Garland, inventor of concrete-cooling system, dies at 104

Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2000 | 10:16 a.m.

Inventor Milton Garland, whose system of cooling concrete is called essential to the speedy construction of Hoover Dam, died Thursday in Waynesboro, Pa. He was 104.

"Without Garland's system it would have taken more than a century to cool the concrete," Boulder City author and historian Dennis McBride estimates. "His process made it possible for the concrete to cool not only quickly but also evenly, preventing cracks in the dam."

"What he invented was something that was badly needed," said Tommy Nelson, 88, a truck flagger and jackhammer operator on the old Boulder Canyon Project from 1932 to 1935.

Garland, a mechanical engineer, in 1996 was named "Mr. Refrigeration" by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers. Two years ago he was recognized by one aging advocacy group as the nation's oldest worker.

Garland earned 41 patents for refrigeration. In addition to his circulating refrigerated water system at the Hoover Dam, Garland invented:

Garland's Hoover Dam system involved ammonia-cooled water flowing through a centralized series of pipes in the middle of the dam called "the slot," said McBride, who wrote the book "In the Beginning: A History of Boulder City."

In all, 582 miles of one-inch steel pipe was embedded in the concrete, and icy water was pumped through it from a downstream refrigeration plant that could produce 1,000 tons of ice in 24 hours, according to Bureau of Reclamation records, which note that Garland's system enabled the cooling of the concrete to be completed in two years.

Born Aug. 23, 1895, in Harrisburg, Pa., Garland was the son of a Pennsylvania Railroad worker. He graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Mass., and served in the Navy during World War I.

Garland went to work for Frick Refrigeration in 1920 for 47 cents an hour and retired in 1967 as a vice president. He continued to work in his field over the next 20-plus years.

In 1998, at age 102, Garland earned the honor of the nation's oldest worker by Green Thumb, a nonprofit group that helps older and disadvantaged people get jobs. That year Garland also wrote the engineering design manual called "Industrial Refrigeration 102" and appeared before the Senate Special Committee on Aging.

In May Garland suffered a heart attack and moved from the house where he lived since 1926 to a nursing home.

When asked his secret for longevity, Garland often mused that he avoided sauerkraut.

He is survived by his wife, Alice; a son, M. Ward, of Quartz Hill, Calif.; a daughter, Jean L. Woloshyn of Big Bear City, Calif.; six grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; and a great-great-grandson.

The New York Times contributed to this report.