Cleveland Abbe
American
| Y/M/D | Description | Association | Composition | Place | Locale | Food | Event |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Y/M/D | Description | Association | Composition | Place | Locale | Food | Event |
| 1838/12/03 | Born | Significant Date | Cleveland Abbe's Birthday | ||||
| 1868/00/00 | Cleveland Abbe becomes director of the Cincinnati Observatory. It is in Cincinnati where he begins the work in meteorology that will dominate the rest of his life. | Work | Holy Cross Monastery and Chapel | Cincinnati, OH | |||
| 1871/00/00 | With the help from the Associated Press, Abbe uses the telegraph to assemble at a central location meteorological data from around the country, establishing the country's first weather service. | Work | |||||
| 1877/00/00 | Cleveland Abbe buys the Monroe House from Francis Markow, living there until 1909. | Arts Club of Washington | Washington, DC | ||||
| 1916/10/28 | Died | Significant Date |
History
Cleveland Abbe, the father of the United States Weather Bureau, was born 3 December 1838, in New York City. He received his primary education in private schools. In 1851 he entered the New York Free Academy (later City College of New York). In 1857 Abbe graduated with a BA degree and in 1860 the academy awarded him a MA Abbe's youth was decisive in determining his later career in science. Vacations were spent on his grandfather's farm, where the young man delighted in observing natural phenomena guided by "Smellies Philosophy of Nature," a book given to him by his mother. Abbe later stated that this book was the source which first stimulated his interest in science. When he died, it was placed in his hands and buried with him.
Between 1857 and 1868 Abbe held a number of positions which began with teaching mathematics and ended as an assistant at the United States Navel Observatory. It was a period in which he sought and found a vocation. 1860 found him at the University of Michigan teaching engineering. While there he studied with an astronomer named Bruennow, who stimulated Abbe's interest in celestial concerns. Rejected for Army service in 1860, he spent the war years doing longitude work for the United States Coast Survey. In 1865 he traveled to Russia and spent an enjoyable year at the Observatory of Pulkova. Returning to the United States in 1867, he spent the next year at the United States. Naval Observatory, at the time one of the country's leading centers of astronomy.
In 1868 the newly established Cincinnati Observatory offered Abbe the position of director. Recognizing the opportunity to pursue his own research projects, Abbe accepted. It was in Cincinnati that he began the work in meteorology that would dominate the rest of his life. Abbe had previously recognized that the development and spread of the telegraph made it possible to send quickly messages for one locale to another. Why not, he reasoned, use the telegraph to assemble at a central location meteorological data from around the country. Abbe felt that by collecting such data from a wide variety of locations, it would be possible to determine weather patterns upon which to base weather predictions. With the help, of the Associated Press Abbe put his idea to work and by 1871 he had developed the country's first weather service. Thanks to the success of his weather service, Abbe had by 1871 acquired a national reputation in meteorological circles. - NRHP Nomination Form
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