|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
NOAA’s roots are planted in this oldest of American science agencies. The Coast Survey was authorized by Congress and President Thomas Jefferson in 1807. From the Coast Survey has flowed much of the structure and the manner of conducting modern American science. The Coast Survey was founded by Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler, a Swiss immigrant, who built an embryonic Coast Survey from the ground up. He brought together mathematicians, cartographers, geodesists, metrologists, hydrographers, topographers, sailors, laborers, and administrators and molded them into a coherent organization having the goal of surveying the coast of the United States. During the evolution of this organization, it became the first United States Government agency to collect masses of geographic information, develop means to process that information, and produce products for the safety and welfare of the citizens of our Nation. The Coast Survey was the first Government agency to develop mathematical models for predicting future states of geophysical phenomena such as tides, currents, and geomagnetic declination. It was instrumental in the formation of the Smithsonian Institution and the National Academy of Sciences and the establishment of their early policies. It was the first Federal science agency to fight many of the political battles involving the proper place of science in a democratic society. Join the Coast Surveyors as they build the foundation of American physical science….
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|