BLOCKMANS

BELGIUM (see also List of Individuals)

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19.9.1892 Koersel/B - 17.6.1972 Vilrijk/USA

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John Blockmans initiated his civil engineering studies at Delft University and graduated after war service in 1920 at University of Gent. He left in 1922 for the Congo and joined in 1925 the port authorities of Anvers, where he was in charge of hydraulics problems. From 1936 to 1941 he was on a mission for the harbors Pahlavi and Bandar Shapour in Iran, and passed the two next years again in Leopoldville, Belgian Congo. After return to Belgium in 1945. Blockmans was an Inspecteur Général of the Public Works Ministry responsible for the waterways of his country. Of particular concern was the navigability of the Schelt River between Anvers and the Sea including negations with the Dutch authorities.

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Blockmans was twice involved in hydraulic problems during his career, once from 1925 to 1935 when being with the Anvers port authorities, and after retirement from 1957 to 1967 when having joined the newly established Hydraulic Laboratory of Borgerhout close to Anvers. During the first era he published a number of papers with his two colleagues Léon Bonnet (1877-1969) and Jean Lamoen (1907-1997) on hydraulic modeling with a particular relation to fluvial hydraulics. He was therefore also involved in the Permanent International Association of the Navigation Congresses PIANC.

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_{Blockmans, J., Lamoen, J. (1934). Les essais sur modèles en hydraulique. Annales trimestrielles Association Ingénieurs sortis des Ecoles Spéciales de Gand 57(1): 20-81. Bonnet, L., Blockmans, J. (1929). Mitteilung über die Erweiterungsarbeiten des Antwerpener}

_{Hafens. Zeitschrift Internationalen Ständigen Verbandes der Schiffahrtskongresse 4(3): 57-67. Bonnet, L., Blockmans, J., Lamoen, J. (1935). Note sur le Laboratoire de Recherches Hydrauliques d'Anvers. Annales des Travaux Publics de Belgique 88(6): 403-425.}

_{Bonnet, L., Blockmans, J. (1936). Etude du régime des rivières du bassin de l'Escaut Maritime par cubature de la marée moyenne décennale 1921-1930. Annales des Travaux Publics de Belgique 89(6): 316-389.}

_{Bonnet, L., Blockmans, J., Lamoen, J. (1937). Etude sur l'enlèvement des atterrissements devant une tête d'écluse par dispositif de chasse et vérification des résultats obtenus par modèle à échelle réduite. Science et Industrie 17(10).}

_{Bonnet, L., Blockmans, J., Lamoen, J. (1938). Etude expérimentale au moyen de modèles à échelle réduite de divers types de siphons auto-amorceurs. Annales des Travaux Publics de Belgique 91(1): 9-54.}