory Buildings with Various Stiffness
Characteristics.”
Among numerous honors and awards for his work, Blume received the Leon S.
Moisseiff Medal (three times) from the American Society of Civil Engineers, the
Medal of the Seismological Society of America, and the Housner Medal of the
Earthquake Engineering Research Institute. The John A. Blume Earthquake
Engineering Center at Stanford University is devoted to the advancement of
research and practice in earthquake engineering.
Blume was a founding member of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute,
and later served as President. He helped organize the First World Conference on
Earthquake Engineering, held in Berkeley, California, in 1956, and presented papers
at every World Conference for the next twenty years.
Over the years, Blume authored over 190 papers and books and gave over 300 talks
and lectures. His contributions to advances in ductile concrete, energy dissipation,
dynamic response of structures, soil-structure interaction, unreinforced masonry, and
lifelong efforts to include inelasticity and dynamics in design codes have led to
innovative and very real improvements in seismic design and practice. In his own
words, Blume "simply lived and breathed earthquake matters for decades."

xiv
A Personal Introduction
I first met John Blume shortly after the end of World War I1 in late 1945. He had just
opened his own office, and I was still in uniform with a few days’ leave between duty
assignments. I was looking up one of my college classmates, Don Teixeira, who was John’s
first employee. John, Don, and one other engineer occupied a smaU narrow office at 68
Post Street in San Francisco. The office resembled a hallway more than anything else, with
three drafting tables in a row and a small window at one end. Even in this brief meeting, I
was impressed by John’s exuberant energy and friendly interest in my naval career.
On leaving the service in mid-1946, I went to work for a general contractor as a field
engineer. When the project was completed in early 1947, I learned that my next assignment
would be in Hurlong, Nevada, and I decided to explore other options. Don told me that
John Blume was very busy and looking for another engineer, and I was hired as his fifth
employee. By then, John had moved into a two-room office, with four engineers crowded
into the back office. I was given a drafting table behind John’s desk in the outer office.
The dress code for engineers in those days was a business suit with tie, and almost everyone
wore a hat. Small green aprons, furnished gratis by the blueprint and drafting supply shops,
were worn to protect our white shirts at the drafting table. The drafting tables were
generally supported on saw horses and covered with heavy tan detail paper to provide a
smooth surface. Tied to each table was a sandpaper spatula to sharpen pencils and a rag to
wipe the excess graphite and pencil dust.
We all did our own drafting. John was a terrific draftsman, but he was soon too busy to do
any drafting. For many years he kept a drafting table in his office, but it was always covered
with copies of technical papers and reports. He was always preoccupied with the several
jobs we had going concurrently, all of which demanded his immediate attention. He would
sometimes stride furtively through the drafting room, hoping no one would intercept him
before he got to his office. He managed to provide detailed guidance and criticism to the
staff by the memos we all referred to as “Blume-o-grams.”
As the office prospered over the years, we moved to larger and more comfortable quarters,
and our staff became larger. One unforgettable character was a young Mexican-American
draftsman named Ray Ferniza. Ray was not only a good draftsman, but an excellent mimic
and a natural clown. He would invent nicknames for everyone-staff, associates, clients-
and mimic them with a few physical characteristics that were instantly recognizable. His

xv
nickname for John was “El Gavilan,” the hawk. He would mimic John by floating around the
drafting room with a dark piercing gaze highlighted by a small black mustache. I don’t know
if John was aware of Ray’s antics, but I know that he was fond of Ray and would probably
have been more amused than annoyed.
John was a gifted engineer, with good business sense and the ability to attract important
clients. As our projects became larger and more numerous, the demands on John’s time
increased exponentially. He was soon forced to delegate responsibility and usually had one of
us get involved in most projects. He would often thrust us on an unsuspecting client as his
stand-in. It was baptism by fire. The authority and responsibilityJohn gave us in dealing
with important clients provided many Blume employees with the confidence and experience
to later strike out on their own.
The first ten years or so, our projects were conventional civil and structural engineering
assignments (port facilities, military installations, schools, telephone buildings, etc.).
Although special attention was paid to good detailing (probably as a result of John’s prior
association with H.J. Brunnier and Standard Oil), earthquake engineering was pretty much
in accordance with code provisions, which were fairly minimal. John’s underlying interest
and pioneering efforts in structural dynamics enabled him to obtain commissions for a few
special studies for knowledgeable clients like the telephone company, but it was difficult to
convince clients that the code provisions were inadequate. The work by Blume and others in
the development of the early quasi-dynamic seismic code provisions, as well as the damage
studies from the El Centro [1949], Taft [1952, also called the Kern County earthquake] and
Olympia [ 1940, also called the Puget Sound earthquake] earthquakes helped to raise the level
of public awareness of seismic hazards. John’s papers on the reserve energy technique in
1960 helped to explain how some structures were able to resist earthquake forces far in
excess of their design capacity.
Largely through John’s growing reputation for innovative approaches to earthquake
engineering, the firm began to attract clients who wanted a high level of confidence in
expected seismic performance-as in the case of structures housing critical facilities such as
nuclear power plants or other important structures like vibration-sensitive research centers
or highrise buildings with large numbers of occupants. Much of this work has been in a
consultative capacity, with the firm advising and assisting other engineers.
I believe that it was the opportunity to participate with John in avant garde earthquake
engineering that attracted the “best and brightest” of the young engineers to come work
with him. Many of them have since gone on to make valuable contributions to the practice of
earthquake engineering.
I have been privileged to have been associated with John Blume since he hired me in 1947,
through the merger with the URS Corporation in 1971, and as President of URS/John A.
Bluine & Associates. I retired in 1987, but still work as a consultant for the company. About
once or twice a year, several of us early Blume employees get together with John for a
nostalgic lunch.
Joseph P. Nicoletti
URS/John A. Blume & Associates

xvi
CONNECTIONS
T h e E E R I Oral H i s t o r y S e r i e s

John A. Blume
 Chapter I

Before College
"As a teenager and youngster in San Francisco...
I felt many minor earthquakes, so I was quite
interested in the subject. "

Scott: Maybe we could begin with a little about your family

background.
Blume: My father's father was a Swedish sea captain, who
came to this country at the start of the Civil War, and got a job
right away with the U.S. Navy because of his sea experience.
He served throughout the Civil War, mostly under Farragut.
He has written his history, which I have to work over. Grandpa
Blume p i l s August Blume] was quite active until he died of
influenza at the age of 99. He had a very active and interesting
life, not only in the Civil War, but for many decades. He dic-
tated an autobiography for family use when he was in his 70s
or 80s. I hope to dig this out and do something with it. He
would not allow Swedish to be spoken in his house and yet he
never lost his Swedish accent!

Grandpa Blume was living in San Francisco in 1906, the whole

family was, and barely survived that earthquake. I wasn't born
yet, of course, but in my early childhood I heard many sto-
ries-all true, albeit exaggerated now and then-about that
earthquake and what it did. T h e wood house they were living
in collapsed in the lower story, and some people were killed.
T h e family walked out of the windows of the second and third

1
 Chapter 1 Connections: The ffR/Oral History Series

stories to get out onto the street. Subsequently mother-to-be was working in San Francisco as
the house was burned to the ground in the fire a designer of women's dresses. She had her
that ensued. own business. She was very amsac-painting,
poetry, drama, design. After the earthquake she
Scott: The sea captain was your father's went back to Gonzales to live with her family
father? for a while, until the city got straightened out.
Blume: Yes. My father and my mother were Somewhere along the line, my mother and
not married yet in 1906, though they both lived father met and got married. I was born in
in San Francisco. My father's father, Nils Gonzales in 1909. I mention all these things
August Blume, married a French girl in 1869 because throughout my childhood I heard all
who was about to enter a convent in Honolulu. these stories about the earthquake and the fire.
Her name was Pauline Challamel. They had Also as a teenager and youngster in San Fran-
three daughters and two sons, one of whom, cisco-I was raised in San Francisco mainly-I
Charles August Blume, was my father. My felt many minor earthquakes, so I was quite
father and mother, Vashti Rankin, met (I pre- interested in the subject.
sume in San Francisco) sometime after the My father was a handsome, active, strong
1906 earthquake but well before I was born,
macho type, and my mother was a gentle, tal-
April 8, 1909. Her father, John Edward ented, artistic, beautiful woman-not at all the
Rankin, was born in Ireland and apparently same type. I have mixed blood as well-Irish,
came to the USA as a boy. He worked on a French, English, Swedish and Danish (Nils
farm in Michigan until the Civil War. He Blume had Danish blood). It is little wonder
served in the cavalry from Michigan for the that I am so complicated. All of my male ances-
duration, and was in most of the major engage- tors in the Scandinavian countries were profes-
ments, except while he was hospitalized. When sional men-civil engineers, doctors, ministers,
he became ambulatory he helped take care of and a sea captain-each one his own boss; it
the wounded and acquired an interest in medi- seems to run in the family. My mother died
cine. Near the end of the war, he was in the when I was three years old-a tragedy. My
party that "captured" Jefferson Davis. father remarried a couple of years later, to Alice
After the war, he studied medicine and became Holland, who did a fine job of raising me. I
a practicing doctor, first in the east and then in have a half sister, Beverly Mae Dalton.
Gonzales, California. He married Phoebe Lane
of Buffalo, who was of English descent but (I Three Years in Hawaii
believe) born in the USA. They had one Blume: I dropped out of school when my
daughter, Vashti, who was my mother, and an father obtained contracts in the Hawaiian
adopted daughter, Cora. Anyway, my mother's Islands. He was a steel-erecting contractor. To
father, Dr. John Edward Rankin, was a country digress a moment, he built most of early San
doctor living in Gonzales, California [south of Francisco, including the City Hall that's now
San Francisco in the Salinas Valley]. My there, and the civic auditorium, and many of

2
 John A. BIume Before College Chapter 1

the theaters and big buildings of the 1900 to and I've been told since by many doctors
1924 era. He had little education, but he was a there's no such thing, so it must have been
self-taught, brilliant man and very hardwork- something else. They put me in bed for many
ing. H e obtained contracts in the Hawaiian months, and fed me digitalis by the bottle. I
Islands to erect buildings and towers and gas finally got out of that mess, and came back to
holders. He took me and my stepmother with the mainland with my family. We again lived in
him. So we went to Honolulu where I had an San Francisco. I was medically barred from
exciting three years. athletic competition all the way through the
rest of high school. I went to Lowell High
Scott: When was that? School in San Francisco. They wanted me to
Blume: That was about 1922, '23, and '24. I convalesce further without getting into compe-
was about 13 when we moved. I was a beach- tition. This turned me against swimming and
comber, and became quite a proficient swim- water sports.
mer and surfer. When I needed spending I forgot to mention that in the islands for two
money, I took tourists out surfing and got what to three years I did not go to school at all. I was
little I needed that way. I engaged in every either beachcombing or working as an iron-
form of water sport for the Outrigger Canoe worker. I had a lot of fun. I have been a very
Club in the Islands-water polo, canoe racing, active person all of my life. T h e islands were
swimming, surfing, sailing, volleyball, all the just perfect for that activity. Coming back to
beach sports-until my father obtained a con- school, I was able to skip a year or more. I don't
tract in Hilo, Hawaii to build some radio tow- know how I did it, but I took some examina-
ers for the Navy. As I recall they were 150 feet tions and skipped some years of schooling,
high. I went to work on that job as an appren- including the eighth grade of grammar school.
tice ironworker. Even though I was just a teen-
ager, I was very large for my age, and strong. Scott: So you caught up on some of what
To make a long story somewhat shorter, I spent you'd skipped or missed?
about a year, or year and a half, as an iron- Blume: Yes, I caught up on about half of the
worker on buildings, radio towers, gas holders, time I had missed. In high school I was active
various structures. For some reason I had no in everything except competitive sports-glee
fear of height, except I was always afraid my club, quartet, drama, chemistry club, music, all
father would fall. I never worried about myself. those things. I also tried to help out financially
He in turn worried about me. It was quite a because my father got into trouble with some
team. of his contracts and lost a lot of money. I took
summer jobs, and I took Saturday work.
My original intentions were to follow an ath-
letic career, mainly in long-distance swimming,
although in those days there was no money in
it. But lo and behold, I developed a problem
with my heart. They called it "athletic heart,"

3
 Chapter 1 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

Furniture Hauling and the double background of this 1906 history, and
Santa Barbara Earthquake being in the Santa Barbara earthquake of '2 5,
and I think I've done a little about it. I've
Blume: One of the most interesting summer
worked very hard at it for a long time.
jobs [summer of 1925, at age 161 I had was
working on a long-distance moving van, haul- Scott: Would you say a little about the Mack
ing furniture between the San Francisco Bay truck with the solid tires and chain drive? That
Area and the Los Angeles and San Diego areas. must have been quite an experience driving
The truck I worked on was a solid-tire Mack those trucks, riding in one of them for long
truck with a chain drive, and it hauled a trips to L.A. and back. I remember those trucks
four-wheel trailer behind it. It wasn't a from my early youth in the Texas panhandle.
semi-unit, they didn't have them then. Here I I'd seen a few, but mostly they just went around
was barred from athletics for medical reasons, within the little agricultural trading town that
and yet I was carrying pianos upstairs! And we came to for provisions now and then. I
worse than a piano is a round barrel of books- didn't know that they did cross-country runs.
hard to hold, and very, very heavy-just a stag-
Blume: I'm not sure the truck was designed
gering load. I did all this and it didn't seem to
for what we used it for, but we jammed the
bother me at all.
truck full of furniture, hooked a trailer on
We came into Santa Barbara one night in June behind and jammed that full of furniture, and
1925, after driving half the night. We always started out. We'd often be gone 6-8-9 days
slept in the truck, and never went to a motel or before we'd get home. We would never get to a
hotel. Early the next morning the Santa Bar- bed. We'd just sleep on the truck while it was
bara earthquake occurred, while we were going. I thought it was high adventure, and
parked there. So here I was-after hearing enjoyed it very much. To keep our strength up,
about earthquakes, now I was in one. It was a and also because we were young kids, always
big quake, even though it was not great on the very hungry, we'd stop for a rib steak and chili
Richter scale. It was a very sharp and hard- beans about every four hours, around the clock.
shaking. Many buildings were damaged, and I We knew all the best places to go.
believe about fifteen people were killed. We
helped in search and rescue work in the ruins. The truck was not designed for high-speed
work, but we probably did about 50 miles an
Even though my experience was mostly as an hour at top speed on the level. When we'd
ironworker, I'd also worked part time as a car- come to an uphill grade we'd have to shift
penter and a laborer, and I was astounded at the down to low gear, and if not driving at the time
way those buildings were put together-or, I'd often get out and walk alongside the truck
rather, not put together-poor workmanship, on a steep mountain road; I could walk faster
and poor detailing of the connections. So I than the truck was going. I recall going over
made myself a vow, then and there, that some- the old Grapevine Road into Los Angeles. I
day I would do something about it. I had the also recall going down the coast, and coming

4
 John A. Blume Before College Chapter 1

into Santa Barbara from what is now the Van- of the Hutchinson Quarry near San Rafael to
denberg area. T h e old highway used to be like make a base for a segment of the new highway,
a roller coaster, going up and down. We'd the one that's now the official 101. It was fill-
throw the truck out of gear going down and fill onto and into mud. O n that job, the owner
just go like a bat. When it would hit the bottom of the truck-my boss-got paid by the ton of
of the valley the wheels would follow the road material hauled. We'd load up in a bunker at
surface and start the climb up, but the mass of the quarry, and the instructions were to put as
the sprung weight, namely the truck body and much material in the truck as we could, and
the furniture, in full compliance with the laws drive as fast as we could. This resulted in spill-
of momentum and Newton, would want to ing on the highway occasionally, and an aver-
keep going down grade on a straight line. T h e age of four or five traffic tickets per day, which
net result would be much groaning and scrap- we methodically mailed in to the boss every
ing, not to mention impact, as the truck and the night.
tires were jammed together. It's a wonder it
Scott: And he was willing to pay, because
didn't all fall apart. It was strictly against the
that meant more tonnage?
law, I'm sure, to throw a truck out of gear, but
we knew we had a way to stop it on the hill on Blume: That's right. I guess he made a net
the other side of each valley or dip. profit out of the whole thing, but the police
threatened to shut us down altogether, and we
It was very noisy, trying to sleep on the truck. had to correct our ways.
While one fellow was driving, the other would
lie down on the floor boards. T h e other would Actually, all the way through high school and
be behind the engine, and you would have the college I worked at something or other during
heat of the engine and the noise of the trans- every vacation. I've driven about every kind of a
mission, the gears shifting. You didn't get much truck there is. I also worked building houses-
sleep, but somehow nature took care of you. as a carpenter, laborer, concrete worker,
cement finisher, mason. T h e only two trades I
Wide Variety of Jobs: Invaluable haven't done much of are plumbing and wiring,
although I've done a little of those, too. All of
Experience
this experience with my hands came in very
Blume: I did the moving van work during good for me later on in life. I think the experi-
most of one summer vacation. A few years later ence of making things go together, and making
[during college] I drove dump trucks on high- them work, was invaluable to me as an engineer
way work. In this case I was assigned a big later on. Also, I enjoyed construction work as a
dump truck, with a double transmission, which, hobby. I designed the house I live in now, and
as I recall, gave me 12 forward speeds and three did all the outside work, I also built two sepa-
in reverse, and I had to use all of them. We rate buildings in the back, all by myself. One
worked on the new highway cutoff in Marin building is a nice studio building, which
County, hauling crushed rock and its dust out matches the house in finish and architecture. I

5
 Chapter 1 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

built that in 1979, when I was 70 years old, and

I deliberately did not use any power tools. I
wanted to see if I could do it by hand, and I did
it. Two years prior to that, in 1977, I put a new
roof on the main building-a new shake roof,
all by myself. That was a very dirty, hot job, but
it was fun to be up there at tree height with the
squirrels and bluejays. Many people came by,
and some said, "That's a nice-looking job,
when you're done will you come up to my place
and give me a bid?" So I've enjoyed working in
construction all my life.

6
 Chapter 2

Years at Stanford
""Asa young upstart student I could see quite an
opportunity here to bridge the gap between the
two.. .combining structural engineering and dynamics
in the earthquake field."

Blume: I graduated from Lowell High School in December

1928. I had previously taken the college entrance examina-
tions, and applied at Stanford. I was allowed to enter in Janu-
ary 1929. It was a class of only 50. As I recall, they let 50 enter
in the winter quarter in those days, probably to make up for
drop-outs in the fall quarter. I found entering in the winter a
little disconcerting, because you're not exactly among your
peers in class and elsewhere. If I had to do it over, I'd wait. I'd
go truck driving again for a few months, or steel erecting, and
enter in the fall quarter with everyone else.

I was not quite sure when I first entered Stanford whether I

was going into engineering or medicine. I had the engineering
desire from the earthquakes I'd been in and heard about. I had
a little medical desire from the fact that my grandfather, my
mother's father, was a country doctor. For the first year or two
I took a lot of chemistry and hard science, and math, and I
finally decided to go for engineering-earthquake engineer-
ing-even though there was no such thing in the curriculum.
One reason I chose Stanford was that they had worked on the
shaking table down there, and also had a background of earth-

7
 Chapter 2 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

quake damage in 1906-very severe damage, by that he couldn't place the material economi-
the way. And Bailey Willis had attracted my cally or properly. This was a case of overkill
eye. He was the ebullient geology professor with the new Duff Abrams law. My father sued
who literally bounced when he walked. He and the Navy and it was in the courts for years. The
Andy Lawson, the UC Berkeley geologist, were case was thrown out on some technicality. I
not only friends, but competitors. I've heard mention this here only because he fully
them argue over various things such as the intended to help me get through Stanford, but
foundation stability of the Golden Gate Bridge. he just couldn't do it. I offered to quit Stanford
There was no program in earthquake engineer- and come home to help out, but he said, "You'd
ing at Stanford, or anywhere else for that mat- be another mouth to feed. You'd be better off
ter, so I more or less had to write my own to go to school."
program. I majored mainly in structures, but I You'll recall that it was October 1929 when the
took courses in every other department that I stock market crash came, and I entered Stan-
could that might have a bearing on earthquake ford in January 1929, so I was a freshman. I'll
engineering. For example, I took every course never forget the professor of economics, who
given by Professor Lydik Jacobsen, who was a was late for his October day class. He came
mechanical engineer and a physicist, and whose
into class waving a newspaper with big head-
specialty was mechanical vibrations and
lines about the crash. He said, "The bears have
dynamics. I took courses in the aeronautical
the bulls by the balls, class dismissed."
department, to get advanced structural analysis.
I took all the geology I could fit in, which was So my father was unable to help me through
quite a bit. I took all the math I could get. Stanford, but I managed to work my way
through with various jobs. The principal job I
Worked Way Through College had, starting with my second year and lasting
Blume: I worked my way through Stanford. for five more years, was as a waiter at a French
My father went broke in the 1929 crash, not restaurant in Palo Alto. The restaurant was
only because of the property he lost to mort- called L'Aiglon. I believe it means "the eagle."
gage foreclosures, but also because some major It was run by a French chef and his wife. He
contracts of his with the Navy at Pearl Harbor did all the cooking, and she took care of the
had gone bad. It involved concrete work, and as dining room area. The waiters were all students
I understand it, the Navy inspectors insisted on from Stanford. I became head waiter a couple
dry concrete with very little water, because of years later. They served a wonderful dinner
they'd just heard of the water-cement ratio law with choices on each course, four or five
put out by Duff Abrams. If concrete is over-wet courses, for fifty cents. This included a nice-
it loses its strength-that is true-but on the sized filet mignon steak, if you preferred. On
other hand it has to have enough plasticity to Sundays the price went up to seventy-five
be placed in the forms properly and to fill the cents, and they put on two extra courses. The
voids. They made him use such dry concrete food was excellent.

8
 John A. BIume Years at Stanford Chapter 2

I actually waited tables there six to seven days a going to junk yards and cannibalizing other
week, for five years. Being in downtown Palo Studebakers. I worked on this car for a week
Alto, it was quite a chore to get to class on time during spring vacation, and got it running. But
after a luncheon. As an engineering student I I didn't have the know-how to time the thing,
had laboratories every afternoon from 1 to 4, so it sounded like a concrete mixer. I went to a
while the economics majors and others were mechanic shop and garage, and told a mechanic
taking my girl friends out canoeing on Lake about my problem. He said he could fix it, but
Lagunita. did I have any money? I told him no, I'd like to
get time on the money. He said, "What have
In addition to waiting on tables at the French
you done to this car yourself?" I told him, and
restaurant, which by the way was at 173 Litton
he said, "Anybody who'd do that, I'll fix it for
Avenue, Palo Alto-I remember the address-I
nothing." So he did. He timed the car and it
worked as a tutor, as an assistant coach in
ran beautifully. I used it for five or six years,
swimming and cross-country running. By the
even driving up and down the highway to San
way, shortly after I entered Stanford, I had
Francisco. It had no top, and when it rained I
thrown away the medical limitations about
simply drove faster and leaned down close to
exercise. I also obtained many odd jobs-I
the windshield and let most of the rain go over
could write a book about the odd jobs I've had
the top of my head. I had a lot of fun with that
over the years. I worked in a cannery, a butcher
car, and got a lot of use out of it.
shop, as second cook in a hotel restaurant-and
I knew nothing at all about cooking. I've had T h e starter wouldn't work and I had to crank
some very interesting odd jobs. it. O n a cold, wintry morning I had a standard
procedure. I'd pull the choke out all the way,
Scorn Was this also during your Stanford
leave the ignition off and take two half-turns on
period?
the crank. Then I'd put the choke in half-way,
Blume: Yes, all this is during Stanford. I had turn the ignition on and give it a good crank. If
a problem with transportation, with getting it didn't start, I'd start walking. But it started
back and forth between the university and Palo about two times out of three that way. That car
Alto. I obtained an old Studebaker roadster, and I were inseparable, except for the starting
which was not running, but which I thought I problems.
could make run. I bought it for $25, after bor-
rowing the $25 with no collateral. I found the Graduation and Work in Cannery
main problem with the car was the water pump
Blume: I graduated cum laude [course work
shaft, which had been practically worn through
completed December 1932, diploma received
and leaked like a sieve.
June 19331, and found that the world did not
The car was a large Studebaker, and in order to then have any engineering jobs to offer, so I
fix the water pump I had to take off the radia- went to work in the summer of 1933 at a can-
tor, pull everything out with wheel pullers and nery in San Jose, helping to pack fruit in cans. I
put in a new water pump. I got the parts by started out at 25 cents an hour, but soon got

9
 Chapter 2 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

promoted to 37.5 cents an hour, working as electrical and mechanical engineering. Each
what they called a checker. A checker is one week I'd spend three hours in the lab, and then
who takes the canned fruit from the girls who I'd have to spend five or six hours writing a
are doing the canning, and gives them credit report on what we did, all for one unit of credit.
for what they've done. They get paid piece
work. That was quite a job. I worked about Scott: Those kinds of courses do demand a
8- 10 hours on canning, and about two or three lot of time.
more hours washing down the place afterwards, Blume: And I had many of those. So I was
and eating all the fruit I could until I couldn't always busy, rushing from one place to another,
eat any more. After going through this for though it seemed to agree with me, and I got
almost two months-apricots, pears, peaches, by all right. But if I had it to do over, I'd like
tomatoes-I said "This is not the life. I can more time to think about things. I went to
make more money when I'm going to school Stanford for a total of six years, the first time,
than I am here." getting two degrees [Bachelor of Arts, June
1933; Engineer's Degree, June 19351.
Graduate Studies Scott: Still, your academic work didn't seem
Blume: So I went back to Stanford [that fall, to suffer. You evidently did well.
19331 and completed my two-year graduate Blume: I did well, although I could have
course for the degree of engineer. I made more done better if I'd had the time to study more. I
while I was going to school than I could full- think my average was probably about an A- or a
time on the outside. But I was busy. I had five B+, something of that sort. I was elected to Tau
or six jobs. I had one for my room, one for my Beta Pi and Sigma Xi honorary societies. But I
meals at the restaurant, another for a little cash. don't recommend the procedure I had for
I was taking heavy courses. I was very, very everybody. It's too hard on the system, and I
busy. think you'd get more out of the school if you
Scorn How did you find the time to study? had more leisure time. I had practically no lei-
sure time that I didn't steal from something
Blume: That's a very good question. Fortu- else.
nately, as a rule, throughout my six years at
Stanford I got by with very little sleep. Six
Thesis Project: The Alexander
hours was about my average. And I also had
time for athletics. I played handball on the
Building
team. I threw the javelin, but I stayed away Blume: In my first year of graduate work I
from swimming. I was also in the Stanford began doing work in earthquake engineering,
Glee Club for awhile, until I didn't have the in addition to studying. First of all I got
time for that any more. That was a lot of fun involved in a thesis with my thesis partner,
too. My engineering courses were very time- Harry Hesselmeyer. This thesis was "The
demanding, especially the laboratory work in Reconciliation of the Computed and Observed

10
 John A. Blume Years at Stanford Chapter 2

Periods of Vibration of a Fifteen-Story masonry walls-how these things all work

Building."' together to form a dynamic unit. This type of
work had never been done before in all the his-
The building we selected was the Alexander tory of earthquake engineering. It was a real
Building at the corner of Bush and Montgom- pioneering effort. I've got the thesis in that red
ery Streets in San Francisco, fifteen stories book there.
above grade. We considered about 40 other
buildings before selecting this one. We chose it Scott: I've heard about it and seen it referred
because of its symmetry and being on a corner, to.
and being rectangular in plan view, and above Blume: Harry and I got along very well
all, we were able to get permission to use it, working together. He was a very quiet type,
which was not easy. We were also able to get all and I was probably the opposite, but we
the plans-the architectural plans and the meshed well. What one didn't think of, the
structural plans. Our thesis advisor was Lydik other did.
Jacobsen. He was my advisor then, but also we
Scott: Was this done as a joint thesis?
became close friends later on.
Blume: Yes, a joint thesis for the Engineer's
We had no digital computers or electronic Degree at Stanford. We were asked to give a
devices, but we did have an electric calculator. talk on the results at the annual meeting of the
It was a Marchand as I recall. We literally wore Seismological Socieq of America.'
that machine out on this thesis study.
Scotc: . When would that have been?
Scott: l'he Marchand was a regular electric Blume: That must have been 1934. The one
calculator? who invited us to give the talk was Perry
Blume: Yes, a great big unit about a Byerly, who had been talking to LydikJacobsen
foot-and-a-half square. Our problem involved about our work. I was selected to give the talk.
the solution of fifteen simultaneous equations, In order to give it, I had to buy a suit of clothes,
one for each story of the building, over and which I didn't have. So I scraped up enough
over and over again with different constants. extra money to buy a dark gray suit, of which I
By trial and error, which today we'd call itera- was very proud. I gave the talk at Bacon Hall at
tion, we were closing in on the true parameters the University of California, Berkeley campus.
of the structure. In other words we were devel-
oping its characteristics-stiffness, vibration
modes, and how the various materials-the
steel frame, the concrete fireproofing, the brick

1. Blurne, John A. and Harry L. Hesselmeyer,

"TheReconciliation of the Computed and 2. "The Reconciliation of the Computed and
Observed Periods of Vibration of a Fifteen- Observed Periods of Vibration of a Fifteen-
Story Building," Engineer's Degree thesis. Story Building." SSA Annual Meeting,
Stanford University, CA,1934. Berkeley, CA, April 1934.

11
 Chaprer 2 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

Stanford Vibration Lab and the spring could be overtaxed and fail, thus
Lydik Jacobsen causing collapse of the whole structure. In
other words, it is a potentially dangerous con-
Blume: Getting back to the early days and
cept, and far from a panacea for a very complex
the vibration laboratory at Stanford, the
problem.
laboratory was under the direction of Lydik
Jacobsen, who was a genius in dynamics and
mathematics, and a very dynamic person him- Static vs. Dynamic
self in the way he moved and spoke. Lydik was Scott: A moment ago you referred to think-
enthusiastic about dynamics and the earth- ing statically as opposed to thinking dynami-
quake problem, but he had the disadvantage of cally. Would you say more on that?
not being a structural engineer. In fact, he had
very little patience with most structural engi- Blume: So-called static design neglects time
as a very important element in the way things
neers, because they made what he called very
really are in nature. This elimination of time
crude assumptions, which you have to do in
design. Rut in research, that's taboo. greatly simplifies the design effort, and prop-
erly so in many cases. Peak load or force,
I could see quite a gap between the structural assumed to be constantly applied, is used to
engineers and LydikJacobsen and his work. He determine member sizes and other items. For
was way ahead of them in dynamics. In fact, example, a train or a truck crossing a bridge
they weren't even thinking dynamically, most creates a complex, time-varying loading. Stan-
were thinking statically. One or two had dardized constant loads are used to simulate
exprcssed the thought that there might be an the loading in a practical manner. Wind exerts
advantage in a flexible first story. Among them pressures and forces on structures, and these
was L. €1. Nishkian, who actually designed a forces are taken at or near their peak values and
couple of buildings with that theory in mind. assumed to be fixed or static. For most struc-
tures, this treatment of floor or deck loading
The soft first story idea has been around for a and of wind is satisfactory. But there are
long time. It was, and is, one of a great many exceptions.
aspects of dynamic thinking. Most tall office
buildings tend to have a first story that is more In the earthquake field, static design, unless
flexible than thcir upper stories. This is the very carefully modeled to simulate dynamic
result of a higher first story, more penetrated conditions, can be very misleading. There are
by doors and windows. The soft story is com- various reasons for this. One is that structures
pared to a spring that absorbs energy and tends per se are time-related-they have natural peri-
to reduce the distortion of the upper stories. ods of vibration, some of which may tune in to
Theory and early shaking table tests supported the ground motion, which also tends to have
this concept. The main problem is that unless important if not dominant periods, or time
one is absolutely certain of the greatest bands of energy. Another reason is that earth-
demands from ground shaking (and one is not), quake shaking intensity has a much greater

12
 John A. Blume Years at Stanford Chapter 2

possible range of values than train, truck or that reading for anyone who wants to learn
wind. Resonant or quasi-resonant response is more about Lydik Jacobsen and his work.
part and parcel of dynamic thinking, whereas in
the static approach it is generally ignored. Three-Dimensional Model With
Five Degrees of Freedom
In short, the element of time is part of nature
and cannot be ignored if progress is to made. Blume: Between the time of finishing the
There are now several ways of treating the thesis and going to work for the Coast and
problem as one in dynamics; they vary from Geodetic Survey, I had a job at the vibration
rigorous to approximate. But, in general, many lab at Stanford. This job was to design and
if not most engineers could not understand build a dynamic model of the Alexander Build-
Lydik Jacobsen when he spoke, because he was ing, working for and with Professor Lydik
too far out. He, in turn, could not understand Jacobsen. T h e model was to have five degrees
them in the way they approached problems and of freedom per story.
dealt with design matters. Scott: Explain what you mean by five
degrees of freedom.
Combining Structural Engineering Blume: In three-dimensional space there are
and Dynamics six degrees of freedom-translation along three
axes, often called X, Y, and Z, and rotation
Blume: As a young upstart student I could
about those three axes. In the model there were
see quite an opportunity here to bridge the gap
the three rotations and the two horizontal
between the two. In fact, I took my early Santa
translations for a total of five.
Barbara intentions or vows, and made a subset
of them, which consisted of combining struc- This kind of work had never been done before.
tural engineering and dynamics in the earth- Having five degrees of freedom per story made
quake field. So I worked in both fields, got to it very complex to design and to build. We
understand both sides, and was able to translate finally made the model using aluminum plates
or communicate between the two. Probably for the floors, and steel springs for the wall
this is the reason, among others, that I've been stiffness. For the rotational stiffness about the
called by some the father of structural dynam- horizontal axes we provided thin-gauge steel
ics in the earthquake field. plates resting on aluminum tubing. O n top of
these steel plates was a steel ball bearing, which
Lydik Jacobsen was a brilliant man, very out- allowed the floor to roll. T h e bending of the
spoken, very dynamic. I greatly enjoyed work- steel plate provided the flexibility for overall
ing with him, but he was a hard taskmaster, flexure of the structure.
which was good for me. I needed that. I wrote a
memorial upon his death, which was published 3. Blume, John A, "Memorial: Lydik S. Jacobsen
(1 897-1976),"Bulletin of the Seismological Society
in the August 1977 Bulletin of the Seismologi- ofAmmka, Vol. 67, No. 4. SSA, El Cerrito, CA,
cal Society of A m e r i ~ a I. ~would recommend August 1977.

13
 Chapter 2 Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

This model had fifteen stories, plus an extra work, there's no need for models of this type.
one at the base that was used to model soil So the model and the machine are museum
characteristics, and rotation and translation of pieces. In fact, they reside now at the John A.
the building in the ground. Thus, way back in Blume Earthquake Engineering Center at
1934 we were experimenting with soil-struc- Stanford, on display.
ture interaction, decades ahead of its time. The
Scott: That is the one shown in this picture
mode! was used at the Stanford vibration labo-
here-in the Engineering News
ratory shaking table.
Blume: Yes. The cover story of the Septem-
Again, we had no electronic strain gauges or ber 18,1980,Engineering News Record showed a
instruments. We had to resort to various picture of myself with the model.
devices to record the motion. This was an inde-
structible model. In other words it could with-
stand heavy shaking, with exaggerated motion,
all to scale, without being broken. It could be
used over and over again for repeated testing.
Scott: How was the motion registered and
recorded?
Blume: To record the motion, mechanical
gauges were mounted between each pair of
floors. These gauges would exaggerate the
motion so it could be recorded by a moving
picture camera. Going back and looking into
tlie frames of the film, one could reconstruct
the distortion of the building under various
ground motions. It sounds rather cumbersome,
but remember there were no digital computers
or electronic gauges in those days.
1 think that if the world had not subsequently
become computer conscious, this type of mod-
eling would have progressed to a stage where
we could have learned a great deal-more than
we did-about structures and response to
earthquakes. Unfortunately, in those days the
money for research was scarce and soon ran
out. By the time it dribbled back and was avail- 4. "PioneerPaces Seismic Field:John Blume
Builds on 50 Years of Discoveries,"Engineen'ng
able again, the computer age was upon us. News Record, September 18,1980, Vol. 205,
With high-speed digital computers to do the No. 12. New York, NY,1980.

14
 Chapter 3

startingout as
an hnpeer
n 0

"I recall my starting pay for five and one-half days a

week, risking my life every night I went to work,
was $1 70 a month. I didn't complain. I thought that
was pretty good. "

U.S.Coast and Geodetic Survey (1934-1935)

Blume: The thesis work was completed in mid-1934, in a
hardcover volume. At about the time I gave my talk at
Berkeley, the Long Beach earthquake of March 1933 had
shaken loose a little money for research in the earthquake
field. It didn't last long, but it was nice while it did last to be
able to do certain things.

Scorn It shook loose money from what sources?

Blume: Money from the federal government. The United
States Coast and Geodetic Survey was commissioned to con-
duct what was called the California Seismological Program of
1934-35. This consisted of many parts. I was engaged while I
was still at Stanford finishing up work for my Engineer's
Degree. For the last six months of 1934, I worked half-time
for the U.S.Coast and Geodetic Survey designing, building,
and testing the world's first multistory building vibrator.

15
 Chapter 3 Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

Multi-Stmy Building Vibration Machine machine decelerated. This took about 5,6, or 7
minutes. We'd be taking records on delicate
Some prior work had been done in Germany
instruments that magnified the structure's
using a bicycle wheel with an eccentric mass,
motion about 200 times; as we passed through
and shaking small wooden, residential build-
each natural period of the structure, we could
ings with this device. They may have shaken
see the periods very plainly.
small masonry buildings, also. They had larger
machines using an unbalanced mass to vibrate Scott: You mean where there was resonance?
and compact soil fill, but no work had been
done on a uni-directional shaking machine that Blume: Yes. Quasi-resonance would amplify
would put out reciprocating forces in one the motion at the natural periods of vibration-
direction, either horizontally or vertically, to very interesting work.
shake large structures such as dams, bridges,
tall buildings, even the ground, for earthquake Shaking All fin& of Structures
research. Blume: When I left Stanford I went to work
full-time for the Coast and Geodetic Survey
Lydik Jacobsen was advisor on this U.S. Coast
using this shaking machine. We shook all kinds
and Geodetic Survey vibrator work, and con-
of structures. The Alexander Building was on
tributed a great deal to the early concept. As his
the list. The following structures were tested
background was in mechanical engineering,
and shaken by the 300-pound machine: Palo
and at one time he worked for Westinghouse,
Alto Transfer and Storage Building, November
he was extremely valuable in this effort. I
1934; Searsville Dam, November 1934; Colo-
designed a machine with three wheels upon rado Street Bridge in Pasadena, January 1935;
which we would bolt lead plates for an unbal- Morris Dam at San Gabriel Canyon, and
anced mass. This has been written up in the believe it or not, the Los Angeles City Hall,
Seismological Society Bulletin,' as well as in both January 1935. In February 1935, we shook
many other articles. The principle involved was the Bank of America Building in San Jose. The
centrifugal force. We would place the machine series of tests went on for seven days. That
high up in a building, or on top of a dam-you building is supposed to have a flexible first
didn't have to go to the top, but we usually story. We shook the site of the new San Fran-
did-and jack it into place, securely wedge it cisco Mint in March 1935. We also shook the
into place very solidly. Then I'd start the ground at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, April
machine and get it up to as high as 600 revolu- 1935 and later the causeway to Vallejo; the
tions per minute, and I'd take the drive belt off Hills Brothers warehouse building in San Fran-
then, and let the machine sweep through all the cisco, June 1935; and did another series of five
periods of vibration of the structure as the days of testing on the Alexander Building in
San Francisco,July 1935, which was the guinea
5. Blume, J.A., "A Machine for Setting Structures
and Ground Into Forced Vibration," SSA Bulle- pig building for my thesis study. The last struc-
tin,Vol. 25. SSA, El Cerrito, CA, 1935. ture that I shook with that machine was in

16
 John A. Blume Starting Out as an Engineer Chapter 3

August 1935, the Baker River Dam in northern No. 201 of the U.S.Coast and Geodetic Sur-
Washington, near the Canadian border. vey.6 I'm the author of the chapter in this book
on forced vibration, and there are other chap-
In all of these tests the 300-pound machine was ters on other subjects. Dean Carder of UC
able to get definite measurable response in Berkeley origin was in charge of instruments.
these structures. We were able to learn the nat- Bill Moore of Dames & Moore worked in Los
ural periods of vibration, the mode shapes, and Angeles on this program. Ralph McLean was
something about the damping. another engineer in Los Angeles. Frank Ulrich
Scott: Who designed and built the machine? was the man in charge of the program. He was
not an engineer by training, but he was an
Blume: I did, with the aid of Lydik Jacobsen old-time Coast and Geodetic Survey man. I
as advisor. I actually built it in the Stanford refer those interested to Special Publication
shops. Fortunately 1 had taken machine work, No. 201, which has been greatly overlooked in
as well as welding and forge. In those days the literature for a long time. The publication
structural engineers had to take courses like also contains a chapter by Professor Martel-
that. Today you'd call it a trade school class, but who was doing statistical work on the Long
it was very much worthwhile. So I knew how to Beach earthquake-on brick building damage.
use lathes, drill presses, band saws, and all those
things. I actually made the machine-all its Scorn That's Martel [Raul Romeo Martel]
parts, and assembled it. And that's been written at Caltech?
up in the early literature.
Blume: Yes. George Housner wasn't yet
I'm sorry to say that years later when Caltech around Caltech in those days.
made and started operating another machine
for EERI, they wrote up their results without Strong Motion Program
even a reference to the first machine. That was
Blume: The Coast and Geodetic Survey
a strange oversight, and I made an issue of it,
work on forced vibration and many other spe-
which made me unpopular in certain circles.
cial projects was brought to a halt when the
The results we obtained with this machine back
money ran out in 1935. But the Survey was
in the early '30s and mid-'30s were entirely
charged with the strong motion program of the
valid and satisfactory in all respects. We not
United States, which they carried out until this
only showed that the machine could do what it
was taken over by the U. S. Geological Survey,
was supposed to, but we obtained very valuable
I believe in 1975-approximately then. The
information about the properties of buildings
special work was greatly curtailed during the
and structures.
intervening years, and, in fact, it took many of

Speeiat Pubtication No. 201 6. Eartbquuke Investigations in Calijhia, 1934-

1935, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Coast and Geo-
Blume: The work done in this intensive detic Survey. Special Publication No. 201.
program was reported in Special Publication Washington, D.C., 1935.

17
 Chapter 3 Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

us great effort, exerted year by year, to make I sent in a draft copy of the foreword, expecting
sure that adequate funds were provided by to get some heavy blue pencil marking, and
Congress each budget year just to carry on the also to go over it myself after I had a chance to
minimal work that was done, and to get earth- think about it more. I didn't hear anything for a
quake records. T h e first strong motion record long time. In fact I got so busy with other
of an earthquake was obtained in 1933 at Long things that it slipped my mind entirely. T h e
Beach. We would have been much farther next I knew, I received the book itself, with the
ahead years ago if we'd had the money to put foreword all printed out from my rough draft.
out more instruments and record more Fortunately it's not too bad, but it could be a
lot better. T h e foreword is dated June I , 1964.
earthquakes.

Forced Vibration:Media Response

Special Publication No. 201 Updated
30 Years Later Blume: A peculiar thing happened with
regard to the forced vibration program using
Blume: In addition to Publication No. 201,
the building shaker or vibrating machine.
which came out in 1935, a special report was
When we shook tall buildings and structures in
published about 30 years later, with Dean
the San Francisco Bay Area, nobody paid any
Carder as editor and various contributors
attention to us at all. However, when we got to
updating the work of the program. the Los Angeles area and shook the City Hall
Scott: You are referring to a special report and Morris Dam and the Colorado Street
on the strong motion work of the Coast and Bridge, and other structures, the press were all
over us. In fact Path6 News was on hand as
Geodetic Survey?
well, to make footage for newsreels. I don't
Blume: T h e title of the book is Earthquake know whether the difference in interest
Investigations in the Western United States between the two areas was due to the nature of
1971-1964.' It's Publication No. 41-2 of the the people residing there, or due to the fact
US.Coast and Geodetic Survey. It's a special that the 1933 earthquake had made the south-
publication that sort of updates the earlier ern California portion of the state more earth-
work, and reviews what was done in the early quake conscious.
days. I happen to know of it because I was
A science fiction writer picked up an article on
aqked to write a chapter on forced vibration,
this shaking work from the magazine Popular
which I did. Also, they asked me to write a
Science: which I've got in my records as well.
foreword for the book. Popular Science wrote quite an article about the
7. Carder, Dean S., ed., Earthquake Investigations in forced vibration of Morris Dam, and other
the Wcstetn Unitedstates 1931-1964, U.S.Dept.
of Commerce, Coast and Geodetic Survey. Spe- 8. "TinyMachine Shakes Huge Building in Novel
cial Publication No. 41-2. Washington, D.C., Earthquake Test,"Popular Science. Vol. 126,
1965. No. 5, May 1935.

18
 John A. Blume Starting Out as an Engineer Chapter 3

work that we were doing, and I got my picture Blume: In 1935 and '36.They assigned me,
in Popular Science. But then a science fiction as my first major job, to determine the correct
writer read the Popular Science article and wrote final position for each of the strands in the
a small booklet about some crooked people main cables. This meant that I had to work
who threatened to shake down all of Los nights-the so-called graveyard shift. I worked
Angeles unless they were paid ransom. It seems nights for about a year and a half. The reason
strange that such things could happen, but they for the night work was to avoid the effects of
did. I have copy of that "book in my files as the sun on the steel, the temperature effects. I
well. wore a light on my hard hat, just like a miner. I
found myself walking the catwalks and beams
Construction Engineer on Bay at night with this lamp on my hat, and climbing
Bridge (1 9 3 5- 1936) around the cables.

Blume: I think I mentioned that the funds Fortunately, the height didn't bother me. In
for the special program [California Seismologi- fact, I had to remind myself I was high up in
cal Program of 1934-351of 1934 ran out in the air. It was very cold and damp out there.
1935.The work was severely curtailed, leaving Even in spring and summer it was cold over
nothing much but the strong motion instru- San Francisco Bay. We took temperature read-
ments, and not enough of them. I had a wife to ings in each of the strands of the cable, made
support, and a lot of bills to pay from expenses some calculations, and told the steelworkers
of going to school, and other creditors. I had to how much to pull the cables over the tower
keep working, so in spite of the Depression I tops in order for the strands to have the right
found an opening as a field engineer on the length and correct sag in each of the many
construction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay spans.
Bridge.
The catwalks that I walked were from San
You will recall that I had previously worked as Francisco to Yerba Buena Island and back,
an ironworker in the Hawaiian Islands and round trip, sometimes making two round trips
elsewhere, so I was able to climb around on the a night. Walking on the mesh of the catwalk
high steel. In spite of many young engineers was just like walking uphill in dry sand. I was in
being unemployed then, very few of them pretty good condition in those days.
could work on the high steel. This gave me a
great opportunity to go to work, and I did. At Day Work and Using Dynamic T b e q
the time I started on the suspension side of the
Blume: After the cable spinning was all
Bay Bridge, the towers had been erected, and
done, I was assigned daytime work-special
they were just starting the cable spinning.
jobs like measuring stress in the wire ropes and
in the steel members. I employed my dynamic
Cable Spinning and Nigbt Work theory several times in special assignments.
Scott: About when would that have been? One case in particular that I recall was a rumor

19
 Chapter 3 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

that one of the suspender ropes in one of the Blume: I'm glad you brought that up. I
spans had been fabricated too short, and thus worked for the State of California Division of
was overloaded, compared to the other sus- Highways. All their jobs then, and I think still
pender ropes in the area. My job, on a low bud- today, are civil service examination jobs. There
get, was to find out whether this was true or wasn't time for me to take an examination
not. I borrowed an instrument from the Coast before I went to work, so they put me to work
and Geodetic Survey, and measured the natural on probation, assuming I would pass the exam-
frequency of all the ropes in the span in ques- ination later, which I did, among the top people
tion. Knowing the approximate length and the in the state. I worked my way through various
area of each of the ropes, I was able to calculate titles. I think the first was junior bridge con-
their tension, just like the strings on a guitar. I struction engineer, then associate bridge con-
proved that there was no undue stress, that struction engineer. I recall my starting pay for
everything was okay. I simply mention this as five and one-half days a week, risking my life
an example of the use of dynamics in practical every night I went to work, was $170 a month.
problems. I didn't complain. I thought that was pretty
good. So I worked as a professional engineer,
Scorn With respect to measuring the fre-
but not as a structural or civil necessarily-just
quency, what evidence indicated that things
as a bridge construction engineer.
were okay?
Blume: By determining the frequency and The examinations that we had to take included
knowing the approximate length of each rope, some theory, and a great deal on practical
we were able to compute its tension. The ten- aspects, such as how to erect steel, drive rivets,
sions for the different ropes came out to within test rivets, how to paint steel, how to pour con-
a few percent of each other. Crete decking. In other words, I was a construc-
tion engineer for that period of time.
Later on I worked on other aspects of the
bridge, until the day it was opened. In my files Work at Standard Oil (1936-1940)
somewhere, I have pictures of the bridge and Blume: I went to work for Standard Oil
my work on it. The day the bridge opened was Company of California, at the head office-225
quite a time for San Francisco. The contractors Bush Street-the day after the bridge opened
threw parties in the hotels that lasted two or [November 19361. I was assigned to the engi-
three days. But I already had another job lined neering department. Standard Oil's policy at
up-to go to work for Standard Oil Company the time seemed to be that it didn't matter
of California. what you had studied, or what your experience
was, they threw any kind of a job at you to see
Civil S m i c e Status how you'd perform under stress. The first job
Scorn When you worked on the bridge, they gave me was to detail the pipes, support
were you working a full-fledged structural hangers, and furnace breaching and stack
engineer? development for a power plant in Bahrain. This

20
 John A. Blume Starting Out as an Engineer Chapter 3

was really mechanical engineering, which was John Rinne, who also worked for Standard Oil
not my thing at all. But I struggled through it, at that time.
and it was built, and it seemed to work.
Scott: Was Standard Oil just beginning to
introduce earthquake standards into the design
Re3mry Design Wwk
of their structures, and was this principally for
Blume: Shortly after that they got wise to things built in northern California?
the fact that I had structural training and had Blume: Standard Oil had always been earth-
done a lot of work in earthquake dynamics, so I quake conscious to a degree. But I think the
was assigned to design all the structural com- 1933 earthquake at Long Beach accelerated
ponents of refinery plants, including the foun- their thinking along those lines. The building
dations and the anchor bolts for huge towers. codes then, and even today, do not really cover
Then, when the plants were built at Richmond refinery-type construction. Even though Stan-
Refinery, I was sent over there as field engineer dard had always been earthquake conscious, I
throughout the entire construction, starting would say they really started getting into it in a
with the excavation and the pile driving, and bigger way at the time I worked there, perhaps
winding up with the last coat of paint. This was with the prodding of people like John Rinne
all very rushed, high-pressure work. It was and myself. One of the great concerns was cost.
great experience, but I put in many very long, They wanted earthquake resistance, but natu-
hard days. rally they didn't want it to cost very much
One of the plants I worked on as field engineer because of the economic problems in the oil
was the Hydrogenation Plant at Richmond. business.
Another was the Duosol Plant, and another the
Dewaxing Plant. In the Hydrogenation Plant Design Problems of Refineries
the contractor was a joint venture consisting of Blume: In answer to your question about
Bechtel, McCone and Parsons. I believe this where they did it, anything in California was
was Bechtel's first refinery project. given special treatment-also in other parts of
the world where they ran into earthquake
Eartbquuke Design Standarrts problems, such as in Colombia. It's quite an art
to design those high, vertical towers, which are
Blume: When I wasn't working on the
very slender but heavy, so as to withstand
design and construction of refinery plants for
motion, and with nothing holding them up but
Standard Oil, I worked on the company earth-
the anchor bolts in the foundations. We did lit-
quake design standards for such things as
erally hundreds of these types of installations.
stacks, vessels, towers, even buildings. So I was
back into my first labor of love-the earth- The vertical vessels and stacks at a refinery
quake problem. In fact, many of the standards plant tend to have long periods of vibration due
are probably still in use, no doubt with modifi- to their height and slenderness. The only struc-
cations. These were developed by myself and tural connection, outside of stairways that

21
 Chapter 3 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

might connect one tower to another with slid- about three or four. First, they started to talk to
ing joints, is the anchor bolt connection to the me about generalizing into the oil business and
foundation. So the earthquake development being earmarked for possible promotion. Sec-
that we employed in those days was semi-static, ond, I began to get offers from structural engi-
semi-dynamic. We allowed for the long periods neers in consulting practice, probably because
of vibration, but everything needed to provide they heard about me passing high on the struc-
resistance of the tower to earthquake motion tural examination. I finally accepted an offer
had to be developed in the anchor bolts and with H. J. Brunnier, a structural engineer in
foundation. In other words, we had to develop San Francisco. I had a long talk with the Stan-
not only a shear connection, but a moment dard Oil officials about leaving.
connection.
Scott: At the time did you view that as a
It would have been tremendously expensive to major, fork-in-the-road career decision?
do this according to conventional rules about
having no tendency for uplift in the founda- Blume: Yes. I knew it was a major decision in
tion. Since this was private property we were my life, and it was also a dangerous one because
able to take a few shortcuts, design under I still needed money very badly to pay my bills.
what's called uplift conditions, and still have a I was always broke while working my way at
stable foundation. Stanford, and I had incurred some debt in the
form of tuition notes.
The anchor bolts themselves had to be care-
fully connected to the walls of the vessel at the I had married Margaret (Peggy)Johnson dur-
skirt or the bottom. This was done to develop ing my last year at Stanford and, for awhile, she
the necessary tension and not have them pull worked part-time as a waitress in Palo Alto.
out of the connection proper, such as has hap- Upon leaving Stanford in 1934, we moved to
pened in even minor earthquakes in California San Francisco, after which I was the sole gener-
and elsewhere. ator of income, and not much at that. My
USC&GS salary, for example, was only $130
I enjoyed my work with Standard Oil very per month for a 5.5 day week. Peggy's health
much, although at times it was quite high pres- went bad, first leading to a major operation,
sure. While I worked for them I passed my and then turning into alcoholism, of the peri-
two-day civil engineering license examination, odic variety. The latter required frequent hos-
and also my two-day structural title examina- pitalization and a battery of very costly
tion. I was told I passed both of these very high practitioners. After several years of problems,
in the statewide examination ranking on the emergencies, expense and debt, the experts said
first try. a divorce might help her because she was lean-
ing on me to bail her out. So we had a friendly
A Major Career Decision divorce and she went home to Canada where
Blume: Two things happened after I had she did improve. By then I was deeply in debt.
been with Standard for a few years, I think after It took me about eight years to get out of the

22
 John A. Blume Starting Out as an Engineer Chapter 3

red. Yet despite all that I had thought about it the early highrise buildings in San Francisco
[starting my own business] for many years, and were structurally designed in that office.
you'll recall that my intention was always to do
Brunnier himself was a very well-known person
something about the earthquake problem. My
who had done a great deal for the profession of
reasoning was along those lines. For example, if
structural engineering in making it known to
I went into the oil business instead of staying in the public, to non-engineers. He did this by
engineering, I would do less and less about the virtue of his activities in outside things. He was
earthquake problem. O n the other hand I always busy with meetings and with organiza-
probably would have advanced very rapidly tions. For example, he was international presi-
because I got along well with Standard Oil, in dent of Rotary, and president of the California
spite of the fact that whenever one rode an ele- Auto Club, and also quite a golfer. He was the
vator in the building the Phi Beta Kappa keys "outside man."
dangling on vests were quite apparent.
T h e "inside man" in the office was Henry Pow-
I had always had a feeling that I wanted to get ers, who came to be a great friend of mine. He
into consulting engineering myself. I'm not had very little formal education, but he was a
really a true corporation man, in the sense that real structural engineer in the sense that he had
I'm quite independent, outspoken. I like to try the feel of structures. H e was in charge of the
new things-not that they don't do that in office when Brunnier was away, which was
large corporations-but I felt I could be freer fairly often, on his long trips for Rotary and on
on my own, or at least in a smaller firm. So all other activities.
these things were considered. My departure
Dej2nse Work
from Standard was quite sad. In one respect I
hated to go, and they made it clear they didn't Blume: I started out in that office doing
want me to leave. Nevertheless, in 1940, about some Navy ammunition docks and wharves,
a year before the war broke out, I left Standard which was a long way from what I had contem-
and went to work for "Bru" Brunnier. plated. I had already done some wharf and dock
work for Standard Oil, so I was able to handle
it all okay. It wasn't long before we got busy on
W
ith the Henry Brunnier Firm rush military work. Even long before Pearl
(1940- 1945) Harbor, we were working night and day, and
Blume: I had known of Henry Brunnier and around the clock sometimes. It was nothing to
his firm for a long time. In fact, I always looked put in a 60,7OY80-hourweek, week in and
up to that firm as one of the leaders in the field week out.
of structural engineering. They had designed To show how defensive things were in those
most of the then highrise buildings in San early days of the war, we designed 6" and 16"
Francisco, like the Russ Building, the Shell gun batteries along the coast of San Francisco
Building, the Standard Oil Building. Nearly all and the Peninsula. I also designed mine case-

23
 Chapter 3 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

ments, which were the control points for written years prior to this suggesting that if the
underwater mines placed just outside the Japanese ever attacked us, they would attack
Golden Gate and elsewhere. All these would the Panama Canal Zone and Pearl Harbor, so
seem archaic today, but they were considered we were waiting. And there was a little activity
vital in those days. that was hushed up, but nothing landed that I
know about.
Building Docks in the Panama Canal During
We had one air-raid alert after another, how-
Pearl Harbor
ever, and each time the air-raid siren went off
Blume: In about September or October of we were obliged to take all of the tracings and
1941, Brunnier and Henry Powers asked me to drawings that we were working on, roll them
go to the Panama Canal, and take charge of a up, wrap them with waterproof paper, and run
major design contract. They were working on about three blocks through the mud and rain to
tremendous docks for the Army and Navy in a bomb shelter, where we would sit holding
the Panama Canal Zone. I agreed to do this on these rolls of drawings until the all-clear was
the basis that as soon as that job was done I sounded. Then we'd reverse the process, get
would come back to San Francisco. I went the drawings back on the table and start work
down, and got there in time for the wet season again. There were four to six air raids a day, so
in Panama, where it rains so hard you can you couldn't get much work done, but you had
hardly breathe if you're out in it. I was put up to try.
in a bachelor quarters building, with screening
for side walls, because of the heat. I was in a T h e excitement in the Panama Canal Zone fol-
large room with five other fellows, all from lowing Pearl Harbor was tremendous, because
Brunnicr's office. frankly we weren't prepared for anything at all.
T h e few old aircraft they had at France Field
We worked night and day, and drank a little were obsolete, and they were not armed. They
beer when we had an hour or so off,and got had taken all the machine-gun racks and other
into friendly "fights" between the occupants of armaments off to prevent rust. So after Pearl
the rooms. I had great success in holding up my Harbor each aircraft that I saw had about 50
end, and got to be known as "the bull." T h e people working on it feverishly, trying to get
person who named me that was Al Collin, the craft into fighting shape. I suspect the Japa-
today of the steel company, whose name was nese lost the war in the first couple of weeks,
"the beast." They were a great bunch of fel- because if they had closed the canal, our Atlan-
lows, all of them. tic fleet would have had to go around the Horn
instead of coming through the canal as they
We had the bulk of our work done on the did. T h e Japanese made a serious mistake right
Corazol Docks, which was a big ammunition then, although I believe they tried.
depot for the Army-work was about 90 per-
cent done-when the Japanese hit Pearl Har- I finished up the work I had been sent down to
bor on December 7,1941. Books had been do, and then I had the problem of how to get

24
 John A. Blume Starring Out as an Engineer Chapter 3

out of there and get back home. I was told at All during this time I was not working on
first that I was there for the duration, but I kept earthquake problems per se. I did occasionally
trying. Then one day I finally got notice, and a employ dynamics. For example, the docking
half hour later I got on a plane. It was at night- force from a large ship hitting a dock or wharf
time; it was dark and blacked out. had to be taken care of somehow. It was a mat-
ter of energy absorption, which has been one of
Scott: When you were told you were there my guiding principles in earthquake design.
for the duration, was it simply a matter of We also did some design to prevent missile
restricted transportation? penetration. T h e war effort came first, beyond
Blume: No, it was some sort of a policy. everything. Some of these projects were very
They figured they would put us to work in the big-such as the Lathrop Holding and Recon-
zone for the duration, in whatever our specialty signment Depot.
was.
As I recall, the buildings reached a length of
Scott: But you were still a civilian, still a 1200 feet, and there were rows of them. Some-
Rrunnier employee? one computed the amount of curvature of the
earth in the building roof lines. All of these
Blume: I was a Brunnier employee, but they structures were designed for temporary use. In
were trying to commandeer everyone. I think
fact, one general told'us that if they stood up
they got over that. At least they let me out. So I
beyond five years we weren't doing our job
got out at night on a plane with black curtains
right. "On the other hand," he said, "I don't
on all the windows so we couldn't see out, and
want them falling down in four and a half
there would be no lights. I got back to San
years." Because of the war effort we had to
Francisco just before Christmas, 1941. I was
design things with a minimum use of steel, and
very glad to be back.
a minimum use of all metals.

Wartime Work: "Temporary"Buildings and Scott: Were most of these facilities located
Minimal Designs in the Bay Area, or all over?
Blume: If I thought I had been busy on the Blume: Most of them were in the valley, like
war effort before the war started, you should Lathrop, which is on the way towards Stock-
have seen me after it started, and I was back in ton. Tracy is on the other side of the Altamont
San Francisco. Tremendous depots had to be Pass. These had previously been tremendous
designed for the military. I was the engineer in open fields of agriculture, and they were turned
charge of design of the Lathrop Holding and into vast military depots. Unfortunately, the
Reconsignment Depot, Tracy Quartermaster buildings did not fall down after five years. In
Depot, parts of Hamilton Field, parts of fact, some of them are still in use today. But we
McClellan Field, and parts of Castle Field, not designed them fast and economically, and we
to mention countless wharves and docks for the used a minimal amount of steel and other
Navy and the Army. metal. There wasn't time to prepare nice, neat

25
 Chapter 3 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

calculations. Often I would tell a draftsman nitrate, which tasted horrible. Then I went
what to draw, and make a few figures on the back to the office. Because I was tasting this
back of an envelope. There were even occa- awful stuff, and because I was tired, I'd stop at
sions when we had drawings signed in blank by Breen's on Third Street and get a brandy egg-
the military officials who were coming in to see nog, which was my dinner. I'd get back to the
how we were doing. They signed in blank office and work until 11 or 12 at night, with a
because we hadn't yet had time to get the stuff fever. Somehow I got over this without really
on paper, but they trusted us, and it all came getting sick, but a month or so later I came
out okay. down with pneumonia. Then I was very sick.
They gave me sulfa, and the sulfa worked on
After about four years of this, in 1945, I started me. It apparently killed the bugs, but it also
developing a strep throat, and I had to keep ruined my bloodstream. I was cold and shiver-
working. Every afternoon I had to visit a doc- ing much of the time for about six months
tor, who would inject my throat with silver after that.

26
 Chapter 4

Hangs Out Own Shingle

"During all this design work for things in Saudi
Arabia, w e were also doing design for things in this
country. One thing led to another."

Blume: When I was able to get up and around again, I made

another big decision in my life-that I was not going to go
back to work with Brunnier, I was going to hang out my own
shingle. The war was over, and in June 1945 I rented a small
office at 68 Post Street, the Foxcroft Building. The rent was
$20 a month for a tiny little room on the back alley,
Scorn Why did you decide to leave Brunnier's office?
Blume: I had a great job with Brunnier, and I liked working
there very much. I liked the people, and Powers and Bru, but I
also have that independent streak that I can't get rid of. I
wanted to be on my own and be able to do research in earth-
quakes, as well as other things that I wouldn't be able to do in
that position. I forgot to mention that somewhere along the
line I was given the title of "Engineer in Charge of Design" for
the whole office, and had that title for two or three years
before I left Brunnier. I was No. 3 in the office. When I finally
left I was very careful not to try to entice any of the Brunnier
employees to come with me. And I was doubly careful not to
get involved with any of the Brunnier clients. I wish that code
of ethics had prevailed throughout the profession, but unfor-
tunately a few of my former employees have not seen fit to use
the same code.

27
 Chapter 4 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

Getting Started Six Years of Saudi Arabian Work

Blume: Starting out as John A. Blume, Blume: Along about this time [1946], when I
Structural Engineer, I had at first a lot of spare was struggling to make a living, one day I had a
time on my hands. I would spend the weekdays phone call from a friend of mine who used to
making contacts and trying to get work. When- work in Standard Oil when I worked there-
ever I got a little job I'd do it on the weekend. I
Wendell Spackman, an architect. Wendell had
also became very active in the Structural Engi-
formed a partnership with Clarence Peterson,
neers Association of Northern California
called Peterson & Spackman, Architects. It
(SEAONC), probably due to the efforts of my
seems they were involved in a small job for the
friend Franklin Ulrich, who was secretary/
treasurer, and had been for years, and for Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco), and
whom I had worked in the Coast and Geodetic needed some structural help, which I was very
Survey 10 years before. glad to provide. This had to do with some
building work in Saudi Arabia, including porta-
I needed to become better known in San Fran- ble buildings that would be transported across
cisco. This was quite a problem, because at the the dune sand from one place to another on
time no structural engineer had started out on
tremendous low-pressure tires.
his own and made a go of it. Most of the firms
had been handed down from prior successful We developed the mechanics and structural
firms. Some of the local smictural engineers of part of this desert operation, and apparently
the day, besides Brunnier, were Henry Dewell, did a nice job because one morning later on I
L. 14. Nishkian, Harold Hammill, Walter was in my office, and the telephone rang again.
€lubcr, R. S. Chew, Harold Engle, Fred Hall, It happened to be Jim Stirton, who was then
Mike Pregnoff, and many others, most of chief engineer and vice president of Arabian
whom had either been in business for a long American Oil Company. He said, "Jack"-that
time in their own names, or had inherited their
was the name I went by in those days-"I see
practicc from the prior owners.
you've got your shingle out and I see you've
I should also mention John Gould, who done some work with Peterson & Spackman,
became known for his work on the San Fran- which was very good work. We've got another
cisco Fair buildings. In fact, one of my first cli- little problem here, could you possibly come
ents-believe it or not-was John Gould. He over and talk to me about it?" I said, "1'11 be
had some problems with a couple of jobs, and there in fifteen minutes," and I was. T h e prob-
needed an outside opinion and help. H e lem that Jim Stirton had in mind at that time
engaged me to work with him as a consultant. was to he able to dock, load and unload deep-
water vessels (ships) in the Persian Gulf, over
seven miles from shore, in order to get to water
deep enough to handle these ships' draft. T h e
water was very shallow for miles out.

28
 John A. Blume Hangs Out Own Shingle Chapter 4

As I recall, he wanted about 40 feet of drafi Portable OJjbwe Platfinm

alongside the docking facility. He said, "We Blume: The offshore platform that I men-
have to do this in structural steel, because we tioned was designed to be portable. In those
can't punch any other piling through the hard- days there were no offshore companies with
pan or limestone layer. But next week we have patents to worry about, so we designed our
to order the steel by tonnage, shape and own devices. The reason they wanted a porta-
length." ble facility was that they were wildcatting in the
This reminded me of the old days when I Persian Gulf, in the water. If at first they didn't
worked for Standard Oil of California, and Jim strike anything, they wanted to be able to shift
Stirton was then assistant chief engineer of around and try again. So the bulk of our design
Standard Oil. He was considered a genius by effort was to make this platform portable. But
his peers. He wanted everything done over- the portability was never tried, for the simple
night, because he could do it if nobody else reason that the first well drilled brought in the
could. And he really could. Rumor was that Jim famous Safaniya Oil Field, which I understand
Stirton not only had his engineering down even to this day is the largest proven underwa-
cold, in every branch of engineering- ter reservoir of oil in the world.
structural, civil, electrical, mechanical, refinery,
Scott: So they started out wildcatting in the
etc.-but also he was a CPA and had passed
middle of the very best place?
the bar. He was really a brilliant man and a
workaholic. Blume: The right place. Now if we had been
able to get just a tiny fraction of a percent as a
'To make a long story a little shorter, I worked
royalty we would have been rich, but all the
night and day on that wharf layout and tenta-
work we did was on a cost-plus, hourly basis.
tive design, so we could order the steel on
We were very disappointed that the portability
schedule, and we did. That effort led to about
factor was never tested. The platform stayed
six years of intensive design work for the entire
right where it was, and they built many others.
Saudi Arabian oil development, in which from
The oil came out artesian style. The volume
time to time we designed buildings of every
would depend on the hydraulics and the size of
type and occupancy-including transmission
the pipe-no pumping was required.
towers, wharves, docks, and the first offshore
platform in the Persian Gulf.
Designing Many Other Things in
Scott: About when would that have been? Saudi Arabia
Blume: The design work went on for 5-6 Blume: In addition to all the facilities and
years, as I recall, starting in '46 or '47. structures that were constructed in Saudi Ara-
bia, we also worked on many other things-
studies, and trial designs that were not all built,
such as a ferry to transport railroad cars, and a
self-docking vessel to act as a self-docking dry-

29
 Chapter 4 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

dock. It was extremely interesting work. At Designingfbr Economy

times we'd have as many as 15 or 20 different
Blume: During all this design work for
projects on the boards at the same time. We
things in Saudi Arabia, we were also doing
wrote our own codes. But time went on and
design for things in this country. One thing led
Aramco moved its headquarters from San
to another. T h e Saudi Arabian development
Francisco to New York. We kept on working.
stands out in my mind because of a couple of
Then they moved to T h e Hague in Holland,
factors. One is we had no building code to go
and finally they moved to Rome, and then they
by or worry about. We wrote our own code.
moved to Dhahran in Saudi Arabia. With all
Also, especially in a foreign country like that-
these moves and increasing distance, it became
and there were problems even then in the Mid-
impossible to continue to work for them, but
dle East-the oil company wanted everything
by then, the bulk of the work was done. We lit-
to pay out in less than three years. So we
erally designed the cities of Dhahran, Ras
couldn't waste a dime in design. We used mate-
Tanura, Abqaiq, and many others in Saudi Ara-
rials for all they were worth.
bia, plus the Dammam Port and much of Ras
Tanura Port. T h e transmission towers, for example, were
only two-legged, and the stability in the other
Scott: You did this work as John A. Blume,
direction was obtained by the stress being car-
Structural Engineer? You must have had sub-
ried in the wire overhead, all the way between
stantial help for these major design projects.
anchor towers, which were widely spaced apart.
Blume: Actually, there were three firms One time Aramco took competitive bids for
involved in this design work-the architectural forty miles of transmission towers where the
work was all done by Peterson & Spackman, steel bidders were allowed to (a) base their esti-
the mechanicaVelectrica1 was done by James mates on our design, or (b) design their own
Gayner, Consulting Engineer, and the civil/ towers as light as they could get away with and
structural work was done by John A. Blume, still guarantee the work. Ours came in as low
Structural Engineer. Which one had the prime bid, and it was built that way. It was really light.
contract (it would either be our firm or Peter-
son & Spackman) would depend on the type of In a later trip over there I was met and told
work. Work on an office building, theater that, "Too bad, one of your towers came
building, bowling alley, hospital, for example down." I said, "What happened? They said,
would be headed up by Peterson & Spackman. "We'll drive you out and show it to you." We
But the work on wharves, docks and towers, got in a jeep, drove a good many miles, and
everything structural, was headed up by us. We here the towers were in perfect condition. I
worked directly with the Arabian American Oil said "That's not down." "Well, we rebuilt it." I
Company, which used to have its headquarters said, "But what happened to it?" They were
at 200 Bush Street, San Francisco, and was kidding me, I could see it. H e said, "Your
partly owned by Standard Oil of California. design was too light. An Arab drove a truck

30
 John A. Blume Hangs Out Own Shingle Chapter 4

into it, the tower came down and killed him." I to be in his control. He finally got permission,
said, "We didn't design for trucks hitting the and we drove to Dammam. We couldn't get on
tower." H e said, "You weren't supposed to." the wharf because the Arab who was supposed
to let us on hadn't showed up yet. We waited
Dammam wharfand Port about a half hour; he finally arrived. So, under
Blume: Dynamics came into play from time guard, we were allowed to go out on the wharf
to time, even in Saudi Arabia. For example the we had built and look it over. That was in '57.
Dammam Wharf-the one we built seven You can imagine how things are today [April
miles out in the Persian Gulf-has vertical steel 19871. T h e Arabs really control everything
piling and five railroad tracks on top of the over there now.
wharf-a great big structure. It has no batter
piling or brace piles. T h e reasoning was, if a I957 Trip to S a d Arabia
ship got out of control and hit the wharf too
hard, we didn't want to sink the ship in the Per- Blume: O n the '57 t r i p I ' m getting ahead
sian Gulf. We'd rather repair the wharf. But of myself a little here, but would like to cover
the main point was that the energy of the this while I'm talking about Saudi Arabia-our
oncoming ship, which was calculated, would be mission then was to work out an improvement
transmitted into the vertical steel piles, which in the railroad system, the Dammam docking
would absorb the shock like a giant spring. In facilities system had to be expanded, and also
other words the whole wharf was a spring. It the airfield.
was a case of energy absorption-a principle
Scott: This would have been the railroad,
I've tried to build into the earthquake field for
many decades. docking facilities and airfield for the Arabian
American Oil Company?
T h e Arabian oil development was a great thing
Blume: No, built by Aramco, but now under
not only for the oil companies, but also for
Saudi Arabia and for our country, although the Saudi Arabian government, for the whole
things have changed over the years. I was sent country. T h e ICA sent three of us over there.
to Arabia in 1957 by the U.S.International One was a railroad expert, one was a docking
Cooperation Administration (ICA) via Tudor and wharf expert-that was I-and the other
Engineering Company, on a special mission. I was an airfield expert. It happened to be the
went to see Jim Stirton, who was then living in holy month of Ramadan, when the Arabs stay
Dhahran, and we visited for a while. I said, "I'd awake all night, sleep a little during the day, I
like to see the Dammam Wharf to see how it's guess, and they fast. We had to work during the
holding up." He said, "I think we can arrange day, then we had to go to long meetings at
that." This sounded strange for him because he night so we got a little tired. Finally, they
used to bark out orders. He had to call two or [Saudi Arabian government officials] said,
three Arab chiefs or executives to get permis- come up to Riyadh, which is the capital of the
sion to go out and look at the wharf that used country.

31
 Chapter 4 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

We first went to Riyadh on the train, on the There were two days of this, with no tooth-
same train that had the king's car. We got into a brush, no air conditioning, tremendous heat,
series of meetings, which were extremely stren- flies-they opened the windows to make sure
uous, to say the least. They were held at night. the flies came in to bother us. They didn't draw
We dealt with the princes. T h e king then was blood, but they did everything they could to
Saud Al Saud, and we dealt with some of his shake us down. And we knew how wild the
sons. He had many sons, over 30 of them. Arabs could be in those days. They were delib-
erately putting us under duress. We were
finally rescued by the military police.
Wanted Report Changed
Blume: They wanted us to change our Scott: Whose military police?
report and build our wharves and docks in a Blume: Our Army. They came in a transport
completely different manner so they could plane with a belly; they took a jeep out of the
work with the Egyptian government and use belly.
their method of building ports. We knew it Scott: This is fascinating. Who instigated
wouldn't work very well, so we held tight to this captivity?
our trial designs, which by the way had been
Blume: T h e Saudi princes-they figured
approved in a meeting between Ambassador
they'd get us to change our report, that they
Richards and the king. We were left, to "mop
could sell it that way. There was about $20 mil-
up the details." But as soon as the official U.S.
lion involved. After we got back we were
party had left, the Arabs wanted to change
advised that we were not allowed to speak of
everything. They were being prodded by the this for ten years. This is quite contrary to
Egyptians. They wanted to eliminate all steel. today, when if you're taken hostage, everybody
We returned to Dhahran, only to be called knows about it. Thirty years have elapsed. I still
back to Riyadh. This time the U.S.Air Force don't think they like it publicized too much,
flew us up there in a C-47 cargo plane. But we but I can't help that.
were "detained."
Scott: How long did it last?
Under House Arrest@ Two Days Blume: About three days and two nights, but
it was a long time.
Blume: We were essentially taken prisoner,
and put in the Yamama Hotel, which was func- Scott: What were your feelings at the time?
tioning like a jail by having eunuch guards at Did you feel like a full-fledged hostage, or did
each end of the corridor, so if we tried to get you not quite know what the situation was?
out of the building, they would simply grab us Blume: We didn't know what it was. We
by the arm and escort us back to our room. We were a little afraid they might start drawing
had expected to fly back with the Air Force blood, which they could have, but they didn't.
plane, and were not prepared for a longer stay. This was a country that cuts off hands for petty

32
 John A. Blume Hangs Out Own Shingle Chapter 4

thefts. They didn't touch us. But they turned If they had passed out, everybody would have
off the water in the hotel rooms, so you lost face, but they didn't. They just got soaking
couldn't wash or go to the bathroom very wet with sweat-it turned to salt. Those poor
well-miserable little things. guys. We could see them out the window.
Finally, it got to be late in the afternoon and
Scott: Then the military police came and the Arabs said: "We can't deal with you. We'll
got you out of there? take it up with your President Eisenhower. The
Blume: What they did was to come to the meeting is over."
site-four men in a jeep. They found out the
Scott: It was kind of a facing-down opera-
building we were in, and they just parked out
tion, to see who would blink first?
there in that jeep-at rigid attention with their
collars buttoned in 120- 130 degree heat, with Blume: That's it. So I have quite a feel for
rifles. There were four of them, two in front, what goes on in the Middle East, and I'd just as
two in back. They just sat in that rigid position. soon not go back there.

33
 Chapter 5

Committee Work and

Seismic Codes
'I.. . That led to the publication of Separate 66,
. ..[which] years later, led on a statewide basis to the
Blue Book.. ..So out of the chaos and controversy of
the late ' ~ O S many
, things developed....N

Active in SEAONC
Blume: In 1945-47 the Structural Engineers Association of
Northern California (SEAONC) was a rather small organiza-
tion, interested mainly in the earthquake provisions for the
forthcoming San Francisco building code. Also there was a
great interest in fees and ethics. I was just starting out in my
own practice and was very active in SEAONC. I was appointed
"assistant secretary/treasurer," and also became active on the
fee committee and the earthquake committee [1946].The title
of assistant secretary/treasurer was rather misleading, because
the officers above me were either absent or ill for a large part
of the time. I actually found myself sort of running the organi-
zation from my little office on Post Street.
[During this period] I was spending a lot of time, both for
SEAONC and on the code matters; and I was working way
beyond my title. However, the latter changed in 1947 and
1948, when I became vice-president and president respec-
tively. I also was the first statewide president [of SEAOC]

35
 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

under its new constitution in 1949. I was also [SEAONC] association members. This started
struggling to get going as a young practicing a violent reaction and led to a great many
engineer, as well as spending a tremendous meetings, both public and private. It also led to
amount of time on the code problem, and also hotly contested debates between engineers
considerable time takmg care of much of the holding different viewpoints.
administrative work of the association.
I've noticed one thing in the earthquake field
As I recall, the administrative responsibilities over the years, not only among engineers, but
and pressure came to me by default. For exam- also among geologists and seismologists: they
ple, Bill Adrian was president but was not very often have vastly different viewpoints, and they
active in these seismic battles, and Bill Moore defend their positions very strongly. I'd often
became president but was traveling around the wondered why that was, and one day the solu-
world setting up Dames & Moore. And neither tion came to me. They were all dealing with
one was deeply involved in the earthquake very important problems, but with insufficient
problem the way I was. data to work from, and therefore they were
forming widely different opinions.
So it just sort of fell into my hands, which again
wasn't bad, because I got to be known a little As a young fellow I'd been at some of the meet-
bit. And I learned a great deal about how every- ings with some of the old timers, and I thought
body thought, at least in those days, about the they would come to blows, but they didn't. The
earthquake problem. It also gave me ideas camps sort of divided into two groups: the 2 -
about what was needed to help solve the prob- percenters, and the 10-percenters, as I called
lem. I found the experience to be very benefi- them. The 2-percenters were people like Brun-
cial in many respects. nier and Nishkian, who had designed tall build-
ings and knew darn well that they couldn't
The 2-Percenters vs. the design for 8 or 10 percent on the base shear
and still have any building left to design. More-
10-Percenters
over, some felt that over-design would do more
Blume: Harry Vensano was director of pub- harm than good.
lic works for the city and county of San Fran-
cisco. He had it in his mind that he wanted an Scott: When you say "not have any building
earthquake code for San Francisco, and one left to design," do you mean that the design
was badly needed. would have been too expensive to build and/or
that there would be no clients?
Scott: This would have been about 1947? Blume: Both aspects would apply, although
Blume: Late '45, '46, '47. The code was the nonbuilding one was basically what I had in
finally adopted in '48. That was a tremendous mind. Owners-and architects as well, to
struggle in itself, but years before the San please their own clients-want to generate
Francisco code was adopted, Harry Vensano investment income at the least cost up-front.
had proposed certain things informally to The bigger the columns and the thicker the

36
 John A. Blume Committee Work and Seismic Codes Chapter 5

walls (if indeed there are walls of a structural Vensano Code (1948)
nature), the greater the initial cost and the
Blume: It has never ceased to amaze many
lesser the net rental area. If the l0-percenters
people, including myself, that San Francisco,
prevailed on tall buildings, there would not be
with its history of earthquake damage in 1906
such buildings. The columns and bearing walls
and before, had no real earthquake code until
would be prohibitive in size.
1948. After 1906, for a time San Francisco
Scott: You are referring to 10 percent of designed for wind forces of 30 pounds per
gravity as a lateral force requirement? square foot laterally, but after a few years it was
lowered to 20 pounds. Then after a few more
Blume: Right. The l0-percenters, or 8-per-
years it was reduced to I5 pounds per square
centers, were mainly those who really were
foot of wind force, without any seismic require-
thinking of low buildings, and more rigid
ment per se. It always struck me as strange that
buildings. It's a fairly simple matter to design
a city with San Francisco's background was so
them for as much as 8 to 12 percent of gravity.
far behind in adopting a real earthquake code.
But in the early days, the code draft did not dis-
tinguish between the 2-percenters and the 10- During these years [of discussing the San Fran-
percenters, so they proceeded to battle each cisco building code] I had tremendous exposure
other very vehemently. and experience as a young practicing engineer,
because I not only attended all the meetings,
Good Design Not Costly but also as the assistant secretary, I had to write
them up. I became the one who drafted the
Blume: As a parenthetical aside I would like official letters between the association [SEA-
to say at this point that even today I feel that, if ONC] and the city, and even beat a path to city
the architects are reasonable, good earthquake hall. When the code was finally up before the
design can be done at very little, if any, extra San Francisco Board of Supervisors for adop-
cost over slipshod methods. For best results, an tion, there was a series of meetings on that sub-
architect should work with his engineer from ject, and the fighting started all over again.
the start of early planning of a building. Few do
this. The disposition of columns and walls, Finally, it was resolved among the engineers.
especially of the important first story, is vital to They looked silly, and it looked bad for them to
the effectiveness and the cost of earthquake be squabbling in public. They decided to
resistance. I deplore what I call "vagrant archi- appoint me as a spokesman. I appeared before
tecture"-no visible means of support. Even the Board [San Francisco Board of Supervisors]
though the engineer tries to meet the code, or and had to answer such questions as, "Won't
in fact meets the code, by cramming the resis- this code run the cost of buildings up so much
tance into central core walls, the net result is that we won't be able to build anymore?" And,
not what it should be. Symmetry and smooth "What will happen to the labor unions if you
transitions are desirable as well as peripheral do this?" By the way, the plasterer's union, and
strength. other labor unions, were very strongly opposed

37
 Chapter 5 Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

to a seismic code in those days because they demand on a building. Another thing that
thought it would put them out of work. bothered some people was the fact that Harry
Vensano changed some of the unit values in
When the supervisors finally adopted the code
structural steel, for example.
it was not exactly like any other code in exist-
ence, including the Uniform Building Code, Scott: You mean changed them from the
because of Harry Vensano wanting to change a manufacturer's recommended standards?
few things here and there, as he saw fit and felt Blume: Yes, instead of using the AISC
was desirable. As I recall, the initial code as (American Institute of Steel Construction)
passed had a minimum base shear coefficient of standards, which are national standards, as
at least 0.037 and a maximum of 0.08, depend- printed, Harry changed a few factors slightly
ing on the type of building and the height. here and there.
Scott: What do 0.037 and 0.08 refer to? Scott: Why would he have wanted to change
Blume: In the case of the '48 San Francisco the factors?
code, it referred to a factor to be applied to all Blume: We often wondered, but I think the
the dead load and live load above the point reason was that he himself had worked in the
under consideration. For example, if you're at steel industry as a designer, and he just had per-
the base of the building you'd have to take sonal feelings about what the factors should be.
3.7% of the entire weight above plus the entire So unfortunately the base shear value, the use
live load, and apply that as a shear force at the of a full live load, and some of these factors in
base story. In short, you'd have to provide, allowable stresses, caused Harry Vensano to be
under code stresscs, the resistance to that as a a rather controversial figure for a while.
lateral force. This became law for several years,
and it made many of the 2-percenters very It was unfortunate in one way, because frankly
unhappy. The result was that a joint committee he was just trying to do the right thing as he
was appointed, representing both the American saw it. But the controversy that developed from
Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) of San time to time led to other things later on that I
Francisco and the Strucniral Engineers Associ- think were very beneficial. For example, as I
ation of Northern California (SEAONC). I noted just now, a few years later because of the
won't go into that committee's activities at this ongoing unrest in San Francisco about the
time, except to note that it led to the publica- code, a joint committee was formed, represent-
tion of Separate 66,9 which became a stepping- ing the American Society of Civil Engineers,
stone in all subsequent code considerations. 1'11
9. Anderson, Arthur W., John A. Blume, et a].,
cover that later on. "Lateral Forces of Earthquake and Wind,"
Separate 66, J o u m l of the S m t u r a l Division,
The 0.037 base shear requirement was some- Proceedings of the American Society of Civil
thing that Harry Vensano wanted to get in his Engineers,. AXE, New York, NY, 1951. (Also
"Lateral Forces of Earthquake and Wind,"
code, and he got it in there. The 2-percenters Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engi-
thought it was too much, too much of a neers, Vol. 117. ASCE, New York, NY, 1952.)

38
 John A. Blume Committee Work and Seismic Codes Chapter 5

San Francisco Section, and the Structural forces to the structure than existed in prior
Engineers Association of Northern California codes.
(SEAONC). That was the committee that led
to the publication of Separate 66 in the ASCE This committee met weekly for well over a
Journal. That in turn, years later, led on a state- year, or perhaps approaching two years. Each
wide basis to the Blue Book code of the Struc- meeting consisted of a dinner session in a res-
tural Engineers Association of California taurant, in a private room, after which the
(SEAOC). So out of the chaos and controversy tables would be cleared and we would meet for
of the late ' ~ O Smany
, things developed over the hours, sometimes until 11:OO or 12:OO. Natu-
next ten years or so. rally, not all of the members of the committee
had the same background, and only a few of the
committee were very much informed about
Separate 66 Committee dynamic matters, principally John Rinne and
Blume: After the San Francisco earthquake myself. However, assignments were made by
code went into effect in 1948, many engi- the chairman, and practically everydung imag-
neers-especially the 2 -percenten, as I have inable pertaining to an earthquake code was
called them-were rather unhappy about the researched, and reports were given to the com-
code. They especially did not like the mini- mittee. After months and months of sessions,
mum base shear of 3.7%, and the use of all live with full attendance by most members, we
load in figuring seismic weights. The result of began to draft a suggested seismic code, which
all this controversy was that a new committee involved some of the principles of dynamics in
was formed consisting of members of both a rather simplified method.
ASCE and the Structural Engineers Associa-
The code as finally proposed involved the peri-
tion. I was originally asked to be chairman of
ods of vibration of buildings, something brand
this committee. I declined because I was then
new in building codes. It also applied the lateral
[in 19481 president of the Structural Engineers
forces as an inverted triangle on a building or
Association (SEAOC), but I became an active
structure, which was also new. In this regard
member [of the committee]. John Rinne was
the committee was leaning on work I had done
named chairman. The other committee mem-
on my thesis at Stanford years before. The sug-
bers were Arthur Anderson, Henry Degenkolb,
gested lateral forces were based upon the fun-
Harold Hammill, Ed Knapik, Henry March-
damental period, the type of structure, the type
and, Henry Powers, Art Sedgwick and Harold
of framing, and the shape of a proposed
Sjoberg. The committee tried to suggest a code
response spectrum, a new subject that was just
for use not only in San Francisco, but every-
coming around.
where. They tried to involve not only some of
the principles of dynamics (albeit in a crude Finally, a report was made to the member asso-
way), but also involve what the committee ciations, and a paper was drafted for the Ameri-
thought to be rational base shear coefficients, can Society of Civil Engineers Proceedings,
as well as a better application of the lateral Structural Division. The paper was published

39
 Chapter 5 Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

in the Structural Division Journal of ASCE, in Blume: Well, it's complicated, but I think in
April 195 1. The title was "Lateral Forces of general the feeling was that the theory and the
Earthquake and Wind,"" and all the commit- principles involved were not treated in suffi-
tee members were shown as joint authors. cient scientific detail. Our response to that was
twofold. First, we acknowledged we didn't
Scott: Is that the report referred to as
know all the answers yet, might never know
Separate 66?
them all. And second, we pointed out that to
Blume: That is correct. In those days the have practical application in the design world,
Society numbered their papers according to it would be impossible to treat the whole thing
Separates, and this was number 66. I should in a theoretical, rigorous manner. In other
explain that the separates, if accepted, were words, building codes cannot involve a great
later published in the annual Transactim as a deal of theory-they have to deal solely with
whole document. In fact, this paper was so pub- useful requirements.
lished in the Transactions,Volume 117, 1952.
Scott: So that was typical-they'd publish Blue Book Committees
the article in a separate version earlier, then in Blume: While we're on the subject of build-
the Tramactions later. ing codes, I should add that the Separate 66
Blume: Yes, later in the Transactim, if the paper was studied for years by various groups
discussion justified the printing of the whole and people, especially in southern California
paper, which was true in this case. In fact, this and in Japan. Finally, years later, the Structural
paper was given the Leon S. Moisseiff Award of Engineers Association of California (the state-
the ASCE. 'The publication of this paper drew wide group) decided to attempt another, more
a great deal of response. In fact, many Japanese comprehensive building code. So another com-
responded, as did people from India, and mittee was formed in 1957.
Caltech and southern California in particular.
The committee was under the chairmanship of
Not all of the response was in agreement,
Bill Wheeler. Other committee members were
which is typical of the subject matter.
Steve Barnes, R.W. Binder,John Blume, Henry
Scott: In other words it started quite a Degenkolb, Murray Erick, Herman Finch,
debate? Norman Green, H. B. Hammill, RoyJohnston,
Blume: Yes. But in general the main objec- Pete Kellam, Jack Meehan, Harold Omsted,
tions came from Caltech, although I believe we Bob Preece, Henry Powers, John Rinne,
put most of their objections to bed in our clos- Ernest Maag, John Steinbrugge, and Art Sedg-
ing discussion. wick. That's a large group, but meetings were
held periodically in either northern or southern
Scott: Could you summarize in simple terms California.
the nature of their objections?
Most of the work was done by subcommittees,
10. [bid. and the study work went on for a couple of

40
 John A. Blume Committee Work and Seismic Codes Chapter 5

years. The subcommittee chairmen were as fol- The Blue Books were revised every few years,
lows: Steve Barnes, base shear and shear distri- and have constituted the backbone of most
bution; John Blume, structural frames; John seismic codes in use. I believe the first adoption
Steinbrugge, diaphragms; Henry Powers, tor- [of the code promulgated in the Blue Book] was
sion; Roy Johnston, overturning; Blume, set- in the Uniform Building Code [1967]. Even
backs; Powers, drift; Ernest Maag and Murray though the Blue Book was a statewide effort,
Erick, foundations;John Rinne, supplementary and went into things in great depth, it leaned
report. rather strongly on Separate 66 for many of its
principles. [The SEAOC Blue Book was issued
Without going into the details of this, I should in 1959.1
note that the result was published in 1959 as
the first so-called Blue Book of the Structural
Engineers Association of California. Subse-
Ductility and the PCA
quently, each of the structural engineer associa- Blume: One of the things I have always
tions in California appointed its own espoused is the matter of ductility and tough-
earthquake committee every year. Sometimes ness in building materials and framing for
these groups issued reports, mostly of a local earthquake resistance. I have continued along
nature. Sometimes these activities were mostly these lines in committee meetings, especially of
educational. These committees are not to be the original Blue Book statewide group. In fact,
confused with either the joint Separate 66 that "code" for the first time required ductility
group or the statewide Blue Book group, both for certain height structures, and it used struc-
of which were special in scope and in nature. tural steel as the accepted basis for ductile per-
formance. Following is the infamous paragraph
The debate over the 1948 San Francisco code (j) as first issued in 1959:
continued for years with reference not only to
the joint committee report [Separate64 but (j) Structural Frame. Buildings more
also to subsequent local reports. The city code than 13 stories or one hundred and
was revised in 1956 to incorporate most of the sixty feet (160') in height shall have
principles from the joint report and paper, but a complete moment-resisting space
not the design forces. The latter, for most frame capable of resisting not less
buildings, were changed to vary from coeffi- than 25 percent of the required
cients of 0.075 to 0.035. However, the live load seismic load for the structure as a
participation was reduccd from 100% to 25%. whole. The frame shall be made of
It was not until 1969 that the San Francisco a ductile material or a ductile com-
code conformed at least generally with the bination of materials. The neces-
1967 Uniform Building Code, which in turn sary ductility shall be considered to
had adopted the 1966, 1967 Blue Book docu- be provided by a steel frame with
ments as issued by the statewide association moment resistant connections or by
(SEAOC). other systems proven by tests and

41
 Chapter 5 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

studies to provide equivalent energy concrete to develop ductility and energy

absorption.' * absorption characteristics. We have to keep in
mind that concrete by itself is brittle when it
T h e door was left open and the Portland fails in tension or shear. Also,when it fails in
Cement Association (PCA) accepted the chal- compression it tends to disintegrate into many
lenge. After the document was published and pieces. This is what we should avoid in building
distributed, PCA, which handles the work for design, and it can be done. After many meet-
cement manufacturers in the country, became ings, much analysis, and much laboratory work,
concerned that this was a case where structural we developed a procedure whereby concrete
steel was being qualified, and concrete was not. framing could be designed to be ductile and
So they engaged Professor Nathan Newmark not fail in shear or diagonal tension. Even col-
at the University of Illinois, and his colleagues, umns in compression could be so designed as to
to do some laboratory test work on concrete to have toughness and ductility, to a certain
try to develop and demonstrate its ductility degree. Of course it's desirable to avoid failure
when properly designed. I found out later that in columns in general, if it can be done.
Y C A also investigated all the structural engi-
neers in California and finally came to me as PCA published a book under hard cover, copy-
their selection to work with Newmark in devel- right in 1961 as I recall, with the title Design of
oping a procedure and manual on how to make Multistory Reinforced Concrete Buildingsfor
concrete ductile. Eartbquuke Motions." T h e joint authors are
listed as Blume, Newmark, and Corning. Leo
Blume-Newmmk- Corning Book Corning's participation in this effort was purely
editorial, since he worked as part of the PCA
Blume: I thought about this quite a while
organization. He did a marvelous job, but all
before accepting-I finally did accept. Not that
decisions as to the contents and procedures to
I was interested in the use of concrete vs. steel,
be followed were made by Blume and New-
but I thought it to be an excellent opportunity
mark.
to improve knowledge about energy absorption
and ductility in any material, and to add greatly Scott: So he was, in effect, a staff person of
to thc effort I had undertaken years before to the Portland Cement Association?
try to do something about the earthquake
problem. I had no idea when I got into it how Blume: That is correct-a highly respected
controversial it would turn out to be years later. man throughout the profession. In fact, we had
such respect for him we made him a joint
About 1958, or possibly early 1959, I started author, even though technically he was not
work with Nathan Newmark on how to design such.

1 1. Recommended Lateral Force Requirements, 12. Blume, John A., Nathan Newmark, and Leo H.
Seismology Committee, Structural Engineers Corning, Dm'p of Multistory Reinforced Concrete
Association of California. SEAOC, San Fran- Buildingsfor Earthquake Motions. Portland
cisco, CA, 1959. Cement Association, 1961.

42
 John A. Blume Committee Work and Seismic Codes Chapter 5

This book, issued in 1961, was preceded by Scott: Roy Johnston of southern California?
oral presentations by Newmark and Blume
Blume: Yes.
before each of the then three structural engi-
neer associations-central, southern, and Scott: That would have been in the early
northern California. T h e book was distributed ' ~ O Sfairly
, soon after the book came out?
free of cost to all structural engineers in the
state, and perhaps elsewhere, at the time. I have Blume: Yes. It started in 1962, but as a result
understood since that it has been translated of what happened, it delayed the use of the
into four other languages, and is in extensive principles involved, in getting them into codes,
use as a textbook and reference throughout the for seven or eight years. This was most unfor-
world. T h e authors were not compensated on a tunate, because during that time period build-
royalty basis. ings were being designed without being
ductile. I think Olive View Hospital is an excel-
Degenkolb-Johnston Critique lent example-a brand-new building destroyed
by the 1971 San Fernando earthquake, not to
Blume: What I didn't expect was the con- mention the thousands of concrete buildings
troversy that developed over the book. Appar- not only here but in foreign countries
ently the steel people, namely the American where they design differently than we do in
Iron and Steel Institute, took this as an attack California.
on or a threat to the use of steel, rather than
what it really was-a needed improvement of a T h e critique prepared by Degenkolb and
building material that was going to be used Johnston was done quietly. In fact, I didn't even
anyway, and has always been used throughout know about it until it was issued. When it came
the world in modern times. out it was distributed in supposedly a private
manner, at least by the engineers involved. But
Scott: In other words, it was not intended as
apparently the steel industry, in promoting
an attack on steel, but rather to find better ways
steel, spread it over the country. Without pub-
to use concrete.
lishing, it was distributed by hand somehow. In
Blume: Exactly. But the steel industry made fact, I heard that at the Third World Confer-
it a competitive battle, and they engaged Henry ence on Earthquake Engineering in New Zeal-
Degenkolb and Roy Johnston as engineers to and it was passed out to the delegates present.
write a critique13about the book and its rec-
ommendations. T h e critique challenged the concept and criti-
cized lack of detail about joint reinforcing, and
13. Dcgenkolb, Henry J. and Roy G. Johnston, other matters. When I got a copy of it I talked
Critique of the Portland Cement Association's
"Designof Multistory Reinforced Concrete Buildings to Nate Newmark about what he thought we
f w Earthquake Motions. ihnerican Iron and should do. H e thought we should just let it "go
Steel Institute, 1963. Unpublished manuscript
on file in the Earthquake Engineering Research away." But it persisted, so I requested a meeting
Center Library, Richmond, CA. of the San Francisco area engineers involved,

43
 Chapter 5 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

including Henry Degenkolh, so I would have a would write it differently. I say Henry-Roy
chance to rebut the critique. Johnston was a co-author, but I suspect from
what I know that Henry did most of the work
This meeting was held in San Francisco at the
on it.
Engineer's Club in a private room, on Septem-
ber 18, 1963, and I rebutted the critique for a I think the motive of the engineers was good-
pcriod of two to three hours, point-by-point, if they were merely trying to make sure that
itern-by-item. When I was done the chairman nothing was done that would be a public haz-
called upon Henry and said, "Henry, it's your ard. This matter was apparently picked up by
turn now." Henry said, "I agree with 97% of the steel industry and used in an attempt to get
what John said." So I said, "Let's talk about the more steel used, as compared to concrete. I
3%," and he said, "It's not very important." So think if they had simply talked over the situa-
1said, " W h a t are you going to do about this?" tion and worked it out jointly, without wide
He said, "Nothing, our work for the steel distribution of this so-called private critique,
industry is completed." To make a long story we engineers and the public all would have
short, the code adoption of the basic principles been better off.
of ductility for concrete was delayed for several
years after the book was released. While not too many of these buildings have
been tested in severe earthquakes, whatever
The main concern was the joint details, and results we have show two things: (1) nonductile
admittedly they have been improved by more concrete can be a hazard in a frame building,
testing and research that has been done since. and (2) ductile concrete is infinitely better and
Rut 1 wish to point out that no use of any mate- safer.
rial is perfect at the first use. The best example
is structural steel, where after almost 100 years I would not like to leave the impression, nor
of use it's still being improved. In other words, reinforce it if there is one already existing, that
the improvements are evolutionary in nature. I am opposed to structural steel. Such is not the
So anybody looking for absolute perfection in case; in fact, I have designed in all materials,
the first attempt to make concrete ductile was and my office over the years has used as much,
being, I think, a little too critical, and it was if not more, steel than most firms in the coun-
most unfortunate what happened. try. I have often said that any material of pre-
dictable and consistent properties can be made
Scott: Was the controversy partly a matter earthquake-resistant. Moreover, my father was
of the steel people misinterpreting or misusing a steel-erecting contractor, I worked as an iron-
the Degenkolb-Johnston critique, since Henry worker on erection of steel towers, buildings,
said he agreed with 97% of what you said? Did gas holders, etc., and I was a construction engi-
the steel people just kind of use it for overkill? neer on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay
Blume: I think they must have, although the Bridge. In addition, I appeared in the Bethle-
critique itself was very strong in some of its lan- hem Steel Company movie, "Men, Steel, and
guage. I think if Henry had it to write over he Earthquakes," and co-designed the Bethlehem

44
 John A. Blume Committee Work and Seismic Codes Chapter 5

Steel San Francisco office building. So, in spite loading." This was indeed a shock to me-time
of rumors to the contrary, I am not prejudiced and money had been spent on testing speci-
against steel. But it, too, must be properly mens for which the results could have been
designed. anticipated-negative results. I listed 10 spe-
cific reasons why the tests were meaningless in
The original Blue Book paragraph (j) about large part, and I noted that the one specimen
steel really stirred up a controversy, as some of that was not too bad in similitude had a ductil-
us were afraid it would. But it got action that ity value of 23!
was in the public welfare, even though it turned
out to be a lengthy, painful process.
Uniform Building Code Provides for
Concrete Ductility (1967)
Afkerwards: Kept Off Committees
Blume: I do not know what went on thereaf-
Blume: I was in a somewhat peculiar situa- ter, but the Blue Book issued later in 1966 con-
tion in the years after the Degenkolb-Johnston tained some provisions for ductile concrete.
critique came out [in 19631 and the time of Finally, in 1967, the Uniform Building Code
approval of the ductile concrete concept in included provisions for concrete ductility for
1966. I was no longer engaged by PCA, but highrise and certain other buildings, and this
apparently everyone thought I was, and kept leads to another important point. Even though
ine off of seismic committees to avoid a conflict the original Blue Book code provisions
of interest. I knew things were going on, but I required ductility only above a certain height, I
did not know what. If anyone asked me a ques- think anyone who reads the book by Blume,
tion, T rcsponded with dispatch and tried to be Newmark and Corning will get the message
helpful without prejudice. As I recall, Pete very clearly that the principles apply to any
Kellarn and Bob Dalton were the only ones to frame building. A 2-3-4-story building can col-
send me any information and ask my advice. lapse just as well as a taller multistory building.
So in 1967 the Uniform Building Code was
For example, Bob sent me data with a letter of
amended to require ductility for all heights of
February 11,1066, from which I learned of the
buildings of certain characteristics. I heartily
testing that had been going on by PCA, as
endorse this for all frame buildings. All in all,
requested by the contemporary Blue Rook
the use of concrete in buildings has improved
committees. Much of it was, as I replied to
dramatically in the last 10 to 15 years.
Bob, "Not conforming to BNC recommenda-
tions [recommendations put forth in the Bume-
Newmark-Corning b ~ o k ' ~ACI ] , specifica-
tions, and/or realistic building geometry or
~~

14. Blume, John A., Nathan Newmark, and Leo H. 15. Ductility is the ratio of the ultimate strength
Corning, Design of MultiG-tV Reinjorced G'oncretc. divided by the elastic limit. Most ductility
Buildingsfw Earthquake Motions. Portland values, as applied in desip, are in the range
Ccment Association, 1961. of 4 to 6.

45
 Chapter 5 Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

Hazards of Nonductile Design force, because that makes the steel too strong.
We want the steel to stretch like taffy, so duc-
Blume: The most hazardous structures are
tile concrete involves the use of less steel in
certainly the unreinforced brick buildings, but
certain cases than otherwise might be used.
also along with them I'm afraid of many non-
ductile-design concrete frame buildings of even There's also the principle of confinement. In
a few stories. I think recent earthquakes in this case the concrete does crack or crush in a
and other countries have borne out this fact. severe earthquake, in a local manner, there has
On the other hand, if the principles are to be enough confining steel so that the hoops
applied-the principles that came out in the and ties and spirals keep the concrete from
book by Blume, Newmark, and Corning-this going anywhere. So these were new principles,
hazard can be avoided. It's a lot more work to consisting basically of (1) making sure the
design that way, and it's more difficult in con- member-when and if it should have to fail
structioii, but the end justifies the extra effort locally-does so by the stretching of the steel
and cost. bars, and in no other way, and especially avoid-
The concept of ductility came up in the origi- ing at all times shear failures or tension failures;
nal Blue Book committee meetings in 1957 and and (2) confining the concrete particles from
1958. In fact, I repeatedly brought it up, as well any local crushing, almost like in a basket.
as a few other people. At that time, it was felt Shear and tension failures are abrupt, lack duc-
that the only way to get this ductility was tility, and lead to complete failure of the sys-
[through] the use of structural steel. After the tem. They should and can be avoided.
1959 Blue Book came out and PCA went to
work on it, we found a way to make concrete Other Issues Had Roots in
ductile. The Blume-Newmark-Corning book
Separate 66
was issued in 1961.
Blume: There were many issues in the early
Scott: Would you explain in simple terms code days, other than ductility. Many of these
what the new design consisted of? Was it the had their roots in the 195 1 ASCE Separate 66,
use of reinforcement, or the design of the and survived being worked over by many com-
joints? mittees and eager committee members over the
Blume: Well, reinforcement had always been years. One of these, the triangular distribution
used in reinforced concrete. It's not that as of the lateral forces, which had its roots in my
such. It's the proper amount and distribution 1934 thesis effort, I believe still survives in all
and use of the reinforcement steel-the way it's the codes. The portion of the total force
used. If we take a beam in bending, or a girder assigned to the top of slender buildings has
in bending, the object of ductile design is to varied somewhat over the years; I clearly
make the reinforcing steel reach its elastic limit recall proposing that concept in a San
before the concrete starts to crush. So to ensure Francisco meeting of the Blue Book commit-
this action, the principle is not to over-rein- tee, circa 1958.

46
 John A. Blume Committee Work and Seismic Codes Chapter 5

In spite of much study and tinkering, for many attendance by all members and also officials of
years the [Separate] 66 forms of the "C" and the city, such as the building inspector, the
the "T"computation have also held up well in director of public works, fire chief, and other
the Blue Books, the Uniform Code, and the officials from time to time.
local codes.16 The 1956 San Francisco code
followed essentially the "66" format. So the Interest in this committee was triggered by the
products of much labor have been used exten- 197 1 San Fernando earthquake. One of the key
sively. The fact that the early efforts survived issues that we faced early on was enforcement
decades of reexamination by hundreds of active of the so-called parapet ordinance, which was a
committee members indicates that the early real hot potato. The parapet ordinance requires
work results were not all that bad. that downtown buildings have their parapets
examined, and if found faulty-as most of them
Organizational Activity were-they had to be either removed or
Blume: Over the years I've been involved in strengthened. The object, of course, was to
a great deal of committee activity in various prevent the parapets from being thrown into
associations and agencies. I'd like to mention a the streets and killing people. Past earthquakes
couple more here, even though I'm jumping have shown that parapets and ornamentation
ahead a bit. on buildings create real hazards to those in the
streets. Of course it's not a good policy to be in
San Francisco Seismic Hazards Committee the street next to a tall building anyway, but
Blume: The city and county of San people are, nevertheless.
Francisco set up a special public service com-
This committee was unique in the sense that
mittee in 197 1 under the name of the San
Francisco Seismic Investigation and Hazards architects, structural engineers, mechanical
Survey Advisory Committee, which is generally engineers, electrical engineers, soil mechanics
abbreviated to SIHSAC. people and seismologistswere all on one com-
mittee. It is a good example of something I've
In spite of the long name, this was an official been preaching for a long time, and that is the
committee of the city. The members who were interaction of the professions. I've often said
appointed had to be sworn in, and were paid a
that the earthquake doesn't give a damn what
few dollars per meeting, but as I recall, not
you have on your diploma. These various pro-
enough to cover dinner expenses. I was a mem-
fessions have to work together to make head-
ber and chairman from the start in 1972 to the
time of my resignation in 1978. During that way.
time 30 meetings were held, each in an evening I had to resign from this group in 1978,
session of two to three hours, with excellent because I was getting ready to assume the pres-
16. C = applied lateral force coefficient; T = period idency of EERI, which was by then a very
of vibration. active organization.

47
 Chapter 5 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

Scott: Would you say a little about the selec- could come to us and ask our advice if it had
tion of the committee? It sounds like a pretty anything to do with earthquakes. In general we
able, distinguished group. were a referral group, where the city could
Blume: Yes, it was. T h e selection was gener- come to us for any questions they had on earth-
ally made by each organization in the city, for quake problems, and they had plenty.
example, the structural engineers would have
appointed someone, the architects would National Academy Hazara3 Panel
appoint someone. Blume: Another committee that I was chair-
man of, about 15 years ago [ 19751, was a
Scott: So the city asked each of the organiza-
national committee sponsored by the National
tions to recommend or appoint someone.
Academy of Engineering. It was actually a
Blume: I think the only exception was panel entitled the Natural Hazards and Disas-
myself. I think I was appointed by the city to ters Panel of the Committee on Public Engi-
start with. But even though the association neering Policy of the National Academy of
would appoint a person, he would have to be Engineering. This committee was charged not
blessed by the city fathers and sworn in. only with earthquakes, but also with all natural
Scott: Would you say a little more about disasters, including hurricane, tornado, flood,
what it has done? Is it still in existence? firestorm, windstorm, and anything of a natural
basis. T h e best example of fire hazard being
Blume: Yes, I believe it's been reactivated
natural is the 1987 California fires.
recently. T h e function of the group was many-
fold. It was partly cducational, to help the fire This committee was represented by very fine
department and the building department and members from all over the country. We met in
the others to get up to speed on the latest San Francisco for several days straight. We
earthquake findings. It was also advisory to the made ourselves useful in national research bud-
mayor and to the supervisors in the sense that geting procedures and our recommendations
with any controversial or pending issue, they were well received.

48
 Chapter 6

History of EERI
“EERI turned out to be a viable organization. It has
done a great deal to help research and other efforts
in earthquake engineering and structural dynamics. “

Advisory Committee on Engineering

Seismology (ACES)
Blume: Going back a few years and talking about the early
organizations’ concern with earthquake engineering and engi-
neering seismology. In April 1947,’’ eight people met in San
Francisco with officials from the U.S. Coast and Geodetic
Survey. They met by invitation. The eight people were: John
Bolles (architect), Harold Engle, Harmer Davis, John Little,
Lydik Jacobsen, Henry Powers, D.C. Willett, and John
Blume. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the possible
formation of a committee to advise the United States govern-
ment on earthquake matters.

In May 1947, Professor R.R. Martel, Col. William Fox

(Superintendent of the Los Angeles County Building Depart-
ment) and George Housner, from southern California, were
added to the group. In September 5,1947, these eleven peo-
~

17. In 1947, Blume was vice-president of SEAONC,working on code

matters for the San Francisco building code (Vensano code,
eventually issued in 1949), working for the Arabian American Oil
Company, and developing his business as a sole practitioner.

49
 Chapter 6 Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

ple, plus Professor [Alfred L.] Miller of the finally decided to incorporate as a nonprofit
University of Washington, and Samuel Morris organization.
of the Los Angeles Department of Water and
T h e first year, our meeting was in San Fran-
Power, met for the first time in a very busy all-
cisco, on April 2, 1949. Because of legal
day session in San Francisco. These people
mechanics, the first members were only four-
represented five universities, three governmen-
Lydik Jacobsen, George Housner, John Bolles
tal agencies, and seven professional organiza-
and Rlume. However, minutes later the other
tions. T h e name of the group was Advisory
members of ACES were brought in as mem-
Committee on Engineering Seismology
bers of the institute. John Bolles was an archi-
(ACES). Lydik Jacobsen was elected chairman,
tect who was active in the early days of the
Col. Fox, vice chairman, and John Blurne, per-
institute, but dropped out of EERI activity a
manent secretary. These three also constituted
few years later. Frank Ulrich was also admitted
the executive committee.
as a member.

Founding and First Meeting For many years-I believe until 1973-mem-
bership was open only by invitation. It was con-
Blume: T h e agenda was enormous. It sidered an honor. After 1973, however,
included about every subject possible on earth- membership was open by application, and now
quake cngineering. Among the 30 items con- members are from all over the world.
sidered on the ACES agenda that day was "to
establish an earthquake engineering research T h e original bylaws provided for seven board
institutc." ACES met at least once per year, and members, no more than three of whom could
there was a lot of activity in between the meet- be from any one of the following fields of
ings on the part of the officers. Always upper- effort: professional practice, teaching and
inost in the discussions was the need for an research, and governmental regulation. T h e
carthquake institute. Of course the institute object of all this was to create a balance, for a
thcy had in mind was not just a society, but an better exchange of philosophy between the dif-
actual testing facility with a director-the ferent groups.
whole works. At the first meeting, Jacobsen was elected pres-
ident, Housner vice-president, Blume secre-
Out of this ACES group was conceived the idea
tary, and Ulrich treasurer. I served as secretary
of the Earthquake Engineering Research
until 1952, when that office was taken over by
Institute (EERI). I'm happy to say I had an
Ray Clough, who was then a young professor at
opportunity to play a prominent part in the
Berkeley.
formation of that institute, which today has
over 2,400 members, and is known throughout
the world. Committee activity on the part of A Clearinghouse Role
the ACES members led to reports on how the Blume: In spite of all the high ideals about
institute might be organized and formed. It was forming an institution with a building, labora-

50
 John A. Blume History of EERl Chapter 6

tory and director, that still hasn't come to pass tee members were R.W. Binder, John Blume,
and may never come to pass. What happened William Cloud, Ray Clough, Henry Degen-
instead is that the institute worked as sort of a kolb, Martin Duke, Alfred Miller, Henry Pow-
clearinghouse for research information and for ers, and John Rinne. Arrangements were made
policymaking. Funds for research were chan- with the University of California, Berkeley,
neled into the universities, namely Berkeley, extension division, to provide the meeting hall
Caltech, Stanford, and a few others. and to help with the housing arrangements.
Scott: Instead of going to EERI, the A great deal of work was done, writing to dif-
research funds went to the university facilities? ferent countries and exploring the idea of
Blume: Yes, often with the endorsement of whether they could attend, whether they would
EERI. In fact, EERI would have ad hoc com- attend. The job I was assigned was to promote
mittees who would report on what should be foreign attendance, and to organize panel dis-
done, on what might be done, and some uni- cussions with people from different countries.
versity-often Caltech-would pick up the idea I'm happy to say that the meeting came off
and go ahead with it. well. As I recall, we had attendance from over
20 other countries. The 5-day conference
Scott: So EERI helped generate or promote (June 12-16, inclusive, 1956) was completely
ideas for research? successful.
Blume: Yes. It also gave the endorsement by
There were about 40 papers presented at the
a wide body of recognized people that the
conference, with the authors from 13 countries.
research was worthwhile. That is something
In addition, there were two lively panel sessions
the government is always looking for. In
with panelists from five and six countries,
fact, they're still looking for this kind of
respectively. The Japanese were very active in
endorsement.
attendance and in participation. My paper was
In 1955, a group of the San Francisco Bay Area a complete update of the work on the 15-story
members of EERI came up with the concept of guinea pig, the Alexander Building, from my
a world conference on earthquake engineering 1934 thesis. I spent many days on new analyses
-something that had never been attempted for this paper. I also moderated one of the
before. panel sessions. Harold Engle was moderator of
the other panel. English was the main lan-
First World Conference on guage, but there was considerable interpreting.
Earthquake Engineering All in all, things went very well indeed.

Blume: John f i n e , who was then a director

and vice president of EERI, became the active Three Periods of EERI Activity
chairman of an organizing committee to Blume: Even without the world conference
explore the possibilities of a world conference, success, EERI turned out to be a viable organi-
and later to execute the project. The commit- zation. It has done a great deal to help research

51
 Chapter 6 Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

anti other efforts in earthquake engineering One of the main things that EERI has done is
and structural dynamics. My organizational to provide [a forum for] a cross-section of the
activities were bunched into three time periods. various types of people and agencies interested
First was the original organization, in which I in earthquakes, [it has become] the one com-
played a very active role in working with the mon denominator. We have architects, engi-
lawyers, drumming up cash funds to pay for neers of all types, seismologists, building
initial expenses, and as the secretary, locally sit- officials, social scientists, educators, officials,
uated in San Francisco, pretty much carrying insurance people-everyone who should be
the ball on the details. Then after several years concerned with earthquakes is represented in
as a director and officer I dropped out of active the membership. I believe EERI is the only
participation, came in again about 10 years Organization that does this. It is very impor-
later, and dropped out again. Finally, in 1976 I tant, because the solution of the earthquake
was made an honorary member, and following problem, in my opinion, is not just technical-
that I was elccted president, and started serving it involves society. People's reactions to earth-
the organization all over again. I was president quakes and their welfare in earthquakes are
more important than the buildings themselves.
for three years, 1978, '79, and '80, and found it
T h e great loss of life that we have heard about
to be an entirely different organization than we
in other countries could happen here, though
originally had. It was large, diversified, and
not as bad, we think, because the buildings here
very active. All in all, it's been a very satisfac-
are slightly better. But EERI has fostered and
tory cxperience and the organization is com-
undertaken not only the study of earthquake
plctcly successful.
damage, but research, theory of dynamics, seis-
mology, and is now engaged in putting out for-
Relations With the mal publications on these subjects. It has
Seismological Society become the focal point of earthquake engineer-
ing in this country and, to considerable extent,
Blume: Going back in history once again, I
in other countries as well.
might add that in the early days it was thought
that the Seisinological Society of America
might get involvcd in the organization [EERI] International Association of
or take it under its wing. 'That was kicked Earthquake Engineering ( M E )
around at one time. Digging into my old files, I Blume: After the First World Conference in
hoped to find correspondence that would be Berkeley in 1956, the next one was held in
very interesting, back in 1948-49, about these Japan in 1960. As a result of that meeting, and
things. There was a nice letter from Perry some more effort on the part of John Rinne
Ryerly on this subject, but I have not been able and others-especially Dr. Kiyoshi Muto of
to locate it. SSA was not at all opposed to the Japan-the International Association of Earth-
concept of EEFU, but simply felt it should be quake Engineering was organized. It is still
an independent organization. active and consists of representatives from a

52
 John A. Blume History of EERl Chapter 6

great many countries. The world conferences

have been held under its sponsorship roughly
every four years ever since-New Zealand,
Chile, Italy, India, Turkey and San Francisco.
Volumes of papers and proceedings are pub-
lished from each conference. So from a very
small beginning, things have developed very
nicely in this regard.

53
 Chapter 7

Seismic Work for

Nuclear Testing
.I had to lean strongly on what I knew about
ff..

natural earthquakes and how buildings responded

to natural earthquakes.

Blume: Back in September 1963, the Atomic Energy Com-

mission (AEC) set off an underground nuclear test at the
Nevada Test Site. T h e test was called BILBY. This caused
reaction in downtown Las Vegas and elsewhere, because build-
ings 80 to 90 miles away responded to the ground motion
resulting from the event. This caused quite a flap.
As a result of this, the Atomic Energy Commission undertook
a search for a firm to handle the structural response problems,
to ensure safety of the public and structures at all times, and to
be of advice regarding limits of ground shaking that might be
undertaken. We were asked to put in a proposal for this work,
which we did, in 1964. I was very happy to learn later that we
were selected to be the contractor, as they called it, on struc-
tural response from all nuclear testing, not only at the Nevada
test site, but wherever it might be done for the U.S.

Meager Data
Blume: In the early stages of this effort we had very, very lit-
tle-in fact meager-empirical information to go by in the

55
 Chapter 7 Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

seismic field of nuclear shots, so I had to lean ered feasible from their point of view, but may
strongly on what I knew about natural earth- not be from our point of view.
quakes and how buildings responded to natural
earthquakes. There was a rather ambitious Scott: Do you mean from the viewpoint of
nuclear testing program planned, including possibly causing structural damage to some
existing buildings?
somc shots that would be considerably greater
than BILBY. Blume: Yes. We constantly had to keep that
in mind.
Although we preferred that they escalate grad-
ually into what they call yield, or the effective Scott: In other words if you thought they
energy of the explosion, so we could gain were working up to the point where the next
eiiipirical data as things progressed, this was shot might cause damage nearby, or especially
not practical froin the testing point of view. So in Las Vegas, some 100 miles away, you would
we had to analyze structures and outline instru- advise them of that?
ment arrays that would record the motion of Blume: That's correct. At times it would
the ground, and motion in the buildings, and make me very unpopular with the testing labo-
constantly advise the AEC officials as to any ratories, notably Lawrence, Sandia, and Los
hazards that might be involved. Alamos, whose main function was to test the
weapons and devices.
I found this to be quite a challenge and a great
responsibility. I personally was involved, and Scott: When that happened, how did you
led all of the effort for a great many years. It resolve the matter?
was also a great opportunity to gather informa-
Blume: Well, we had to demonstrate our
tion that would be useful in the natural earth-
analyses before these scientists, and believe me
quake program. 'The main reason for this is they had some brilliant people involved from
that we knew in advance when the "earth- all the laboratories. I gave dozens, perhaps
quake" was going to happen-which is not true hundreds, of presentations explaining not only
of natural earthquakes, at least not yet. We what we thought but how we arrived at the
could set up instruments, station observers, and conclusions. Our efforts might have reduced
generally act on a scientific basis to collect data some of the shot levels involved, but not drasti-
that would build up a body of knowledge, cally. We were willing to go along or extrapo-
which we did. late to a certain extent, as long as we could
instrument and monitor, and the public was not
Safety Concerns: Possible in danger.
Structural Damage
One of the things that made it very difficult was
Blume: In the meantime, however, we had to the nature of the buildings in Las Vegas. Las
be constantly aware of public safety, and advise Vegas is from 70 to 100 miles away from the
the officials as to when a shot might be consid- heart of the test site where the shots originate,

56
 John A. BIume Seismic Work for Nuclear Testing Chapter 7

and yet the long period surface waves would one or two weak stories, which we corrected
come rolling through and last for a full minute with more walls. But in the process of breaking
or more. T h e nature of these waves was such into the old structure to connect the new walls,
that it made the tall buildings really respond. we found that the old structure had not been
These tall buildings were designed under the built according to its own drawings. It was
old Uniform Building Code, zone 1, which is worse than we thought it was. But we fixed it
so light, earthquake-wise, that the wind-design up, and it's been through a great many shots
criteria would be much more of a lateral force since with no problems.
factor than earthquake design requirements.

Zone 1 is the lowest, or next to the

Reporting on the Shots
Scott:
lowest? Blume: All of our prognostications as to
what might happen had to be submitted in
Blume: It's next to the lowest in the old Uni-
writing, and also orally before scientific com-
form Code, so that was a bad omen to start
mittees. Immediately after each shot we had to
with. T h e second bad feature in Las Vegas was
write another report explaining how things
that most of the engineers who designed these
compared with our predictions, and explain any
buildings were from the east [coast], without
variations. Fortunately, the variations turned
any real knowledge of earthquake matters. As I
out to be minor. All the way through this pro-
have always said, to do a good job you not only
gram, what we learned-and I've published
need to follow the code, but you also have to
many papers on what we learned-has been a
have a feel for earthquakes. So here we were
great help to the earthquake field and vice
with many buildings that we really didn't like,
versa. Also, the knowledge in the natural earth-
which I would say was the choke point on the
quake field helped to carry us through those
whole testing program.
early years in the test program. In other words,
In fact we found one building to be so bad that the two types of earthquakes-natural and test-
we had to report it as an individual case to AEC shot-were synergistic.
management, and believe it or not, after
months of study and consideration, the United Nuclear and Natural Earthquakes
States government fixed this building up under
Scott: Would you compare and contrast the
our direction, so it would not affect their test
earthquakes caused by the underground
program.
nuclear explosions with natural earthquakes?
Scott: You mean, even though it was a pri- Blume: A seismologist can tell immediately
vately-owned building, they fixed it up so they by looking at a time-history record of the
could get on with their testing program? motion whether it's nuclear or natural [ground
Blume: That's right. I don't think it had ever motion]. There are perhaps two things
been done before, or [has been] since. Fortu- involved here. You said "earthquakes" caused
nately, it was fairly simple to fix up. There were by underground explosions. That is one possi-

57
 Chapter 7 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

bility, an explosion triggering a natural earth- Reassuring the Public

quake, which would eventually have happened
Blume: In the early stages of the program, in
anyway. No doubt some small earthquakes have
fact for many years, during each major shot the
been so triggered. But our main problem in Nevada operations office of AEC wanted me
this testing program was the earth shaking- personally to be at the top of one of the tallest
the "artificial" earthquake caused by the explo- buildings in town. Of course it would be one
sion-which is slightly different. An earth- tall building for one event, and for the next
quake caused by explosion in Nevada is event I'd go to another building, etc. They
surprisingly long-lasting. I mentioned a full would personally assure the public by radio and
minute of strong motion. It's also surprisingly TV, I guess, that everything was all right-"Dr.
periodic. By that I mean the natural periods of Blume is going to be on top of one of the tall
the waves tend to repeat over and over again, buildings." It was rather strange to hear this
which is tough on a structure that has a period coming over the radio early in the morning
in the same range. while you're waiting for a shot to go off.

'The Las Vegas Valley is deep, of alluvial-type Scott: Your presence there was to reassure
material, like a bowl of stiff jelly actually, and the population.
the waves bounce off the mountains and the Blume: Right. We also had a scale program
sides of the valley and keep pouring in from all set up to record human observation of the
directions. But, as with natural earthquakes, motion. Each event had trained observers at all
there is first the compression wave, then the the buildings at various points, and they would
shear wave, then the surface waves. T h e waves rate the motion according to a scale that we
are quite similar in the two kinds of earth- developed. Of course I would also do my own
quakes. As far as magnitude is concerned, it's rating. I was at the top of the Mint Building in
hard to compute the definite magnitude, but downtown Las Vegas for one shot, and I hap-
roughly the biggest shots in Nevada would pened to be in the penthouse right opposite the
have been 6 or 6+ on the Richter magnitude swimming pool, which was full of water.
scalc, which is a big earthquake. T h e shot finally went off, and after the com-
When you're in a tall building during one of pression and shear waves went by, the surface
these shaking events you can definitely feel the waves started pouring in, and the water in the
swimming pool started to respond. T h e water
motion. T h e persons who were not concerned
was sloshing over both ends alternately, onto
were the gamblers, who wouldn't even look up
the paved tile.
from the table. They'd just carry on with their
gambling, regardless of what happened. I've One of the newsmen who was up there didn't
seen chandeliers swing back and forth, with the get enough action shots, so afterward he
gamblers playing games right below them stacked about 30 silver dollars on top of each
without even looking up. other to make a pile. He then proceeded to

58
 John A. Blume Seismic Work for Nuclear Testing Chapter 7

hammer the table with his hand (out of camera in which I, among others, participated. On
range) and took pictures of the silver coins April 24,1968, two days before BOXCAR went
falling over. off, a large public meeting was held in Las
Vegas. About the same time Hughes had peo-
Scott: He manufactured his own miniature
ple in Washington, D.C. trying to block the
earthquake!
test, and giving press conferences about the
Blume: That's right. This reminds me of hazards involved, especially to Hoover Dam, of
when I was shaking the Los Angeles City Hall all things! I pointed out at the public meeting
with a shaking machine years before. The the fact that Hoover Dam had already survived,
Path6 News camera people were there, and without incident, natural earthquake motion
they too did not get enough action from the 154 times stronger than from event GREE-
first go-around, so they proceeded to take a LEY, which had already taken place, and that
glass of water and put it on the machine. Then GREELEY had almost the same yield as was
out of range of the camera, they would hit the proposed for BOXCAR
machine with a sledge hammer so the water jig-
gled. I guess you call these things "local color" The then Hughes dam expert, according to the
in the news media. press, was a botany professor at an eastern uni-
versity. I should have mentioned that Howard
We had many interesting events occur during Hughes was then resident in Las Vegas. The
these shots. During one shot we were stationed story was that when he arrived he could not get
in the Dunes Hotel in a stairwell with instru- the rooms he wanted so he bought the hotel
ments up high in the building. There had been and occupied the top story. There was no
public announcements in advance that there doubt about his feeling the motion from the
would be a shot, and to be aware of ground shots. BOXCAR went off on schedule in spite
motion and building response. But this one of all the protesting, and everything went
woman apparently didn't hear the forecast, according to plan. The yield was 1,300
because she ran down the stairs completely kilotons.
nude yelling, "There's an earthquake, there's
an earthquake!" Another big event, BENHAM was scheduled
for December of the same year, 1968. Howard
The Howard Hughes Protests Hughes had a whole battery of experts of all
types. They asked for, and got, a special AEC
Blume: Howard Hughes did not like nuclear briefing session on December 17, two days
explosions, and he did all he could to block two before the shot was to go. Hughes had 15 or so
of the largest of the underground shots in experts, good ones for the most part-on
Nevada - BOXCAR and BENHAM. Each of
groundwater hydrology, structures, dynamics,
these was to have roughly 4 times the energy of radiation, and the like.
BILBY. The AEC [Atomic Energy Commis-
sion] made advance public announcements of The AEC consultants, including myself, each
these events. In fact, public briefings were held, briefed this group about this phase of the opera-

59
 Chapter 7 Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

tion. T h e Hughes people would ask questions even leaning over backwards for the property
and offer any comments they wanted to. T h e owners, we found only a tiny percent of the
meeting went on all day, with n o stop for lunch claims had any reality to them. They'd com-
or anything else. T h e AEC chairman of the plain about cracks in walls, foundations, swim-
meeting, Jim Reeves, smoked a corncob pipe. ming pools, and we'd look with magnifylng
Whenever the meeting looked like it was glasses and we'd find there would be coats of
dragging on too long, and people were getting paint, spiders, dust-in other words the crack
nervous, he would pull out his corncob pipe, was pre-existing. O n one wall we found the
slowly fill it with tobacco, tamp it and light wall had been painted four times since it origi-
it, to show that he had all the time in the world. nally cracked. T h e property owners were not,
T h e experts had very few questions actually, in general, trying to cheat the government.
because we'd done such a good job briefing They just didn't realize the situation until they
them. were advised that the ground was going to
shake. O n one occasion, AEC received a tele-
We learned later that Howard Hughes was also
phone call from a property owner who said, "I
working through his people in Washington,
have damage to report from the shot that went
D. C. to get the shot stopped. That failed, and
off this morning." H e was informed that h e
the meeting with the experts in Las Vegas also
shot had not gone off-it had been postponed
failed, because there was nothing they could
on account of weather conditions until the next
bring out that could counteract what we had
morning-and he said, "I'll call back later."
already planned for.
Scott: In other words, Howard Hughes was Modest Code Improvements
getting a rather elaborate independent review
done of the AEC and your activities, which Blume: I mentioned before about the Las
stood up well. Vegas building code then being zone 1. In
many of our publications we pointed out that it
Blume: That's right. T h e result was it cost should be a higher zone-2 or 3 for taller
Howard Hughes a lot of money, which I buildings-which would "feel" the motion
guess didn't matter to him. T h e BENHAM from distant earthquakes, if not from nuclear
shot went off on schedule, and everything shots.
went according to plan. It was rated at 1,150
kilotons. Scott: You mean even without the nuclear
shot consideration, Las Vegas really should
Damage Claims Increased have been in a higher zone?
With Publicity Blume: Right. In fact, one of the things I
Blume: It was interesting to note that the have long pointed out in my work in general is
more a shot was pre-publicized, the more dam- that tall buildings that have long periods of
age claims would come in afterwards. We vibration are subject to distant, large earth-
investigated all structural damage claims, and quakes, which produce large surface waves with

60
 John A. Blume Seismic Work for Nuclear Testing Chapter 7

long periods of vibration. In other words, if the Scott: An Owens Valley earthquake could
tall buildings in Las Vegas should be subjected have something a bit like the Mexico City
to motion from an earthquake somewhere in effect, couldn't it?
the Owens Valley in California [such as hap-
Blume: That's right. T h e Las Vegas valley is
pened] in 1872, they would respond strongly to not nearly as soft as the Mexican valley, but the
that motion. So I believe that tall buildings same principle applies. Waves can be periodic,
should be designed on a different basis than and have many repetitions and quite substantial
low buildings. amplitude. Mexico City is like a bowl of jelly.
I'm happy to report that Las Vegas, after listen- Las Vegas has a lot of stiff gravel mixed in with
the clay and sand. It's the same principle.
ing to this kind of talk for a few years, did grad-
uate to zone 2, and took a little more interest in
the earthquake design of its buildings. But even
zone 2 is not very much of a safeguard from
very large, distant earthquakes.

61
 Chapter 8

Return to Stanford
for Doctorate
“In 1964 I decided that if I were going to keep
that up, and even extend the work, I should go
back to school and get caught up to date on
everything new that had emerged since I had
previously studied. “

Scoa: You said we might start today with a discussion of

your returning to Stanford for your doctorate.
Blume: I think it might be worthwhile to cover this subject
briefly, as many people have peculiar ideas about why I went
back to Stanford after being out for 30 years. In fact, I was
called a 30-year dropout. I had been working very hard in the
early 1960s and prior years on some exotic analyses of build-
ings and other structures for dynamic treatment of the earth-
quake problem. In 1964 I decided that if I were going to keep
that up, and even extend the work, I should go back to school
and get caught up to date on everything new that had emerged
since I had previously studied. So I went back to Stanford, my
old a h a mater, in 1964. I embarked on a two-year program
toward getting my doctorate in engineering.

Before starting t h i s program I had no idea of all I was gemng

into. If I had it to do over again, I’d think twice. Nothing I

63
 Chapter 8 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

have said should reflect on the Stanford pro- gentleman, and a wonderful scholar. He had
gram, but rather on the uncertain workload I co-authored several books with Timoshenko,
was under with my business. I did not and one of the world's greatest engineering educa-
could not quit my office at all. In fact, 1contin- tors [Stephen Timoshenko, 1878-19721.
ued to run my office and manage several
T h e title of my dissertation was "The Dynamic
projects, while I went to school half-time.
Behavior of Multistory Buildings with Various
What upset my early plans was the great
Stiffness Characteristics."'* I completed my
demand on my time, especially for travel out-
work and was awarded my Ph.D. degree in Jan-
of-state for clients [PG&E, the Nuclear Regu-
uary of 1967. I have since been very glad that I
latory Commission, the Atomic Energy Com-
went through this program, not for the title,
mission, General Electric]. When I started out,
but for what I got out of it, which I have used
I found myself doing homework on airplanes,
many times since.
cutting classes, and in general not being a
good student.
Managing Conflicts of Work
I enrolled in regular courses for credit for and Study
about half of the normal workload at school. I
found myself in competition with top students Scott: How did you manage to get through
from all over the world. It was very interesting. all this and still run your own business?
After one quarter during which I missed classes Blume: It was quite difficult, not only
and had to scramble to get caught up on my because of the complexity of the school work,
work, I had to knuckle down and really face the but also because trying to plan my time was vir-
problems of being a graduate student. I want tually impossible. For example, I'd set aside a
the record to be clear that this was an earned day to work on my dissertation or some other
degree in all respects. I say that because some subject, say a Tuesday. My office would get
people have implied that I had some special hold of me or track me down on Monday and
treatment because of being an old-time alum- say, "Client X wants you to go to Washington,
nus of Stanford. Such was not the case. T h e D.C. tonight for two days of hearings," which
school does not work that way at all. would mean I not only failed to get the Tuesday
time free to work with, but also the week was
I took courses in matrix algebra, computer over half gone.
analysis of complex structures, computer soft-
ware technology, decision theory, probabilis- I often had to give up a lot of sleep. In my first
tics, statistics, and in general, everything that quarter back at school I made at least six trips
was fairly new to me. In addition to my courses out of the state, and possibly seven or eight,
for credit, I audited all the other graduate
courses that I thought might be of value to me. 18. Blume, John A., "The Dynamic Behavior of
Multi-Story Buildings With Various Stiffness
My dissertation was done under the advisorship Characteristics." Ph.D. dissertation. Stanford
of Professor Don Young, who was a very fine University, CA,1967.

64
 John A. Blume Return to Stanford Chapter 8

within a 2.5 month period. So you can see what puter center at 11:OO or 12:OO at night, I could
that did to my school work. get almost instant turn-around between the
hours of midnight and six in the morning.
But I toughed it out. I'm pretty stubborn, I
Toward the end of my dissertation, for about
guess. Things improved later on. After I
the last six or seven months, I virtually worked
reached the point where I had finished my
every night at the computer center, from mid-
courses for credit, I was then on my own for
night until dawn. By doing that they even let
the dissertation work.
me run the machine at times, as well as do my
It was a very complex dissertation, involving a own programming and card punching. I got so
great deal of computer work. In fact, I found I could program directly on the card punch
that during the day a t the computer center [at machine. I got a tremendous amount of work
Stanford], if one had a mistake in his first run, done that way, but it was hard on my sleep
he'd have to wait an hour or so to get a second routine.
run. I soon learned that if I arrived at the com-

65
 Chapter 9

Nuclear Power
Plant Design
0

“The design analysis of nuclear power plants

forced technology ahead by many years-even
decades ahead of its time. /I

Scorn Did your work on nuclear power plant design come at

approximately the same time as the doctoral work at Stanford?
Blume: Actually, some of it came at the same time, but some
of it came many years prior to my Stanford work, as well as
years after. It so happens that, in my opinion, one of the great
boosts to the earthquake engineering field was the advent of
nuclear power plants. The design analysis of nuclear power
plants forced technology ahead by many years-even decades
ahead of its time. Approximations that are inherent in the
design of tall buildings, for example, are too crude to be
accepted for a nuclear power plant analysis. The result was that
as these power plants came into being, a great deal of research
and hard thinking had to go into the earthquake criteria by the
pioneers in the field. This included Nathan Newmark of the
University of Illinois, and our office.

Early Work for General Electric

Blume: Before doing work for the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, NRC,we had done prior work for several years

67
 Chapter 9 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

for General Electric Company. As I recall, the to help them in the licensing of nuclear power
first nuclear plant I worked on-I believe the plants being designed by others. They had Dr.
first plant anyone worked on in dynamics for Nathan Newmark doing the same thing. It was
the earthquake features-was a small plant in a little awkward at first to figure out how to
Japan, a boiling-water reactor being built by avoid conflicts of interest, because we were still
General Electric Company of Japan. on plants for private industry.
We were called upon to do earthquake analyses Scott: You had been designing nuclear plants
of a type that had never been done before, and for private industry, and now you'd been asked
I personally conducted most of this work. I to help advise the Nuclear Regulatory Com-
don't recall the exact date, but it was in the late mission on seismic criteria for judging new
'50s or early '60s. After this plant for GE, we nuclear facilities?
worked on several other plants for General Blume: For judging whether or not they
Electric in various parts of the United States, should issue a license to a new plant, and on
Europe, and the Middle East. what seismic criteria. A system was worked out
Scott: These analyses were on nuclear whereby if we had any connection whatsoever
plants? with a plant, we would not also act as an N R C
advisor. Also,if we had not had any connection,
Blume: Yes, nuclear power plants. T h e pro-
we would guarantee not to become involved in
cedure soon turned out to be that instead of
the future with a plant on which we were
designing by any assumed lateral forces, we
advisor. Then we'd go ahead and help NRC
would determine the earthquake ground
analyze a plant and the criteria, and decide
inotion for thc site in question, develop
whether it should be licensed. Our office did
response spectra suitable for this site, then
this for several years, and so did Dr. Newmark
design the plant under elastic stress conditions
and his associates. All this involved consider-
to withstand this earthquake demand. We
able travel across the country, and the constant
would also expose dynamic models to ground
new application of theory. Many advances
motion records. This was a tremendous
were made.
advance over building codes in general. In fact,
no building code would apply to a nuclear Scott: Would you say a little more, in lay-
power plant. Such plants are intended to be man's terms, about the ways in which a nuclear
much too conservative to be designed accord- power plant has to be designed to much more
ing to normal building codes. conservative criteria and standards? Also a little
more about the new theory or approaches that
Work for the Nuclear you used, both in your work in design and your
Regulatory Commission work in advising the NRC?
Blume: After working for GE for several Blume: Yes. Normal building codes, even for
years, I was approached by the Nuclear Regula- normal highrise buildings, have seismic design
tory Cominission (NRC) to act as a consultant lateral force coefficients ranging from 2% to

68
 John A. Blume Nuclear Power Plant Design Chapter 9

10% or 12%. If, however, we're to build a ics. During 1967, and probably 1968, we devel-
nuclear power plant at the same kind of site as oped the criteria for the design of the plant to
such conventional structures, those code coeffi- be in accordance with the seismic exposure or
cients would not be used at all. Instead, very possible ground shaking, which was deter-
extensive geologic and seismological research mined by others-namely geologists and seis-
and investigation would be undertaken to mologists. PG&E had a whole battery of
determine, as well as could be done, what the consultants on this project.
probable maximum shaking of that site would
be in the future, for several hundred years. I made frequent trips to Washington and
Then the plant would be designed on an elastic Bethesda to attend hearings and meetings
basis, without going into the great range of regarding the criteria, and soon found myself at
ductile response, to withstand that shaking. the opposite end of the table from my former
book coauthor, Nathan Newmark. For this
This might mean from 5 to 10 or even 15 times particular plant I was representing the owner,
greater lateral forces to be resisted, than in an PG&E, and he was representing NRC. We had
office building at the same site. Bear in mind, many a lively session before we hammered out
however, that in the office building it is consid- what turned out to be the design criteria for
ered all right for the building to go into the the plant.
inelastic range in responding to earthquake
forces, and absorb energy while stretching or Hosgri Fault and Consmative Design
yielding. Such stretching or yielding is not
allowed under the nuclear plant design criteria. Blume: The criteria [in 19671 generally con-
The net result of all this is that nuclear plants, sisted of designing for four different earth-
such as Diablo Canyon, on which we worked quake possibilities, including one earthquake
for years, are tremendously strong as compared right underneath the plant, where there was no
to any modern building. The dynamic theory known fault. A few years later, probably around
used in their design is much more advanced. It 1970 or '7 1, it was discovered by others that
would be economically impossible to design an there was a fault in the Ocean bed about three
office building to the same standards as a or four miles offshore from the Diablo Canyon
nuclear power plant, nor is it necessary. plant. It was given the name Hosgri. This fault
caused a flap that would continue for at least 8
PG&E and Diablo Canyon or 10 years, in fact it's probably still going on in
the minds of many people. As soon as it was
Blume: In 1967 the Pacific Gas and Electric discovered, PG&E asked us to consider what
Company (PG&E) came to us to talk about the effect the discovery might have on previous
plant they were proposing to build at Diablo design criteria, which we did.
Canyon, which is on the coast just a few miles
north of San Luis Obispo [California]. We We found that because of having designed the
agreed to participate in this effort. Our scope plant for a sharp earthquake right below it,
on this job was structural response and dynam- though there was no known fault there, basi-

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 Chapter 9 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

cally the plant could withstand any earthquake the commissioners to vote the plant down. Var-
reasonably assigned to the Hosgri fault. Rut it ious organizations opposed to nuclear power
was not that simple. plants appeared, such as the Abalone Alliance.
Apparently, they started out with the idea that a
'l'hus the debates went on for years as to how
nuclear plant would kill all the abalones.
big the offshore fault was, and how big an
cartliquake it might produce. We had designed Our part in all of this was neutral. We took no
for an earthquake with its epicenter anywhere political position one way or the other, but
within a radius of so many kilometers, includ- merely testified to the facts. But it was very dis-
ing straight down. T h e focal point of most concerting to spend weeks and months on a
earthquakes is not at the surface at all, it's down report, and testify as to the findings of that
in the earth, maybe five to ten miles. T h e crite- study, only to have none of the objectors listen
rion for this-which was something new, by the at all. T h e commissioners listened, of course,
way-is called a non-associated earthquake, but the public objectors rarely, if ever, listened
incaning an earthquake not associated with any to what was said. They were, however, quite
known fault. aware of the T V cameras.
Scott Then this was a very conservative T h e hearings went on for years. In fact, I once
design philosophy. made a list of meetings I had attended outside
Blume: Yes, it was quite conservative. Some- my home base area on this plant alone, and it
thing had happened in South America in a pre- amounted to about 40 trips-each one of which
vious earthquake that led a few scientists to took two or three days, and on a few occasions
believc that thcre can be such "non-fault" the hearings went on for weeks. Most of the
conditions. So due to the philosophy in the hearings were in the Washington, D.C. area so
nuclear plant business, earthquake-wise, if I was a frequent commuter on the airlines
thcre was any doubt, the conservative assump- going back and forth to Washington. Through
tion was made. all of this, PG&E demanded my personal
attention, which I was glad to give because I
Hearings and Protesters was interested in the problem, but it was
extremely time-consuming.
Blume: After the Hosgri fault was discov-
ered, there were all sorts of hearings and meet-
ings by various committees. Most of them were Reanalyzing Design Criteria
open to the public, and I recall testifying many Blurne: Returning to the subject of the Hos-
times. T h e rooms were usually filled with gri fault, it first took a while to confirm that
nuclear plant objectors, some of whom were there was indeed a fault out there in the ocean.
dressed in skeleton costumes with the word When this had been accomplished, the prob-
"plutonium" across their chests, and ladies with lem was to determine whether it was active, or
small babies sitting in the front row. These could be active, and if so, how big an earth-
were all great distractions intended to influence quake it could support. T h e prevailing philoso-

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 John A. Blume Nuclear Power Plant Design Chapter 9

phy was, and is, that there is a relationship "Mirror Image" Problem
between the length of a fault and the size of the Scott: While we're talking about Diablo
potential earthquake on that fault. The objec- Canyon, could you talk about the so-called
tors wanted to hook the Hosgri to a hypotheti- "mirror image" design problem that came up?
cal chain of faults involving the San Andreas.
The PG&E consultants considered this as Blume: As a result of the Hosgri and other
ridiculous. And so it went, for a long time. I developments over the years, PG&E was
shall not attempt to cover the details here-the required to reanalyze the plant in detail. We
problem was too complex, and the record volu- helped them out on some parts of it. The client
minous. Suffice it to say that a design earth- requested us to perform various dynamic analy-
quake on the Hosgri was finally established, for ses, and provided us with their plans, drawings,
which the plant had to be reanalyzed. weights, etc., in order to develop dynamic
models and determine earthquake effects.
The maximum magnitude was [postulated at]
7.5, a very large event. I undertook several While we were engaged in work on Unit One
studies of a probabilistic nature to obtain the of the plant, the client gave us the drawing for
site peak accelerations and the probability of Unit Two, without any word or clue that it was
same. The main alternative procedures devel- not for Unit One, as needed and requested.
oped and/or used were regression analysis of They inadvertently supplied us with a Unit
past earthquake data, integration of fault dislo- Two drawing, and our people were under the
cation data over long time periods, and consid- impression that it was for Unit One.
eration of plate boundary dislocation rates. All
faults in the region were considered, including This sketch or drawing went into one of our
the San Andreas. The techniques employed reports, all of which at the time were intended
and the results obtained were published in the for Unit One. PG&E accepted our report and
November 1979 issue of the ASCEJoumaI of used it for Unit One, apparently unaware of the
the StrmcturalDivision'9 as a joint paper with fact that they had given us the drawing for Unit
Professor Anne Kiremidjian of Stanford. Our Two. Unit Two was a mirror image of Unit
original analysis was found to be sufficiently One. Later on, when this was discovered, it
conservative. became the "mirror image" problem.

I'll never forget attending a meeting of about

40 PG&E people in their office building in San
Francisco right after this problem had first
been discovered. They reported what the prob-
lem was, and then everybody looked at me. I
19. Blume, John A. and Anne S. Kiremidjian, informed them, and showed them, much to
"ProbalisticProcedures for Peak Ground their shock, that what they were talking about
Motions,"Jwrnal of the Structural Division,
Proceedings of the ASCE, Vol. 105, No. ST11. in our report was actually supplied by them,
ASCE, New York, NY,November 1979. and was intended to have been something else.

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 Chapter 9 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

I also pointed out to them that only specific was followed and it proved to be very useful
assignments were given us from time to time, and effective.
and data and documents were provided us to do
the work, but that we had no way of reviewing I did most of the research and wrote most of
their data and documents as to whether they the "LL" series of reports, about 50 LL docu-
were for one unit or another. We had to take ments, in all. Most of them got into the official
them as presented. My position was, and still is, records. Accordingly, most became available to
that we were not responsible for the mirror the public, as well as to those involved with the
image problem, nor for that matter for any- project.20
thing else that caused things to be done over.
Nevertheless, I suspect there are some who felt Setting the Record Straigbt
that since it was in one of our reports, it was Blume: After the Hosgri matter got straight-
our error. Our only "error" was accepting the ened out internally, PG&E did make an
client's drawing as the right one, as we attempt to correct the record. I remember
requested it; but we had no alternative, no being at a public meeting in Washington, D.C.
warning. where one of their top people clarified the
record for the sake of that meeting's minutes.
"Laundry Lid' Reports In other words, PG&E tried to correct the
Blume: I personally played no part in the record for our name and reputation, but as in
mirror image affair until after it was discov- all such things, press and TV retractions are
ered. However, I was of course responsible for few and far between. If they appeared any-
everything in our office, as head of the firm. where, they'd be put on the back page in small
My personal efforts on Diablo Canyon were print. All in all, I consider the whole matter
mainly devoted to establishment of seismic most unfortunate for all concerned, and a bad
design criteria, seismic safety and policy, count- end to our long labor of love.
less meetings and hearings, research, and testi-
mony. The assigned analysis of structures and The mirror image problem turned out to be
systems and the preparation of reports showing only a trivial part of the overall problems, not
the results were done by others in the firm. As only for PG&E but for some of its subcontrac-
an example of thc work I did on the project, I tors. There were other matters that also led to
cite the "laundry list." reanalysis and design. The final upshot was that
PG&E turned it over to Bechtel Corporation
As the Hosgri matter unfolded and it seemed as
though there would be no end of questions and 20. A typical reference: Blume, J. A., "Probabilities
of Peak Site Accelerations Based on the
obstacles, not to mention hearings and meet- Geologic Record of Fault Dislocation," Section
ings, I proposed that a laundry list be main- LL-41 of Final Safety Analysis Report, Units 1
tained of all the issues, actual and probable, and and 2, Diablo Canyon Site, Amendment No. 50,
"SeismicEvaluation for Postulated 7.5 M
that these be tackled head on, one at a time, Hosgri Earthquake,"Pacific Gas and Electric
with written reports or papers. This procedure Company, San Francisco, CA, 1977.

72
 John A. BIume Nuclear Power Plant Design Chapter 9

to practically do the whole thing over. We con- the mirror image either. The analysis was cor-
tinued on, to do work with Bechtel for quite a rect. The problem was the drawing that went
while in this process, even long after the mirror with the work was backwards. As I said before,
image had been discovered. One thing led to we had no way of knowing this, because they
another, and it was found that the project's doled out the drawings and the work, item by
original bookkeeping, if you want to call it that, item. We were never given overall responsibil-
was not as good as it could have been. None of ity for an end product, the way we like to work.
the problems that I knew about would have Instead we were given specific assignments of
caused a nuclear or any other disaster. The things to do-portions of the work. Do A, B,
plant was so damn strong to start with, earth- C, but don't touch D, and do E and F, but don't
quake-wise, that even with these minor prob- touch G, etc.
lems cropping up here and there, the overall
seismic adequacy of the plant was still there. Scorn So you just had to presume that some-
Nevertheless, they spent years in reanalysis and one was overseeing the whole thing.
reconstruction, and a big beefing up, such as Blume: That's right. It was the only way we
welding in the field, and other things. could operate and help them at all.
PG&E was acting as its own architect and engi- Scott: I think it's good to get this on the his-
neer, which they had done successfully on torical record.
countless hydro and other power plants, and
other major projects. But this nuclear game is Blume: Yes, I think it's time it came out in
more complicated and involved with hearings, better shape. To show you how such matters
meetings, criteria, changing public attitudes go, Herb Caen, in one of his columns in 1986,
and regulations. I don't think they'd want to try made some crack about the city not going to
it again on their own. We put everything we URS/Blume to site the U.S.S. Missouri in San
had into our part of that project, because we Francisco Bay because the battleship might
believed in it. wind up in the wrong state. This is an example
of how far such things go, and how unfair they
Outside of this mirror image matter, there was can be. The press and the media blew the mir-
absolutely nothing even questionable about our ror image item all out of proportion, and let it
work. There really wasn't an error per se with hang there.

73
 Chapter I0

Td Buildings, Irregular
Structures, Excessive
Energy, Challenging
Design Problems
"The best way I've resolved them [difficult
design problems] is to figure out what 3 best for
the public interest, as well as I could. If

Tall Buildings
Scorn I'd like you to talk a little about the theory and
practice of building tall buildings, especially in relationship to
their seismic resistance.
Blume: Tall buildings have always been of great interest to
the public and to most engineers. In fact, when I was still a stu-
dent at Stanford, when I went there the first time, I was greatly
impressed with San Francisco's Russ Building and Shell
Building as examples of then so-called skyscrapers.

I admired the office of H. J. Brunnier for having designed

these buildings structurally. That's the office I went to work
for in 1940. Later on, as I got into my own practice, I found
that designing tall buildings was not all it was cracked up to be,

75
 Chapter 10 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

in the sense that the structural engineering fees posed 20-story administration building for the
one could obtain from many of these projects City of Auckland, New Zealand. Much of the
were really not adequate to do the job properly, results of this work have been published in the
at least as I thought it should be done. ASCEJoumal.** In 1957 we did dynamic anal-
yses and some structural design of the 42-story
We have worked with many architects over the Wells Fargo Building at Montgomery and
years-some successfully, and some less so, Bush in San Francisco. T h e architect on this
financially that is. I found that the glamour building was John Graham & Associates of
wasn't always as great as it appeared to be. In Seattle. In 1964 we did dynamic analyses of the
spite of this reluctance to take on jobs- Union Bank Building in Los Angeles-42 sto-
because the responsibility was great, and the ries. A.C. Martin of Los Angeles was the archi-
possibility of lawsuits was also great, and it was tect. I think all of these were pioneering, first-
essential to do the job right even at a financial time efforts, wherein time histories of ground
loss-we did get involved with several pioneer- motion were employed, and the responses cal-
ing highrise structures in San Francisco, culated by computer analysis. And, of course,
Portland, Seattle, and Los Angeles-even in we analyzed a great many existing tall buildings
New Zealand and Detroit. in Las Vegas and elsewhere.

Pioneering Work in Dynamic Analysis Scoa: Could you say a word or two about
the state-of-the-art design methods you pio-
Blume: I recall being consulted on one
neered? Did you mean for tall buildings?
[highrise] in Puerto Rico. Our scope on these
projects was not always that of complete struc- Blume: Originally, it was basically for
niral design, but often only the earthquake nuclear power plants, but the same principles
dynamic analyses, something in which we had applied to tall buildings, with one big differ-
pioneered. ence. That is, with the buildings we had to
allow for the inelastic range of deformation,
Scoa: In other words, you would analyze which we're not allowed to use in a nuclear
another firm's design? power plant design.
Blume: Partly that, but it was more a situa-
tion in which we would determine the response Using dynamic analysis would reveal to us, and
spectra for the site, rather than rely on the for most of the clients, where the tentative
codes as the only approach, and perhaps go design might be improved to better resist
through some dynamic analyses in order to earthquake motion. In other words, we would
determine how the structure might react to an reveal any weak spots, and hope to get them
expected earthquake. This was all pioneering corrected.
Stuff.
2 1. Blume, John A., "Structural Dynamics in
Earthquake-ResistantDesign," Transactions of
As early as 1956, working with a New Zealand the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 12 5 .
laboratory, we ran dynamic analyses of a pro- ASCE, New York, NY, 1960.

76
 John A. Blume Challenging Design Problems Chapter 10

First, the building had to be designed to meet Blume: I'm talking about the actual ground
and pass any local building codes that might motion record itself. If you take a record of
apply. Many years later, dynamic analysis was ground motion as it occurs, plotted against
required by Los Angeles, for example. But at time, the terminology is that it's the "time his-
the time we first did the analyses, it was not a tory," it's a roll of tape like a movie film. As the
required situation. What was required was to tape rolls out you imprint a ground motion on
pass the static code, or the code as printed, it and call that a time history. It's a record, in
whether it was static or pseudo-dynamic. T h e other words, of motion plotted against time.
analysis we performed was something extra that
Scott: A record of the shaking?
was put into these buildings. Unfortunately, life
is complicated and often we would not get Blume: T h e actual shaking of whatever
everything done to a building that we would you're situated on, whether it's the ground or a
hope to get, for various reasons, mainly building, or whatever.
economic. Scott: For these buildings, what time histo-
In those cases we would have to decide either ries would you use? What record?
to disassociate from the project, which we have Blume: That's a very good question. That
done on some jobs, or to convince people that was half the battle-choosing the time history
something should he done. But life is not black that best represented the conditions under con-
or white-it often has gray areas. Sometimes sideration at the time. Not having a time his-
compromises would have to be reached in the tory of the actual site under consideration, we
interest of practicality. But many people feel would characterize the site as related to the
the analysis is the end product; in fact we've geologic environment, whether there was a
had owners and clients seek a dynamic analysis fault nearby or not, what type of soil conditions
when we were pioneering in this field, and are there. Then we would select one or more-
having obtained it, they would say, "That's all usually several-records of actual earthquakes
boys, thank you very much." In other words, that best represented the site conditions, best
they would hope to get by without doing any- modeled the site conditions. Naturally, the
thing about the dynamic analysis, which recorded earthquake would not be at the true
doesn't do the structure any good whatsoever. scale that we wanted-by scale, I mean the
So as in all pioneering efforts, we faced several intensity of shaking-so we would take the
ticklish ethical problems, and I hope we got earthquake records we had selected and scale
them all resolved to everyone's best interest, them up or down to represent the intensity of
especially the public's best interest. earthquake that we were designing for.

Scott: Scale them up or down by simple per-

Using Time Histories centages?
Scott: What do you mean when you refer to Blume: Right. Of course we let the com-
time histories of ground motion? puter do the scaling. This procedure is some-

77
 Chapter 10 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

thing like what we did for nuclear power plants, together-the dynamic analysis must be abso-
but not exactly. lutely crucial in attempting to ensure their seis-
mic resistance.
Working on TaU Buildings with Blume: Yes. That's a very unusual building.
Portman a? Associates The first thought with that structure was to let
Blume: Later on we made an association the five towers be independent of each other.
with a firm from Atlanta-John Portman & This got into some horrendous problems
Associates. They are architects and engineers. architecturally, especially with the elevators.
We worked with them on many projects, There was also a requirement in the Los Ange-
including the Embarcadero Center in San les code that separations had to get wider as
Francisco, which is a series of multistory build- you went up in a building-separations
ings, all of over 40 stories. Embarcadero One, between adjacent buildings-and you can
followed by Two and Three, and also the Hyatt imagine the complications with a very large,
Regency Hotel in downtown San Francisco-a irregular opening between a tower and the
very complex structure with an open atrium. core. The owner and the clients finally decided
Subsequently, we worked with the same firm to tie the whole system together through the
on the design of the Bonaventure Hotel in Los elevator shafts, which are actually important
Angeles, and the Renaissance Center in structural components. So this system will have
Detroit, Michigan. many modes of vibration-one of which will be
all five towers going together. And there are all
Portman has, and had, its own engineering sorts of combinations, with the towers wagging
department. They would do most of the struc- like the tail on a dog. From a pure dynamic
tural design, with an occasional boost from us point of view, it's not the best solution, but
as requested. Our main work was the dynamic from the overall point of view of the structure
analyses of these systems and structures to best as a whole, and its economic existence, it
reflect the state-of-the-art design methods, seemed to be suitable. Even though it was very
work in which we had pioneered. complex to design, we expect it to perform well
in an earthquake.
Irregular Structures We didn't always get such irregular buildings
Scotc: In your listing of the various build- to work with, although we've had several of
ings, I've noticed that several of them are them. The classic theory is that buildings
unusual structures, very interesting structures. should be symmetrical in all directions-some
Some people think they're beautiful structures, buildings are like this, and it's very desirable.
but many of them would also qualify-in old- But when you're dealing with vast expenditures
fashioned structural engineering terms-as of money, and owners, architects, planners,
irregular structures. I'm presuming that in the economists, the structural engineer is not the
case of irregular structures-the Bonaventure, only man in the arena, as important as his task
for example, with five separate towers linked is. These are difficult situations. The best way

78
 John A. Blume Challenging Design Problems Chapter 10

I've resolved them is to figure out what's best for future growth. T h e result was that we
for the public interest, as well as I could. As I designed a building for the way it was to be ini-
mentioned, we've walked away from some jobs tially, then postulated how it might be in the
because we couldn't get what we considered a future, and provided for that option in the ini-
decent resolution. tial construction. It was very interesting, and
costly.
Work_tbrPm>c Tekpbone & Telegraph
Scott: You had to have support systems that
Blume: We did some unusual-type build- were independent of much of the wall systems?
ings for the telephone company. Around about
Blume: That's right. We developed a rein-
the same time that we were working on
forced concrete framework to do much of the
projects in Saudi Arabia [19461953], we also
work. A telephone building with equipment has
got involved in another series of designs,
not only to be strong but also to be quite rigid,
mostly in California, although some in Nevada,
so as not to move too much and upset the
where again we worked with Peterson &
equipment. T h e microwave buildings also had
Spackman on telephone company buildings.
to be extremely rigid under gale force winds.
Pacific Tel & Tel was expanding tremendously
So between the Saudi Arabian work, which was
after the war, and they had to put up equipment
multiple [types of] work, and the telephone
buildings, office buildings, and relay buildings
buildings, which was also multiple work, I
of all types all over California and parts of
really was a busy engineer for a good many
Nevada. I would estimate that we did the struc-
years during that era-late '40s to early '50s.
tural design on 250 or 300 buildings, including
the buildings that first connected microwave
communications across the United States. Microwave Relay Snucmres
These were located on mountain peaks in Cali- Scott: You also wanted to talk about some
fornia and Nevada, all the way to Utah. I smaller buildings that you worked on.
understand that television was first transmitted Blume: Yes, we've had some very interesting
across the country on that system. smaller buildings, as well as big ones. For
example, the relay stations on mountain tops
Designingfor Growtb and Rigid@ between San Francisco and Utah, for the first
Blume: Every one of the telephone buildings transcontinental radio relay system, which was
was designed with earthquake forces in mind, opened on August 17,195 1.
and these designs became rather complex
Scott: This was for line-of-sight microwave
because of the fact that each building, almost
transmission?
without exception, was planned to have future
growth, perhaps upward, perhaps sideways in Blume: Yes. T h e signal would be picked up
one or two directions. We couldn't count on by two tremendous horns mounted on the
walls remaining to provide earthquake resis- roofs of the buildings, sent down into the inter-
tance. They might have to come down to allow nal works where it would be boosted in energy

79
 Chapter 10 Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

many times, then sent on to the next station. commercial aircraft. Tests were undertaken-I
Stations were roughly 25 or 30 miles apart. believe the first was in Oklahoma City-to
'I'hese buildings were small concrete buildings check the effects of sonic booms on people and
on top of Mount Rose and other mountain animals. I understand that the turkey farms and
peaks going across California, Nevada, and mink farms had the most commotion among
Utah. the animals from the sonic boom. We were
engaged first by the Federal Aviation Agency
I was asked to check the accessibility of the sites (FAA) to conduct a series of tests on the effects
during winter months, so in January of 1950,
of sonic booms on structures. All this was lead-
accompanied by a telephone company engi- ing up to the question of whether or not they
neer, Jim Reilly, I traveled throughout the
would allow supersonic flight across the coun-
route and hiked to the top of each mountain
try, and if so, how they would handle the dam-
site, under winter conditions. The scenery was
age complaints and lawsuits which would ensue
wonderful, and the cold temperature was exhil-
from the effects of sonic booms on people, ani-
arating, to say the least. It gets very cold in east-
mals, and structures. Our part of it was the
ern Nevada! These structures and the framing
structural concept.
on the roof to support the horns had to be
extrcmely rigid to withstand gale intensity The first series of experiments were on some
winds without excessivevibration. Even though old structures and a few new structures that we
they were small buildings, they were very built near White Sands, New Mexico, far away
expensive to build, because of the remote loca- from any occupied region.
tions. We also worked on a relay system going
between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Scott: These were structures especially built
for the testing?
Excessive Energy: Sonic Booms Blume: Some were specially built, and some
Blume: Throughout my career I have spe- were existing old structures. The procedure in
cialized in earthquake problems, but not exclu- this test series was to fly military aircraft at
sively in earthquakes. For example, our firm supersonic speeds at various elevations above
came to be known not only for earthquake the structures and above the surface of the
problems, but also for any other outbursts of ground, so we could measure the results in
nature with excessive energy, such as ocean instruments located all over the place, and also
waves, sonic booms, windstorms, explosions- by visual inspection of actual damage, if any.
anything to do with excessive energy and its
The sonic boom has a signature, in the time
effect on structures.
history, like an N-first a positive triangle,
then a negative triangle which makes the spec-
White Sands Experiments trum look like an N. The positive triangle
Blume: In 1963 and '64, this country was pushes in on a window or wall, and the negative
quite concerned over the advent of supersonic pulls out. Quite often the failure would be of

80
 John A. Blume Challenging Design Problems Chapter 10

glass coming out instead of going in, due to the Blume: You're right. That's the third reason.
shape of the signal. So things were going along pretty well at
White Sands in 1964.They decided to bring in
Scoff: Why was the White Sands area cho-
the press and the news media. They flew in a
sen for the testing?
planeload of press representatives to witness
Blume: White Sands was chosen because of the testing. Gordon Bain, who was then the
two basic reasons: (1) it was government prop- deputy administrator for the FAA program, the
erty, and (2) it was far from any significant civi- man by whom we were engaged, was busy one
lization that might be affected by our sonic morning explaining to the press and media rep-
boom testing. We were selected for the same resentatives about the test setup and the fact
reason that I suppose that we were often that the sonic booms were really not all that
selected for oddball or unusual jobs. We were bad.
known as dynamic nuts, interested in unusual
problems and in dynamic situations. We had One of the press photographers, I believe he
many subcontractors, in order to assemble was with L$e magazine, asked if it would be
enough instrumentation to monitor these possible for a plane to fly in low, so they could
structures all over the test site. There were 16 get some good pictures. He wasn't to go very
test buildings-9 old ones and 7 new ones. fast so they wouldn't get boomed. Well, the
They were designed to expose glass windows of pilot came in a t 200 feet elevation and he acci-
various sizes, different types of plaster, and fur- dentally went supersonic. It was like an explo-
niture, and in general to act as a guinea pig sion. A glass ashtray flew off a table to crash on
installation for an actual community. We had the floor. Glass panes broke, plaster broke, and
hundreds, if not thousands, of instrumental test it was bad. Luckily, no one was injured. Later
points as required by our contract. In fact we on Gordon Bain apologized to the group and
had too many, and this made it too difficult to got things calmed down. We then ran some
analyze. We got so much data it took us years regular tests without the showmanship, which
to analyze it. T h e government said to get lots went off in better shape. But it was quite a
of data. shock to have such a big boom. T h e over-pres-
sure of that boom was estimated at between 20
T h e most valuable information was on what and 40 pounds per square foot, whereas our
was damaged and why. T h e procedure would normal range was never over 5.
be to get the instruments working in good
order, and call for a flight of an F- 104 or simi- Scott: T h e pilot hadn't quite understood
lar plane. We'd tell them what elevation to what he was supposed to do?
come in at and sock a boom to us-like a bomb
Blume: That's partly it, or else he got ner-
going off.
vous and pushed a little too hard on the fuel.
Scott: That's another reason the site was When you're only 200 feet above the ground,
chosen, I'll bet. They had an Air Force base at those speeds it's hard to keep your mind on
right nearby. everything going on.

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 Chapter 10 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

Commercial Supersonic Fligbts Excessive Energy: Ocean Waves

Blume: That program provided a great deal and Swell
of valuable information for the National Sonic Blume: Another part of our efforts over the
Room Program. It was probably a large factor years, also with dynamic phenomena in mind,
in commercial supersonic flights across country has been ocean work-not oceanography per
not being permitted. As you know, the Con- se, but design of structures in the Oceans to
corde now comes into Washington and New resist wave forces and swell. I believe I men-
York, but most of its supersonic flight is over tioned that we did the first offshore platforms
the Atlantic Ocean. in the Persian Gulf, which incidentally are not
Scorn They have to go subsonic across the far from where all the excitement is going on
continental United States. today in the Persian Gulf. We did the Dam-
mam Port and Ras Tanura piers, which are
Blume: Right. That was not the end our
deepwater installations. T h e Persian Gulf is
work on sonic boom. We were given another
normally not very rough. We've also designed
contract about a year later at Edwards Air
deepwater harbors in Guam, and many other
Force Base, where we instrumented actual
installations.
occupied homes with plate glass windows and
doors and ceilings-the whole works. In this
case it was not only F-104sand larger craft, but A Man-Made Island
big bombers. I believe the B-52 was used, if I Blume: Probably the most interesting
remember correctly. Again, we went through project of an ocean nature is Rincon Island,
the Same procedure, but we didn't have a super halfway between Ventura and Santa Barbara in
boom for the press. the ocean off the coast [of California]. Our
client, Richfield Oil Company, at the time
My project engineer on both these test setups
wanted to build an island offshore from the
was John Wiggins, and he greatly enjoyed the
coast in about 50 feet of water at low tide. This
activity, as did I. We had many subcontractors,
was in 1954.
such as Lockheed, Aerojet General, Boeing,
and other large corporations, in order to pro- Scorn This was a man-made island?
vide enough instrumentation to meet the gov- Blume: Yes. They [Richfield Oil Company]
ernment requirements. It was rather unusual to
could do this, providing that the island be con-
have a relatively small firm like ours with up to
structed of "natural materials." In other words,
four giant corporations as subcontractors, but
it was not to be a platform. This was quite a
it all worked out somehow.
challenge, because even though it was in the
Santa Barbara channel, we found out that the
wave exposure could be enormous, up to 35' to
40' waves under extreme conditions. T h e size
of the waves would be limited by the depth of
the water at the site.

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 John A. Blume Challenging Design Problems Chapter 10

So we designed an island using sand fill, rock with a point up. As a result of all this the
rubble embankments, and concrete tetrapod Frenchmen greatly reduced their royalty
embankments on the ocean side. Tetrapods are requirement and the job went ahead and was
large concrete shapes, shaped like a jack used in very successful. There were 1130 3 1-ton tetra-
a child's game. In order to test this island we pods used on the outer face of the island.
did experiments in our own wave laboratory,
The island, completed in 1958, contained 68
which we had in San Francisco at the time, and
conductor pipes for oil pumping, and even
to get even larger model tests we were allowed
though it was not a great oil field, it has been a
to use the Vicksburg testing hydraulic labora-
steady producer for a long time.
tory [which is] run by the Army. To make a
long story fairly short, I hope, the design was Scott: So that island is the base for an oil
finally effected, and one of the most critical field or a series of wells?
things was the size of the concrete tetrapods
Blume: It's possible that 68 wells could be
and the size of the armor rock on the sides, and
drilled from that island. If you envision a bou-
the gradation of the armor rock so it would act
quet of flowers held upside down, grab the
as a reverse filter so the sand could not get
stems and that's the island, and the flowers
through the rock pores.
branch off in all directions-it is called whip-
Scott: To keep the sand from being washed stocking. But the surprising thing is that the
away? natural habitat life has increased. The fish and
all sorts of marine life and vegetation have
Blume: That's right.
flourished around the island.
Scott: How big were the tetrapods?
It's in a location called Rincon Point, a point
Blume: They were 3 1 tons each, about the about halfway between Ventura and Santa Bar-
same size as this room, which is about 15' cube. bara. You can see it as you drive down highway
We had a slight patent problem with the tetra- 101. In fact, at first they had many car accidents
pods. The French who owned the patent because people would gawk at the island and
wanted a great deal of money at first, and they not watch the traffic.
had never used tetrapods in this country
before, so it was a test case. The client was Scott: So it's some distance out from shore?
thinking of going to court over it, to avoid the Blume: It's quite a way from shore. It's out
patent if necessary. We did some work on this in 50 feet of water at low tide. We also designed
subject, showing prior use of this shape, not and built a causeway to go out there-a single
only in the game of jacks, but also in medieval lane causeway. This is a nice looking structure
Europe where they had a weapon shaped with too, designed to be high and let the waves come
five points that they threw into river crossings. underneath. That structure alternates by bents
Horses and men would impale themselves between two piles and one pile, two piles and
when trying to cross the river, because no mat- one pile. The piles are big pipe piles. The
ter how you threw these things in they'd land island was considered a great risk by many peo-

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 Chapter 10 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

ple afraid of the ocean storms, but I think our and it was fairly simple to design earthquake-
testing showed that it would be all right, and it wise, and should give good performance. T h e
has been. complicated feature of that building was they
couldn't decide which architect would get the
Ocean-Related Work job, so they gave it to four firms.
Scott: Well in nearly 40 years it's endured a Four separate architectural firms cooperated in
lot of heavy weather. the design. If you know architects as well as I
Blume: It certainly has. So over the years do, you'll know that none of them were really
we've enjoyed a lot of unusual ocean-going happy about this, but it's a nice building and is
jobs. Another big job we did was the Ventura fairly simple compared to some of these others
Marina [California], which was a man-made that we've been involved with. It's the Federal
harbor big enough to berth over 3,000 boats. Office Building on McAllister Street, San Fran-
That involved jetties and embankment and cisco, done about 15 or 20 years ago [interview
cxcavation of many millions of yards of soil date: September 19871. We've also done some
material to make the harbor basin. Another very interesting smaller buildings over the
phase of work has been a study of mooring years.
forces due to large ships tied up at dockside-
the surge and the dynamics of ship docking. Rehabilitationof tbe CaI$mia State Capitol
When we designed the Dammam Pier in Saudi
Arabia in the Persian Gulf, we designed the Blume: Rehabilitation has also been one of
wholc structure to act as a spring so that a ship our interesting lines of work.
corning in with a hard docking would not be
Scott: Rehabilitation of structures?
wrecked. Instead the wharf would move over
and then move back again like a giant spring. Blume: Yes, the retrofitting of buildings for
earthquake resistance. Probably the most nota-
We have also designed many other small boat
ble example is the state capitol building in Sac-
harbors, docks, wharves, piers, locks, etc. in
ramento. T h e former Division of
various parts of the world, but mostly in
Architecture" had studied this building years
California.
ago, and decided that there were a few things
wrong with it, earthquake-wise. T h e State
Challenging Design Jobs Architect called us in to do our own examina-
tion of the structure, which we did. We were
Federal W c e Building, San Francisco, CA honored to be called in on a job of such interest
Blume: One building we did that was inter- and importance.
esting is the Federal Office Building at the
Civic Center in San Francisco. This building 22. The Division of Architecture and the Office of
the State Architect (OSA) both refer to the same
virtually occupies a whole city block. It's regu- State of California office under different names
lar in dimension. It's not a very high building, a t different times.

84
 John A. Blume Challenging Design Problems Chapter 10

We found that even though the earthquake sta- Stanford Linear Accelerator
bility was not good, there were other condi- Blume: Another project we were involved
tions that were even worse. For example, the [1966-19721with was the Stanford Linear
steel trusses over the Assembly rooms had been Accelerator Center, which is a 2-mile-long
altered over the years and decades by trades- facility for basic research in high energy parti-
men. An air conditioning man would be work- cle physics. It is one of the largest research
ing in the attic, and decide he had to run ducts tools in the world and it is used by scientists
from point A to point B, where a steel truss from many institutions. Many discoveries on
would be between A and B. If some members the interaction of mass, energy, and the nature
got in the way, it was simple to burn them out of matter have been made there.
and run the ducts through. But burning out
diagonal members of a steel truss is not very At one end, the center is as close as half a mile
good practice. Apparently this type of work was to the San Andreas fault rift zone. It was
done for dozens of years-not just that particu- located there only after extensive studies of that
lar event, but similar events. There were liter- site and several alternative sites. Our firm, with
ally booby traps in that building that might some consultants, made these studies for the
have sprung, even without an earthquake. If an Atomic Energy Commission. In fact, we
earthquake had occurred, even a small one, it reported not only on site feasibility, but also on
would have dislodged the ceilings and roofs earthquake risk, and developed cost estimates
over the main Assembly halls. for the entire project.

After years of consideration and discussion, The final cost estimate of $1 14,000,000 for the
money was allocated to rehabilitate the build- selected site was approved by Congress, and
ing. Welton Becket was the selected architect, the facility was authorized. Many other states
and we were the selected engineers. It was or agencies had been competing for the
quite a project, which has been well written up project, and they were not backward about cit-
in the literature, and many awards have been ing the Stanford area's earthquake problem. I
given for this job. doubt very much that Stanford would have got-
ten the nod withoiit our extensive work on the
Scott: Everybody seems to be proud of that seismic problem and its solution.
building.
Blume: Yes, it's a lovely building with a long Our firm teamed up with the Guy E Atkinson
history. The team of designers and builders Company and the Aerojet General Company
saved all the artifacts and the exterior of the to obtain the architect-engineer-management
structure, and essentially rebuilt the rest of the contract in national competition for selection
building inside-out. on a qualification basis. Throughout the
project I was chairman of the team's manage-
ment committee. The facility was done on
time, within the budget of our $1 14,000,000
estimate, and it worked beyond expectations.

85
 Chapter 10 Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

Engineering Fees the fees for selling a building-real estate

agents will try to get from 5% or more of the
Scott: I'd like to ask about another type of
design problem-the problem of compensa- total cost, including the land. So something is
tion. Earlier you mentioned some of the prob- crazy somewhere.
lems of dealing with tall buildings as a designer I once gave an address to a real estate group
or an engineer. You said that the possibility of about building design, and so on, and I chided
loss could be great. Were you referring to them about their fee schedules. In the question
actual loss in terms of contracting to do the and answer period following the talk it came
design, and the engineering aspects of the out that they felt their fees were too low
design, and simply finding that to do what you
because there were so many of them in the
felt needed to be done-to do it right-simply
business, and they needed that amount of
took a lot more time and effort than the con-
money to average out better. To me that was
tract provided for by way of compensation?
rather discouraging.
Blume: Yes, basically that's correct. I hate to
get too much into the matter of structural engi- In addition to possibly losing money in design-
neering fees, but I think it's part of the earth- ing a special structure, the engineer faces great
quake problem. If an engineer is going to lose responsibilities and possible lawsuits. He
money on every job, in order to do a good job, doesn't have to make a mistake to be sued.
he can't go on very long and stay in business. Somebody else can make a mistake, or a scaf-
The fees for structural design are so small, fold can fall during construction. The lawyers,
compared to the responsibilities involved, that who are probably after 30% or 40% fees on a
it's really a shame. For example, the structural contingency basis, will sue everybody on the
fees-at best-range from 1% to 2% of the job, seeking the deeper pockets, namely the
cost of the building, without the land. There is insurance companies, who in turn increase
no comparison in the work done, but consider their premiums.

86
 Chapter I I

The Blume Firm and

the JohnA. Blume
Earthquake Engmeermg
n 0 0

Center at
Stanford Umversity
0 0 -

“Few clients came to our office in the early years,

and it was not necessary to put on a show of
expensive furniture. We were selling, and
providing, good engineering and good service. I/

Blume: My original practice started in 1945, at the end of

World War II, as John A. Blume, Structural Engineer. I was
the sole owner, and for several years conducted all the business
affairs, as well as the technical work. I even kept what books
there were, did the payroll, tax and withholding reports, etc.
After obtaining two degrees from Stanford I took a mail order
course in management, which was quite comprehensive. And
while at Stanford I had taken courses in economics and law. I
rather enjoyed all aspects of private practice, and this gave me
a broad view of the problems, actual and potential.

87
 Chapter 11 Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

I did not hire a secretary and bookkeeper until At the time of incorporation I gave each of four
late November 1949, after we had already done key employees a fractional interest in all four
some rather big jobs. This delay was largely companies and made them officers. In addition,
because there was not enough space in our arrangements had been underway for some
small office for a secretary! The girl I did hire time on the further transfer of ownership inter-
was perfect for thc job, and stayed on for about ests to the original four, and to others. These
20 years until "we got too big," in her words. arrangements were never completed, however,
largely because of the failure of certain associ-
I invested a great deal of time and energy in
ates to accept reasonable fiscal responsibilities.
starting up and maintaining the business, but
very little money. Few clients came to our Also in 1957 I established a not-for-profit foun-
office in the early years, and it was not neces- dation, using personal funds. This organization
sary to put on a show of expensive furniture. still exists today, and has given away all of its
We were selling, and providing, good engi- earnings each year. In fact, it is committed well
neering and good service. Very little was taken into the future.
out of the office funds for several years-just
cnough to get by in reasonable comfort. Merger With URS Corporation
Blume: The next big step in organizational
Incorporating matters was in 197 1, when we merged with
Blume: As time went on, my then legal and URS Corporation, a national technical services
accounting advisors suggested incorporation company. All of our stock in all four companies
for the usual reasons--liability, taxes, evalua- was exchanged for stock in URS,which was
tion, multiple ownership, transfers of owner- then traded over the counter. This was an ago-
ship. In 1957 the sole ownership was made into nizing decision, reached after much thought
four corporations, which I headed. Their pur- and study, and agreed to finally by all of our
poses were engineering, research, graphics, and stockholders. We had been approached by oth-
management, respectively. There were several ers prior to URS, but did not like the proposed
reasons for forming the four companies, arrangements. There were some excellent east-
besides a slight tax advantage-organization, ern professional engineering firms already in
concentration of efforts, personnel training and URS and we were impressed. After much nego-
advancement, overhead allocation, etc. Of tiation, and after we were assured that our
course there was increased bookkeeping and operations would continue under our sole pro-
expense. Nearly all contracts were assigned to fessional management, a deal was made. Thus,
the engineering or the research company called indirectly, our stock finally was subject to eval-
John A. Blume and Associates, Engineering, uation by the market price of URS. We contin-
and John A. Blume Research Division. The tax ued to operate technically as we always had, at
advantages evaporated after a few years. If I had least as long as I was chief operating officer in
to do it over, I would settle for only one or two our company (which by the way, kept its name)
companies, after study. until 1984.

88
 John A. Blume Firm, BIume Earthquake Center Chapter 11

The price of the URS stock has had its highs Associates and Employees
and lows over the years, and there have been Blume: From my original firm's beginning
some good and some bad URS spinoffs. Each there was a policy not to be a hire-and-fire
stockholder was on his own, and some did well, organization except, of course, for part-time or
and some not so well. From my point of view, clearly temporary employees. Many came to
the money aspect was minor compared to other work for us to get earthquake knowledge or
factors such as financial management, exposure experience, but many of these failed to get a
to more or bigger jobs, continuity, simple own- comprehensive picture of the complex and
ership transfer, etc. I forgot to note that I was changing subject. We were not running a
on the board of directors of the national URS school (although at times it seemed like we
company for several years, until I bowed out. were, and our "alumni" are all over the coun-
Probably the item that influenced me most in try), and we had jobs to get out.
this decision to merge was the lack of a Blume When the workload was decreasing from time
company internal vehicle for stock transfer. to time, I would work with one or two promis-
Also a big factor was the desire to get away ing employees on research studies, often "on
from financial and management matters in the house" with no client. Several of these
favor of getting more time for my earthquake assistants have gone a long way in engineering.
matters-I still had more important things to A good man or woman likes to be busy, and to
do than to be embroiled in fiscal matters. work on interesting assignments. If we could
Another factor to consider was the prolifera- not keep them busy enough on design or
tion of lawsuits in this country. We only had research, they would find other employment,
one, which we won, but the trend was often with our help. But we did not force an
awesome. employee to either leave or stay on. Our people
were always in demand. Several, over the years,
Given all the circumstances at the time, the
left and came back to us later.
merger was logical. If I had to it do over, I
would instead try to have better circumstances Many employees were with us for years, and
before reaching a firm decision to merge or not even decades. Many became associates and
to merge. I did try, for years, but it was not all officers of the firm. When we incorporated in
under my control. How did it all come out? 1957, I gave some stock to four associates, and
Some good, some bad, like many things in life. upgraded several others as well. It is interest-
At least I got back to earthquake matters, which ing, at least to me, to consider the early
after all was one of my basic objectives. employees, up to the time of incorporation. I
should note first that in 40 years I only had two
What should others do? I would not touch that
secretaries, each for about 20 years. So I guess I
hot potato-each case is different. If making
was not too hard to work for.
money is an objective, and you have the right
partner, merger may be a way to go, but it may My first full-time employee was Donald
not be all roses. Teixeira, who came to work on September 9,

89
 Chapter 11 Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

1945. Don was with the firm continuously until the mid-1970s, I had been deploring the fact
thc time of his death in 1983. He became a that after Lydik Jacobsen retired, interest in
vice-president at the time of incorporation. My earthquake matters at Stanford had decreased. I
second full-time employee was Harvey Klyce felt, and so advised many at Stanford, that this
who came to work on March 10, 1946 and should be a vital and continuing subject at
retired in 1984, some 38 years later. He was Stanford, with its record of severe damage in
an associate. 1906 and its history of pioneering research on
the subject.
The third was James Amtson, from August 11,
1946 to 1951, almost five years. The fourth was In 1974,Jim Gere and Haresh Shah talked to
Robert M. Allan, from August 11, 1946 to me about a center at Stanford to promote
1950, when he regretfully had to leave because research and education in earthquake engineer-
of poor health. ing. This concept was ideal, and I readily
agreed to provide seed funds if they would
The fifth full-time employee was Joseph Nico- become the first co-directors of the Center.
letti, who started February 17, 1947 and retired The Stanford University officials approved the
in 1987. He served for years as vice-president concept and provided initial space. I should
and later as president of the company, and was note that Jim and Haresh worked extremely
chief design engineer. well as a team, and got the Center off to a fine
start. An inaugural symposium was held at
Other vice-presidents were H.J. Sexton,
Stanford on September 17, 1976. Over 450
Roland Sharpe, and Roger Skjei. Roger also
engineers and scientists attended the all-day
served as president for about three years in the
session and evening banquet program. It was
1980s. Other key associates and longtime
like Who‘s Who in earthquake engineering.
employees include James Keith, Lloyd Lee,
The speakers on the program were George
William Nelson, Henry Lee, Bob van
Housner, Emilio Rosenblueth, Harry Seed,
Rlaricom, Ken Honda, Roger Scholl, Dilip
Henry Degenkolb, DickJahns, Nate Newmark
Jhaveri, Lincoln Malik, Marty Czarnecki, Andy
and myself. The proceedings were published
Cunningham, Helen Aubermann, Pat Dickin-
at Stanf01-d.’~
son,Ron Gallagher, Walt Mestrovich, and
many others. The Center has continued to function well
and is quite active. It conducts research,
The John A. Blume Earthquake provides instruction, publishes reports and
Engineering Center articles, conducts seminars and conferences,
and provides financial support for students.
Blume: No history of my technical and
earthquake career would be complete without 2 3 . The Future of Earthquake Engmeering:
mention of the John A. Blume Earthquake Proceedings ofthe Inaugural Spposium ofthe
John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center.
Engineering Center at Stanford University. Dept. of Civil Engineering, Stanford, CA,
Several years before this center was founded in September 17.1976.

90
 John A. Blume Firm, Blume Earthquake Center Chapter 11

Recently, Professors Anne Kiremidjian and

Helmut Krawinkler took over the direction of
the Center.
I am very proud to have this earthquake center
named after me. I like to think that their choice
of the name was due more to my work in the
subject than to any fiscal support.

91
 Chapter 12

Combining Work
and Travel
“1 took time out, of course, to visit some of the
museums.. .to see some very beautiful paintings. If

Blwne: Not all of it has been hard work. A lot of it has been
extremely enjoyable. I like research efforts very much,
especially after computer aid became available. One can do so
much in a short period of time, and study the effect of parame-
ter variations very rapidly. Another diversion that I’ve had
over the years, combined with my work, has been some trips
out of the country. I’d like to briefly mention a couple of them.

Saudi Arabia and Around the World (1957)

Blume: I think I noted in a previous interview session that
in 1957 I went to Saudi Arabia on a special mission for the
U.S.government. I’ve talked about the technical and political
aspects of that, and now I’d like to mention the more enjoy-
able parts of the trip. I first flew to Amsterdam, out of New
York. From there 1went to T h e Hague, where I studied for a
few days the records and data in the offices of Aramco-the
Arabian American Oil Company-prior to going into Saudi
Arabia. I took time out, of course, to visit some of the muse-
ums in Amsterdam to see some very beautiful paintings. From
there I flew, via Paris and Rome and Beirut, to Saudi Arabia,
where I worked for 2-112 weeks, and where I was taken virtual

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 Chapter 12 Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

prisoner by the Arabs. After that experience hadn't planned. Pan Am contacted me later to
was settled and our work in Saudi Arabia was advise me that I had a 10% rebate coming,
done, I decided to come back home through because instead of coming back the same way I
the Orient, or complete the trip around the had originally come, I went around the world.
world.
Peru and Ecuador (1958)
So I booked passage with Pan Am to go to the
Orient. My first leg was from Dhahran in Saudi Blume: I've made several trips to Peru and
Arabia to Karachi, Pakistan. T h e only problem Ecuador. I've done a lot of earthquake and
was a 12-hour delay in getting started, so I sat other engineering in Peru. I've been all over
around the hot Dhahran airport for 12 hours that country and I like it very much-at least
waiting for the plane to come in. In the mean- when the politics are reasonable. O n one trip I
time, the local Arab in charge of departures-I arrived a few days after the Arequipa earth-
believe he was the equivalent of governor of quake of 1958. I managed to get to Arequipa,
the region-had refused to sign my departure and apparently I was the only outsider that got
release until the plane came in. By the time it there. There was a lot of heavy local damage. It
came in, he was long gone. To make a long was a very sharp, strong earthquake right below
story short I had a hell of a time getting out of the town. T h e masonry and adobe construction
Saudi Arabia, but I finally made it. in some places was not just cracked, but shat-
tered. Still, walls were standing even though
The plane flew to Karachi, but the last 500 shattered, with pieces of masonry no bigger
milcs or so was with one engine less than the than 2 feet square.
two it started with. So we put down in Karachi
and they put me up for two days while they got I found a very unusual structure of masonry
another airplane engine. In the meantime I and adobe-one room, two stories high. In
went all over the place, and even got a ride on a other words there was a ground floor room and
camel. 'These are the most disdainful animals! I directly above it another room. It was a two-
saw a great deal of interesting country life. story building but with only two rooms
You'll recall that Pakistan was split off from altogether, occupied by an old woman. T h e
India a few years prior, when the British left. building was badly damaged, and she couldn't
speak any English. I tried to tell her in my poor
From there I continued with Pan Am. I took Spanish that she should move out of the build-
almost three days off in Bangkok. I hired a ing, that it was apt to fall down in an after-
samlor for 24-hours a day, so I went night and shock. We did get to an understanding and she
day in my activities. From there I spent two or told me, no, she was going to stay there. It was
more days each at Singapore, Hong Kong, and all the property she owned, and everything she
Kowloon, of course, then to Fiji and Honolulu. had was in that building. She was going to stay
So I came home about five weeks after I there and go down with it. I learned later that
started, had a tremendously active trip in all the building did come down. They took her to
respect.., and got around the world on a trip I the hospital, injured, but alive. She would not

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 John A. Blume Combining Work and Travel Chapter 12

leave and I had no authority to force her out of built because the price of butter went down.
there. And no authority figure was interested. Butter and wool-that was it in their economy.
I was just a gringo tourist as far as they were
concerned. India (1977)
Blume: In 1977 I went to the Sixth World
Alaska (1958) Conference at New Delhi, India (1977). After
Blume: O n all these trips where I got out of the conference I went on a tour where we'd fly
the country, I usually managed to stay over a from town to town and be picked up by buses,
few days. In Peru I got up to very high eleva- mostly in central India-the tour was arranged
tions. I was up as high as 18,000 feet, working by Haresh Shah of Stanford, and Mrs. Shah.
with copper mining companies on the earth- We saw a great deal of Indian life and culture.
quake resistance of their structures. I also did Near the end of the tour I broke off from the
work near Talara, Peru, on the coast, where we group and went all by myself up into Nepal, to
were considering new methods of underwater Katmandu.
oil recovery for a large oil company. In 1958 I
had a nice trip to Ketchican, Alaska. I went My objective was to rent a plane and fly around
there to study some buildings that had been Mount Everest at dawn, which is considered
leaking badly under heavy rainstorms. I man- the thing to do. I had a plane and pilot lined up,
aged to parlay that into a trip to Anchorage. I but they called me at 2:OO a.m. to wake me and
enjoyed that very much, and I flew around with tell me that due to cloud formation and fog the
some bush pilots to see the country. plane could not take off. I couldn't stay any
longer, I had to leave the next day. So between
2:OO and 4:OO in the morning, working with the
Japan, New Zealand, and hotel desk people, I managed to hire a car and
More (1 960) driver to drive me up to a vantage point high
Blume: In 1960 I went to the Second World up in the Himalayas where I could see Mount
Conference on Earthquake Engineering in Everest from the ground.
Japan, and managed to tour Japan in addition
to attending that conference. I went north of
That was quite a trip, because the car itself was
pretty junky and broke down a few times. It was
Tokyo to where the nuclear power plants were
being installed-one of which we had worked in January-winter conditions-and to pro-
on. After the conference was over I managed to vide drainage across the road, about every mile
take side trips to Manila; Sydney, Australia; or two (on dirt roads), they'd simply dug nar-
Auckland, New Zealand; Fiji and Honolulu- row trenches to let the water run across the
about 2-3 days in each place. road. Every time we came to one of these nar-
row trenches we had to get out and put some
We had work in Auckland, where we had rocks in there to drive the tires over. All this in
designed a 20-story administration building for the dark, in the middle of the night, in freezing
the City of Auckland, which, however, was not cold weather. We finally got up to a place the

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 Chapter 12 Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

driver knew about, which was at an elevation of Middle Eastern country citizen. H e wanted to
10,000 feet, he told me. T h e cloud cover was give me a big reward but I wouldn't take it. I
high and cold. Lo and behold at dawn I did see had his undying thanks. After he learned what
Mount Everest for about 20 minutes, then the happened and how close he was to disaster, he
clouds came down. They just went up and was shaking like a leaf.
came down. That was very enjoyable.
From Cannes I went via a Switzerland stopover
Around the World Again (1980) to Istanbul, Turkey, where the earthquake con-
Blume: In 1980 I went around the world ference [Seventh World Conference on Earth-
again. This trip was undertaken partly in con- quake Engineering] was to be held. There the
nection with the Seventh World Conference in same thing happened to everybody in our
Turkey, but also covered a lot more territory. I group-we were involved in a military take-
started out with a polar flight from San Fran- over. T h e first we knew about this was on the
cisco to London. From London I went to morning of about the third day of the confer-
southern France and took about four days off ence, when everyone at the hotel where I was
on the beach in Cannes. I reverted to my old staying was told not to leave the hotel-just
beachcomber procedures by getting into bath- stay in there all day long and they'd feed us at
ing trunks, getting out and swimming and lay- meal times. They said not to go to the meeting.
ing around the beach for a few days. One A day or so later they released us from the
morning I was lying down in the sun out on the hotel. I proceeded to walk to the meeting point
end of a pier. I heard a call for help in the water through a park, where I had covered the same
alongside the pier. I looked over in time to see a route a few days prior. T h e only difference was
boy-I learned later he was about 8 or 9 years that the military had taken the park over as a
old. He was going down. Apparently he had depot. I suddenly found myself facing two
been floating in a waterwing apparatus, the Turkish soldiers, each sticking a submachine
strings broke, and he lost his flotation. He gun in my stomach, telling me in their lan-
didn't know how to swim.
guage to stop.
I proceeded to jump in and save his life, which I
did almost automatically because I'd done so I got the message very fast. I was all alone
much of that in the Hawaiian Islands when I because no one else had the foolish idea to walk
was a beachcomber. I dived off the pier, where I had. I finally managed to explain to
grabbed the boy, took him to shore, and got the them in their broken English and my lack of
water out of his lungs. Then his father came. Turkish where I was headed. They had me go
He was all excited. He had been talking to back and take a different route to get to the
some girl in a topless bathing suit and hadn't meeting place. They wouldn't let me go
been paying attention to his son who had pad- through the park. But it was a strange feeling
dled into deep water. They don't wear tops to suddenly have automatic weapons stuck in
over there. T h e father apparently was some my belly.

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 John A. Blume Combining Work and Travel Chapter 12

Official EERI Tour of China (1980) interesting and nice people in China. As leader
Blume: After the Turkish incident was pretty of the group I was asked to talk longer and
well taken care of, I went on to Tokyo,Japan. more often than the others. I spoke in three
At Tokyo I rendezvoused with 10 other engi- major cities-I was the only one to speak more
neers who were joining me for an invited trip than once. Every night there was a banquet of
through China. It was called the EERI Delega- different food from different parts of China.
tion to the People's Republic of China, and had The food was excellent. I had some food over
been arranged beforehand. I was then president there that I've never enjoyed anywhere else in
of EERI anh I had been asked to lead the dele- my life.
gation, which I did. We had a very busy, very
enjoyable, very unusual couple of weeks in At Harbin, I had come down with a bad cold in
China. This trip started out in Beijing. From the chest, with a fever and I could hardly speak.
there we went to Harbin, which is up in the I couldn't come down for dinner. They asked
northern part of China. In fact it's far north of me what I wanted for dinner, so I said a bowl of
North Korea. It was very cold. soup-they make good soup in China, full of
sea slugs and all kinds of things. They sent me
Back to Tangshan, where the tremendous
earthquake had happened a couple years up a huge tureen (must have been 16" in diam-
before, with a loss, officially, of a quarter of a eter) full of hot soup. I ate most of it. I don't
million lives, unofficially, half a million. We know whether the soup cured me or the Chi-
spent some time there but there was no place nese doctor cured me. They sent in a Chinese
left to stay overnight. From there we went to doctor to examine me in bed-he took my tem-
'Tianjin, then back to Beijing, for more meet- perature, my blood pressure, listened to my
ings and talks. From there we went to Shang- chest, and prescribed some odd-looking pills.
hai, from there to Guangzhou, which used to There were some black pills and some white
be Canton, and from there to Hong Kong, pills. The interesting part is he had me sitting
then back to the United States via Honolulu. up in bed stripped down to the waist with the
Scott: This was a special trip to take an entire hotel personnel in the room watching-
earthquake-related tour through China? the cook, bus boys, the gardeners, the clerk at
the desk-they all came in to see what was hap-
Blume: That's right, by invitation of the
pening to the man from the United States.
Chinese government. The Chinese govern-
inent put us up, paid all our meals and every- Very friendly, but curious. It was a very strange
thing. We just paid our transportation, and that situation. I don't know what the doctor gave
was covered by the National Science Founda- me, but the very next morning from 10 to 12 I
tion. The object of the trip was to exchange lectured for two hours with a voice I couldn't
goodwill and earthquake-related data between even use the night before. I think they gave me
the two countries. We lectured in three cities, something that would probably be illegal in
and listened to talks by them. I met some very this country.

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 Chapter 12 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

Those are just a few examples of some of the

trips I've had that have been rather unusual and
interesting.

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 Chapter 13

Selected Papers
and Writings
"Unfortunately, you can 't write down everything
that you learned and have done over a period of
time.. ..
11

Scott: I'd like to talk about some of your papers and writ-
ings. I think it is important to get you, in your own words, to
say something about your evaluation of the significance of the
papers. Do most of the writings you will discuss here have
some special relevance to seismic safety?

Thesis at Stanford
Blume: Yes. The ones I have in mind can all be connected
with earthquake engineering or structural dynamics. Some of
them I have mentioned before. My first major work in the field
of structural dynamics was the thesis [for Engineer's Degree] I
did at Stanford, with my partner, Harry Hesselmeyer. That
was published in a hard cover for the Stanford community. It
was never published outside the university, but I gave a paper
on it to the Seismological Society of America in 1934?4

Scott: But it was available within the Stanford system in

hard cover?

24. Blume,John A. and Harry L. Hesselmeyer, "The Reconciliation

of the Computed and Observed Periods of Vibration of a Fifteen-
Story Buildkg," Engineers' Degree thesis. Stanford University,
CA, 1934.

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 Chapter 13 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

Blume: Right. And it has been referred to by Scott: Why was there no interest?
a great many people. Then in 1953 Professor
Blume: I guess mainly because there weren't
Salvadori published a paper in the ASCE jour-
enough earthquakes. We went from Long
nal, Separate 177,25 entitled "Earthquake
Beach in '33 to Kern County in '52. This paper
Stresses in Shear Buildings." I read this paper
with great interest, and it rekindled my by Salvadori was no doubt written because of
thoughts regarding the work I had done on the the Kern County series in 1952. I won't go into
thesis years before. Even though Salvadori's the technical details here, but by hand calcula-
procedures, as outlined in his paper, were tech- tor methods, which were much shorter than
nically correct, they seemed cumbersome to the theoretical methods proposed by Salvadori,
me, in view of the shortcut methods that we I was able to come up with the same solutions
[Rlume and Harry Hesselmeyer] had developed to the problems as he had, and in a fraction of
previously. So I wrote a discussion of Salva- the time.
dori's paper, which was published in the 1953
ASCE Proceedings and in the ASCE Reworking the Thesis Twenty
Traizmrions,Volume 119, 1954.26I outlined
Years Later (1956)
the procedures that we had developed in the
thesis study for determining the fundamental Blume: This effort got me started again on
period of vibration of a structure, and also a the Alexander Building, the subject of our
special procedure for determining the higher thesis. So in 1956, by the time of the First
modes. All these efforts were prior to computer World Conference on Earthquake Engineering
technology being launched upon the world. in Berkeley, I had redone the whole effort, and
refined the work in view of the latest knowl-
Scott: So in 1953 you were referring back
edge about the vibration periods of structures.
to what you had already developed 20 years
before? Scott: You mean you redid the thesis effort?
Blume: Right, there were two reasons why Blume: Yes. I published a paper in the pro-
nothing had been published in the interim. ceedings of that conference, "Period Determi-
First, there was no money to work with, and nations and Other Earthquake Studies of a
second, there was no interest by anybody in
Fifteen-Story Building."*' This established the
the subject.
Alexander Building as the world's first guinea
2s. Salvadori,M.G., "EarthquakeStresses in Shear pig structure for earthquake research.
Buildings,"Journal of the Structural Divirion,
Proceedings of the American Society of Civil 27. Blume, John A., "Period Determinations and
Engineers-Separate No. 177. ASCE, New Other Earthquake Studies of a Fifteen-Story
York, NY,March 1953. Building,"Proceedmgs ofthe First Wwkl
26. Salvadori, M.G., "EarthquakeStresses in Shear Confwence on Earthquake Engineering. Held in
Buildings," Tramactionsnfthe American Society of Berkeley, CA, June 1956. Earthquake
Civil Engineers, Vol. 1 19. ASCE, New York, Engineering Research Institute, Oakland, CA,
NY,1954. 1956.

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 John A. BIume Papers and Writings Chapter 13

Among other things, I had determined-for Blume: Yes, and in the mathematical
the first four modes of vibration in each hori- research of dynamic problems in earthquake
zontal direction-how much of the natural design. Of course, another factor that got me
periods was due to shear, flexure, and ground started was the debate over the 1948 San Fran-
yielding. In other words, this paper was way cisco code, and the subsequent joint committee
ahead of its time, in spite of being delayed a analysis and report [Separate 64, which was
couple of decades. published in an ASCE structuralJouma~2*and
was given the Moisseiff Award.
Scott: And that had not been written up and
published anywhere else, until you reworked Scott: That's the one called Separate 66?
and published your dissertation? Blume: Yes, that was Separate 66, which
came a few years prior. So we had Separate 66
Blume: Right, in spite of all those years. The
[published in 19511, the Salvadori paper
general conclusions that I listed in the paper
[1953],29and my world conference paper
were 14 in number. I won't bother to enumer-
[1956],30getting me steamed up all over again
ate them all here, except to say that for the first
on these matters of structural dynamics.
time the participation of stairways, brick filler
walls, floor slabs, and tile partitions in an office [This interview left off in September 1987, and
building was being determined by dynamic resumed in October 1987.1
procedures. Also, the effective modulus of elas-
Blume: At our last session I started to talk
ticity of materials was determined. We found
about some of my engineering writings in the
that the ground yielding affected the periods of
earthquake field. I'd like to continue on that for
vibration, and a percentage of this effect was
a short while today, covering initially the
given. Also, the amount of flexure and the
earliest writings of 20 and 30 and even more
amount of shear.
years ago.
Procedures were developed to calculate the
28. Anderson, Arthur W., John A. Blume, et a].,
periods of vibration and the mode shapes from "LateralForces of Earthquake and Wind,"
drawings of the structure. Correlation was Separate 66,Journal oj'the Stmctural Division,
Proceedings of the ASCE. ASCE, New York,
obtained for the periods of vibration-whether NY,195 1. (Also "LateralForces of Earthquake
caused by earthquake, wind, or forced vibration and Wind," Transactions ofthe American Society of
with the testing machine. The periods were Civil Engzneers, Vol. 117. ASCE, New York,
NY,1952.)
found to be consistent with each other regard- 29. Salvadori, M.G., "Earthquake Stresses in Shear
less of the type of excitation. This paper was Buildings,"Proceedings -Separate No. 177.
important to me in several respects, but mainly ASCE, New York, NY,March 1953.
30. Blume, John A., "Period Determinationsand
because it got me started all over again. Other Earthquake Studies of a Fifteen-Story
Building,"Proceedings ofthe First World
Scott: You mean it got you started again in Confirence on Earthquake Engineering. Held in
Berkeley, CA, June 1956. Earthquake
the mathematical analysis of dynamic problems Engineering Research Institute, Oakland, CA,
in design? 1956.

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 Chapter 13 Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

In today's literature there's such a tremendous publication, although I had given talks to the
volume of writing on earthquake matters that society prior to that time.
it's very difficult for some people to get a pic-
hire of what it's all about. In fact, I sometimes Scott: When you say outside, you mean not
think the field is becoming overcrowded with a campus publication?
literature. It's probably amazing to some how Blume: Not a campus publication or part of
much was done in the early days. I think I men- my work.
tioned briefly in a prior session the U.S. Coast
and Geodetic Special Publication No. 201,and "Resistanceto Wind and
the fact that this publication released in 1935 Earthquake Forces" (1951)
contains a great deal of valuable information on
Blume: Another early publication was enti-
engineering seismology. I have a chapter in that
tled Modem Building Iqection, published in
book on the shaking machine that I designed
1951.33In spite of its somewhat limited title, it
with Professor [Lydik]Jacobsen.
was a hardcover book that contained chapters
Scott: What is the report called? by many people in the earthquake field. Frank-
Blume: T h e title of that report is Earthquake lin Ulrich and I collaborated on Chapter 13,
Investigations in California, 1934-1 937, put out which was entitled "Resistance to Wind and
by the U S . Department of Commerce, Coast Earthquake Forces." Part I of t h i s chapter,
and Geodetic Survey.31 mainly by Ulrich, was about seismology, and
part 11, mainly by me, was about structural con-
Scott: It has a lot of valuable background siderations and design requirements. In look-
information, in addition to reporting on that ing this ancient book over I'm amazed at how
year's investigations? much was known at that time. Even though
Blume: Yes, it's got many chapters by many that book was written for building inspectors, I
writers. Shortly after that report came out, a have been told by many that engineers have
special issue of the Bulletin of the Seismologtcal frequently referred to the book.
Society oj'Amm'ca,dated October 1935,con- Scott: Who published that? Say a little about
tained several papers on the special work of the the sponsorship.
Coast and Geodetic Survey, including a paper
by ine entitled "A Machine for Setting Struc- Blume: It was sponsored by Hal Colling and
tures and Ground Into Forced Vibration."32 his wife. He was a publisher and was also the
That was my first published paper in an outside godfather of the Uniform Building Code.
Scott: Would you say a little more about
3 1. Earthquake Investigationsin California, 1934-
193F, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Coast and him? How was he the godfather of the UBC?
Geodetic Survey. Special Publication No. 201.
Washington, D.C., 1935. 3 3. Modern Building Inspection: The Building
32. Blume, J.A., "AMachine for Setting Structures Inspector's Handbook. Building Standards
and Ground Into Forced Vibration,"SSA Monthly Publishing Co., Los Angeles, CA,
Bulletin, Vol. 25. SSA, El Cerrito, CA, 1935. 1951.

102
 John A. Blume Papers and Writings Chapter 13

Blume: H e was a person who was dedicated given in this early publication, which I had
to establishing a uniform building code in the almost forgotten about.
United States-not only for earthquakes, but
Scott: You say it was mostly on statics, and
for all phases of design and construction. He
that was largely because of the audience. Was it
did it mainly working out of the Los Angeles
because the inspectors really didn't need
area, over a period of many years, by forming a
dynamics, or because they couldn't handle
conference of building officials and engineers
dynamics?
and some architects.
Blume: I wouldn't expect a building inspec-
Scott: When would he have started that? tor or official of that era to get deeply involved
Obviously that was an extremely important in dynamics, although some of the principles
development. were mentioned. O n the other hand, they had
Blume: I'm not sure when he started, but I to enforce these code design requirements-
know this book was not the first thing done. whatever they were-and this book was a great
T h e first thing was a monthly publication. T h e help to them in that regard.
book was done in 1950-1 would estimate that
Also in this book is work by Fred Converse,
he started his code work in the mid- or late
who is the original soil mechanics man at
'40s. T h e official publishers' name was Build-
Caltech; Bill Moore of Dames & Moore
ing Standards Monthly Publishing Company,
worked for him at one time. So it's a small
124 W. Fourth Street, Los Angeles, California.
world.
Scott: Well, I diverted you from talking
about your chapter. "Reinforced Brick Masonry..."
Blume: My chapter, as I said before, was in (1953)
two parts. T h e first part was about seismology, Blume: Another book came out in 1953
what causes earthquakes, and where they occur, under the joint authorship of Harry Plummer
and whether or not they can be predicted. It and myself. 'This book was sponsored by the
covered a great deal of valuable information in Structural Clay Products Institute of Washing-
that regard. T h e second part contained quite a ton, D.C. T h e book was entitled Reinfmced
bit of philosophy about static earthquake Brick M a s m y and Lateral Force Design.34It was
design, but did not go into dynamics in any the first published book on how to reinforce
detail because of the reading audience I brick masonry for earthquake resistance. T h e
expected. But as far as statics goes, it talks preface is dated November 1953. This book
about relative rigidity and many other factors- again is mainly static in concept, but it gives a
building separations, building hammering, the great deal of very valuable information. In
need for good construction and good design. In
fact in looking it over briefly today I was 34. Blume, John A, and Harry Plummer, Reinforced
Brick Maronn, and Lateral Force Desim.
impressed, if I d o say so myself, at how much Structural d a y Products Institute,%ashington,
was known and how much information was D.C. 1953.

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Chapter 13 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

Chapter 4 for example, on design criteria, it about my writing, but for some reason they
covers building code requirements-especially came to me out of Washington, D.C.
of lateral forces on wind and earthquake. It
I enjoyed a great deal working with Harry
shows how to use the building codes. Chapter 5
Plummer. He was from back east, and
gives examples of how to design brick struc-
extremely well known in the technology of
tures that are reinforced under the codes, and
masonry, not earthquake-I supplied the earth-
gives a great deal of information about the very
quake part. With one author back east in
important principle of relative rigidity. In other
Washington, and another out in San Francisco,
words, the most rigid element in a series will
toward the middle of the work and also when
gather in the most force, and has to be
approaching the end of the work, we met at the
designed accordingly.
Broadmoor Hotel at Colorado Springs. We
Another interesting thing is that in a wall eleva- selected that place because we did not want to
tion-a wall punctured by windows and be interrupted. It was very nice, and we stayed
doors-the forces tend to go to the individual there a week or 10 days at a time, working in
piers according to the shape of the piers. A tall the daytime and relaxing in the evening. T h e
slender pier between windows will receive less book was very popular in its day, although it's
force than a square pier between windows. But probably long since been forgotten.
you could have a square pier that would be only
say 1 ' x 1 or it could be 6' x 6', both having the
I,
"StructuralDynamics in Earth-
same relative rigidity but one having six times quake-Resistant Design" (1958)
more strength in shear. Combinations like that
Blume: I had many pet theories I had been
were explained in detail in this book, in Chap-
working on in my spare time for years, but few
ters 4 and 5.
people were really interested until I published a
T h e book was given an award by both the paper entitled "Structural Dynamics in Earth-
American Institute of Architects and the Pro- quake-Resistant Design," which was first pub-
ducers Council. T h e award was for the best of lished in the July 1958J o u m l of the Strmctzlral
its class, and the class was Class I literature. Division,ASCE.3ST h e paper, with all of its dis-
'Thc book was also widely used by structural cussion, was finally published in the 1960
cngiiieers, and in some cases parts of the book ASCE Transactions.36It also won the Moisseiff
were used as a textbook at schools. Medal.

1 don't know exactly how I got into this. I 35. Rlume,John A., "StructuralDynamics in
didn't know Harry Pluminer at all before we Earthquake-Resistant Design,"Jountal of the
StructuralDivision, Proceedings of the American
worked on the book, but the Structural Clay Society of Civil Engineers. ASCE, New York,
Products Institute apparently looked me up NY, July 1958.
and selected me to be approached about the 36. Blume, John A., "StructuralDynamics in
Earthquake-Resistant Design,"Transactions of
writing of the book. It may be that they read the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 12 5 .
something in the building inspectors' book ASCE, New York, NY,1960.

104
 John A. Blume Papers and Writings Chapter 13

Scorn You mean it was published after This becomes important to consider, because
others had commented? much of the thinking of the Joint [Separate64
Committee, and subsequently in the Blue
Blume: Yes. They call it "discussion," even
Book, was influenced by the results of the 1906
though it's formal writing. This paper con-
earthquake, without, however, in my opinion,
tained many "firsts," including the results of
giving completely adequate consideration to
dynamic analysis of highrise buildings using
the differences in the characteristics of the
actual earthquake records.
buildings then and now.
Among other matters, the concept of ductility
Scott: You mean without considering the
and energy capacity beyond the yield point was
additional capacity that the masonry walls gave
introduced, through detailed examples. In fact,
those older structures?
the detailed procedure for analysis of design in
the inelastic range-termed the reserve energy Blume: Yes. The old buildings were gener-
technique-was presented in the closing dis- ally designed with a steel frame to withstand
cussion. Incidentally, that technique had been wind forces, and the masonry walls were put in
discussed in two or three of my oral presenta- without any structural recalculation. When the
tions in prior years. I had been holding back on earthquake came along, the buildings cracked
it, waiting to get more field data, but none the walls. Everybody said, "The steel frame
came, so I finally published it. buildings stood up fine," not giving adequate
credit-in my opinion-to the fact that those
Other concepts introduced in this paper brick walls probably saved many of those build-
included so-called plateau design, wherein two ings [that had steel frames]. And yet the brick
or more levels of resistance to ground shaking walls are not present in modem buildings, so
were utilized. The first, for example, being something has to be done to make up the dif-
under probable conditions of shaking, and the ference. I think it has been done to a certain
second under extreme-but-possible other con- extent, but perhaps not enough. The paper
ditions of shaking. Another matter that was covered many other considerations, including
pointed out in this paper, which to me is the change of period with damage-from the
extremely important, was the fact that the tra- so-called deterioration factors as materials get
ditional buildings, such as were present in San into the inelastic range.
Francisco in 1906, were of a totally different
character than the contemporary buildings that
Three Papers: Second World
were being erected in the '50s and '60s. The
difference lay mainly in the fact that the 1906
Conference (1 960)
buildings had heavy masonry or other walls, in Blume: At the Second World Conference on
addition to a fairly light steel frame, as com- Earthquake Engineering in Japan, 1960, I gave
pared to the modern buildings, with a heavier three papers, including a joint paper by myself
steel frame but no walls, only architectural and R. W. Binder of Los Angeles, entitled
cladding. "Periods of a Modern Multi-Story Office

105
 Chapter 13 Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

Building During C~nstruction."~' This was sion of Architecture, but in the early days he
about a first-time effort to determine by mea- worked in our firm. I believe he recently
surement the actual periods of vibration of an retired. The title of this paper was "A Suuc-
office building during its construction and in its tural-Dynamic Research Program on Actual
various stages. You may wonder why this is School building^."^^ This paper gave the
important. The answer is that it helps to ana- results of research we had done in the field on
lyze what mass and rigidity going into a build- IS school buildings in California. The main
ing do to create the overall natural vibrational part of the work was using a small vibrating
characteristics of that building. It was a very machine to shake the buildings and determine
interesting study. their periods of vibration and damping charac-
teristics. As a by-product of this work we
At the same conference I gave what I consider learned a great deal about school buildings
one of my most interesting and far-reaching
and helped to create better practice in school
papers, entitled "A Reserve Energy Technique building design.
for the Design and Rating of Structures in the
Jnelastic Range."" Although I had done prior Scotc: As long as I've known Jack he's been
work and given prior talks on this subject, I with the State Architect, involved in the admin-
believe this was the first published effort on istration of the Field Act program. So that early
how to design in the inelastic range, which work of his was highly pertinent to his career,
range most buildings must go into in order to wasn't it?
resist major earthquakes. It is to be recalled
Blume: Right. Though as I recall it, at the
that the codes up to that time did not recognize
time we did this work he was already with the
the inelastic range, but required the design to
state, but in prior years he had worked with us
be done in the elastic range. Today, decades
in our firm on similar programs. He was with
later, in fact almost three decades later, inelastic
us from mid-'47 to mid-'49.
procedures are common, and the reserve
energy technique has been used directly by
some, and by different names by others. "...Dynamic Analysis of Steel
Again, at the same conference in Japan in 1960,
..."
Plants Chile (1963)
another paper was given by Jack Meehan and Blume: In 1963 I wrote a paper, which was
myself. Jack Meehan later went with the Divi- published in the Bulletin of the Seismological
Society of America, dated February 19634'
37. Blume, John A., and R.W. Binder, "Periodsof a
Modern Multi-Story Office Building During 39. Blume, John A. and John F. Meehan, "A
Construction,"Proceedings of the Second World Structural-Dynamic Research Program on
Confwence on FJrthquuke Engineering, Vol. 11. Actual School Buildings,"ibid.
Held in Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan, July 1960. 40. Blume,John A., "AStructural Dynamic Analysis
Science Council of Japan, Tokyo, Japan, 1960. of Steel Plant Structures Subjected to the May
38. Rlume, John A., "A Reserve Energy Technique 1960 Chilean Earthquake,"Bulletin of the
for the Earthquake Design and Rating of Seismological Society of America, Vol. 5 3, No. 1.
Structures in the Inelastic Range," ibid. SSA, El Cerrito, CA 1963.

106
 John A. Blume Papers and Writings Chapter 13

This paper was entitled "A Structural Dynamic Scott: Then it must have stood up pretty
Analysis of Steel Plant Structures Subjected to well.
the May 1960Chilean Earthquakes." Here was
Blume: I think it did, and it was quite useful,
a case where a steel plant had been subjected to
at least to engineers.
violent shaking from a very strong earthquake
and all the vertical structures were vibrated, Scott: That work involved a series of earth-
including stacks and ovens and other vertical quakes in Chile. Was the work mostly done
structures. Some were damaged and some were here, as a mathematical modeling analysis?
not damaged. I put together a study that went
on for about a year and a half in my spare time, Blume: It was done in two or three stages.
often with the help of calculators in the office, The first stage was the measurement of the nat-
wherein we established the threshold between ural periods of vibration of the structures after
damage and no damage, by period. From this they were damaged.
we were able to reconstruct a response spec-
trum of the ground motion, which was very Scott: So you or somebody actually went
important because no instrument had recorded down and did some tests on the structures.
the actual motion. Blume: Bill Cloud did that (from the Coast
This paper was controversial in its review and Geodetic Survey). Then there was the
before publication. In fact, George Housner detailed analysis of the actual damage or lack of
undertook to review it critically and thought it damage observed in each structure. So we had
wasn't scientific enough. these two things. We knew the periods of
vibration, we had damping test results, and we
I couldn't agree with him. He was apparently knew whether the structures were damaged or
acting as editor of a special Chile edition of the not damaged. We also obtained from the steel
Bulletin of the Seismological Society. We company the detailed drawings of all the struc-
couldn't agree on publication. He wanted me
tures. The bulk of the effort was done in San
to make changes that I didn't want to make. So
Francisco in a computational mode, taking one
he appointed a committee of three-Perry
structure at a time. Take for example, a stack or
Byerly I know was one, Lydik Jacobsen, and I
a chimney made of steel. We know that the
believe Glen Berg was the other one. The com-
anchor bolts pulled out at the base and the
'
mittee of three voted to publish the paper as
stack may have started to wrinkle or buckle. By
written, and then to publish any discussion that
might ensue. The paper was published and was detailed analysis made from the drawings of the
very well received by the engineering commu- stack, we were able to determine at what point
nity. There was no discussion. it would tend to pull out the anchor bolts, and
at what point it would tend to buckle. We also
Scott: Interesting. George Housner didn't know its period of vibration, let's assume it's
come in with any critique afterwards, then? one second, for example. That would give us a
Blume: No. In fact no one did. point at one second.

107
 Chapter 13 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

Then we'd go to another structure where the entirely different from conventional proce-
period may be a half a second, and find no dures. They are much more conservative and
damage. By analysis again, we'd figure out the require different techniques. This paper out-
point at which damage should have occurred if lined the techniques I had been following in
there had been any. That would give us another several plants.
point at half a second, and a no-damage state.
By doing this over and over with every one of Scott: You had already been doing work for
the structures-and I think there were about 16 the Atomic Energy Commission?
structures-I was able to plot on a period scale Blume: Yes, for the commission, and also for
the damage points and no-damage points for General Electric and a couple of other suppli-
each structure. By running a line between ers. Instead of taking a lateral force coefficient
them, I knew I was somewhere in the right ter- out of the code for these plants, we would
ritory. The vertical scale on this plot was the develop the estimated potential shaking at the
response motion, which we derived from site. This was determined by a reference to any
knowing that the structure was either damaged faults in the region, the distance to the faults,
or not damaged. One could work back and esti- the type of soil, and many other considerations.
mate the ground motion. In fact, I presented formulas for determining
site acceleration, given magnitude, and distance
Scott: You estimated the presumed ground and soil conditions. This later became known
motion?
as the S A M procedure, an acronym for site-
Blume: Yes. We got limits for it-a high acceleration-magnitude, which procedure I
limit and a low limit-and the answer was in updated several times in the ensuing years as
between. It was amazing-the 16 structures more ground motion records became available,
gave us almost a smooth line. and gave subsequent papers on it.

"...InstallationsNear Active Dissertation at Stanford

Faults" (1965) (1966-1968)
Blume: For the Third World Conference Blume: I'll jump around now, and go to a
[on Earthquake Engineering] in New Zealand 1966 publication, done when I wrote my dis-
in 1965, I submitted and published a paper that sertation at Stanford. The title was "The
was for nuclear power plants, and other impor- Dynamic Behavior of Multi-Story Buildings
tant structures. The title of this paper was With Various Stiffness characteristic^."^^ This
"Earthquake Ground Motion and Engineering
Procedures for Important Installations Near 41. Blume,John A., "EarthquakeGround Motion
and Engineering Procedures for Important
Active Faults."41 For the first time, in publica- InstallationsNear Active Faults,"Proceedings of
tion at least, this paper outlined procedures one the Third W C E ,Vol. III. Held in Auckland and
Wellington, New Zealand, January 1965. New
might undertake for nuclear power plant seis- Zealand National Committee on Earthquake
mic designs, which as I mentioned before are Engineering, Wellington, NZ, 1965.

108
 John A. Blume Papers and Writings Chapter 13

turned out to be a thick volume, a condensation systems, as compared to the vertical elements,
of a tremendous amount of work, mostly on the tend to have the lowest point of contraflexure
computer. well above the first story. I believe that I was
the first to point this out, even many years
Scott: Is that available from the Stanford before writing this paper. Traditional @re-
campus, or in some other form? computer) frame design approximation in the
Blume: It's available on the campus, of old days was often done by various rules of
course, but also I published other papers about thumb. Most methods put a point of con-
it. A year or two later I wrote several papers on traflexure in the first story columns. Actually,
different parts of the dissertation effort. The with the cantilever-type buildings being
main such paper was in the American Society erected in contemporary times, the point of
of Civil Engineers, Jozcnzal of the Structural contraflexure might be several stories above the
Division, February 1968. This was entitled first. The approximate methods could thus be
"Dynamic Characteristics of Multistory Build- very seriously on the dangerous side.
" ~ ~ paper won the Leon S. Moisseiff
i n g ~ . This Scott: Was this because they had been based
Award. That was the third time I won that
on the assumption that the point was actually
same award from the ASCE, probably the only much lower?
one to win it three times.
Blume: That's right, lower, and the
moments much smaller.
"StructuralDynamics of
Cantilevered-Type Buildings" Scott: Would you say a bit more in layman's
(1969) terms about 1) cantilever-type buildings, and 2)
the term "point of contraflexure."
Blume: I wrote another paper, which leaned
on another part of the dissertation work, for Blume: All right. A pure cantilever is like a
the Fourth World Conference on Earthquake springboard or a diving board. It just bends in
Engineering in Chile, in 1969. That was enti- the shape that you're used to in a diving board.
tled "Structural Dynamics of Cantilevered- Now just turn the board around, or stand it on
Type Buildings."44One of the main things I end, and you've got the cantilever bending in a
was working on was the fact that cantilevered- building that has nothing but walls, let's say, or
type buildings, or buildings with flexible floor a very flexible floor system.

The point of contraflexure applies to the point

42. Blume, John A., "TheDynamic Behavior of
Multi-Story Buildings With Various Stiffness where the cantilever bending moment is zero,
Characteristics." Ph.D. dissertation. Stanford
University, CA, 1967. 44. Blume, John A, "StructuralDynamics of
43. Bluine, John A, "DynamicCharacteristics of Cantilevered-Type Buildings,"Proreedings ofthe
Multistory Buildings,"Joumalof the Snureural F o u d WCEE,Vol. 11. Held in Santiago, Chile,
Division, Proceedings of the American Society of January 1969. Chilean Association on
Civil Engineers, Vol. 94, No. ST2. ASCE, New Seismology and Earthquake Engineering,
York, NY, 1968. Santiago, Chile, 1969.

109
 Chapter 13 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

changing from positive to negative in the same entire record was the controlling feature of the
story. The only way one can get zero moment response to the ground motion.
in all stories of a frame building is to have a
I published several other papers in the SSA
very rigid floor system, compared to the verti-
Bulletin regarding nuclear seismology, which
cal elements, which elements might be the
the subject came to be known as. In the
walls and/or the columns.
December 1969 issue of the SSA Bulletin, I
published "Response of Highrise Buildings to
...
"SpectralResponse From Nuclear Ground Motion From Underground Nuclear
Event SALMON" (1969) Detonations."46 In 1970, the University of Ari-
zona Press published another paper, "Seismic
Blume: In the middle and late '60s I was get-
Signal and Structural Response," in a book
ting deeply involved in my work for the
entitled Educationfm Peacefil Uses of Nuclear
Nevada operations office of the Atomic Energy
Explosives.47
Commission, regarding underground nuclear
explosions. One of the first events that we wit-
"An Engineering Intensity
nessed in that program was a nuclear event
entitled SALMON, which was a shot in a salt
Scale..."(1970)
dome underground in Mississippi in 1965. Blume: Then in February 1970, coming
back to the SSA Bulletin, I published a paper
Two or three years later I published a paper in that I hope in time may become one of the
the Bulletin of the Seismological Society ofAmerica, most worthwhile papers that I have done. But
February 1969.4sThe paper was entitled this will take a long time.
"Spectral Response to Ground Displacement
Scott: You mean a long time before it's fully
in Hattiesburg Resulting From Nuclear Event
recognized?
SALMON."
Blume: Before it's fully recognized, and
This paper was short, but it demonstrated how before there's enough data to put it into proper
one could take a few key cycles of ground use. It's entitled "An Engineering Intensity
motion out of a whole lengthy time history of Scale for Earthquakes and Other Ground
ground motion, and by proper statistical meth- Motion. "48 The Rossi-Forel scale and the
ods create essentially the same response spec- Modified Mercalli scale are widely used, as are
trum as though one had used the whole record.
In other words, this article was pointing out 46. Blume, John A., "Responseof Highrise
Buildings to Ground Motion From
that under actual motion a small portion of the Underground Nuclear Detonations,"
SSA Rulletin, December 1969. SSA,
45. Blume, John A., "SpectralResponse to Ground El Cerrito, CA, 1969.
Displacement in Hattiesburg Resulting From 47. Blume, John A., "SeismicSignal and Structural
Nuclear Event SALMON,"Bulletin of the Response," Chapter 1 3 in Educatimfw Peacefil
Seismological Society of America, Vol. 59, No. 1. Uses of Nuclear Erplosives. University of Arizona
SSA, El Cerrito, CA, 1969. Press, 1970.

110
 John A. BIume Papers and Writings Chapter 13

similar scales in other countries like Japan, Scorn It's in the same issue of the Bulletin?
Russia and Italy. But all of those scales have the Blume: Yes, I had two papers in that one
problem that they are subjective and thus not issue.
very accurate. I proposed in this paper an engi-
neering intensity scale (EIS) based upon the
**...Poured-in-PlaceConcrete
partitioning of the response spectral diagram
into nine segments. Rather than spread the
Structures" (1 970)
energy of the spectrum over the whole period Blume: Prentice-Hall published a book in
range, divide the period range into nine stan- 1970 entitled Earthquake Engineerikg. Bob
dard groups. I have used this for a large nuclear Wiegel was coordinating editor. I did Chapter
event named FAULTLESS. 18, entitled "Design of Earthquake Resistant
Poured-In-Place Concrete Str~ctures."~ This
I also published another paper:9 where I used was based on the ductile concrete theory that I
the method for the 1971 San Fernando earth- have discussed previously.
quake. In order to make it work, one needs to
get recorded ground motion at several stations **BuildingColumns Under
over a wide area and from these ground Earthquake Exposure" (1971)
motions develop response spectra by the nine
bands, and then simply plot the results on a Blume: Another paper published in the
map. I envision that this scale, properly corre- ASCE September 1971 Structural Division
lated with damage statistics, could turn out to Journal was entitled "Building Columns Under
be extremely useful in the future when more Strong Earthquake Expos~re."~* This paper
data is available. was unusual in that I was concentrating on con-
crete corner columns in tall buildings, on the
structural, dynamic and probabilistic bases. I
"Motionand Damping of
..."
Buildings (1970)
attempted to show that comer columns, even
in symmetrical buildings of several stories,
Blume: Another paper in the SSA Bulletin in could be subjected to stresses considerably over
February 1970 was entitled "The Motion and what is normally expected by standard proce-
Damping of Buildings Relative to Seismic dures. In other words, I was pointing out a
Response Spe~tra."~' weakness in the system. Unfortunately, no one

48. Blume,John A., "An Engineering Intensity Scale 50. Blume, John A., "TheMotion and Damping of
for Earthquakes and Other Ground Motion," Buildings Relative to Seismic Response
SSA Bulletin.. Vol. 60, No.1. SSA, El Cerrito, Spectra,"SSA Bulletin.. Vol. 60, No. 1. SSA, El
CA,1970. Cerrito, CA, 1970.
49. Blume, John A., "EngineeringIntensity Scale 5 1. Wiegel, Robert, I., ed., Earthquake Engineering.
Data for the 197 1 San Fernando Earthquake," Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1970.
Proceedings ofthe Sixth WCEE,Vol. I. Held in 52. Blume, John A., "BuildingColumns Under
New Delhi, India,January 1977. Indian Society Strong Earthquake Exposure,"Proceedings oftbe
of Earthquake Technology, Meerut, India, ASCE, Vol. 97 No. ST9. ASCE, New York,
1977. NY,1971.

111
 Chapter 13 Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

took much interest in this paper. However, quake Engineering, in Rome, 1973. The title of
many of the buildings that have been damaged that paper was "Elements of a Dynamic Inelas-
before and since, had distress in corner col- tic Design Code."S3Just as the title implies,
umns. I think the principles I was trying to this paper suggested in code format, how
point out are very important. inelasticityand dynamics might be combined in
Scott: So, in your estimation, cases of actual a potential earthquake design code. It was a
earthquake damage bear out your findings? very simplified approach to an extremely com-
plex subject-one of interest to me and to
Blume: At least in part. The comer columns
many others. The purpose of this code would
in certain buildings are being stressed more
than people realize. This can lead to damage be to recognize officially the inelastic excur-
and collapse. sions of ductile structures. Again, I've been
harping on this subject for decades-long
['l'his interview left off in October 1987, and before it became popular-on the need for
resumed in February 1988.1 ductility and energy absorbing characteristics
Blume: Since our last session I have been in tall buildings. If they're properly designed,
going over my various reference lists and histo- buildings can go somewhat inelastic during a
ries of lectures and talks, and have come to the severe earthquake, absorb a great deal of
conclusion that I've been involved with at least energy, and still retain their integrity. The
190 papers and/or books over the years, and building might be designed so that the damage
that I have given talks and/or lectures number- would be mostly minor.
ing over 300. A few of these talks were pub-
lished later on and were counted in the Scott: This is a way to accommodate large,
publication list. Between myself and my com- and maybe partly unknown or unpredictable
pany, over the years we've written reports for future forces applied to a building, and yet
the government and for industry that I very make the building reasonably safe, but without
conservatively estimate at being over 800- making it so massive or so expensive that it
possibly 1,000 reports. These were for private would be impractical to build it. I was thinking
consumption, or for client consumption. about this in the earlier session when you were
Today I'd like to go back and mention a few describing your work on nuclear power plants,
more of the key papers, just to get them on the and how their design was so different, had to
record. It might be of value if somebody stay in the elastic range, and not be allowed to
wanted to look them up sometime. go into the inelastic range. I guess that sort of
differentiation would probably help future lay
"...DynamicInelastic Design 5 3. Blume, John A., "Elementsof a Dynamic-
Code" (1973) Inelastic Design Code,"Proceedings ofthe Fzjih
WCEE, Vol. III. Held in Rome, Italy, June
Blume: A paper was published in the Pro- 1973. Secretariat Committee of the SWCEE,
ceedings of the Fifth World Conference on Earth- Rome, Italy, 1974.

112
 John A. Blume Papers and Writings Chapter 13

people reading this oral history to grasp some toward the earthquake requirements for
of these things a little bit better. nuclear power plants from that time on. It
Blume: That's correct. The nuclear power embraced the results of the research work done
plants are designed to remain elastic, even in two places: by Nathan Newmarks group
under severe earthquake demands. This means back in Illinois, and by our group in San
that they are much stronger-far stronger- Francisco.
than normal office buildings. In a severe earth- The work was combined, the results were com-
quake, normal office buildings and other struc- bined, and one set used as a check on the other.
tures that are not nuclear will have to go into The resulting spectral diagrams were provided
the inelastic range, because they're not for design of nuclear power plants.
designed to be strong enough to remain elastic,
nor should they be. The risk is so small com- Scott: Was that research work actually done
pared to the demand that there is no reason to on designs of nuclear power plants, or was it
design all structures elastically. independent, theoretical research work? Say a
little about where it came from.
On the other hand, we have to make sure that a
Blume: The work was basically from
structure undergoing several excursions in the
research of a mathematical nature, based on the
inelastic range does not lose its integrity, such
recorded motion of earthquakes around the
as happened in Mexico City in a few cases.
world. It had been used to some extent, prior to
That's why this subject should be brought out
nuclear power plants, but not officially. This
into the open rather than handled as something
effort combined the work of the two firms in
on the back counter.
statistical research, and provided a device that
the Atomic Energy Commission was looking
"SeismicDesign Spectra for for-namely a suggested basis for designing
Nuclear Power Plants"(1973) power plants for extreme earthquake motion.
Blume: Another paper was published in the
Journal of the Power Division, American Society Three Papers: Sixth World
of Civil Engineers, in November 1973.54This Conference (1 977)
was a very important paper jointly prepared by
Nathan Newmark, John Blume and Kanwar Blume: The next paper I'd like to mention
Kapur. The paper was entitled "Seismic Design briefly is one that was published in the Proceed-
Spectra for Nuclear Power Plants." This was ings of the Sixth WorM Conference on Earthquake
done for use by the Atomic Energy Commis- Engineering in New Delhi, India, 1977. The
sion, and the director of licensing, as a guide paper, by myself, is entitled "The S A M Proce-
dure for Site-Acceleration-Magnitude Rela-
54. Newmark, Nathan,John A. Blume, and Kanwar t i o n s h i p ~ . "S~A~M is an acronym for site-
Kapur, "Seismic Design Spectra for Nuclear acceleration-magnitude. This was an updating
Power Plants,"Journal ofthe Pourer Divirion,
Proceedingsof the ASCE, Vol. 99, No. P02. of work I had done long before, on the subject
ASCE, NY, NY,1973. of how ground motion attenuates with distance

113
 Chapter 13 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

ifrom the epicenter, and how to estimate future hl as time goes on. I consider it the most logi-
conditions where a site or a structure or a plant cal intensity scale that is existent. As I
is at a certain distance from a proposed earth- mentioned before, it requires many earthquake
quake epicenter, and what the parameters are, records to make it viable.
and how to go about estimating future ground
motion at any distance from an epicenter. Scott: On that point, comment on the state's
strong motion instrumentation program that's
In conducting this study, I did statistical analy- been going on now for a number of years.
ses on computers of 2,7 13 records of ground
motion induced by underground nuclear explo- Blume: Well, the old strong motion work
sions, not to mention hundreds of records of goes back 50 years.
actual earthquake ground motion. Our param- Scott: Yes, but after the San Fernando earth-
eters were magnitude, distance from the source
quake there was an effort to put out many more
to the site, and type of soil conditions.
instruments.
Scott: That was a massive job, wasn't it? Blume: Yes. Arrays, they call them. That's
Blume: It was a tremendous job, and it all been going on since about '7 1.
winds up in a few pages. That's true of a great
Scott: The state program, started after the
deal of this work.
San Francisco earthquake, represented a major
'The next one is also from the Sixth World augmentation of previous instrumentation
Conference on Earthquake Engineering. It's efforts. The program is funded by a small fee
entitled "Engineering Intensity Scale Data for charged when a building is put up. It took them
the 197 1 San Fernando Earthquake.*IS6I a long time to get the program to where it was
believe in the prior session we discussed my really working well. For a good many years
engineering intensity scale-EIS. This paper is they recorded a lot of data, but it was raw and
an application of that scale procedure to the they couldn't get it out in usable form
197 1 San Fernando earthquake. It shows maps promptly.
for various period bands of the engineering
intensity scale of the southern California Blume: And many owners objected to hav-
region from that earthquake. It is my sincere ing the space taken for instrumentation.
hope that in time, with future records of this Scott: But apparently in these last earth-
type-it takes a great many records to do this- quakes, particularly the Whittier earthquake of
that this scale will become more and more use- last October [ 19871, they recorded lots of good
SS. Blume, John A., "The S A M Procedure for Site- data, and they got it out quickly, in forms that
Acceleration-Magnitude Relationships," engineers felt they could work with. I think we
Proceedings of the Sixth WCEE, Vol. I. 1977. are now to the point where we can get adequate
56. Blume, John A., "Engineering Intensity Scale
Data for the 1971 San Fernando Earthquake," data to make methodologies like yours really
Proceedings ofthe Sixth WCEE, Vol. I. 1977. pay off.

114
 John A. Blume Papers and Writings Chapter 13

Blume: That's good,'because it's badly or more valid than the calculations show. In
needed. other words, it's a method of evaluating risk,
based upon mathematics, as well as some judg-
The next item I have noted here is an invited
ment.
paper given at the same conference. The title is
a little misleading, because I was invited to
speak under the title: "Allowable Stresses and The Acceleration "Gap"(1979)
Earthquake Performan~e."~' The paper dis- Blume: The next paper I have [marked]
cusses allowable stresses, as it should, but the here was given at the Second U.S. National
main thrust is a consideration of demand of the
Conference on Earthquake Engineering in
earthquake motion, and capacity of the struc-
August 1979 at Stanford University. The title
ture to resist that motion on a probabilistic
was "On Instrumental Versus Effective Accel-
basis, involving the probabilities of safety mar-
eration, and Design C~efficients."~~ There's
gins and factors of safety. This paper received a
long been a so-called anomaly in the earth-
lot of comments and much discussion. It was
quake field, and I have written many papers on
one of the first of several I have written on the
this subject, wherein measured acceleration by
subject of probabilistics and demand vs. capac-
ity. reliable instruments and measured ground
motion of any type in addition to acceleration
Scott: For the layman, just say a little about is far greater than the code coefficients for
the modifier "probabilistics." Is this using sta- design of structures. This is what I call the
tistics to estimate the likelihood of something "gap." One approach to this problem is to deal
happening? in what is called "effective acceleration,"
Blume: That's a strong part of it, but it's also wherein instrumental acceleration values of
a little more than that. It considers such things large numbers are adjusted downward-item
as earthquake intensity, structural capacity, by item-in view of the parameters of the situa-
energy absorption capacity-and all these tion that tend to make the structure resist the
things-not to have finite numerical values, but motion. One of the greatest of these many fac-
to be random variables, which have certain tors is the one I've talked about before, namely
probabilities of being more or less than what energy absorption and ductility. One can add
you're talking about at any one time. By com- to that the subject of redundancy, the safety
bining these random variables according to the factor in stress allowances, and many other fac-
mathematics of probability, one can estimate tors that are enumerated in this paper.
very logically and closely the probable perfor-
mance of a structure in a probable earthquake, 58. Blume, John A., "On Instrumental Versus
and what the chances are of it being less valid Effective Acceleration and Design Coefficients,"
Proceedings ofthe Second U.S. National Confvmce
012 Earthquake Engineering. Held a t Stanford
57. Blume, John A., "Allowable Stresses and University, Palo Alto, CA,August 1979.
Earthquake Performance,"Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute,
Sixth WCEE,Vol. I. 1977. Oakland, CA,1979.

115
 Chapter 13 Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

Scott: Let me ask a question regarding the [February 19881 an associate professor of engi-
gap-the rather wide divergence between code neering at Stanford University and she was a
requirements and the actual strong motion part-time employee of the Blume firm in San
record. Is this partly related to the character Francisco at the time that we wrote this paper.
and duration of the motion. That is, don't The paper takes work I had done previously,
dome very strong motions occur as quite high and various methods of estimating ground
peaks or spikes of energy release over motion probabilistically for such sites as
extremely short periods of time, so short that nuclear power plant sites, and combines the
the building does not really respond nearly as whole into one concise paper for publication.
much as it might to accelerations that contin-
ued substantially longer? The first procedure used was a regression pro-
cedure based upon available data. The second
Blume: That's a part of it-probably one part procedure has to do with fault dislocation
of maybe 20 or more, but it's definitely a factor. based upon geologic findings. In other words,
In fact, I've written a complete paper on just if the faults around a site can be located and
that subject alone for the LL series for studied by geologists expert in this type of
PG&E. It's true if there's a very narrow activity, estimates can be made as to how the
spike-we call those spikes on the records, faults have moved in geologic time. Having
where the time dimension is so small compared this, with proper mathematical treatment, the
to the amplitude that the spikes look almost estimated ground motion at a particular site
like a vertical straight line in a diagram-that can be derived. The paper shows how this can
spike is not fully effective in motivating the be done, and it was done for a nuclear power
building to respond. And that is one of the plant in California by the writer, I believe for
many factors. the first time.

The third procedure in the paper is called plate

"Probabilistic Procedures for Peak
boundary. This approach considers the geo-
Ground Motions" (1979) logic plates in the bedrock in a given locality,
Blume: The next paper I thought I should and the boundaries of these plates, and again,
mention briefly was published in the Novem- based upon geologic and seismological data,
bcr 1979 issue of the Structural DivisionJozlr- estimates can be made of where the possible
nal, American Society of Civil Engineers. The motion will occur sometime in the future.
title of the paper is "Probabilistic Procedures
for Peak Ground motion^,"^' jointly authored This sounds pretty far out and I guess it really
by myself and Anne Kiremidjian. Anne is now is, but nevertheless it shows the state-of-the-art
in the nuclear power plant field. I cannot in this
59. Blume, John A. and Anne S. Kiremidjian, brief interview go into all the details, but any-
"ProbabilisticProcedures for Peak Ground one interested can look at the paper itself. The
Motions,"30~ntar of the Structural Division,
Proceedings of the ASCE, Vol. 105, No. STl 1. product of the work is often given in the form
ASCE, New York, NY,1979. of a plot showing the peak ground acceleration

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 John A. Blume Papers and Writings Chapter 13

plotted against the probability of that accelera- Blume: That's a little difficult to answer, but
tion occurring. The paper contains several I would say that very close in to an epicenter
plots of that description. I've long felt that the motion is not as great as
people think, especially if the distance from the
"...Attenuation Studies" (1980) epicenter to the site is less than the distance to
the focal depth of the earthquake underground.
Blume: The next paper is from the Seventh
World Conference on Earthquake Engineering There's another factor involved too, and that is
in Istanbul, Turkey, 1980. The title is "Dis- what I call leverage. If you take a series of data
tance Partitioning in Attenuation Studies."60 points, such as from the San Fernando earth-
I'm the sole author. This paper considers the quake where hundreds of data points were
results of more attenuation studies in the com- obtained, it would be such massive data at that
puter, consisting of a data set of 816 station one distance, or within a certain distance band,
component, acceleration, distance and magni- that the data has what I call a leveraging effect.
tude combinations. Instead of considering all It's prying the motion either up or down, due
the data regardless of epicentral distance in one to the fact that the data is not evenly spread,
procedure, the distance parameter is divided but concentrated too much in one place. The
into partitions of certain dimensions and dis- partitioning procedure discussed in this paper
tances, and each partition is studied individu- is intended to eliminate that bias.
ally. Later on the results of that study are
combined to make the overall distance plot. ...
"Protecting Museum
Collections ...'I (1986)
This procedure sounds a little far out, like
some of the other recent papers, but neverthe- Blume: The next paper I want to mention is
less is has very practical significance. One of an excursion from the most recent papers I've
the results of this study shows that by this par- talked about into the realm of artifacts. It seems
titioning procedure, which makes as much like a big jump. The title of this paper is "The
sense as any other procedure, the ground Mitigation and Prevention of Earthquake
motion close to the epicenter is estimated to be Damage to Artifacts."61This paper was devel-
less than when estimated by more conventional oped and given by invitation to a large national
methods. meeting in Washington, D.C., which led to the
publication of a hard-cover book entitled Pro-
Scoa That's interesting. Do you have any tecting Historic Architectureand Museum Collec-
conjectures as to why there is a difference? tions From Natural Disasters. BarclayJones was

60. Blume, John A., "DistancePartitioning in 6 1. Blume, John A., "TheMitigation and
Attenuation Studies,"Proceedings of the Seventh Prevention of Earthquake Damage to Artifacts,"
WCEE,"Vol.2. Held in Istanbul, Turkey, Protecting Historic Architecture and Museum
September, 1980. Turkish National Committee Collectim From Natural Disastws. BarclayJones,
on Earthquake Engineering, Istanbul, Turkey, ed. Butterworth Publishers, Stoneham, MA,
1980. 1986.

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 Chapter 13 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

the editor. As the title of the book implies, it you store it? If it's out for permanent display,
considers all forms of natural disaster-earth- how do you protect it from being tossed over?
quakes being one of these. The paper also discussed the fallacies of the old
tombstone argument. In the old days people
Scott: Who published the book, and in what used to estimate earthquake motion by obser-
year? vations of tombstones falling over or standing
Blume: The book was published by Butter- up, which is all right as far as it goes, but they
worth, ...Boston, London ...a worldwide organi- didn't consider the soil-structure interaction,
zation called Butterworth. The copyright is three-dimensional effects, traveling, and many
1986 by Butterworth Publishers, 80 Montvale other parameters in the problem. I have listed
Ave., Stoneham, Mass. 02 180. I'm responsible in the paper-interior artifacts of large size,
for one chapter in this book, which bears the objects in glass-covered cases, objects on
same title of the paper I just read. I greatly shelves, wall displays, stored items, and
enjoyed working this material up. discussed what might be done under each
category.
Scott: That does sound like a bit of a depar-
ture from some of your more mathematical I found that the people I was working with, and
papers. I'm curious as to how you went about people who read the book or heard the talk,
doing the paper and chapter. Did you go to were extremely interested in the subject and
some museums and look over the artifacts and the approaches that I outlined. In fact, they had
figure how you would go about tying them me come back to Golden Gate Park months
down? later to give another talk to the people in the
Golden Gate Park museum, and they also had
Blume: Well, I've given a lot of thought over others come in to attend a large meeting.
the years to protecting delicate objects, and I've
been to many museums myself-not only in
"...Earthquake Resistance of T d
this country but in other countries-and I
Buildings" (1 984)
know pretty well what the situation is. But for
this invited paper I actually sat down and fig- Blume: The next paper that I'll mention
ured out different classes of exhibits. Thus, today is from the Eighth World Conference on
some are on display, while some are packed in Earthquake Engineering, San Francisco, 1984,
storage. Some are large statues, while some are entitled "Redundancy and Relative Earth-
small delicate vases. quake Resistance of Tall Buildings."62 In this
paper I consider redundancy as not necessarily
In the chapter, as I recall, I outlined procedures the same as ductility and energy absorption
that might be followed to protect each of these capacity. They're both extremely desirable in
types of artifacts. One of the criteria that has to
bc faced initially is, is the object to be seen at all 62. Blume, John A., "Redundancyand Relative
Earthquake Resistance of Tall Buildings,"
times, or is it put on temporary display and Proceedings of the Eighth WCEE, Vol. V .
then stored away somewhere, and if so how do Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1984.

118
 John A. Blume Papers and Writings Chapter 13

tall buildings. They are not mutually indepen- secondary effects such as p-delta, p being the
dent, but you can have a ductile building with- weight above a point under consideration,
out redundancy, or a ductile building with and delta being the distortion from the static
redundancy. I much prefer to have both redun- position.
dancy and ductility, and the ability to withstand
severe excursions. If things start to break up, Predicting Ground Motion Effects
with redundancy another line of defense comes on Structures (1 975)
into play. In fact, aircraft are usually designed
with this principle in mind-if something gives Blume: There is a publication that our office
a bit, then something else comes into play and prepared, based largely upon many of my
takes over. For decades I have preached that research efforts for the Nevada operations
redundancy, as well as ductility, are not only office for the Atomic Energy Commission
desirable in tall buildings, but may be essential (AEC), having to do with underground nuclear
for survival. explosions and the safety of buildings subject to
that induced ground motion. A large book was
In this paper I considered the various code types prepared under the number JAB-99-115, which
of structures, and I wind up with plots of the represents the 1 15th report prepared by our
distortion in inches, versus the relative value of firm under our contract 99 for the Atomic
the various code-type structures, and the Energy Commission on structural response to
results show a tremendous range in the allow- ground motions from underground nuclear
able distortion of a building before collapse. explosions.
Scott: A range between actual buildings, or
This book is entitled Efects Prediction Guidelines
between hypothetical buildings that have or do
fir Structures Subjected to Ground Motion.63Even
not have these redundancy factors?
though the work was done relative to nuclear-
Blume: The ranges between the different induced ground motion, almost all of the
types of buildings set forth in the code. I might results are applicable as well to natural earth-
just read off what those types are-ductile quake ground motion. In addition to starting
moment-resistant steel frame, ductile moment- off with definitions and discussion of typical
resistant concrete frame, braced frame, braced conditions in the earthquake ground motion
frame and ductile moment-resistant frame field, this book goes into the analytical damage
combined, shear wall and ductile moment prediction fundamentals. It covers how to pre-
resistance, shear walls in framing, a box and dict damage, and discusses the behavior of
shear alone without ductile moment resistance, dynamically loaded buildings and building ele-
and a box in flexure.
63. Effects Prediction GuidelinesforStructuresSubjected
The shear wall structure starts to fail after very to Ground Motion. Prepared by the John A.
small distortions, as compared with the redun- Blume Corporation for the Atomic Energy
Commission. National Technical Information
dant structures, which can withstand large Service, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Springfield,
distortions, provided there's no failure from VA, 1975.

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 Chapter 13 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

ments. Then it considers the engineering really nothing compared to where it might go
intensity scale (EIS) method, which I've dis- in a real earthquake. As part of this work, we
cussed before, and another method that I have studied the human response to motion. There
not discussed herein to date, the spectral matrix have been a few papers on this subject, but we
method (SMM) for predicting structural dam- conducted experiments in our laboratory. We
age. This method involves using estimated or used people on swings-subjected to different
actual spectral response diagrams partitioned degrees and extents of swinging motion and
into divisions and correlating and reconciling- got their blind-folded reaction to what they felt
ground motion demand and capacity of the and when they felt it.
building. Much of this is similar to other papers
I have given, but also much of it is new and dif- Scott: You put them in an ordinary swing, or
ferent. And a great deal of it is complementary a specially designed swing?
to what has been done before. Blume: A special swing where we could mea-
sure the motion. We'd pull them a certain dis-
The book also discusses the threshold evalua- tance and let them go. The results checked very
tion procedure (TEP) for engineered build- nicely with very exotic experiments that were
ings. We used this approach in the case of a made back east. You see, the human motion
great many large underground nuclear shots. threshold is very important in the east, espe-
Before the shot we had to estimate the possible cially for wind. Many office buildings feel the
damage, if any, so we used these procedures to wind motion. I've been in New York buildings
estimate what might happen, and prepared during windstorms. When the building moves
written reports in advance of the shot. The with the wind you don't feel it very much, but
thresholds outlined were the code-required when the wind lets up and the building goes
threshold, the working stress threshold, the back, you feel that.
yield limit threshold, human alarm (as when
people start to panic, or at least feel the motion This book goes into a great deal of mathemat-
and then panic), observable damage threshold, ics on probabilistics and risks and how to calcu-
human hazard threshold, and story failure late the risk. The book has a tremendous
threshold. I'm not implying that all of these amount of graphical information and tabular
were reached with underground nuclear shots, information. This is the condensed result of a
but we certainly have reached them all with great deal of work.
natural earthquakes.
Scott: It sounds like it not only tells how you
Scott: These thresholds are stages of did those things, but also tries to set up some-
response to stronger and stronger motion? thing to guide others who might want to do
similar things elsewhere.
Blume: That's right. Stages, with each suc-
cessive one getting more severe as we go along. Blume: Actually, that's what it is. It's called
The first one-code-required threshold-is Guidelines, for others who might want to do it.
merely coming up to code stresses, which is That's its purpose. The reason behind the

120
 John A. Blume Papers and Writings Chapter 13

requirement to do this-we were asked to do by somebody else on the same project." They
this by the U.S. government-I think part of it wanted it put in a book that could be studied to
was that they felt we had been on this project get the advantage of what we'd been doing for
for 20 years. T h e word got out that we were all those years. And we did this as well as we
getting to have a monopoly on our procedures, could. You can see it's a large book.
and that it should be expanded and given to the
world at large, because it was government Unfortunately, you can't write down every-
money paying for it, which we agreed to. So thing that you learned and have done over a
they said "Pull together a lot of what you've period of time, so we still have a lot of expertise
done that might help a person predict the that we couldn't put in this book. But we tried
effects of ground motion from another shot, or to, 1'11say that. We didn't hold anything back.

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 Chapter 14

Observations and
Retrospections
"I have simply lived and breathed earthquake
matters for decades. I'

Scott: What do you consider your most interesting or most

important contributions to earthquake engineering and
structural dynamics?
Blume: Some people have been confused about me and
what I do and have done. Many can't understand why a struc-
tural engineer should be doing research not only in structural
engineering but also in such matters as probabilistics and
ground motion and dynamics. It's all part of my original intent
to uy to do something about the earthquake problem.

I have simply lived and breathed earthquake matters for

decades. I believe that I'm considered a maverick by some in
the field because I have done design, consultation, and
research. Some purists probably don't approve of that combi-
nation, but I've found it to be extremely useful. My design
experience has complemented and improved my research
experience and vice versa. Even my early work in the building
trades has been useful in practice.

Over the years I've come up with several innovations due

mainly to hard work and some luck. I started out studying
intensely the characteristics of buildings-both structural and

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 Chapter 14 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

dynamic-and in the days when dynamics was a onds. In Mexico City it turned out to be 2 sec-
nasty word to structural engineers. I pioneered onds, but it's the same principle.
in such matters as natural period determina-
For decades I have preached the matters of
tions and period changes under sustained energy absorption and ductility and redun-
motion, site periodicity, which is something dancy and soil-structure interaction and ductile
that is now very popular-especially after Mex- concrete, where concrete is designed to with-
ico City, an extreme case of site periodicity. stand inelastic motion without failure. I have
done a lot of work in the attenuation of motion
Scott: Say just a word about what you mean
with distance from the site, the SAM proce-
by site periodicity.
dure. I pioneered in reinforcing brick masonry
Blume: That certain building sites, due to to be earthquake resistant. I've done work in
the nature of the soil and the depth of the soil, smoothed 5% response spectra, which are now
inay shake in periods that are characteristic of getting to be a standard approach. Code devel-
that site. opment, plateau design-where you design a
building for at least two stages of motion. One
Scott: Something of a harmonic response? is the initial onslaught of the motion, and two,
Blume: Right. In other words, motion com- after the cosmetics have failed and little resis-
ing into a soft site, such as Mexico City, can tance is left except that of the structural frame,
become very strong or be amplified in the site's how the building will stand up under continued
own periods of vibration or frequency. Then if motion. This, again, is something that hap-
on top of that soil you place a building that has pened in Mexico City. After many excursions
a similar natural period of vibration-especially and such long duration of strong motion, some
after the building has undergone a few inelastic of the structures just ran out of steam. The
excursions and is coupling with the soft soil reserve energy technique is a powerful tool and
below it-you are heading for disaster. This concept for inelastic design. The Engineering
happened in some cases in Mexico City. A few Intensity Scale, the spectral matrix method, the
threshold evaluation scale, were pioneering
buildings out of a great many had complete
efforts in nuclear seismology, which can be
collapse.
applied to the earthquake field.
This is not a new consideration. For example,
in our first thesis in 1934, Hesselmeyer and I Philosophical Guidelines
discussed briefly the matter of site periodicity. Blume: I have not followed any particular
The subject was pretty much ignored for formula in dealing with earthquake problems,
decades. The way it can be approached today is whether in my research, or in designing struc-
to have design spectral diagrams that show the tures, plants, and installations. I do, however,
site periodicity for each site. I believe at the have a few philosophical concepts which I have
time of our 1934 thesis the feeling was that the found helpful from time to time. I just offer
dangerous site period range was 1 to 1.5 sec- them here for whatever value they might have

124
 John A. Blume Observationsand Retrospections Chapter 14

for others. "When in doubt, take the course Blume: That's right. Over the years I've had
that is best for the public welfare." That per- some tough decisions to make-personal, tech-
haps sounds corny and obvious, but I've found nical, social, financial-and I've found these
it very useful in reaching tough decisions over philosophies, and others like them, to be very
the years. helpful.
"Some problems which cannot be solved
directly, may be straddled, or approached from Reflecting on Predecessors
the sides to find the solution trapped in a nar- and Contemporaries
row window." This is somewhat of a research Scote: Do you have some comments on
tool, especially in parametric studies where, the roles and contributions of your
due to the unknowns or the complications, a predecessors and contemporaries in earthquake
direct, classical solution may not be possible. engineering?
But by approaching it with parameter varia-
tions and other means, one can often trap the In Japan
only possible solution in a narrow space. It's
got to be in there somewhere. And if the space Blume: A great deal of the important work-
is narrow enough, for all practical purposes at least in static design-started in Japan. The
you've got a solution. But you've got to Japanese came to this country in 1906 to study
prove that it's the only solution and that it the effects of the San Francisco earthquake.
is repeatable. They then went home and proceeded to do
something about what they saw and learned.
Another mental tool that I've carried around San Francisco did not get a real earthquake
for a long time is "Do not get bogged down in code in effect until 1948. There is a message
trivial matters, but on the other hand, have there.
great respect for important detail." There is a
distinction between triviality and important Some of the earlyJapanese workers, such as
detail. Tachu Naito, Kyoji Suyehiro, and Kiyoshi
Muto, did a lot of thinking on the problem and
Scott: And it's essential to be able to did some good work. The main loss of life in
recognize the difference between the two. Tokyo and Osaka in 1923 was due to fire and
Blume: Absolutely. Another is: "Always do panic. The buildings that they had constructed
good work regardless of profit, or lack of in recent times had stood up pretty well, but
profit." And: "Nature is always right-try they were of the classical, traditional type,
harder to understand it." Those are simple lit- somewhat like the early San Francisco build-
tle items, but I've found them very useful at ings that also stood up pretty well in 1906. But
times. as I've pointed out in many papers, the build-
ings we're putting up today are not the same as
Scott: These are things you keep in the back the traditional buildings of earlyJapan or San
of your mind? Francisco. Those early buildings had thick

125
 Chapter 14 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

masonry walls and other non-calculated ele- Blume: He was. In fact, I recall-I probably
ments that made them a better risk. They had have it somewhere in my files-an engineer
great redundancy in many cases. named Uacob] Creskoff back east wrote a com-
mentary in Civil Engineering about the U.S.
Another class of construction that I've seen in Coast and Geodetic Survey forced vibration
Japan that struck me as interesting-and this work, and failed to mention that I'd done it and
came along before ductile concrete was intro- that Jacobsen was involved. So Henry Dewell
duced-they built a steel frame composite with wrote a letter to the editor complaining about
concrete, using angle shapes and flat bars for this lack of proper recognition for prior work.
braces to build an open-frame column, for Of course they wrote back and forth a few
example, around which they put forms and times, but I was impressed that Henry Dewell
poured the whole thing solid with concrete. It would bother to do such a thing. And he hardly
made a very interesting and worthwhile type of knew me then, either. A little later on I got to
construction, which we never saw in this coun- know him more. He was not a dynamicist in
try. The reason we didn't have it here is that the true sense, but I think he had an apprecia-
the labor cost would be prohibitive in dealing tion of the possibilities. And he understood
with such small pieces of structural steel. I Jacobsen a little better than most of the others.
think today they're reinforcing the way we do, You see, Jacobsen was so far out that when he'd
but this goes back 20-30 years. A column, for lecture he'd leave the typical structural engi-
example, would have four corner angles of neer just flat.
structural steel and lattice type diagonals.
So I came along and probably filled the gap,
Dynamic Appomh: Jacobsen, Dewell, Blume which was one of my intentions, to bridge the
gap between theory, dynamics and practical
Blume: The dynamic approach to the earth- structural design. That was my whole objective.
quake problem was probably started by my Later on it broadened, but that was the start of
friend and professor, Lydik Jacobsen. As I it. That goes back to 1932, a year before the
pointed out, however, he was not a structural Long Beach earthquake.
engineer, but a mechanical engineer. As his
assistant, I had the opportunity to take dynamic Other Early California Engineers
theory and apply it in a structural sense. There
was one San Francisco engineer who I think Blume: I hesitate to list names, because I am
would have liked to have done this, but he almost certain to omit some deserving person.
didn't have the information at the time, and On the other hand, I have been talking so
that was Henry Dewell. He took a fairly active much in this series about my own work it
interest in dynamic matters and how they would be a pleasure to bring others into focus.
might someday be applied. There were several early pioneers in structural
engineering, some of whom were quite inter-
Scoe Henry Dewell must have been a ested in the earthquake problem. Essentially all
pretty remarkable person. of the latter were in California or Japan. It took

126
 John A. BIume Observations and Retrospections Chapter 14

quite some time for the public to learn or care Paul Jeffers, Mark Falk, R.R. Martel, R.W.
what a structural engineer was, much more Binder, Steve Barnes, Robert Labarre, Fred
time to associate earthquake-resistant design Converse, Ben Benioff, D.L. Narver. Probably
with the structural engineer, and even longer to the most advanced in their earthquake thinking
do something about it. Part of the reason for were Derrick, Jeffers, Martel, and Binder, with
this was the relatively small number of damag- Jeffers doing the most to make structural engi-
ing earthquakes in populated Califomia- neering a viable profession. Jeffers and Falk
1906,1925,1933,1940,1952. were the best storytellers at the early meetings.
Barnes in later years did a great deal of dia-
In the San Francisco area structural engineers phragm testing as well as code work.
in the early days included M.C. Couchot, C.H.
Snyder, H.J. Brunnier, R.S. Chew, Charles George Housner started his long career at
Derleth, L.H. Nishkian, Henry Dewell, Walter Caltech, I believe in the late '40s. He was later
Huber, Harold Hammill, E.L. Cope, J.B. joined by Don Hudson. Ayre and Hollis later
Leonard, A.V. "Gus" Saph, Henry Powers. Of worked with Jacobsen at Stanford after I left to
these, I would consider Dewell, Huber and use the shaking machine. Williams and Ben-
Nishkian to be the most advanced in their jamin also conducted tests at Stanford.
earthquake interest and approach, and possibly
Chew as well. Dewell had a keen interest in the Not structural engineers, but important in the
subject and studied the Japanese static tech- picture were Bailey Willis, Andy Lawson,
niques. Brunnier did the most to make struc- Lydik Jacobsen, Perry Byerly, Beno Guten-
tural engineering a viable profession. Slightly berg, Carl Richter, Hugo Benioff, Maurice
later came Harold Engle as a strong 10 per- Biot, Frank Neumann, Frank Ulrich and later,
center, and Mark Falk moved from the south to Clarence Allen and Bruce Bolt.
San Francisco-all good engineers.
More Became Involved
Stanford, with its large shaking table, was
active in the late '20s and the '30s. Arthur Ruge Blume: As time went on, more engineers
tested elevated tank models at MIT, and R.R. became earthquake-conscious. Several began to
Martel had a modest program a t Caltech. call themselves earthquake experts or special-
There was the U.S. Coast and Geological Sur- ists, although most had little more than a static
vey special California research program in the code philosophy, and perhaps some experience
mid-'30s, and not much else was going on. I from inspection of damage. But some were
beginning to probe deeper, especially after
was active at Stanford, in the USC&GS pro-
gram, and later in the decade in my own Kern County, 1952. Among these were Karl
research. Steinbrugge, Henry Degenkolb,John Rinne,
Emilio Rosenblueth, Nathan Newmark, Roy
In the Los Angeles area the early structural Johnston, Martin Duke, Mike Pregnoff, Glen
engineers included Oliver Bowen, Clarence Berg, Harry Seed, Ray Clough, Joe Penzien,
Derrick, Murray Erick, Rufus M. Beanfield, and a little later, Edward Wilson, Egor Popov,

127
Chapter 14 Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

Vitelmo Bertero, et al, at U.C. Berkeley, and Those on both lists, and also those with the
Haresh Shah and James Gere at Stanford. I most aspects of the subjects, are Housner,
should also mention Bob Hanson at Michigan, Newmark, and Blume. Blume started in the
and Bob Whianan at Massachusetts. early '~OS, Housner in the late '~OS,
and
Newmark in the '50s. Apologies to the many
As I feared, the list grows long, and the subject
not listed.
gets more involved, and I am certain to be
overlooking some important persons. As far as
contemporaries are concerned, there are now The Future
hundreds of them-a sign of progress. More- Scott: What will or should the future bring?
over, there are now a dozen or more specialties Blume: Of course, no one knows the future.
within a specialty-another sign of progress. However, the past and the present, and espe-
And not listed are all the many seismic workers cially trends, help us to look ahead, albeit with
in other countries, especially in Japan, India, uncertainty. As time goes on and the popula-
New Zealand, Mexico, Europe, South Amer- tion increases, the probability of major earth-
ica, etc.-another sign of progress. quakes affecting major cities increases. The
event does not have to have magnitude 8, or
A Selected Listing even 7, to cause a lot of damage to old pre-code
Blume: In order to make some sense of this, buildings. A close-by 6 is a strong earthquake.
Ict us consider the most industrious, the most In fact, I have a feeling that a 7 or an 8 will not
durable with seniority in advanced technology, shake much harder than a local 6 to 7, but will
the most innovative, the most productive, the shake much longer and over a larger area.
most versatilc, the most recognized in the fields Because codes vary and designers vary, and
of earthquake engineering and structural conditions vary, there will be some damage, or
dynamics. worse, to a few code buildings. This is a prob-
lem of a very small probability of a major event
In earthquake engineering, alphabetically,
or events.
there would be: Barnes (diaphragm testing,
codes), Blume (various), Degenkolb (damage
surveys, codes), Engle (static analysis, early Eartbqwke Prediction
code), Housner (various), Muto (various), Blume: We can be sure that earthquakes will
Newmark (various), Rinne (codes, organiza- continue-the questions are when, where and
tion), Steinbrugge (damage study, codes, risk). how much. Judging by the media and public
reaction to the small but sharp 1987 Whittier
In structural dynamics, alphabetically, there shock, there is going to be a great problem with
would be: Blume (various), Clough (analysis),
human reaction, including panic.
Duke (soils, lifelines), Housner (various), Hud-
son (instruments, theory), Newmark (various), Prediction of time and place within reasonable
Rosenblueth (early probabilistics, analysis), tolerance is, in my opinion, a long way off.
Seed (soils, codes). Even if it can be done someday, and this is not

128
 John A. BIume Observationsand Retrospections Chapter 14

certain, the handling of people will be a major ground motion can be very severe compared to
task. Buildings will still be damaged unless they building code forces, and you have to go into a
are well designed and well built, so prediction ductile range to withstand it. It's been under
should not be considered an alternative to good cover. I've been trying to bring it out in the
structures. open for decades. I think the only way we can
understand anything is to know what makes
Eartbquuke-Resistant Design and it work.
Ground Motion
Blume: It is possible now, and has been for Tying I t Togetber Is Not Enougb
some time, to create earthquake-resistant Blume: But most engineers of the earlier
structures and also to estimate the potential class, even after these things became known to
ground motion for a given site. This is best some degree, would take the approach that a 2
done probabilistically. The degree of expected percent or 3 percent base shear design for lat-
damage, if any, can be adjusted in the design eral force is adequate if you tie the whole thing
stage to suit the requirements for safety and together and make the connections good. This
cost. In other words, risk can be controlled helps, of course, but it is not always enough.
where it is essential to do so. Many of these
techniques have been presented in the publica- I don't think it will ever be a pure science, not
tions [I have authored] over the years. It is for a long, long time. But to make it a state-of-
hoped and expected that in the future such the-art practice combined with some science,
techniques and procedures will receive wider people have to recognize the true nature of
application. what makes the dam thing go, and that is that
the ground motion can be extremely severe.
It is hoped as well that the Engineering Inten-
You can design structures to withstand this
sity Scale (EIS) will come into general use
motion, but it's not going to be done by ignor-
someday as a simple but logical and very useful
ing the need for ductility under sustained
scale of earthquake intensity.
motion.
Two-stage design (plateau design) should be
Buildings have to be tied together-there's no
used for important structures. So should
question about that. That's one thing they all
energy design, and controlled ductility, and
agree on. By that I mean the connections of the
redundancy. Base isolation will increase and be
floors, roof, columns, framing, walls, etc. They
watched closely for performance, with and
have to be well connected at all points to
without major earthquakes.
remain tied together. There's no argument
I think the missing link has been, and still is to about that, there can't be. But beyond that one
some extent, lack of acceptance or general gets into this rather strange world where you
knowledge of the true nature of the subject. design with 5 percent gravity at the base shear,
The subject has been put back considerably by and yet the instruments record the spectral
not facing up directly to the situation that responses of 100 percent of gravity. I've been

129
 Chapter 14 Connections; The EERl Oral History Series

working on that gap between the two-code Scott: You have somehow to design so as to
forces and actual earthquake forces-for deal with that lateral force gap, and without
decades, and I'm not sure I've got the message getting a collapse.
across yet, because people are still reinventing Blume: That's right, and some of these
the wheel. papers I've published are based on that subject
alone-how to take care of the gap, what makes
Scott: Basically you've got to try to design
the gap, when is it present, and when are the
your building so that if it's forced beyond that
parameters missing? I think that's something
lower code percentage, nevertheless it can
that has to be worked on in the future.
somehow absorb the energy, respond, and Although I think we know most of the answers,
withstand the greater motion without it's still not generally understood.
collapsing.
Blume: That's right. An analogy is a football Using Past Research
player. A good football player who gets tackled Blume: In my opinion, a lot of the research
and swamped by the other team falling on top that is going on since the federal government
of him rarely gets injured. He's tough and duc- has come up with all this research money is
tile. He's got to be to survive. On the other valuable if for no other reason than educational
hand, a player who's going to break a leg or an purposes. I don't think it's all necessary, but I
arm or a jaw the first time he gets tackled is don't object at all because I think it's helping to
brittle. He's no good as a football player. It's educate. What I do object to is when they do
the same with buildings. They have to be something today, but forget all about what has
tough, ductile, roll with the punches, absorb been done in the past. So I think what we need
shock and energy, and still hang together. It's is an open policy of recognizing that the earth-
the only form of engineering that I know of- quake problem-although big earthquakes may
outside of tornado, cyclone, and hurricane- happen very rarely-is a real problem for the
where in dealing with earthquake problems public. And nothing is as dramatic as Mexico
you do one thing but expect something else to City and Tangshan, China, to point that out.
happen. Tangshan was a complete disaster. Of course
their buildings weren't like ours. Our buildings
would stand up much better than those in
Lateral Force Gap
Tangshan, by far. Incidentally, a great many of
Blume: You design according to a code for a those buildings were designed by Russian tech-
relatively small amount of lateral force, and yet niques. The Russians used to be very strong in
the actual force can be enormous. We're kid- that country, and they showed the Chinese how
ding ourselves. I'm not saying we have to to build industrial buildings, and some of the
design for that great force, but you have to techniques were not so good for earthquake
understand what is needed to reconcile the gap. resistance.

130
 John A. Blume Observationsand Retrospections Chapter 14

Improving Codes I've worked very hard, and I sincerely hope that
I've been able to contribute something that has
Blume: I think there has to be constant
saved lives and will save lives in the future.
effort to improve the code. Codes should be
considered live objects, and not allowed to sit
around too long without some indicated Acknowledgments
improvement. On the other hand, I don't think Blume: In closing I would like to note my
they should be changed just for the sake of appreciation for the contributions over the
change. There should be some good reason for years and decades of the Blume company
doing so. employees, associates, and officers toward the
production and innovations of the firm.
Awards and Honors
It should also be noted for the record that my
Blume: I have received many awards and wife of 42 years, Ruth, who passed away in
honors for my work in this area, and I'm very 1984, not only put up with me and my worka-
appreciative and proud of them all. One other holic ways but encouraged my efforts. And I
thing has stood out in my mind over the years: thank Jene, my wife today, for her help and
the fact that I've had hundreds of engineers encouragement.
come up to me after talks or at meetings and
tell me how much they enjoyed the talk or Stanley Scott, his secretary, Maria Wolf, and
reading my writings, and how much they've student typists, Stacy Furukawa and Sheila
gotten out of my efforts. The apparent feeling Rose, deserve the credit for putting this oral
is that I've been successful in combining theory history together. Thank you!
and practical know-how into something that is
understood and useful to the practicing engi-
neer. That makes it all worthwhile.

131
Photographs

John A. Blume,
1957. (photo:
Moulin Studios)

123
 Photos Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

Working as a carpenter in the

Santa Cruz Mountains during
summer of 1928 (following
his freshman term at
Stanford University).

Building and ground

vibration machine designed
and built by Blume while
working for the U.S.Coast
and Geodetic Survey, 1934-
1935.(photo: US. Coast
and Geodetic Survey)

134
 John A. Blume Photos

Close-upof Alexander
Building dynamic
model-five degrees
of freedom per story.
Designed and built by
Blume in the Stanford
Vibration Laboratory
with Lydik Jacobsen,
1934.

Measuring forced vibration on Morris Dam

on the San Gabriel River. Left to right:
Ralph McLean, George Pickett, John
Blume, 7935.(photo: U.S. Coast and
Geodetic Survey)

135
 Photos Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

The San Francisco-OaklandBay Bridge field engineering staff prior to bridge opening. Blume is
in top row, far right, 1936.

Inspecting a hydrostatic tiltmeter on the San

Francisco-OaklandBay Bridge, 1936. At left is
R. Robinson Rowe, Blume on right.

136
 John A. BIume Photos

John Blume and Joe Nicoletti inspect the quay wall of the submarine base at Hunter’s Point
Naval Shipyard, San Francisco, CA, 1952. (photo: U.S. Navy)

Panel discussion at the First World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, held in Berkeley, CA, 7956.
Left to right: John E. Rinne, S. Okamoto, John Minami, Kiyoshi Muto, John A. Blume, V.A. Murphy, Emilio
Rosenblueth, Jorge Barco, Steve Barnes.

137
 Photos Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

Blume with Haresh Shah (lert) and Jim Gere (right) at a Stanford University party celebrating
the Blume gift to establish the John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center at Stanford
University, December 5,7974. (photo: Stanford University News Service)

138
 John A. BIume Photos

At the Institute of Engineering

Mechanics, Harbin, China during the
EERI Delegation to the People's
Republic of China tour, 1980. Liu
Huixian, Institute Director, on right.

Blume makes notes between

meetings at the China Institute
of Seismology during the EERl
Delegation to the People's
Republic of China tour, 1980.

139
 photos Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

EERl Delegation to the People’s Republic of China, 1980. From right to left, back row: Hank Lagorio,
Neville Donovan. Robert Hanson. Roger Scholl, Willard Keightley, Kalman Lee Benuska. Front row:
Leon Ru-Liang Wang, Roy Johnston,John Blume, Helmut Krawinkler, Anestis Veletsos.

140
 John A. Blume Photos

Cover of Engineering News Record, September 78, 1980 featuring John Blume. Article within
entitled 'Taming Earthquakes With Ideas.*

141
Selected
Bibliography
The following bibliography lists all the publications referred
to in this volume authored or co-authored by John A. Blume,
as well as those to which he contributed. Entries are arranged
in chronological order.
Blume, John A. and Harry L. Hesselmeyer, "The Reconcilia-
tion of the Computed and Observed Periods of
Vibration of a Fifteen-Story Building," Engineer's
Degree thesis. Stanford University, CA, 1934.
"The Reconciliation of the Computed and Observed Periods
of Vibration of a Fifteen-Story Building." SSA Annual
Meeting, Berkeley, CA, April 1934.
Earthquake Investigations in California, 1934-1 935, U.S. Dept.
of Commerce, Coast and Geodetic Survey. Special
Publication No. 201. Washington, D.C., 1935. Chapter
on forced vibration by John A. Blume.
"Tiny Machine Shakes Huge Building in Novel Earthquake
Test," Popular Science. Vol. 126, No. 5, May 1935.
Discussion of forced vibration experiments conducted by
John A. Blume.
Blume, J.A., "A Machine for Setting Structures and Ground
Into Forced Vibration," Bulletin of the Sezj?nological Society
ofAmerica,Vol. 25. SSA, El Cerrito, CA, 1935.
Anderson, Arthur W., John A. Blume, et al., "Lateral Forces of
Earthquake and Wind," Separate 66, Journal of the
Structural Division, Proceedings of the American Society

143
 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

of Civil Engineers,. ASCE, New York, Blume, John A., "The Dynamic Behavior of
NY, 195 1. (Also "Lateral Forces of Earth- Multi-Story Buildings With Various
quake and Wind," Transactions of the Stiffness Characteristics." Ph.D. disserta-
American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. tion. Stanford University, CA, 1967.
117. ASCE, New York, NY, 1952.)
The Future of Earthquake Engineering: Proceed-
Blume, John A., and Harry Plummer, Rein- ings of the Inaugural Symposium of theJohn
forced Brick Masonry and Lateral Force A . Blume Earthquuke Engineering Center.
Design. Structural Clay Products Insti- Dept. of Civil Engineering, Stanford,
tute, Washington, D.C. 1953. CA, September 17, 1976.
Blume, John A., "Period Determinations and Blume, John A., "Memorial: Lydik S. Jacobsen
Other Earthquake Studies of a Fifteen- (1897- 1976)," Bulletin of the Seismological
Story Building," Proceedings of the First Society of America, Vol. 67, No. 4. SSA, El
World Conjkence on Earthquake Engineer- Cerrito, CA, August 1977.
ing. Held in Berkeley, CA, June 1956.
Blume J. A., "Probabilities of Peak Site Accel-
Earthquake Engineering Research
erations Based on the Geologic Record of
Institute, Oakland, CA, 1956.
Fault Dislocation," Section LL-41 of
Blunie, John A., "Structural Dynamics in Final Safety Analysis Report, Units 1 and
Earthquake-Resistant Design," Journal of 2, Diablo Canyon Site, Amendment No.
the Structural Division, Proceedings of the 50, "Seismic Evaluation for Postulated
American Society of Civil Engineers. 7.5 M Hosgri Earthquake," Pacific Gas
ASCE, New York, NY, July 1958. and Electric Company, San Francisco,
CA, 1977.
Blume, John A., "Structural Dynamics
in Earthquake-Resistant Design," Blume, John A. and Anne S. Kiremidjian,
Transactionsofthe American Society of Civil "Probalistic Procedures for Peak Ground
Engineers, Vol. 12 5 . ASCE, New York, Motions," Journal of the Structural
NY, 1960. Division, Proceedings of the ASCE, Vol.
105, No. STl 1. ASCE, New York, NY,
13lume,John A., Nathan Newmark, and Leo H.
November 1979.
Corning, Design of Multistory Reinforced
Concrete Buildingsfor Earthquake Motions. "Pioneer Paces Seismic Field: John Blume
Portland Cement Association, 1961. Builds on 50 Years of Discoveries," Engi-
neering News Record, September 18, 1980,
Carder, Dean S., ed., Earthquake Investigations
Vol. 205, No. 12. New York, NY,1980.
in the Westem United States 1931-1 964,
U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Coast and Blume, John A., and R.W. Binder, "Periods of a
Geodetic Survey. Special Publication No. Modern Multi-Story Office Building
41-2. Washington, D.C., 1965. Chapter During Construction," Proceedings of the
on forced vibration by John A. Blume.

144
 John A. Blume Selected Bibliography

Second Wwld Confmence on Earthquake Blume,John A., "Response of Highrise

Engineering, Vol. 11. Held in Tokyo and Buildings to Ground Motion From
Kyoto, Japan, July 1960. Science Council Underground Nuclear Detonations,"
of Japan, Tokyo, Japan, 1960. Bulletin ofthe Seismological Society of
America, Vol. 59, No. 6. SSA, El Cerrito,
Blume, John A., "A Reserve Energy Technique
CA, December 1969.
for the Earthquake Design and Rating of
Structures in the Inelastic Range," ibid. Blume, John A., "Spectral Response to Ground
Displacement in Hattiesburg Resulting
Blume, John A. and John F. Meehan, "A Smc-
From Nuclear Event SALMON,"
tural-Dynamic Research Program on
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of
Actual School Buildings," ibid.
America, Vol. 59, No. 1. SSA, El Cerrito,
Blume, John A., "A Structural Dynamic Analy- CA, February 1969.
sis of Steel Plant Structures Subjected to
Blume, John A., "Structural Dynamics of Can-
the May 1960 Chilean Earthquake,"
tilevered-Type Buildings," Proceedings of
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of
the Fourth WorM Conference on Earthquake
America, Vol. 53, No. 1. SSA, El Cerrito,
Engineering, Vol. 11. Held in Santiago,
CA, February 1963.
Chile, January 1969. Chilean Association
Blume, John A., "Earthquake Ground Motion on Seismology and Earthquake Engi-
and Engineering Procedures for neering, Santiago, Chile, 1969.
Important Installations Near Active
Blume, John A., "An Engineering Intensity
Faults," Proceedings of the Third WwM
Scale for Earthquakes and Other Ground
Conferenceon Earthquake Engineering, Vol.
Motion," Bulletin ofthe Seismological Soci-
111. Held in Auckland and Wellington,
ety ofAmerica. Vol. 60, No. 1. SSA, El
New Zealand, January 1965. New
Cerrito, CA, February 1970.
Zealand National Committee on
Earthquake Engineering, Wellington, Blume,John A., "Seismic Signal and Structural
NZ, 1965. Response," Chapter 13 in Educationfor
Peacefil Uses of Nuclear Explosives.
Blume, John A., "The Dynamic Behavior of
University of Arizona Press, 1970.
Multi-Story Buildings With Various
Stiffness Characteristics." Ph.D. disserta- Blume, John A, "The Motion and Damping of
tion. Stanford University, CA, 1967. Buildings Relative to Seismic Response
Spectra," Bulletin of the Seismological
Blume, John A., "Dynamic Characteristicsof
Society ofAmerica. Vol. 60, No. 1. SSA, El
Multistory Buildings,"Journal ofthe
Cerrito, CA, February 1970.
Structural Division, Proceedings of the
American Society of Civil Engineers,Vol.
94, No. ST2. ASCE, New York, NY,
1968.

145
 Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

Blume, John A., Chapter 18 in Earthquake Blume,John A., "Allowable Stresses and Earth-
Engineering. Prentice-Hall, Englewood quake Performance," Proceedings of the
Cliffs, NJ, 1970. Sixth Wwld Conference on Earthquake
Engineering, Vol. I, ibid.
Blume, John A., "Building Columns Under
Strong Earthquake Exposure," Blume,John A., "Engineering Intensity Scale
Proceedings oj'the ASCE, Vol. 97 No. ST9. Data for the 197 1 San Fernando Earth-
ASCE, New York, NY, 197 1. quake," Proceedings of the Sixth World
Conference on Earthquake Engineering,
Newmark, Nathan, John A. Blume, and
Vol. I, ibid.
Kanwar Kapur, "Seismic Design Spectra
for Nuclear Power Plants," J o u m l of the Blume,John A., "On Instrumental Versus
Power Division, Proceedings of the ASCE, Effective Acceleration and Design Coef-
Vol. 90, No. P02. ASCE, NY,NY, 1973. ficients," Proceedings of the Second U.S.
National Conference on Earthquake
Bluiiie, John A., "Elements of a Dynamic-
Engineering. Held at Stanford University,
lnelastic Design Code," Proceedings of the
Palo Alto, CA, August 1979. Earthquake
Ftjih World Conference on Earthquake
Engineering Research Institute, Oakland,
EngineLming, Vol. 111. Held in Rome, Italy,
CA, 1979.
June 1973. Secretariat Committee of the
Fifth World Conference on Earthquake Blume, John A. and Anne S. Kiremidjian,
Engineering, Rome, Italy, 1974. "ProbabilisticProcedures for Peak
Ground Motions," Journal of the Struc-
E8cct.s Prediction GuidelinesfQrStructures
tural Division, Proceedings of the ASCE,
Sdjccted to Ground Motion. Prepared by
Vol. 105, No. STl 1. ASCE, New York,
the John A. Blume Corporation for the
NY, 1979.
Atomic Energy Commission. National
Technical Information Service, U.S. Blume, John A., "Distance Partitioning in
Dept. of Commerce, Springfield, VA, Attenuation Studies," Proceedings of the
1975. Seventh Wwld Conference on Earthquake
Engzneering," Vol. 2. Held in Istanbul,
Rlume, John A., "The S A M Procedure for Site-
Turkey, September ,1980. Turkish
Acceleration-Magnitude Relationships,"
National Committee on Earthquake
Proceedings of the Sixth World Confwence on
Engineering, Istanbul, Turkey, 1980.
Earthquake Engtneering, Vol. I. Held in
New Delhi, India, January 1977. Indian Blume,John A., "Redundancy and Relative
Society of Earthquake Technology, Earthquake Resistance of Tall Buildings,"
Meerut, India, 1977. Proceedings of the Eighth World Confweme
on Eartbquuke Engineering,Vol. V. Held in
San Francisco, CA, July 1984. Prentice-
Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1984.

146
 John A. Blume Selected Bibliography

Blume, John A., "The Mitigation and Preven-

tion of Earthquake Damage to Artifacts,"
Protecting Historic Architecture and
Museum CollectionsFrom Natural Disasters.
Barclay Jones, ed. Butteworth Publish-
ers, Stoneham, MA, 1986.

147
 John A. Blume Index

Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO),

A 93
Abalone Alliance, 70 Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco), 30
Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia, 30 engineering design work for, 28-3 I
Acceleration, 1 15, 117 offshore platforms, 29
Acceleration "gap", 115-1 16 Architects, 36,37,47,76,78,84
ACES See Advisory Committee on Engineering John Graham & Associates, Seattle, WA,
Seismology (ACES) 76
Adrian, William, 36 Peterson & Spackman, Architects, 79
Advisory Committee on Engineering Seismolo- Poranan & Associates, Architects, 78
g~ (ACES), 49-50 Architectural cladding, 105
AEC See Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Architecture, "vagrant", 37
Aerojet General Company, 85 Arequipa, Peru earthquake (1958), 94
AIA See American Institute of Architects (AIA) Arntson, James, 90
AISC See American Institute of Steel Construc- Atkinson, Guy F. Company, 85
tion (AISC) Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), 55-61,85,
AISI See American Iron and Steel Institute 108,110,113,119
(AISI) Aubermann, Helen, 90
Alexander Building Awards, 13 1
dynamic model of, 13 5 American Institute of Architects (AIA),104
Alexander Building, San Francisco, CA, 10-14, Leon S. Moisseiff, 40, 101, 104, 109
51,100 Producers Council, 104
dynamic model, 10-14
forced vibration of, 16
Allan, Robert M., 90 B
Allen, Clarence, 127
Bain, Gordon, 81
Altamont Pass, California, 25
Bank of America, San Jose, CA
American Institute of Steel Construction
forced vibration of, 16
(AISC), 38
Barco, Jorge P., 137
American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), 43-45
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Barnes, Steve, 40, 127, 128, 137
Base shear See Design
Blue Book, 105
Beanfield, Rufus M., 12 7
Leon S. Moisseiff Award, 40, 101, 104, 109
Becket, Welton, 85
Separate 66,38,39-40,46, 101, 105
Anchor bolts BENHAM underground nuclear test, 59-60
Benioff, Ben, 127
refinery stacks, 2 1
Benioff, Hugo, 12 7
steel plants, 107
Benuska, Kalman Lee, 140
Anderson, Arthur W., 39
Berg, Glen, 107, 127
Bertero, Vitelmo V., 127

149
 Index Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

Bethlehem Steel Company, film by, 44 Bridges

BILBY underground nuclear test, 55,59 construction engineer on San Francisco-
Binder, R.W.,40,51, 105, 127 Oakland, 19-20
Biot, Maurice, 127 forced vibration of, 16-17, 18
Blue Book, 40-41,45,46,105 Golden Gate, San Francisco, CA, 23
Blume family history, 1-2 San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, 44
Blume, Charles August, 2 Brunnier firm
Blume, Jene, 131 design of tall buildings, 75
Blume, John A. work at, 23-26
begins own firm, 27-28 Brunnier, Henry J., 23-26,28, 36, 127
code work, 35-48 Building codes, 130
college years, 7-9 Blue Book, 40-41
comments on the future of earthquake concrete ductility, 41
engineering, 128 improvement in Las Vegas, 60
comments on work of others, 125-128 parapet ordinance, 47
committee work, 3 5-48 Saudi Arabia, none in, 30
companies, 87-90 Separate 66, 39-40
employees and associates, 89-90 static, 77
merger with URS Corporation, 88 Vensano code, 36-39
early jobs, 15-26 Building codes See also Seismic codes
Earthquake Engineering Research Institute Building inspectors, 103
(EERI), 50-52
Buildings
incorporation of firm, 88
Alexander Building, San Francisco, CA,
John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering 10-14,51,100
Center, Stanford University, 14,90-91
forced vibration of, 16
nuclear testing, 55-61 model of, 13
philosophic guidelines, 125 Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles, CA, 78,
retrospections, 123-1 3 1 78
Blume, Margaret (Peggy), 22 California State Capitol, 84-85
Blume, Nils August, 1 cantilever, 109-1 10
Blume, Ruth, 131 concrete, 111
Blume-Newmark-Corning book, 42-45,46 concrete See Concrete
Degenkolb-Johnston critique of, 43-45 demand vs. capacity, 115
Bolles, John, 49, 50 design coefficientsSee Design
Bolt, Bruce, 127 design of military, 25
Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles, CA, 78, 78 Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, CA,
Bowen, Oliver, 127 78
BOXCAR underground nuclear test, 59 forced vibration of, 16, 18
Foxcroft Building, San Francisco, CA, 27

150
 John A. BIume Index

Hyatt Regency Hotel, San Francisco, CA, Carder, Dean S., 17

78 Castle Field, 25
in Japan, 126 Centrifugal force, 16
inelastic behavior, 106 Challamel, Pauline, 2
instrumentation of, 8 1 Chew, R.S., 28, 127
irregular, 78-80 Chile earthquake (1960), 107
microwave relay stations, 79-80 Cloud, William, 5 1, 107
Mint Building, Las Vegas, NV, 58 Clough,R.W. (Ray), 50,51,127,128
nonductile, 45-46 Coast and Geodetic Survey See U.S. Coast and
periods of vibration See Periods of vibration Geodetic Survey
Renaissance Center, Detroit, Michigan, 78 Codes See Seismic codes
response of See Response of structures Coefficients, 36, 38, 39,41,68, 115-1 16
retrofit of, 84-85 Collin, Alvaro L., 24
Russ Building, San Francisco, CA, 23, 75 Colling, Hal, 102
Shell Building, San Francisco, CA, 23,7S Colorado Street Bridge, Pasadena, CA, forced
Standard Oil Building, San Francisco, CA, vibration of, 16, 18
23 Committees
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Advisory Committee on Engineering
Stanford, CA, 85 Seismology (ACES), 49-50
steel, 107 after Degenkolb-Johnston critique, 45
tall, 36-37,67,75, 105, 111, 112, 118 Blue Book, 40-41,45,46
periods of vibration in, 56-59 National Academy of Engineering, 48
Union Bank Building, Los Angeles, CA, 76 San Francisco Seismic Investigation and
unreinforced masonry, 45-46 Hazards Survey Advisory Committee
Wells Fargo Building, San Francisco, CA, (SIHSAC), 4 7 4 8
76 Separate 66, 39-40
Byerly, Perry, 11,52, 107, 127 Concrete
Blume-Newmark-Corning book, 42-45
confinement of, 46
L construction, 41-45
Caen, Herb, 73 corner columns, 111
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, ductility of, 41-45,45,46, 111, 124
CA, 17,51 poured-in-place, 111
response to Separate 66,40 reinforced, 46, 79
California Seismological Program of 1934-35, UBC (1967), 45
IS, 19 use of in structural framing, 41-45
California State Capitol Building, Sacramento, Connections, 129
CA, 84-85 joint reinforcing, 43
Cantilever bending moment, 109

151
 Index Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

Construction concrete structures, 4 1 4 5

concrete, 4 1 4 5 concrete structures See also Concrete
highrise, 45 criteria, 103
Contraflexure, point of, 109-1 10 deepwater harbors, 82
Converse, Fred, 103, 127 earthquake-resistant, 37, 76, 103, 129
Cope, E.L., 127 for future growth, 79
Cowhot, M.C., 127 foundations, 2 1
Creskoff,Jacob, 126 inelastic, 112
Cunningham, Andrew, 90 irregular structures, 78-80
Czarnecki, Marty, 90 lateral forces See Lateral forces
man-made island, 82
military buildings, 25
D
~

nonductile, hazards of, 4 5 4 6

Dalton, Beverly Mae, 2 nuclear power plants, 67-73, 113
Dalton, Robert, 45 ocean-related work, 80-84
Dames & Moore, Engineers, 17, 36 plateau, 105, 124, 129
Dainmam wharf and port, Saudi Arabia, 30-33, standards for refineries, 2 1
82,84 steel structures,41-45
Damping, 17, 111 tall buildings, 36-37,67,68,75, 112, 118,
test results, 107 129-130
damping, 106 Dewell, Henry, 28,126,127
Dams Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, 30,3 1
forced vibration of, 16, 18 Dhahran, Saudia Arabia, 94
Hoover Dam, NV, 59 Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, 69-73
Davis, Harmer E., 49 "Laundry List" reports, 72
Dead load, 38 "mirror image" problem, 71-73
Deepwater harbors, design of, 82 Hosgri fault, 69-7 1
Degenkolb, Henry J., 39,40,43-45,51,90, protests against, 70
127, 128 Dickinson, P., 90
Dcgenkolb-Johnson critique of Blume-New- Division of Architecture, State of California, 84
inark-Corning concrete book, 43-45 Docks and wharves, 84
Degrees of freedom, 13-14 Dammam, Saudi Arabia, 31-33,82,84
Derleth, Charles H., 127 designing with Brunnier firm, 23-25
Derrick, Clarence, 127 Panama Canal, 23-25
Design Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia, 30,82
base shear, 36,38, 129-130 Saudi Arabia, 28-33
Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles, CA, 78 Donovan, Neville C.M, 140
coefficients,36-37,38,39,41,68,115-116 Drydock, self-docking, 29
concrete corner columns, 111

152
 John A. Blume Index

Ductility, 105, 112, 11.5, 129-130 Chile earthquake (1960), 107

of concrete, 41-45,45,46, 111, 124 Kern County, CA earthquake (1952), 100,
of tall buildings, 69, 118 127
Duke, C. Martin, 51, 127, 128 Long Beach, CA earthquake (193 3), 15,2 1,
Dunes Hotel, Las Vegas, N V , 59 100
Dynamic analysis Mexico City earthquake (1985), 61,113,
124, 130
corner columns, 111
Engineer's Degree thesis, 11 Owens Valley, CA earthquake (1872), 61
irregular structures, 78 San Fernando, CA earthquake (1971), 43,
47,111,117
nuclear power plants, 68,69-7 1
San Francisco, CA earthquake (1906), 125
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, 19
Santa Barbara, CA earthquake (1925), 4
sonic booms, 80-82
Tangshan, China earthquake (1976), 97,
steel plants, 107 130
tall buildings, 76, 105, 111 Tokyo, Japan earthquake (1923), 125
Dynamic models Whimer, CA earthquake (1987), 114
Alexander Building, San Francisco, CA, Eccentric mass, 16
13-14
EERI See Earthquake Engineering Research
Dynamic theory, 25,39,63,99,119-121,123- Institute (EERI)
124,126
Eighth World Conference on Earthquake En-
excessive energy, 82-84 gineering, San Francisco, CA (1984), 118
inelastic design, 112 EIS See Engineering Intensity Scale (EIS)
refineries, use of in designing, 20-2 1 Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, CA, 78
wharf design, 3 1 Energy absorption, 3 1,42, 105, 115, 118, 124,
130
Engineer's Club, San Francisco, CA, 43
E Engineer's Degree thesis, Stanford University,
Earthquake design standards 10-14,39,46,51,100
refineries, 2 1 Engineering conferences See World Confer-
Earthquake Engineering Research Institute ences on Earthquake Engineering
(EERI), 17,49-5 3 Engineering fees, 85-86
delegation to the People's Republic of Engineering Intensity Scale (EIS), 110-111,
China, 97 114,119, 124,129
history of, 49-53 Engineering News Record, Blume on cover of, 141
relationship with Seismological Society of Engle, Harold M., 28,49, 51, 127, 128
America (SSA), 52 Erick, Murray, 40, 127
Earthquake prediction, 128-129 Excessive energy, 80-84
Earthquake-resistant design See Design ocean waves and swell, 82-84
Earthquakes Excessive energy See also Sonic booms
Arequipa, Peru earthquake (1958),94

153
 Index Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

Gere, James M., 90, 127, 138

F Gould, John, 28
Falk, Mark, 127 Graham, John & Associates, 76
FAULTLESS underground nuclear test, 111 GREELEY underground nuclear test, 59
Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), 80 Green, Norman, 40
Federal Office Building, San Francisco, CA, 84 Ground motion, I2 3-1 24,129
Field Act, 106 acceleration, 1 17-1 18
Fifth World Conference on Earthquake Engi- at particular site, 68
neering, Rome, Italy (1 973), 1 12 attenuation, 117-1 18,124
Finch, Herman, 40 estimated, 116, 129
First WorId Conference on Earthquake Engi- human observation of, 58
neering, Berkeley, CA (1956), 51, 52, 100 instrumentation, 56
Force See Lateral force gap nuclear power plant site, 68-71
Force See Lateral forces nuclear seismology, 55-61, I24
Forced vibration, 6,15-19,126 periods of See Periods of vibration
media response, 18 plateau design, 105, 124
of bridges, 16, 18 probabilistic procedures for, 116
ofdams, 16,18 response spectra, 11I
of school buildings, 106 site periodicity, 124
of structures, 16- 17 Site-acceleration-magnitude(SAM)
Foundations procedure, 108, 113,124
design of, 2 1 soft site, 124
Fourth World Conference on Earthquake En- time histories, 57, 76, 77-78, 110
gineering, Santiago, Chile (1969), 109 time histories of sonic booms, 80
Fox, Col. William, 49 underground nuclear test explosions, 119-
Foxcroft Building, San Francisco, CA, 27 121
Framing systems, 45, 109 underground nuclear tests, 55-6 1
concrete, 79 Ground shaking
ductile, 119 forced, 16
for funire growth, 79 Gutenberg, Beno, 127
steel, 41, 105, 126
Furukawa, Stacy, 131
H
~

Hall, Fred, 28
G Hamilton Field, 25
Gallagher, Ronald, 90 Hammill, Harold B., 28, 39,40, 127
Gayner, James, 30 Hanson, Robert D., 128, 140
General Electric Company, work for, 67-68, Hawaii, time spent in, 2
I08

154
 John A. Blume Index

Hesselmeyer, Harry L., 10-14,99, 100, 124, Jahns, Richard, 90

143 Jeffers, Paul, 127
Highrise construction See Construction Jhaveri, Dilip, 90
Hills Brothers warehouse, San Francisco, CA, Jobs
forced vibration of, 16 Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco),
Holland, Alice, 2 28-3 1
Honda, Ken, 90 Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), 55-61
Hoover Dam, N V , 59 Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles, CA, 78
Hosgri fault, 69-7 1 Brunnier firm, 23-26
Housner, George W., 49,50,90, 107, 127, 128 California State Capitol Building, 84-85
Huber, Walter, 28, 127 Castle Field, 25
Hudson, Donald, 127, 128 deepwater harbors, 82
Hughes, Howard designing depots for the military, 23-25
protest of underground nuclear tests, 59- Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, 69-
60 73
Huixian, Liu, 139 early jobs, 15-26
Hutchinson Quarry, Marin County, CA, 5 Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, CA,
Hyatt Regency Hotel, San Francisco, CA, 78 78
Federal Office Building, San Francisco,
CA, 84
I General Electric Company, 67-68
Hamilton Field, 25
IAEE See International Association of Earth-
quake Engineering (IAEE) Hyatt Regency Hotel, San Francisco, CA,
78
ICA See U.S. International Cooperation
Administration (ICA) ironworker, 3, 19
Inelastic response of structures See Respose of Lathrop Holding and Reconsignment
structures Depot, 25
Instrumentation, 56 McClellan Field, 25
of buildings, 8 1 Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC),
68-69
Intensity scale See Engineering Intensity Scale
(EIS) nuclear test explosions, seismic work, 55
International Association of Earthquake ocean-related work, 80-84
Engineering M E ) , 52 Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), 69-73
Irregular structures, 78-80 Pacific Telephone & Telegraph, 79-80
part-time during college, 2,8
Renaissance Center, Detroit, Michigan, 78
J Rincon Island, 82-84
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, 19-20
Jacobsen, Lydik S., 11, 12-14, 16,49, 50,90,
107,126,127,135 Saudi Arabia, work in, 28-3 1

155
 Index Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

seismic work for nuclear test explosions, 55 Lane, Phoebe, 2

Standard Oil Company of California, 20- Las Vegas, NV
23 effects on of underground nuclear
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, explosions, 55-61
Stanford, CA, 85 geography of, 58
I racy Quartermaster Depot, 25
r .

Lateral force "gap", 115-1 16, 130

US.Coast and Geodetic Survey, 15-19 Lateral forces, 37, 38, 57,68, 103, 129-130
Union Bank Building, Los Angeles, CA, 76 triangular distribution of, 39,46
Ventura Marina, Ventura, CA, 84 Lathrop Holding and Reconsignment Depot,
Wells Fargo Building, San Francisco, CA, 25
76 Lawson, Andrew, 8,127
work with father in Hawaii, 2 Lee, Henry, 90
work-study conflict, 64 Lee, Lloyd, 90
John A. Blume companies Leon S. Moisseiff Award, 40, 101, 104, 109
eniployees and associates, 89-90, 116 Leonard, J.B., 127
incorporation of, 88 Linear accelerator at Stanford University, 85
merger with URS Corporation, 88 Little,John G., 49
John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Cen- Live load, 38,39
ter, Stanford University, 14,90-91 Long Beach, CAearthquake (1933), 15,21,100
Johnson, Margaret (Peggy), 22 Los Angeles City Hall, Los Angeles, CA
Johnston, Koy G., 40,4345, 127, 140 forced vibration of, 16, 18,59
Jones, Barclay, 117 Los Angeles, CA building code, 78
Lowell High School, San Francisco, CA,
attendance at, 3,7
K
Kapur, Kanwar, 113
Keightley, Willard O., 140 M
Keith, James, 90 Madg, Ernest, 40
Kellani, H.S. (Pete), 40,45 Malik, Lincoln, 90
Kern County, CA earthquake (1952), 100, 127 Marchand, Henry L., 39
Kiremidjian, Anne, 7 1,90, 116 Martel, Raul Romeo (R.R.), 17,49, 127
Knapik, Edward M., 39 Martel, Romeo Raul (R.R.), 127
IGawinkler, Helmut, 91, 140 Martin, A.C., 76
Masonry buildings, 16,94, 105, 125
adobe, 94
L
T
reinforced brick, 103, 124
Labarre, Robert, 127 unreinforced, 11,45-46
Lagorio, Henry J, 140 McClellan Field, 25
McLean, Ralph, 17

156
 John A. Blume Index

Meehan, John F. (Jack),40, 106 Newmark, Nathan, 42,42-45,67,68,69,90,

Mestrovich, Walter, 90 113,127,128
Mexico City earthquake (1989, 113, 124, 130 Nicoletti, Joseph P., 90, 137
Microwave relay stations, 79-80 Nishkian, L.H., 28, 36,127
Miller, Alfred L., 49, 5 1 NRC See Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Minami,John, 137 (NRC)
Mint Building, Las Vegas, N V , 58 Nuclear power plants
Mirror image problem, Diablo Canyon Nuclear design of, 67-73, 108, 113
Power Plant, 71-73 Diablo Canyon, 69-73
Modeling of structures, 13-14 dynamic analysis of, 68
Models estimated ground motion, 116
dynamic model of Alexander Building, San ground motion effects on siting of, 68-7 1
Francisco, CA, 13-14 spectral diagrams, 113
Moisseiff, Leon S. Award, 40, 101, 104, 109 Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), 67,
Moment-resistant connections, 41-45 68-69
Moore, William W., 17, 36, 103 Nuclear seismology, 55-61, 124
Morris Dam, San Gabriel Canyon, CA, forced Nuclear test explosions, 5 5-6 1, 119- 12 1
vibration of, 16, 18 damage claims resulting from, 60
Morris, Samuel, 50 public safety during, 56
Motion See Ground motion publicity of, effect on damage claims, 60
Mount Everest, 95 reports on, 57
Multi-story building vibrator, 15-19 Richter magnitude of, 58
Murphy, V.A., 137 structural damage during, 56
Museum collections Nuclear test explosions, underground
seismic protection for, 117 BENHAM, 59
Muto, Kioshi, 137 BILBY, 59
Muto, Kiyoshi, 52, 125,128 BOXCAR, 59
FAULTLESS, 111
GREELEY, 59
N ground motion effects from, 55
Naito, Tachu, 125 SALMON, 110
Narver, D.L., 127
National Academy of Engineering, Natural
Hazards and Disasters Panel of the Com- 0
mittee on Public Engineering Policy, 48 Office of the State Architect of California, 84
National Sonic Boom Program, 82 Offshore platforms, 29
Nelson, William, 90 Okamoto, S., 137
Neumann, Frank, 52,127 Olive View Hospital, San Fernando, CA, 43
Omsted, Harold, 40

157
 Index Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

Ornamentation, 47 Preece, F. Robert, 40

Owens Valley, CA earthquake (1872), 6 1 Pregnoff, Michael, 28, 127
Probabilistics, 111, 116, 120, 123, 129
explanation of, 115
P Producers Council, award from, 104
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), Public interest, 79
69-7 3 Public safety during underground nuclear tests,
Pacific Telephone & Telegraph, 79-80 56
Palo Alto Transfer and Storage Building, forced Publications
vibration of, 16 "A Machine for Setting Structures and
Panama Canal, building docks and wharves, 23- Ground Into Forced Vibration", 102
25 "A Reserve Energy Technique for the
Parapets, 47 Design and Rating of Structuresin the
Inelastic Range" (1960), 106
Path6 News, 18,59
"A Structural Dynamic Analysis of Steel
PCA See Portland Cement Association (PCA)
Plant Structures Subjected to the May
Pearl Harbor, work on Panama Canal during 1960 Chilean Earthquakes" (1963),
attack on, 23-25 107
Penzien,Joseph, 127 "A Structural-DynamicResearch Program
Periods of vibration, 12, 16, 16-17, 39, 100, on Actual School Buildings" (1960),
101, IOS, 107,124 106
mode shapes, 100 "Allowable Stresses and Earthquake
refinery stacks, 2 1 Performance" (1977), 11S
school buildings, 106 "An Engineering Intensity Scale for
steel plants, 107 Earthquakes and Other Ground
tall buildings in Las 1 <gas, 5 -59 Motion" (1970), 110
Persian Gulf, engineering design work in, 28- "Building Columns Under Strong
31 Earthquake Exposure" (197 l), 111
Petcrson & Spackman, Architects, 28-29, 30, "Distance Partitioning in Attenuation
79 Studies" (1980), 117
Peterson, Clarence, 28 "Dynamic Characteristicsof Multistory
Buildings" (1968), 109
Ph.D. dissertation, 63-65, 108
"Earthquake Ground Motion and
Philosophical guidelines, 125
Engineering Procedures for Important
Plummer, Harry, 103, 104, 144 InstallationsNear Active Faults"
Popov, Egor P., 127 (1965), 108
Popular Science article, 18 "Elements of a Dynamic Inelastic Design
Portland Cement Association (PCA), 41-45 Code" (1973), 112
Portman & Associates, Architects, 78 "Engineering Intensity Scale Data for the
Powers, Henry C., 23, 39,40,49, 51, 127 1971 San Fernando Earthquake"
Prediction See Earthquake prediction (1977), 111, 114

158
 John A. Blume Index

"Lateral Forces of Earthquake and "The Mitigation and Prevention of

Wind''-Separate 66 (195l), 40 Earthquake Damage to Artifacts"
"Laundry List" reports, 72 (1986), 117
"Memorial "The Motion and Damping of Buildings
Lydik S. Jacobsen (1897-1976)" Relative to Seismic Response Spectra"
(1977), 1 3 (1970), 1 1 1
"On Instrumental Versus Effective "The Reconciliation of the Computed and
Acceleration, and Design Coefficients" Observed Periods of Vibration of a
(1979), 115 Fifteen Story Building," Engineer's, 1 1
"Period Determinations and Other "The Reconciliation of the Computed and
Earthquake Studies of a Fifteen-Story Observed Periods of Vibration of a
Building" (1 956), 100 Fifteen-Story Building" (1934), 99
"Periods of a Modern Multi-Story Office "The SAM Procedure for Site-
Building During Construction" acceleration-magnitudeRelationships"
(1960), 105 (1977), 1 1 3
"ProbabilisticProcedures for Peak Ground Design of Multistory Reinforced Concrete
Motions" (1979), 1 16 Buildings for Earthquake Motions
"Probabilities of Peak Site Accelerations (1961),42
Based on the Geologic Record of Fault Earthquake Engineering, Chapter 18
Dislocation," (1977), 72 (1970), 1 1 1
"Probalistic Procedures for Peak Ground Earthquake Investigations in the Western
Motions," (1979), 7 1 United States 1931-1964(1965), 18
"Redundancy and Relative Earthquake Education for Peaceful Uses of Nuclear
Resistance of Tall Buildings" (1984), Explosives (1970), 110
118 Effects Prediction Guidelines for
"Response of Highrise Buildings to Structures Subjected to Ground
Ground Motion From Underground Motion (1975), 119
Nuclear Detonations" (1 969, 1 10 Modern Building Inspection, Chapter 13
"Seismic Design Spectra for Nuclear (1951), 102
Power Plants" (1973), 113 number of, 112
"Spectral Response to Ground Reinforced Brick Masonry and Lateral
Displacement in Hattiesburg Force Design (1 95 3), 103
Resulting From Nuclear Event
SALMON" ( 1969), 1 10
"Structural Dynamics in Earthquake-
Resistant Design" (1958), 104 Q
"Structural Dynamics of Cantilevered- Quasi-resonance, 13, 16
Type Buildings" (1969), 109

R
"The Dynamic Behavior of Multi-Story
Buildings With Various Stiffness
Characteristics," Ph.D. dissertation Rankin, John Edward, 2
(1966), 108
Rankin, Vashti, 2

159
 Index Connections: The EERl Oral History Series

Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia, 30 Ruge, Arthur C., 127

Redundancy, 115, 118 Russ Building, San Francisco, CA, 23, 75
Reeves, James, 60
Refineries
design of, 20-2 1 S
Richmond Refinery, Richmond, CA, 2 1 Safaniya Oil Field, Saudi Arabia, 29
vibration periods of tall stacks, 2 1-22 SALMON underground nuclear test, 110
Regression analysis, 116 Salvadori, Mario G., 100
Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, 7 1 SAM See Site-acceleration-magnitude (SAM)
Reilly, James, 80 San Andreas fault, 7 1,85
Reinforcement San Fernando, CA earthquake (1971), 43,47,
of concrete, 46, 79 111,117
of joints, 43 San Francisco Board of Supervisors, 37-39
Renaissance Center, Detroit, Michigan, 78 San Francisco building code of 1948, 36-39,41
Rescrve energy technique, 105 San Francisco Mint, forced vibration of, 16
Response of Structures San Francisco Seismic Investigation and
earthquake loading, 115 Hazards Survey Advisory Committee
Response of structures, 110, 120 (SIHSAC), 47-48
inelastic, 69, 76, 105, 106, 112, 124 San Francisco, CA earthquake (1906), 125
multi-story, 105 San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, 19-20,44,
nuclear power plants, 69-7 1 136
steel plants, 107 Santa Barbara Channel
to earthquake loading, 13 Rincon Island, 82-84
to sonic booms, 80-82 Santa Barbara, CA earthquake (1925),4
to underground nuclear test, 55-61 Saph, A.V. (Gus), 127
to underground nuclear test explosion, 120 Saudi Arabia
Response spectra, 39,68, 110, 111, 124 Dammam wharfand port, 30,30-33,82,84
Retrofit Dhahran, 30, 3 1,94
California State Capitol, 84-85 engineering design work in, 28-3 1
Richficld Oil Company, 82 Ras Tanura, 30
Richter magnitude of underground nuclear Ras Tanura port, 82
tests, 58 Riyadh, 3 1
Richter, Carl, 127 transmission towers, design of, 30
Rincon Island, CA, 82-84 trip in 1957,93
Rinne, John E., 21,39,40,51,52, 127, 128, 137 under house arrest in, 32
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 3 1 Scholl, Roger E., 90, 140
Rose, Sheila, 13 1 SEAOC See Structural Engineershsociation of
Rosenblueth, Emilio, 90, 127, 128, 137 California (SEAOC)
Rowe, R. Robinson, 136

160
 John A. BIume Index

SEAONC See Structural Engineers Association SMM See Spectral matrix method (SMM)
of Northern California (SEAONC) Snyder, C.H., 127
Searsville Dam, forced vibration of, 16 Soil-structure interaction, 14, 124
Second U.S. National Conference on Earth- Sonic booms
quake Engineering (1979), 115 time histories of, 80
Second World Conference on Earthquake White Sands experiments, 80-82
Engineering, Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan
Spackman, Wendell, 28
(1960), 52,95, 105-106
Spectral matrix method ( S M M ) for predicting
Sedgwick, George A. (Art), 39,40 ground motion, 120,124
Seed, Harry, 90, 127, 128 Spectral response See Response of structures,
Seismic codes See also Response spectra
2-percenters vs. 10-percenters, 36 Speeches
Blue Book, 40-41 number of given by Blume, 1 12
Seismic codes See also Ductility real estate group, 86
Seismic codes See also Separate 66 Seismological Society of America (1934),
Seismological Society of America (SSA), 52 11
Seismologists, 57 Standard Oil Building, San Francisco, CA, 23
Separate 66, 38, 39,41,46, 101, 105 Standard Oil Company of California, 29
Separate 66 See also Blue Book employment at, 20-23
Seventh World Conference on Earthquake En- Stanford Laboratory
gineering, Istanbul, Turkey (1980), 96, 117 vibration experiments, 12-14
Sexton, H.J., 90 Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford,
Shah, Haresh C., YO, 95, 127, 138 CA, 85
Shaking machine, 15-19,106 Stanford University, 5 1
Sharpe, Roland, 90 Engineer’s Degree thesis, 10-14, 39,46,
Shear failures, 46 51,100
Shell Building, San Francisco, CA, 23,75 graduate studies, 10-1 4
SIHSAC See San Francisco Seismic Investiga- John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering
tion and Hazards Survey Advisory Com- Center, 14,90-91
mittee (SIHSAC) Ph.D. studies, 63-65, 108
Site-acceleration-magnitude (SAM) procedure, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, 85
108,124 undergraduate education at, 7-9
Site-acceleration-magnitude (SAM) relation- vibration laboratory, 12-14
ships, 113 State Capitol (California), restoration of, 84-85
Sixth World Conference on Earthquake Engi- Steel
neering, New Delhi, India (1977), 113,114
plants, vibration of, 107
Sjoberg, Harold O., 39
temperature effects on, 19
Skjei, Roger, 90
use of as structural material, 41-45,46
SMIP See Strong Motion Instrumentation
Program (SMIP) vertical piles, 3 1

161
 Index Connections: The EERI Oral History Series

Steinbrugge, John, 40,41 Timoshenko, Stephen, 64

Steinbrugge, Karl V., 127, 128 Tokyo, Japan earthquake (1923), 125
Stirton, James, 28,29, 3 1 Tracy Quartermaster Depot, 25
Stock market crash (1929), 8 Transmission towers
Strong Motion Instrumentation Program Saudi Arabia, 30
(SMIP), 114 Travel, 93-98
Strong motion program, U.S. Coast and Geo- Triangular distribution of forces, 46
detic Survey, 17 Tudor Engineering Company, 3 1
Structural Clay Products Institute, Washing-
ton, D.C., 103
Structural damage
during underground nuclear explosion,
U
110-121 U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, 13,19,28,49,
spectral matrix method (SMM), 120, 124 107,126
underground nuclear explosion, 56 California Seismological Program of
1934-35, 19
Structural Engineers Association of California
(SEAOC) strong motion program, 17
Blue Book, 39,40-41,45,46,105 working for, 15-19
Structural Engineers Association of Northern U.S. International Cooperation Administration
California (SEAONC), 28, 35-41 o w , 31
Separate 66, 38, 39, 3940 Ulrich, Franklin P., 17,28, 50, 102, 127
Structural response - See Response of structures Underground nuclear tests See Nuclear test
explosions
Structural steel, 41-45
Uniform Building Code (UBC), 38,41,45, 102
Suyehiro, Kyoji, 125
Union Bank Building, Los Angeles, CA, 76
University of California at Berkeley, 5 1
University of California at Berkeley, extension
T division, 51
Tangshan, China earthquake (1976), 97, 130 Unreinforced masonry buildings, 1 1,45-46,94
Teixeira, Donald, 89 adobe, 94
Tension failures, 46 URS Corporation, merger of Blume companies
TEP See Threshold evaluation procedure with, 88
(TEP)
‘Tetrapods, 82
Third World Conference on Earthquake Engi- V
neering, AucMand and Wellington, New
Zealand (1965),43, 108 Vagrant architecture, 37
Threshold Evaluation Procedure (TEP), 120 Van Blaricom, Robert, 90
Threshold evaluation procedure (TEP), 124 Veletsos, Anestis, 140
Time histories See Ground motion Vensano code, 36-39
Vensano, Harry, 36-39

162
 John A. Blume Index

Ventura Marina, Ventura, CA, 84 Wilson, Edward L., 127

Vibration Wind
analysis, 99- 101 effect on structures, 12
building vibrating machine, 15-19, 106 resistance to, 120
experiments on structures, 16-17, 105 Wolf, Maria, 13 1
forced World Conferences on Earthquake Engineer-
media response to, 18 ing
of ground, 16 Eighth World Conference, San Francisco,
of schools, 106 CA (1984), 118
of structures, 16-17 Fifth World Conference, Rome, Italy
modes of, 100 (1973), 112
periods, 21-22 First World Conference, Berkeley, CA
periodsof, 12, 16,39, 100, 101, 105, 107 (1956), 51, 52, 100
Stanford vibration laboratory experiments, Fourth World Conference, Santiago, Chile
12-14 (1969), 109
steel plants, 107 Second World Conference, Tokyo and
tall buildings in Las Vegas, N V , 5 5-6 1 Kyoto, Japan (1960), 52,95,105
Seventh World Conference, Istanbul,
Turkey (1980), 96, 117
W Sixth World Conference,New Delhi, India
(1977), 113, 114
Wang, Leon Ru-Liang, 140 Third World Conference, Auckland and
Wells Fargo Building, San Francisco, CA, 76 Wellington, New Zealand (1965), 43,
Wharves See Docks and wharves 108
Wheeler, William T., 40
White Sands experiments, sonic booms, 80-82
Whitman, Robert V., 128 Y
Whittier, CA earthquake (1987), 114 Yamama Hotel, Saudi Arabia, under house ar-
Wiggins,John H., 82 rest in, 32
Willett, D.C., 49 Yerba Buena Island, California, 19
Willis, Bailey, 8, 127 Young, Don, 64

163