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Samuel Pierpont Langley

Born

in Roxbury, Massachusetts, The United States

August 22, 1834

Died

February 27, 1906

Website

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Pierpont_La...

Genre

Science, Astronomy, Physics

Influences

Henry Draper, Svante Arrhenius, Frank Washington Very ...more

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Samuel Pierpont Langley (/ˈlæŋli/; August 22, 1834 – February 27, 1906) was an American astronomer, physicist, inventor of the bolometer and pioneer of aviation. He attended Boston Latin School, graduated from English High School of Boston, was an assistant in the Harvard College Observatory, then moved to a job ostensibly as a professor of mathematics at the United States Naval Academy, but actually was sent there to restore the Academy's small observatory. In 1867, he became the director of the Allegheny Observatory and a professor of astronomy at the Western University of Pennsylvania, now known as the University of Pittsburgh, a post he kept until 1891 even while he became the third Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1887. Lang Samuel Pierpont Langley (/ˈlæŋli/; August 22, 1834 – February 27, 1906) was an American astronomer, physicist, inventor of the bolometer and pioneer of aviation. He attended Boston Latin School, graduated from English High School of Boston, was an assistant in the Harvard College Observatory, then moved to a job ostensibly as a professor of mathematics at the United States Naval Academy, but actually was sent there to restore the Academy's small observatory. In 1867, he became the director of the Allegheny Observatory and a professor of astronomy at the Western University of Pennsylvania, now known as the University of Pittsburgh, a post he kept until 1891 even while he became the third Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1887. Langley was the founder of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.

Langley arrived in Pittsburgh in 1867 to become the first director of the Allegheny Observatory, after the institution had fallen into hard times and been given to the Western University of Pennsylvania. By then, the department was in disarray – equipment was broken, there was no library and the building needed repairs. Through the friendship and aid of William Thaw, a Pittsburgh industrial leader, Langley was able to improve the observatory equipment and build additional apparati. One of the new instruments was a small transit telescope used to observe the position of the stars as they cross the celestial meridian. He raised money for the department in large part by distributing standard time to cities and railroads. Up until then, correct time had only occasionally been sent from American observatories for public use. Clocks were manually wound in those days and time tended to be imprecise. Exact time had not been especially necessary. It was enough to know that at noon the sun was directly above the head. All that until railroad tracks were installed.

As railroads became operational, that unpredictability of time became dangerous. Trains ran by a published schedule, but the scheduling was chaotic. If the watches of an engineer and a switch operator differed by even a minute or two, it could mean disaster. Two trains could be on the same track at the same time and crash.

Using astronomical observations obtained from the new telescope, Langley devised a precise time standard – including time zones – that became known as the Allegheny Time System. Initially he broadcast time signals to Allegheny city business and the Pennsylvania Railroad. Eventually, twice a day, the Allegheny time signals broadcast the correct time via 4713 miles of telegraph lines to all railroads in the US and Canada. Langley used the money from the railroads to finance the observatory. From about 1868, revenues from the Allegheny Time continued to fund the observatory until the US Naval Observatory provided the signals for free in 1883.

Once funding was secure, Langley devoted his time at the Observatory initially in researching the sun. He used his draftsman skills (from his first job right out of high school) to produce hundreds of drawings of solar phenomena, many of which were the first the world had seen. His 1873 remarkably detailed illustration of a sun spot, observed while using the observatory's 13-inch Fitz-Clark refractor became a classic. It is featured on page 21 of his book, The New Astronomy, but was also widely reprinted – in the Americas as well as throughout Europe.

In 1886, Langley received the inaugural Henry Draper Medal from the National Academy of Sciences for his contributions to solar physics. His publication in 1890 of infrared observations at the Allegheny Observatory in Pittsburgh together with Frank Washington Very along with the data he collected from his invention, the bolometer, was used by Svante Arrhenius to make the first calculations on the greenhouse effect.

In the 1978 film The Winds of Kitty Hawk, he was portrayed by actor John Hoyt. ...more

Combine Editions
Samuel Pierpont Langley’s books

Average rating: 2.5 · 2 ratings · 1 review · 85 distinct works

	Experiments in Aerodynamics liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2015 — 36 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The New Astronomy 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2010 — 39 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Internal Work of the Wind 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2013	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Address of S. P. Langley: President of the American Association 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2015 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The New Astronomy 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2015 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Experiments in Aerodynamics, Volume 27, issue 1 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2015 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Experiments in Aerodynamics 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2005 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Researches on Solar Heat and its Absorption by the Earth's Atmosphere: A Report on the Mount Whitney Expedition ... 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Experiments In Aerodynamics, Volume 27 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Pritchard's Wedge Photometer by Samuel Pierpont Langley, Charles A. Young (Creator), Edward Charles Pickering (Creator) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars