Introduction
This first magazine article is the launching point of the ITB project at Woodward Governor Company. Hydro Division Engineering Manager George Mittendorf handed me Lee Sheldon's tutorial index testing article with the directive, "Make us something that does this."
1982-01 LSheldon Field Testing.pdf

Many references are made to Lee Sheldon's prior work and contributions to the ITB project.
His Resume was posted on my website on a page dedicated to his teaching at Oregon Institute of Technology.


Documentation that the ITB is my creation.
The ITB was developed in the basement  under Woodward's Hydro Engineering Department.
The first trip to Clarence Cannon was to inspect the interfacing for the ITB index testing signals.
On the second trip I joined the crew as the "Governor Man" for USACE's oficial acceptance test of the new Kaplan hydroelectric generator, installed a new Woodward Digital Electronic 3-D Cam for the Kaplan turbine, connected the ITB and ran brief tests at various power levels.
Dale Russell was very supportive of my innovative Index Test Box technology and welcomed my field testing at his facility.
This is my premier test report on the initial field test of my ITB prototype at Clarence Cannon Dam.
1985-04-26 ITB First Field Test.pdf 

The acceptance test was run by USACE engineer Don Sachs, working out of Omaha, NB.
His test report is included here as the "correct answer" to compare and contrast with the results of my 1985-04-26 ITB First Field Test (above.)
Don had worked with Lee in earlier years. They clashed over the Constant Power method vs the tradtional Swept Gates, Fixed-Blades, Swept Gates method in USACE's Red Book.
1985-09-18 Clarence Cannon Test Report (Don Sachs)

There was no one at Woodward interested in the ITB so I called Lee from the phone hanging on the governor cabinet at the dam and read off the numbers on the ITB display.
He was intriegued by the Constant Power behavior and asked for a copy of my Field Test Report when it was ready.
When Dick Johnson saw my and Don's test reports on the same turbine compared and contrasted he said not to send any information to anyone outside the company.
The ITB was declared a Trade Secret. This was protested because the ITB was more Lee's turbine testing design than mine, to no avail.
Lee sent a request to come to see the ITB, get a copy of my report, grill me about how it works - and if Lee liked what he saw, Doug Seely would was tagging along to haggle with Mark Leum to buy the first commercially produced ITB for Bonneville Power Administration (BPA).
1986-01-14  BPA Seeking ITB Demonstration (Sheldon).pdf

When the ITB was complete, documented ISO-9000 and ready to turn over to Woodward's Hydro Division, Dave Bishoff, a mechancial engineer stepped up as the custodian for the project until a Computer Engineer could be hired to take over the project after Lee's P.O.came in..  The handoff to Bishoff happened in this meeting.
1986-03-27_Bishoff_Report_on_ITB.pdf

When Lee got the test report he did his own analysis of the data and sent his Report back for my enlightment by showing how it is properly done.
1986-04-16 Sheldon Report on Clarence Cannon.html

BPA started looking for a place to test Woodward's ITB at a place close to Portland so as to be convenient to HDC and BPA. Lee was on a Quixotic mission to tune-up all of the Kaplan turbines when we first spoke in 1984, so much so I teased him as Lee Quixote; tilting at windmills of the FCRPS.
Their first choice was Bonneville Dam because Woodward had installed 18 of their new Digital Electronic3-D Cams on all of the turbines at Bonneville.
The ITB was commissioned and planned as an accessory to the 505 PID Generic governor PLC, manufactured in Woodward's Fort Collins facility that another Woodward Hydro Electronic Engineer was adapting for hydro governor applications.
When the ITB technology matured it would be added into the Mod-III Digital Electronic Governor by Woodward Hydro engineers.
Unknown to us, HDC made a knock-off by emulating the original Mod-II governor's head adjustment methodology of rotating the fixed-profile 2-D Cam on the gateshaft as head changed.
This manual adjustment was unable to accomodate undulations in the Best Cam curve's shape as head changes so it was a step-backwards before the dynamic problems cropped up.
1986-06-11 BPA to Corps.pdf

Lee started shopping around for an alternate test site and shared the pitch for his deal to get my input before sending it to other hydropower compaines in his area.
1986-07-03_Pitch_to_Idaho_Power_(Annotated).pdf

Lee called me to say the P.O. was coming. I took the message and passed it back to Hydro. (I was working on airplanes again.)
1986-07-07 BPA Will Send PO (Sheldon).pdf

Lee was frustrated that
1987-02_Prime_Times_T-700.pdf


1987-07 Little Black Box (Albright).pdf
Lee's P.O. came in and the Hydro mid-level managers were doing their Happy Dance.
Aircraft Division mid-level managers wanted a piece of the ITB action because it was an Aircraft Division technician and Aircraft Division Engineer/Manager that envisioned and developed the ITB by sharing Aircraft Division technology and methods.
The Hydro mid-level managers suffered "Not Invented Here" syndrome and rejected my ITB.
The kerfuffel was above my pay grade, I didn't hear about it until weeks later when they were looking for the boxes I packed up and shipped out to Stevens Point WI, where Hydro Division had just moved to.
They could not find the boxes that I had packed the computer and other ITB project accessories.
Arnie Swenson, the plant foreman was accusing me of stealing the ITB computer and threatening to send the police to my house to seize it. (They wouldn't know what to look for. Nobody had seen it or paid attention to me when I worked on it or when I packed itin the box.)
Dave Bishoff was supposed to be the custodian, go ask him. He did not know where the boxes were. Some custodian he turned out to be.
Someone had stashed the boxes in a HVAC Fan Room at the other end of the building from Engineering, was said later.
To clear the air and get to the truth, Woodward's new President: Bob Pope, told Hydro Division General Manager Mark Leum that Woodward would be acquiring a patent on the ITB and the he (Bob) would personally hire the lawyers.
He brought in Leydig, Voit and Mayer who were instructed to interview every reasonable candadate and find the man or woman that had actually created the ITB technology.
Bob already knew because he had approached me an an impromptu plant meeting to celebrate a 50-year Woodward career by Leo Powelson (sp) and asked me what I was working on.
When the lawyers finished interviewing everyone even close to the project they concluded that I was the true inventor so President Bob Pope said the credit must be shared between the 2 divisions.
1988-12-27_U_S_Patent_4,794,544.pdf



1987-09 to 89-02 Gary Hackett Report.pdf

1987-12 Terry Bauman Report.pdf

1987-12-04 Analysis of Bull Run (Sheldon).html

1988-05-28 PHP2 Classic Test.pdf

1988-12-27 U. S. Patent 4,794,544.pdf

1989-05-16 ITB News Article Pitch to Carl Vansant (Sheldon).pdf

1990-03-27 Sheldon Evaluation of Thorsen ITB.pdf

1990-04-16_HDC Replicates Woodward's Hydro Tech.pdf

1998-06 Reviewing the Approaches to Hydro Optomization.pdf

1998 06 Little Black Box.jpg

Optimization_(Sheldon).pdf