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RITTENHOUSE, DAVID (1732-1796)

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 369 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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RITTENHOUSE, See also:DAVID (1732-1796) , See also:American astronomer, was See also:born at See also:Germantown, See also:Pennsylvania, on the 8th of See also:April 1732. First a watchmaker and mechanician he afterwards became treasurer of Pennsylvania (1777-89), and from 1792 to 1795 director of the U.S. See also:mint (See also:Philadelphia). He was largely occupied in 1763 and in 1779-86 in settling the boundaries of several of the states. He was a See also:fellow of the Royal Society of See also:London, and a member of the American Philosophical Society; and was elected See also:president of the latter society in 1791. As an astronomer, Rittenhouse's See also:principal merit is that he introduced in 1786 the use of spider lines in the See also:focus of a transit See also:instrument. His priority with regard to this useful invention was acknowledged by E. See also:Troughton, who brought spider lines into universal use in astronomical See also:instruments (see von See also:Zach's Monatliche Correspondenz, vol. ii. p. 215), but Felice See also:Fontana (173o-18o5), See also:professor of physics at the university of See also:Pisa, and afterwards director of the museum at See also:Florence, had already anticipated the invention in 1775, though no doubt this fact was unknown, to Rittenhouse. His researches were published in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society (1785 1799). He died at Philadelphia on the 26th of See also:June 1796.

End of Article: RITTENHOUSE, DAVID (1732-1796)

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