Namesake

I just finished reading a biography of my namesake, the late 18th century scientist David Rittenhouse.

Rittenhouse was a self-taught “mechanic” who was able to rise above his station to become one of the founding faculty members of the University of Pennsylvania.

At each stage of his development, Rittenhouse's love of precision and desire to contribute to a higher purpose helped him advance - like the escapement of one of his clocks.

His way of operating - observe, think, make - led to major contributions to science.

First it was clocks. At the time, the precise measurement of time was considered a frontier of science. And Rittenhouse had good hands for it.

Then came astronomy. He built an observatory and invited his scientist friends to come over to observe the transit of Venus in 1769. His documentation of it, the drawings and calculations, offer a glimpse of the mathematics that became a tool for him.

Then came the orreries (analogue planetaria), built for local universities, that finally united the mechanical and mathematical.

Despite the American war of independence with Britain, Rittenhouse was able to follow developments in physics in Europe and was particularly fond of the work of Isaac Newton who died shortly before Rittenhouse was born.

Though not religious, Rittenhouse was married to a Quaker and wrote/spoke passionately against human slavery and in favor of the rights of indigenous people.

I am sorry to have never met the author, Brooke Hindle, the New York University history of science professor and president of of the National Museum of the History of Science, who spent several years (including a sabbatical) researching Rittenhouse in libraries, museums and repositories in the United States and Europe.

Originally published in 1964, the book is now out of print, but available via Princeton Legacy Library which prints books on demand from the back catalogue of the Princeton University Press.

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691654836/david-rittenhouse