Alexander Dallas Bache

All you want to know about Alexander Dallas Bache

Alexander Dallas Bache
Alexander Dallas Bache
Born	July 19, 1806(1806-07-19) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Died	February 17, 1867 (aged 60) Newport, Rhode Island, United States
Nationality	American
Fields	physics

Alexander Dallas Bache (July 19, 1806 – February 17, 1867), American physicist, was born in Philadelphia. He was the son of Richard Bache, Jr., and Sophia Burrell Dalles, nephew of George M. Dallas, and great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin. After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1825, he acted as assistant professor there for some time and, as a lieutenant in the United States Army Corps of Engineers, he was engaged for a short time in the erection of coastal fortifications, including Fort Adams in Newport, Rhode Island. Bache resigned from the Army on June 1, 1829.

He occupied the post of professor of natural philosophy and chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania from 1828 to 1841 and again from 1842 to 1843. Additionally, from 1839 to 1842, he served as the first president of Central High School of Philadelphia, one of the oldest public high schools in the United States. He spent the years 1836 to 1838 in Europe on behalf of the trustees of what, in 1848, was to become Girard College. Abroad, he examined European systems of education and, on his return, published a very valuable report.

In 1843, on the death of Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler, he was appointed superintendent of the United States coast survey. He succeeded in impressing the United States Congress with a sense of the great value of this work and by means of the liberal aid it granted, he carried out a singularly comprehensive plan with great ability and most satisfactory results. By a skillful division of labour, and by the erection of numerous observing stations, the mapping out of the whole coast was completed. In addition, a vast mass of magnetic and meteorological data was collected.

After the Civil War, Bache was elected a 3rd Class Companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS) in consideration of his contributions to the war effort.

He died at Newport, Rhode Island on February 17, 1867.