Edward Samuel Ritchie
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Edward Samuel Ritchie (1814–1895), an American inventor and physicist, is considered to be the most innovative instrument maker in nineteenth-century America, making important contributions to both science and navigation.


Early life and career

Ritchie was born in
Dorchester, Massachusetts Dorchester () is a Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood comprising more than in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Originally, Dorchester was a separate town, founded by Puritans who emigrated in 1630 from Dorchester, Dorset, E ...
on August 18, 1814, the son of John and Elizabeth Eliot Ritchie. As a young child Ritchie displayed a great aptitude for both arts and mechanical sciences. After working as an amateur sculptor, he founded a business in 1850 with N.B. Chamberlain to manufacture mechanical and electrical instruments. Chamberlain eventually left, and Ritchie continued the business alone.


Inventions and Innovations

In the early 1850s, after examining an example of an electric
induction coil An induction coil or "spark coil" ( archaically known as an inductorium or Ruhmkorff coil after Heinrich Rühmkorff) is a type of transformer used to produce high-voltage pulses from a low-voltage direct current (DC) supply. p.98 To create the ...
made by German instrument maker Heinrich Daniel Ruhmkorff, which produced a small two-inch (50 mm)
electric spark An electric spark is an abrupt electrical discharge that occurs when a sufficiently high electric field creates an Ionization, ionized, Electric current, electrically conductive channel through a normally-insulating medium, often air or other ga ...
when energized, Ritchie perceived that it could be made more efficient and produce a longer spark by redesigning and improving its secondary insulation. His own design divided the coil into sections, each properly insulated from each other. Ritchie's first induction coil produced a spark 10 inches (25 cm) in length; a later perfected model produced a bolt two feet (60 cm) or longer in length. In 1857, one of Ritchie's induction coils was exhibited in
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, Ireland at a conference of the
British Association The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chief ...
for the Advancement of Science, and later at the
University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...
in Scotland. Intrigued, Ruhmkorff himself procured a sample of the Ritchie induction coil and used it as a basis for revising his own design. The German inventor was later awarded a scientific prize by
Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...
. Disappointed in not receiving recognition for his improvements, Ritchie turned his attention to navigational instruments. Ritchie began making marine bearing
compass A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with No ...
es for the U.S. Navy before the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
(→ Union Navy). At the time, British Admiralty dry-mount nautical compasses were considered by all navies and merchant shipping companies as the technological standard of the day. Ritchie thought they could be improved upon, and by 1860 had received a U.S. patent for the first successful and practicable liquid-filled marine compass suitable for general use, a development that has been described as the first major advance in compass technology in several hundred years. With the damping provided by the liquid, together with a
gimbal A gimbal is a pivoted support that permits rotation of an object about an axis. A set of three gimbals, one mounted on the other with orthogonal pivot axes, may be used to allow an object mounted on the innermost gimbal to remain independent of ...
mounting, the floating indicator or card of the Ritchie compass remained relatively stable even when a ship's deck pitched and rolled during periods of severe weather. In Ritchie's third patent application (#38,126) dated April 7, 1863, several features that contributed to the success of his compass are revealed, including a floating card of nearly the same specific gravity as the liquid, an air-tight metallic case, and an elastic chamber that served as a diaphragm, compensating for temperature changes and resultant unequal expansion of the liquid and the bowl. Ritchie liquid-filled nautical compasses soon became a U.S. Navy standard, and were also widely used by American merchant mariners. He also invented an improved
theodolite A theodolite () is a precision optical instrument for measuring angles between designated visible points in the horizontal and vertical planes. The traditional use has been for land surveying, but it is also used extensively for building and ...
which was immediately adopted by the U.S. Navy for measuring harbors and port entrances. The business he began in 1850 became E. S. Ritchie & Son in 1866 and E. S. Ritchie & Sons in 1867, and moved from Boston to new facilities in
Brookline Brookline may refer to: Places in the United States * Brookline, Massachusetts, a town near Boston * Brookline, Missouri, a village * Brookline, New Hampshire, a town * Brookline (Pittsburgh), a neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania * Brookl ...
in 1886. The company specialized in manufacturing compasses, astro-navigation devices, and other nautical equipment for all types of ships, including small hand-bearing compasses for recreational and amateur sailing vessels.


Death

Following Ritchie’s death in 1895, his sons transferred the scientific instruments to the L. E. Knott Apparatus Co., while retaining the nautical instrument line. The firm was incorporated as E.S. Ritchie & Sons, Inc. in 1939, and continues operations to the present day. It is now located in Pembroke, Massachusetts, and known as Ritchie Navigation.


Museum Displays

A model of Ritchie's first liquid-filled compass in the collections of the
Science Museum (London) The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019. Like other publicly funded ...
.


Honors

Ritchie Rock in
Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...
is named after Edward Samuel Ritchie.


Notes


References

* American Academy of Arts and Sciences, ''Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences'', Vol. XXIII, May 1895 - May 1896, Boston: University Press, John Wilson and Son (1896) * Page, Charles G., ''History of Induction: The American Claim to the Induction Coil and Its Electrostatic Developments'', Boston: Harvard University, Intelligencer Printing house (1867) * Rogers, W. B. (Prof.), ''Brief Account of the Construction and Effects of a very Powerful Induction Apparatus, devised by Mr. E.S. Ritchie, of Boston, United States,'' British Association for the Advancement of Science, Report of the Annual Meeting (1858) * Warner, Deborah, ''Compasses and Coils: The Instrument Business of Edward S. Ritchie'', Rittenhouse Vol. 9, No. 1 (1994) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ritchie, Edward Samuel 19th-century American inventors American physicists American scientific instrument makers 1814 births 1895 deaths People from Dorchester, Boston 19th-century people from Massachusetts Engineers from Massachusetts