Background

Abbott Lawrence Rotch, brother of Arthur Rotch, was born in Boston, Massachussets. His father, Benjamin Smith Rotch, was a great-grandson of William Rotch, the noted Nantucket merchant; his mother, Annie Bigelow (Lawrence), was a daughter of Abbott Lawrence of Boston, founder of the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard. Rotch was therefore born to the possession of ample means and into a tradition of public service.

Education

He received his preliminary education from tutors and in private schools, then entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Career

Before his graduation in 1884 Rotch conceived and carried into execution plans for the erection of an observatory on the summit of Great Blue Hill, ten miles south of Boston, for the study of weather phenomena. His purpose was to establish an institution free from official control, where investigation might be independent of prescribed duties and requirements. The building was completed by the close of 1884, and observations were begun February 1, 1885. Rotch maintained the observatory at his own expense until his death in 1912, when he bequeathed it, with an endowment of $50, 000, to Harvard University.

The study of cloud heights, directions, and velocities as carried on at Blue Hill is one of the best of American contributions to knowledge of the clouds. Rotch suggested the use of daily maps at local Weather Bureau stations, and defrayed the expenses connected with the issue of the first such map, at the Boston weather station in May 1886. An extensive traveler and an expert mountain climber, he visited and studied the equipment of nearly all European high-level observatories. He made the ascent of Mont Blanc six times, reaching the famous Vallot cabin five times and the summit thrice.

He made two balloon ascensions from Paris, November 12 and 14, 1889, in which modern instruments were used. On July 4, 1910, he took part in the International Balloon Ascensions at Strassburg. He was much interested in the development of aeronautics, was one of the founders of the Aero Club of America, and also a prime mover and president of the Aero Club of New England and the Harvard Aeronautical Society. He was a firm believer in the ultimate success of flight through the air at a time when such belief was regarded as fantastic.

He was a friend of Professor Samuel P. Langley and of the Wright brothers. These and others interested in aviation were welcomed spectators of the kite flights at Blue Hill in the late nineties. He was the pioneer in the United States in exploring the free air. In 1894 at Blue Hill he first used a kite to lift recording instruments.

It was in large measure the success of his exploration of the free air that led Leon Teisserenc de Bort to found a private observatory for the study of dynamic meteorology at Trappes, near Paris, and, indirectly, led to the founding of the aeronautical observatory near Berlin under Richard Assmann. The important discovery by Teisserenc de Bort of the isothermal region, beginning about twelve kilometers above sea level in temperate latitudes, later named the stratosphere, may thus be considered in part a result of Rotch's work. With Teisserenc de Bort in 1905 he cooperated in fitting out an expedition to explore the atmosphere over the tropical and temperate parts of the Atlantic Ocean, thus securing data which later were of great service in discussions of the best routes for transatlantic flying.

With Andrew Henry Palmer he prepared and published Charts of the Atmosphere for Aeronauts and Aviators (1911), a first attempt at mapping the conditions of the upper air. He wrote two books, Sounding the Ocean of Air (1900) and The Conquest of the Air (1909), and contributed many papers to scientific periodicals; the bibliography of his publications comprises 183 titles.

For more than a decade (May 1884 - April 1895) he was associate editor of the American Meteorological Journal. He also edited the Blue Hill observations which after 1887 were regularly published in the Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College. Rotch was personally known to the leading meteorologists of Europe, for he made it a point to attend all meetings of the International Meteorological Committee, and on many occasions was the sole representative of the United States.

His work was known and appreciated abroad more than at home. He was exceedingly modest, preferring to remain unnoticed, but always encouraging others and giving his assistants fullest credit.

From 1888 to 1891 and from 1902 to 1906 he held the title of assistant in meteorology at Harvard, and in 1906 he became the first professor of meteorology there, in both these capacities serving without salary. For many years he was a trustee of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and from 1899 was librarian of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Just before his death he was chosen as exchange professor for 1913 at the Sorbonne.

Achievements

• Rotch was known as a founder of the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, the longest continually operating observation site in the United States and an important site for world climatology. He was also one of the founders of the Aero Club of America. Rotch was the first to obtain meteorological data by means of kites flown from the deck of a moving steamer (1901), by sounding balloons made the first observations in the United States at heights of five to ten miles (1904), and was the first to make trigonometric measurements of the flight of pilot balloons (1909).

Works

More photos

• book

  • Benjamin Franklin and the First Balloons

    (The recent bi-centenary of Franklin’s birth, which coinci...)

  • New Conquest of the Air; Or, the Advent of Aerial Navigation

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • Results of the Meteorological Observations Made at the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, Massachusetts, U.S.A., in the Year 1886

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • An Account Of The Foundation And Work Of The Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory

    (Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating bac...)

  • Studies of the Upper Air

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • Charts of the Atmosphere for Aeronauts and Aviators...

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • Sounding the Ocean of Air: Being Six Lectures Delivered Before the Lowell Institute of Boston, in December 1898 1900

    (Originally published in 1900. This volume from the Cornel...)

Connections

Rotch married, November 22, 1893, Margaret Randolph Anderson of Savannah, Ga. , a descendant of Thomas Jefferson. He was survived by his wife, two daughters, and a son.

Father:

Benjamin Smith Rotch

Mother:

Annie Bigelow (Lawrence)

Spouse:

Margaret Randolph Anderson

Brother:

Arthur Rotch

Grandfather:

Abbott Lawrence

Friend:

Samuel P. Langley

Great great grandfather:

William Rotch

Merchant