Samuel Pierpont Langley (1834 - 1906)

Born 22 Aug 1834 in Roxbury, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States

Ancestors

Died 27 Feb 1906 at age 71 in Aiken, Aiken, South Carolina, United States

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Biography

Samuel Langley is Notable.

Samuel was born August 22, 1834 in Roxbury, Massachusetts.

He worked as an engineer and architect. In 1864, he and his brother traveled throughout Europe. When he returned to the United States in 1866, he was appointed assistant professor of mathematics at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and placed in charge of the small observatory there. In 1867 he accepted a position at Western University in Pennsylvania (now known as the University of Pittsburgh) as a professor of physics and astronomy and director of university's Allegheny Observatory. He remained there for 20 years.

He concluded that air resistance was not as great as Newton had said it was and that existing engines could overcome it and sustain heavier-than-air flight. His reports were published by the Smithsonian Institution and awakened the imaginations of others, including Orville and Wilbur Wright.

Langley was appointed assistant secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in charge of the library and international exchanges. Within the year, Secretary Spencer F. Baird died, and Langley assumed leadership of the Smithsonian.

Langley Air Force Base,Virginia., is named in his honor, as is Langley Hall at the University of Pittsburgh.

He passed away February 27, 1906 in Aiken, South Carolina and was buried in the Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 20 November 2020), memorial page for Samuel Pierpont Langley (20 Aug 1834–27 Feb 1906), Find A Grave: Memorial #5860979, citing Forest Hills Cemetery and Crematory, Jamaica Plain, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave.

• Walcott, Charles, Biographical Memoir of Samuel Pierpont Langley, 1834-1906 (National Academy of Sciences, Washington, 1912) Presented to the Academy at the Autumn meeting, 1911.
• U.S. Air Force
• Wikipedia
• In Their Honor: True Stories of Fliers for Whom United States Air Force Bases are Named
• http://www.famouskin.com ; Ancestry of Samuel Pierpont Langley, Ahnentafel# 1.
• https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/langley-aerodrome/nasm_A19180001000