| Thomas Corwin Mendenhall |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT THOMAS CORWIN MENDENHALL | |
| american physicists | |
| meteorologists | |
| seismologists | |
| 1841 births | |
| 1924 deaths | |
| o-yatoi gaikokujin | |
| american scientists | |
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LIFE Mendenhall was born in Hanoverton, Ohio , and married Susan Allan Marple in 1870 . Though he never attended or graduated college, he was teaching at Columbus Central High School by 1861 and, though he lacked a conventional academic formation, was appointed professor of Physics and mechanics at Ohio State University in 1873 , the first member of the original faculty. In 1878 , on the recommendation of Edward S. Morse , he was recruited to help the modernisation of Meiji Era Japan as one of the '' O-yatoi Gaikokujin '' (hired foreigners). Serving as visiting professor at the University Of Tokyo , he helped develop the government's meteorological service. During his time in Japan, he also gave public lectures on scientific topics. Returning to Ohio in 1881 , Mendenhall was instrumental in developing the state meteorological service before becoming professor at the US Signal Corps in 1884 . Resigning in 1886 , Mendenhall took up the presidency of the Rose Polytechnic Institute in Terre Haute, Indiana before becoming superintendent of the U.S. Coast And Geodetic Survey in 1889 . During his time as superintendent, he issued the Mendenhall Order and oversaw the consequent transition of the USA's Weights And Measures from the customary system, based on that of England , to the Metric System . He was also responsible for defining the exact national boundary between the USA and Canada . Mendenhall was president of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute from 1894 until 1901 when he emigrated to Europe . Mendenhall proposed the Ring Pendulum as a means of measuring Gravity and also worked in the fields of Seismology and Atmospheric Electricity . He returned to the US in 1922 and died in Ravenna, Ohio . HONOURS
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