Evening star., 1922-08-01
E. G. Fischer, Mechan-
ical Genius, Reaches
Age Limit.
Surrey Director Pays
Tribute to His
Valuable Service.

Valuable Service.
The United States government is
on the pay rolls at only $4,000 a year.
who in the estimation Of his chief
has saved the people Of this country
untold wealth through his marvel
Gus inventions.
He is E. G. Fischer, mechanical en-
gineer and chief of the instrument
section of the coast and geodetic sur
vey. There is no man in all the gov
place, Col. E. Lester Jones, director of
the survey. declared. predicting that
had such genius given his time to
some great instrument-making con-
cern he would have had by now a
salary of s25.008 or $4,000 a year. in
addition to munificent royalties from
So this is the way, the government
rewards genius, thinks Col. Jones, and
it has let slip from its service.
through retirement and a salary
ridiculously small. a genius whose
Mechanical Engineer Fischer retires
August 5. He says he will go to
Paris His plans he keeps to HIM
self. So modest 10 he, in fact, that
nothing concerning his work could
be learned, except through Col.
official order a list of the inventions
he has perfected and the improve
ments he has made in the instrument
tai equipment of the survey.
Tide Computing Machine.
Perhaps the most wonderful Of the
products of Fischer's genius 10 the
tide-predicting machine. a maze of
al Il rfcp -, f<,k,
it is said. II one wanted to know
how high the tide was when the
Pilgrims landed on their stern and
rockbound coast 1t would be COM
puted. were the hour of their arrival
known, by the simple twist Of wrist.
The machine does the rest.
BY using the tide-predicting ma
chine Lieut. Commander G. r. Rude.
chief of the division of tides and
currents, and his assistants have just
of high and low tides and their
height for all principal ports around
the world for the year 1S24-two
years in advance. Soon they will be-
gin predicting the tides for 1925.
Rude said, the work it would take
sixty mathematician to do-and does
it with more precision. The tide
predicting machine would be posi-
lively weird, were 1t not just q mar
one mans brain.
How does it work? It requires an
engineer of high degree to manipulate
its complicated structure. 1t has
thirty-seven component parts which,
Capt. Rude explains, represent the
their relative positions" These COM
ponent parts are set, according to
certain observations as a basis; the
entire machine is connected with
chains and wheels. A crank is turned.
Two fountain pens on its face chart
tide. And at the exact moment OF
high tide and of low tide the ma
chine automatically locks itself for
the operator to read and record the
figure for each day Of the year. At
the same time the height of the tide
above the mean low level is recorded.
Over q million and a half figures
are turned out by this machine each
year, predicting high and low tide
for eighty-one principal ports Of the
world. Predictions are made two
advance and distributed throughout the
world for mariners.
For fifteen years Fischer worked on
his tide predicting machine, through
discouragements and dark days.
Fischer's old machine would never
work, anyhow, IL he ever did get 1t
completed. 1t lay on his mind. q great
burden, for year after year, though he
felt that his computations were made
with precision. Short Of help in the
he had little help in the mechanical
construction. But he kept at 1t and
at last 1t was perfected. In 1910 1t
was put into use, a great success:
Since 1t has been in constant use and
is now being dissembled for cleaning.
80 ta6
tides throughout the world for 1875.
Although Fiseher's genius was ape
preciated in the coast and geodetic
survey, Col. Jones said he has had 70
aght tor every slight increase in sal
S. for eo sas as It ec sas Sai
came from Baltimore, where he was
born August 6, 1852. He received his
Education in the "citixens' school"
later attended technical high school
and, anally,. Columbian university'
Hefore entering the coast and geo.
detic, survey he had had ten years. ex-
perience in designing and construct
ling astronomical, surveying ana sci
entific apparatus, and one year IN me-
chanical engineering. He vas ep-
pointed chief meehanioian st !;so0
promoted to 1880 in peeember. las7,
Loyes His Work.
tT often asked MT. flaeHeF way AZ
didn't leave the government service
and GO where he could get some real
money" said Col. Jones, although the
chief wanted his genius to stay with
him. There was never any 3ustifyiAg
answer to this question, the colonel
work, to throw his "A into II. and
continue with his u tions to rive
to the American pes
ON Col. Jenes' desk list ef tWAn-
ty-four Inventions 9 mprevensRte
FISCHER. i an introd tery paragraph