25 Facts About David Rittenhouse

David Rittenhouse was an American astronomer, inventor, clockmaker, mathematician, surveyor, scientific instrument craftsman, and public official.

David Rittenhouse's great-grandfather, who was born in the Rhineland, emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1688.

When his uncle, William Rittenhouse, died, David inherited his uncle's carpentry tools and instructional books.

At a young age, David showed a high level of intelligence by creating a working scale model of his great-grandfather William Rittenhouse's paper mill.

David Rittenhouse built other scale models in his youth, like a working waterwheel.

When David Rittenhouse was 13 years of age, he had mastered Isaac Newton's laws of motion and gravity.

At roughly age 17, David Rittenhouse constructed a clock with wooden gears.

David Rittenhouse was prevailed upon to construct the second orrery by his friend, the Reverend William Smith, the first provost of the College of Philadelphia, who was upset that he would deliver such a device to a college located in the rural area of New Jersey, rather than in Philadelphia, which was seeking to be one of the important centers of the 18th century enlightenment and for the study of "natural philosophy" such as astronomy.

David Rittenhouse was the perfect person to study the mysterious planet, as he had a personal observatory on his family farm.

David Rittenhouse served on the American Astronomical Society, and this was another factor in being chosen to study Venus.

In 1768, David Rittenhouse was elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society.

David Rittenhouse served as librarian, secretary, and after Benjamin Franklin's death in 1790, he became Vice president then served as president of the society until 1796.

David Rittenhouse was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1782.

In 1786, David Rittenhouse built a new Georgian-style house on the corner of 4th and Arch streets in Philadelphia, next to an octagonal observatory he had already built.

David Rittenhouse married his second wife Hannah Jacobs in late 1772.

David Rittenhouse made many breakthroughs of importance to the United States.

Later David Rittenhouse helped establish the boundaries of several other states and commonwealths both before and after the Independence, including the boundaries between New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

In 1768, the same year that he became a member of the American Philosophical Society, David Rittenhouse announced plans to observe a pending transit of Venus across the Sun from several locations.

David Rittenhouse used the observations to calculate the distance from Earth to the Sun to be 93 million miles.

In 1770, David Rittenhouse completed an advanced orrery; that is, a mechanical model of the Solar System.

David Rittenhouse made a new, more advanced model which remained in Philadelphia.

David Rittenhouse was treasurer of Pennsylvania from 1777 to 1789, and with these skills and the help of George Washington, he became the first director of the United States Mint.

David Rittenhouse believed that the design of a coin reflected the sophistication and culture of a country.

In 1781 David Rittenhouse became the first American to sight Uranus.

In 1785 David Rittenhouse made perhaps the first diffraction grating using 50 hairs between two finely threaded screws, with an approximate spacing of about 100 lines per inch.