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The sequence of events that led to the formation of the Column Research Council was initiated in October of 1939 with Jonathan Jones, then Chief Engineer of the Fabricated Steel Construction Division of Bethlehem Steel Cooperation, submitted to the ASCE Structural Division a memorandum entitled "Unit Stresses in Columns of High-Yield-Point Steels." At that time the structural carbon steel in common use (ASTM A7) had a minimum specified yield point of 33 ksi. Higher strength structural silicon and structural nickel steels has found limited use in long-span bridges, and some proprietary steels of higher strength were used in certain special applications. It was rightly anticipated that higher strength steels would be used increasingly in both bridges and buildings.
Mr. Jones's memorandum was referred to the ASCE Committee on Design of Structural Members which had come into being in January of 1940. A program was already underway to "study the physical properties of four structural alloys in relation to their behavior under varying conditions of stress and shape." Tests for this program were then being carried out as the Fritz Engineering Laboratory of Lehigh University.
The ASCE Committee reviewed Mr. Jones's memorandum and formulated a five-point program covering requirements for additional knowledge in the field of columns. At the suggestion of Mr. Jones, and with the approval of the Structural Division Executive Committee, the scope of the project was enlarged to cover all phases of compression-member behavior.
In 1941 the AISC and ASA, as well as various city building codes were considering independently the preparation of column-design formulas. Mr. Jones saw the need to give the ASCE program a broader base in order to avoid the impending diversification. Accordingly, in December of 1941, Mr. Jones wrote,
. . . I urged and do urge that it is a national necessity that as many as possible of the bodies who are interested in writing formulas for steel columns get together in some kind of central group and carry on the research and analyze the results in a way that will be satisfactory to all.
Action was curtailed by the war during 1942 and 1943 but F. H. Frankland, of AISC, had embraced Mr. Jones's idea and in October of 1943 he wrote
. . . it is therefore suggested that a Column Research Council be organized under Engineering Foundation.
By early 1944 the Column Research Council concept had germinated and in January of that year the ASCE had agreed to be the sponsoring member under Engineering Foundation. An organizing committee was formed, consisting of Shortridge Hardesty (Chairman), along with C. A. Ellis, F. H. Frankland, S. C. Hollister, Jonathan Jones, and Bruce Johnston, who was chairman of the ASCE Committee of Design of Structural Members.
The proposed plan for the Council was to have it made up of official representatives of specification writing bodies together with other organizations specifically related thereto. Accordingly, in late 1944 Dr. Hardesty sent out an invitation to prospective organizations, outlining the objectives of the proposed council and asking that they appoint representatives. Dr. Hardesty's prospectus included the 1944 Annual Report of the ASCE Committee on Design of Structural Members but, in his later words, this was ". . . not because we want the Council to follow it, but just so the scope of their work as they organized it would be set forth. In fact . . . this (the Council) is intended to be of much wider scope than the ASCE Committee had planned."
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