Edwin
J. Brown,
died on June 17, 1935, as a result of an automobile accident
near Norfolk, Virginia.
Born at Peru, Indiana, May 11, 1899, he graduated from Michigan
State College with the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1923,
and entered the Survey's service July 2 of the same year.
He married Elsie E. Stitt on January 28, 1925. He was a member
of the Philosophical Society of Washington; Tau Beta Pi; and
the Masonic fraternity.
He possessed unusual ability as a radio engineer and was responsible
for notable improvements in methods and instruments increasing
the speed and accuracy of astronomical and gravity observations.
These include a radio amplifier for eliminating the effect
of the lag from longitude determinations, and the improved
portable gravity apparatus which bears his name. The latter
instrument has increased the speed of gravity determinations
over 300 percent without any loss of accuracy.
In 1926 he took part in the measurement of the first international
radio longitude net, making the observations at Niu, near
Honolulu. Several years later he made gravity observations
under most difficult conditions on the outlying rocky islands
northwest of the main islands of the Hawaiian group. During
1932 - 33, he made a new gravity connection between the new
Commerce Building base station and the world base station
at Potsdam, Germany--the first direct connection between this
country and Potsdam since 1900. At the same time he connected
the absolute gravity station at the National Bureau of Standards
with Potsdam.
At the time of his death he was in charge of the radio-acoustic
range-finding apparatus, the gyro compass, and fathometer
aboard the survey ship OCEANOGRAPHER, and had practically
completed the preparation of publications descriptive of the
Brown gravity apparatus and his gravity connection with Potsdam.
It was as natural for Lieutenant Brown to keep friends as
it was for him to make them, for he was sincere in his esteem
and his enjoyment of the pleasures of all with whom he worked.
C&GS Bulletin, 6/30/1935
