Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler

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Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler

Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler (born October 7, 1770 in Aarau , † November 20, 1843 in Philadelphia ) was a Swiss geodesist and first head of the US coast survey (title: Superintendent of the United States Coast Survey ).

Life

Adolescent years

Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler was born in Aarau as the son of a watchmaker. He first studied law in Bern before turning to mathematics and physics under the influence of Johann Georg Tralles . During his student days, he helped Tralles with its measurements in the cantons of Bern, Solothurn, Zurich and Schaffhausen. In 1798 he married Marie Anna Gaillard, who bore him nine children. The eldest son, Scipio Hassler, later followed in his father's footsteps.

Surveying order from the Helvetic Republic

In 1798 Hassler was commissioned by the Finance Minister of the Helvetic Republic to measure Switzerland. He created a coordinate directory using his measuring method with 51 coordinate points between Yverdon and Schaffhausen. But when the Helvetic Republic dissolved in 1803, he received no wages for his efforts. When French geographers began to survey Switzerland, Hassler gave up and emigrated to the USA with his family in 1805.

Math professor

Hassler got a position as professor of mathematics at the United States Military Academy in West Point (New York) in 1807, where he remained until 1810. This was followed by a professorship at Union College in Schenectady (New York).

Coast survey

When the Survey of the Coast was founded by President Thomas Jefferson in 1807 , Hassler suggested how the work should be carried out. He was then entrusted with carrying out the coastal surveys in 1811. In the same year he traveled to London to buy suitable surveying instruments. But Hassler was unlucky, shortly after his arrival the British-American War broke out and the British confiscated his measuring instruments. It was not until 1815 that Hassler was able to return to the USA and was appointed the first Superintendent of the United States Coast Survey in 1816 . Work began in the New York Harbor area, Long Island , and was slow. At the instigation of the Congress , Hassler was deposed in 1818. Until 1832, the Survey of the Coast was without guidance. Accordingly, the work did not move at all. That year, however, Congress reappointed Hassler to head the coastal survey, where he made great contributions until his death. With five ships, several measuring teams and a total of 90 employees, Hassler measured more than 8,000 square miles from 1832 to 1843 . The agency was renamed the Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1878 and incorporated into the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as the National Geodetic Survey in 1970 .

Standardization of dimensions and weights

Hassler's second important work began in 1830 when he was entrusted with the standardization of weights and measures in the USA. Every US state had the right to issue its own standards, so that several systems of measurement and weight coexisted. Despite extensive research and publications, Hassler did not succeed in introducing the metric system . After all, it was not until almost sixty years after his death that the US Bureau of Standards was founded in 1901 , today's US National Institute of Standards and Technology ( NIST ). Hassler's use of the meter in coastal surveying, however, was an argument in favor of the introduction of the Metric Act of 1866 , which allowed the use of the meter in the United States. This probably also played a role in 1867 in the proposal of the European degree measurement to “establish a European international bureau for weights and measures ”.

Fonts (selection)

  • Elements of analytic trigonometry, plane and spherical. New York: Bloomfield, 1826.
  • Elements of the geometry of planes and solids. Richmond: by the author, 1828.
  • A popular exposure of the system of the universe, with plates and tables. New York: Carvill, 1828.
  • Principal documents relating to the survey of the coast of the United States; and the construction of uniform standards of weights and measures for the custom houses and states ... New York: Windt, 1834-1836.

literature

Web links

Commons : Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Metric Act of 1866 - US Metric Association. Retrieved August 25, 2020 .
  2. ^ American Philosophical Society., American Philosophical Society, James Poupard: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society . new ser.:v.2 (1825). Philadelphia [etc.] 1825, p. 252 ( biodiversitylibrary.org [accessed August 25, 2020]).
  3. ↑ Alexander Ross Clarke, Henry James: X. Abstract of the results of the comparisons of the standards of length of England, France, Belgium, Prussia, Russia, India, Australia, made at the ordnance Survey Office, Southampton . In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London . tape 157 , January 1, 1867, p. 161–180 , doi : 10.1098 / rstl.1867.0010 ( royalsocietypublishing.org [accessed August 25, 2020]).
  4. ↑ Alexander Ross Clarke, Henry James: XIII. Results of the comparisons of the standards of length of England, Austria, Spain, United States, Cape of Good Hope, and of a second Russian standard, made at the Ordnance Survey Office, Southampton. With a preface and notes on the Greek and Egyptian measures of length by Sir Henry James . In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London . tape 163 , January 1, 1873, p. 445–469 , doi : 10.1098 / rstl.1873.0014 ( royalsocietypublishing.org [accessed August 25, 2020]).
  5. ↑ Central Bureau of European Degree Measurement. (Ed.): Report on the negotiations of the general conference of the European degree measurement held from September 30th to October 7th, 1867 at BERLIN. Berlin 1868, p. 123-135 ( gfz-potsdam.de [PDF]).
personal data
SURNAME Hassler, Ferdinand Rudolph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hassler, Ferdinand Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss geodesist and head of the US coast survey
DATE OF BIRTH October 7, 1770
PLACE OF BIRTH Aarau
DATE OF DEATH November 20, 1843
Place of death Philadelphia