Herbert A. Jacobs (April 8, 1903 – May 20, 1987) was an American journalist for the ''

Milwaukee Journal The ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primary newspaper and also the largest newspaper in the state of Wisconsin, where it is widely read. It was purchased by the G ...

'' and later a professor of journalism at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

Houses

Jacobs was a friend of

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...

. Jacobs and his wife Katherine commissioned Wright to design a house for them. This house, the Herbert and Katherine Jacobs First House, was notable as the first example of Usonian architecture. Later, they commissioned Wright to design another house for them, the Herbert and Katherine Jacobs Second House.

Jacobs method for crowd size estimation

Jacobs worked for the ''

'' from 1931 until 1936, then for Madison's ''

Capital Times ''The Capital Times'' (or ''Cap Times'') is a weekly newspaper published Wednesday in Madison, Wisconsin, by The Capital Times Company. The company also owns 50 percent of Capital Newspapers, which now does business as Madison Media Partners. ...

''. After retirement in 1962, he taught journalism at the

.Albert Scardino. Herbert Jacobs
30's Reporter Who Reshaped Architecture
New York Times Obituary, May 27, 1987. Jacobs was present in Berkeley during the Berkeley riots. It was at this time that he devised a method for measuring

crowd A crowd is as a group of people that have gathered for a common purpose or intent. Examples are a Demonstration (people), demonstration, a Sport, sports event, or a looting (classified in sociology as an acting crowd). A crowd may also simply ...

size, the Jacobs Method:Steve Doig
How big will inaugural crowd be? Do the math When people gather in vast numbers, 'official' estimates often run wild
NBC News, January 15, 2009.

acobs'soffice was in a tower that overlooked the plaza where students frequently gathered to protest the Vietnam War. The plaza was marked with regular grid lines, which allowed Jacobs to see how many grid squares were filled with students and how many students on average packed into each grid. After gathering data on numerous demonstrations, Jacobs came up with some rules of thumb that still are used today by those serious about crowd estimation. A loose crowd, one where each person is an arm's length from the body of his or her nearest neighbors, needs 10 square feet [] per person. A more tightly packed crowd fills 4.5 square feet [] per person. A truly scary mob of mosh-pit density would get about 2.5 square feet [] per person.

Death

Jacobs died of cancer on May 20, 1987.

References

1903 births 1987 deaths Crowd psychology 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American journalists American male journalists Milwaukee Journal Sentinel people University of California, Berkeley faculty {{US-journalist-1900s-stub