Francis Matthews Green

Background

Francis Matthews Green was the son of Mathews Wylly Green and Margaret Augusta (Gilchrist) Green, and a grandson of Francis Green and Harriet (Mathews) Green. He was born on 23 February 1835, at Boston, Massachusets.

Education

When the Civil War began in 1861, and Green joined the volunteer navy as a master at the age of twenty-six years, he had already experienced seven years of sea service since the completion of his schooling at the English High School of Boston in 1854.

Career

In the middle of December 1868, Green was made a lieutenant commander in the regular navy. He continued in the routine duties of that service, mainly on shipboard, until 1872, when his interest in professional marine hydrography was recognized by his engagement under the United States Hydrographic Office to prepare a volume of sailing directions relating to the West Indies.

In the course of this employment, finding that a large part of the coast to be described had not been surveyed, he conducted a survey (1874) in the U. S. S. Fortune from which, taken together with coordinate operations by the U. S. S. Wyoming, the Mexican coast from the Rio Grande to Vera Cruz was charted, and also the harbor of Alvarado.

Before the age of the electric telegraph, determination of longitude was attended with much uncertainty. It was known that the longitudes of various places in the West Indies and Central America did not harmonize: the starting points upon which they depended had been determined in general by the observation of moon-culminations which subjected them to a probable error of two or three seconds of time.

Faced with the need of adjusting these longitudes, Green prepared himself by becoming a skilful astronomical observer, and when, upon the completion of the West Indian submarine cables, the Hydrographic Office organized an expedition for the determination of longitude in the West Indies and Central America by the exchange of telegraphic time signals, he was appointed to lead the expedition.

In 1877, he was selected to lead another expedition to determine the longitudes of the principal places on the east coast of South America by the exchange of time signals over the transatlantic cables from Europe and the submarine cables between Para in northern Brazil and Buenos Aires in Argentina.

In 1881, he led an expedition of the same nature to China, Japan, and the East Indies.

Altogether there were directly determined by these three expeditions about thirty secondary meridians which, for many generations, had been used as starting points for surveys and chronometric measurements of meridian distance.

Many more positions were related by dependence upon those that were directly determined so that these expeditions resulted in a large addition to the accurate knowledge of the earth’s surface.

In subsequent years, Green reached the grade of commander and spent some time in educational employment as captain of the Pennsylvania schoolship Saratoga. He reached the statutory age for retirement from the navy in 1897 and, in the years immediately preceding his death, gave service as an editorial contributor to the Century Dictionary.

He died in Albany, New York, during a temporary visit from his home in Boston.

Achievements

• Francis Matthews Green was an outstanding skilful astronomical observer. In the course of Green's employment, it was found that a large part of the coast to be described had not been surveyed and he conducted a survey (1874) in the U. S. S. Fortune from which, taken together with coordinate operations by the U. S. S. Wyoming, the Mexican coast from the Rio Grande to Vera Cruz was charted, and also the harbor of Alvarado. Also, by his expeditions about thirty secondary meridians were described which, for many generations, had been used as starting points for surveys and chronometric measurements of meridian distance.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Report on the Telegraphic Determination of Differences of Longitude

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

  • Telegraphic Determination Of Longitudes In Japan, China, And The East Indies: Embracing The Meridians Of Yokohama, Nagasaki, Wladiwostok, Shanghai, ... And Madras, With The Latitude Of The...

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

Connections

Green married Catherine Lovell Cushing, on 05 March 1864, in Charlestown, New Hampshire and had one daughter, Catherine Laura Green Rowse.

Catherine died in 1866, and Francis remarried her cousin, Elizabeth Stillman Cushing.

Father:

Mathews Wylly Green

5 February 1803 - 8 April 1874

Mother:

Margaret Augusta Green

Died on 30 November 1864.

Brother:

James Gilchrist Green

27 June 1841 - 16 February 1909

Sister:

Margaret Augusta Green

24 February 1839 - 24 October 1925

Sister:

Harriet Eliza Green

22 February 1837 - 23 June 1893

Wife:

Elizabeth Stillman Green

25 February 1845 - 16 April 1892

Wife:

Catherine Lovell Cushing

Daughter:

Mary Green

Died on 12 November 1953.

Daughter:

Katharine Laura Green Rowse

2 February 1865 - August 1943

Son:

Henry Lincoln Green

29 February 1880 - 4 June 1951

Son:

Francis Cushing Green

6 August 1873 - 17 August 1948