Abbott Lawrence Rotch

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Abbott Lawrence Rotch

Abbott Lawrence Rotch (born January 6, 1861 in Boston , †  April 7, 1912 in Milton , Massachusetts ) was an American meteorologist and founder of the Blue Hill Observatory , where the weather kite was introduced into aerology under his direction in 1894 .

Life

Rotch was born into a wealthy Boston family, the seventh child of Benjamin Rotch (1817-1882) and his wife Annie (1820-1893). In his youth, his parents took him on extensive trips to Europe, where he attended schools in Paris, Berlin and Florence, so that he learned to speak fluent French and German. During this time he was already observing the weather . After studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , which he graduated from in 1884, his mother encouraged him to set up his own meteorological observatory. He selected the 194-meter-high Great Blue Hill , which was near the family's summer residence in Milton, as a suitable location . Rotch was able to raise the funds of 3500 US dollars needed to build a small stone weather station privately. The observatory was inaugurated on January 31, 1885, and the first readings were recorded in February. Rotch took care of regular observations and measurements throughout his life. In his will, he made funds available for their continuation after his death. The Blue Hill Observatory now has the oldest uninterrupted meteorological observation series in the United States.

The Blue Hill Observatory 2009

With his assistant Henry Helm Clayton he carried out extensive cloud observations and measurements from 1886. He traveled a lot and maintained close personal contacts with leading European aerologists. Rotch was a member of the German Association for the Promotion of Airship Travel and took part in one of the first scientific balloon trips in Berlin at the invitation of Richard Assmann . On October 24, 1891, he accompanied Arthur Berson on the ride of the club's MW balloon , which was led by Hans Groß .

In 1893 he accompanied William Henry Pickering to Peru. As part of the Arequipa Astronomical Mountain Observatory on the Chachani volcano , he installed an automatic weather station at an altitude of around 5000 m. He then traveled with Pickering and Andrew Ellicott Douglass to Chile in the totality zone of the solar eclipse of April 16, 1893 .

In 1894, the first attempts were made at the Blue Hill Observatory to have the recording measuring devices transported by kites into higher air layers. Together with William Abner Eddy (1850–1909) they succeeded on August 4th in transporting a thermograph to a height of 436 meters using a team of five Eddy kites. In August 1895, a box kite developed by Lawrence Hargrave (1850–1915) was used for the first time to transport a measuring device for air pressure and temperature , which was adopted in a further developed form by all important aerological stations in the world. In 1896 the kites at the Blue Hill Observatory reached an altitude of 2000 meters and 1900 meters of 4600 meters. On August 22, 1901, Rotch let a kite soar off board a steamship for the first time in windless weather. He demonstrated the particular suitability of the weather kite for studying the free atmosphere over the oceans. Until the 1940s, the weather kite was an important aid for aerologists, supplementing the use of weather balloons .

In 1905, 1906 and 1907 Rotch chartered a steamer together with Léon-Philippe Teisserenc de Bort and studied the atmospheric conditions in the eastern Atlantic from the temperate zones to the equator . With the help of pilot balloons , whose trajectories he followed, he investigated wind strengths and directions at different heights. Supplemented by the results of Hugo Hergesell's expeditions with the Prince of Monaco from 1904 to 1907 and the East Africa expedition of the Lindenberg Meteorological Observatory undertaken by Arthur Berson and Hermann Elias in 1908, this led to a fundamental understanding of air circulation in the tropics . In 1906 Rotch was appointed the first professor of meteorology at Harvard University in Cambridge , Massachusetts .

In order to be able to make weather observations at higher altitudes, Rotch climbed numerous mountains in North and South America and Europe. He tried six times on Mont Blanc , reaching the summit three times.

Rotch died on April 7, 1912 after an appendix operation . He bequeathed his observatory to Harvard University in his will and donated US $ 50,000 for continued operation.

Rotch was married to Margaret Anderson (1866–1941) since November 25, 1893. From the marriage the daughters Elizabeth, Margaret and Kathleen and the son Arthur emerged.

Honors

Rotch was a member of the International Commission for Scientific Aviation and an honorary member of the English, German and Austrian meteorological societies. In 1888 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . The French government appointed him Chevallier of the Legion of Honor in 1889 . Kaiser Wilhelm II awarded him the Order of the Red Eagle III. Class.

Fonts (selection)

  • An Account of the Foundation and Work of the Blue Hill Observatory . Alfred Mudge & Son, Boston 1887
  • Studies of the Upper Air . Boston 1895
  • Sounding the Ocean of Air . Young & Co., New York 1900
  • The circulation of the atmosphere in the tropical and equatorial regions . 1902, German translation: The circulation of the atmosphere in the tropics and at the equator . Brunswick 1902
  • Benjamin Franklin and the First Balloons . Davis Press, Worcester 1907
  • The Conquest of The Air . Moffat, Yard & Co., New York 1909

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Richard Assmann: Overview of the scientific aviation carried out by the "German Association for the Promotion of Airship" (until February 15, 1895) . In: R. Assmann (Hrsgb.): Exploring the atmosphere by means of the balloon . Mayer and Müller, Berlin 1900, pp. 96-106
  2. ^ Walter Diem and Werner Schmidt: Dragons with a story . Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2005. ISBN 3-8334-2782-5 . P. 9 f
  3. ^ Hermann Hoernes: The airship of the present . Hartleben, Vienna 1903, p. 175
  4. ↑ a b Abbott Lawrence Rotch papers: Guide , Harvard University Library, accessed December 11, 2018
  5. ↑ AL Rotch dead . In: The New York Times , April 8, 1912
  6. ↑ AL Rotch left Harvard $ 50,000 . In: The New York Times , April 12, 1912
  7. ↑ Family: Abbott Lawrence Rotch / Margaret Randolph Anderson on the website "If The Legends Are True ...", accessed October 12, 2012
  8. ^ Members of the American Academy. Listed by election year, 1850-1899. (PDF; 50 kB) from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org), accessed on August 6, 2015
  9. ^ " Honors from the Kaiser. Order of Red Eagle Conferred upon Boston Man ” in Evening Star (Washington, DC) October 17, 1905

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Rotch, Abbott Lawrence
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American meteorologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH Boston
DATE OF DEATH April 7, 1912
Place of death Milton , Massachusetts