William Ferrel (1817 - 1891)

The NOAA Ship FERREL is named for Professor William Ferrel. Professor Ferrel was born in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, in 1817. He was a resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts, when he received an appointment on the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, July 1, 1867. The work with which he was charged was the investigation of the General Theory of the Tides, a research to which he had already devoted much study, and the solution of which he had advanced quite beyond his predecessors.

Professor Ferrel's inquiries and studies as to the influences affecting the tides led him to give special attention to meteorological effects on tides, and later the general theory of meteorology received from him a careful investigation, his contributions to science on this subject alternating for a series of years with those on Tides.

His connection with the Coast Survey continued without interruption until he tendered his resignation, August 9, 1862, with the intention of accepting a position in the Signal Service. His resignation was formally accepted by the Superintendent, but with the expression of a desire on his part that Professor Ferrel would find time to complete for the Survey certain tidal investigations which he had been pursuing with eminent success, and that he would keep up the supervision of the tide predicting machine which he had invented.

The theory and plan of this machine were first submitted to the Superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey in the spring of 1880, and its construction was at once decided upon. Various delays occurred however in obtaining the services of a competent machinist, so that the actual construction was not begun until late in the summer of 1881, and it was not completed until the autumn of 1882.

In August 1880, Professor Ferrel read a paper describing the theory and plan of his machine before the American Association for the Advancement of Science at its meeting in Boston.

The machine was first used in the prediction of tides for the calendar year 1885, to be published in the Coast and Geodetic Survey Tide Tables for that year. It was estimated by Professor Ferrel that the capacity of the machine for doing work was at least that of thirty or forty computers, and in response to an inquiry (made October 8, 1891) Mr. A. S. Christie, chief of the Tidal Division stated that forty computers would be needed to perform the work done by the machine.

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Updated: May 3, 2000