Gravity Pendulum No. 2
date: label: date made
content: 1881-1882
name: label: Associated Name
content: U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey
notes: label: Description
content: Charles Sanders Peirce, a practicing scientist and proponent of philosophical pragmatism, began the gravity program of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in the early 1870s, at a time when his father was superintendent of the Survey. This was the first gravity program in the United States. After acquiring Kater-type and Repsold pendulums (some of which are in the Smithsonian collections), Peirce designed a pendulum in the form of an elongated ellipsoid. He chose this form after studying Stokes's theory of the motion of a pendulum in a viscous medium. Peirce's pendulum was invariable and reversible. Because of its heavy weight and freedom from irregularities, it could swing for hours before coming to rest.
label: Description
content: The Coast and Geodetic Survey built four Peirce pendulums of this sort in 1881-1882. Two are in the Smithsonian collections. An inscription on this one reads "Peirce No. 2 USC&G Survey."
label: Description
content: Ref: Victor Lenzen and Robert Multhauf, "Development of Gravity Pendulums in the 19th Century," <i>United States National Museum Bulletin</i> 240 (1965): 301-348.
label: Description
content: Carolyn Eisele, "Charles S. Peirce. Nineteenth Century Man of Science," <i>Scripta Mathematica</i> 24 (1959): 305-324.
label: Description
content: E. D. Preston, "Determinations of Gravity and the Magnetic Elements in Connection with the United States Expedition to the West Coast of Africa, 1889-90," <i>Report of the Superintendent of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey for 1889-90</i>, Appendix 12.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: District of Columbia, Washington
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Measuring & Mapping
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.321650
label: accession number
content: 244667
label: catalog number
content: 321650
objectType: label: Object Name
content: gravity pendulum
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 62 in x 2 3/4 in; 157.48 cm x 6.985 cm