Alexander Ross Clarke
Alexander Ross Clarke (born December 16, 1828 in Reading , Berkshire , England , † February 11, 1914 in Strathmore , Reigate , Surrey ) was a British geodesist whose importance lies primarily in the definition of various earth ellipsoids .
Live and act
Clarke spent his childhood in the British colony of Jamaica until the family moved back to England.
On October 1, 1847, he joined the British Army and was assigned to the Royal Engineers. He received his training in Chatham , Kent , in the School of Military Engineering, from 1850 he was transferred to the Ordnance Survey in Southampton .
From 1851 to 1854 Clark served in Canada , where he married Francis Dixon in 1853.
Clarke returned to England and again served in the Ordnance Survey in Southampton, where he became head of the surveying department in 1856. In 1858 he published his first article on the history of land surveying in Great Britain.
He worked as a geodesist and made calculations for the shape of the earth including the flattening.
On June 5, 1862, he was elected to the Royal Society . In another publication in 1866 he described a new Clarke ellipsoid , which is still used today as "Clarke 1866", especially in English-speaking countries and areas. In 1867 he was accepted as a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg .
In 1880 he coined the word " geodesy " when he published his book of the same name. In it he described another earth ellipsoid "Clarke 1880", which is mainly used in Africa.
After serving 27 years in England, he was to be transferred overseas again in 1881, but Clarke submitted his resignation. Even under public pressure, the army refused to allow Clarke to continue serving in England. So on October 1, 1881, Clarke left the army with the rank of colonel and moved to Redhill , Surrey .
He left the Royal Society for financial reasons.
In October 1883 Clarke was the British delegate to the Geodetic Conference in Rome, and in 1884 he became a British member of the International Geodetic Association.
He received the Royal Medal from the Royal Society in 1887 and was reinstated as a non-contributory member. In 1892 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh .
Clarke and his wife had four sons and nine daughters.
Web links
- Entry to Clarke; Alexander Ross (1828-1914) in the Archives of the Royal Society , London
Individual evidence
- ^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Alexander Ross Clarke. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed September 7, 2015 (Russian).
- ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed October 17, 2019 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Clarke, Alexander Ross |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British geodesist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 16, 1828 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Reading , Berkshire , England |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 11, 1914 |
| Place of death | Strathmore , Reigate , Surrey |