Andrew Scott Waugh
Sir Andrew Scott Waugh (born February 3, 1810 in India , † February 21, 1878 in London ) was a British geodesist and officer who is best known today as the man who named the highest mountain in the world after Sir George Everest , his predecessor in the office of Surveyor-General of India and Head of the Great Trigonometric Survey .
Live and act
Andrew Scott Waugh was born in 1810 as the eldest son of General Gilbert Waugh, who worked for the East India Company in Madras . After training at a school in Edinburgh and at the East India Company Military Seminary in Addiscombe as well as at the British pioneer school , the Royal School of Military Engineering in Chatham (Kent), he was sent to India in 1829. There he was seconded to the Great Trigonometric Survey in 1832 directly under its director George Everest. Andrew Waugh was then active in numerous campaigns for the Great Trigonometric Measurement and the Indian meridian measurement ( The Great Arc ), which was carried out with it .
When Everest retired to hibernation in 1843, Andrew Waugh was appointed as Everest's successor as head of the Great Trigonometric Survey and as Surveyor General of India at the same time. Andrew Waugh continued work on the iron grid ( gridiron ) established by Everest , in which geodetic triangulations were not carried out across the board , but only along the lines of longitude and latitude and the spaces were filled in by simpler topographical measurements from other departments of the Survey of India, which could largely be created with the help of measuring tables .
The longest of the numerous triangulation series carried out mainly in northeastern India was that from Dehradun eastwards along the Himalayas to the region south of Darjeeling . Since the Nepalese government did not grant access to their territory, the work had to be carried out between 1845 and 1850 with great losses through the malaria-infested jungle and swamp areas at the foot of the Himalayas. In this triangulation series, the summit called Peak XV was measured over distances of up to 200 km and its height was given as 29,002 feet (8,840 m). After numerous checks on this result, determined in 1852, Andrew Waugh published it in 1856 in a letter to the Royal Geographical Society , in which he named Peak XV as Mount Everest in honor of its predecessor, for lack of reliable knowledge of a local name . This letter was noted and approved at the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on May 11, 1857 in the presence of George Everest.
After carrying out further series in northeast India, still planned by George Everest, he turned to the west in 1856, where under his direction the area between Karachi and the Himalayas was also surveyed using the grid method. These series were completed in 1860 after an interruption by the uprising of 1857 .
He took his leave on March 12, 1861 and moved to London, where he took part in the public life of the City of London and was active in the Royal Geographical Society, of which he was Vice-President from 1867 to 1870.
Honors
Andrew Scott Waugh received the Royal Geographical Society's gold medal following the meeting on Mount Everest, and was elected a Fellow the following year. In December 1860 he was knighted for his services as a Knight Bachelor and in 1861 honorary promoted to major general (major general). He was also a member of the Athenaeum Club .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Biographical treatise by Robert Hamilton Vetch: Waugh, Andrew Scott in the Dictionary of National Biography
- ^ Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London, no.IX, p. 345 Digitalisat on Google books
- ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 2, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 355.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Waugh, Andrew Scott |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British engineer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 3, 1810 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | India |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 21, 1878 |
| Place of death | London |