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David Rittenhouse, 1732-1796
Born near Germantown, Pennsylvania
A child prodigy who received no formal education, David Rittenhouse became one of early America's most respected scientists and is depicted here as president of the American Philosophical Society. Rittenhouse made his living as a clock- and instrument-maker; his mathematical skills earned him service on commissions determining the boundaries of several states. He constructed two orreries, instruments that accurately depict the motions of the solar system for 5,000 years, backwards and forwards. Rittenhouse achieved international fame when, acting on John Ewing's proposal, he organized the Philosophical Society's participation in an international effort to measure the transit of Venus. This allowed astronomers to more accurately measure distances to celestial objects. Rittenhouse's published observations, along with those of other American scientists, attracted favorable reactions in Europe, bringing a new recognition of American scientific achievement.
Charles Willson Peale, who knew the sitter well, included in this portrait a reflecting telescope that may have been the one Rittenhouse had inherited from Benjamin Franklin.
Charles Willson Peale, 1796 |