Ferdinand Rudolf Hassler

Swiss emigrant Ferdinand Rudolf Hassler, born in Aarau in 1770, set out in 1805 to measure the new world. 

Arriving on these American shores and armed with a copy of the committee (ur-) meter in his suitcase, Ferdinand Rudolf Hassler was appointed in 1807 by President Thomas Jefferson as the first superintendent of the U.S. Coast Survey. Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury (and fellow Swiss emigree), issued a call for a plan for the Survey of the Coast later that year. Hassler’s plan was selected.

The U.S. Coast Survey was this country’s first scientific agency. In 1878 it was to become the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey and almost a century later, in 1970, was reorganized to its present day U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or the more familiar NOAA¹.

Thus Hassler can be considered the father of modern day NOAA², which this year of 2007 is celebrating its 200th anniversary of its founding. 

Currently there are several exhibitions held in Switzerland to honor the achievements of this outstanding Swiss pioneer.  For further reading, info and photos of Hassler's descendents etc. visit the following website link http://www.f-r-hassler.ch/Hassler/Hassler-hist-e.htm or NOAA³ for a comprehensive history on their founder.

Ferdinand Rudolf Hassler was one of the first scientists of great significance in American history and was later also to become the first superintendent of the predecessor organization of the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST.

Kern Aarau Instruments, 19th and 20th Century