Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 17: Polymath produced

David Rittenhouse was born outside of Philadelphia on April 8, 1732.  An inheritance of carpenter's tools and books allowed young David to display a knack in making working scale models of mills and the like. While he was never formally schooled, his self-study would also show an aptitute for math and science. 

These combined interests would lead to a varied career as a maker of scientific instruments, a surveyor, and astronomy. He would complete the Mason-Dixon survey of the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland, make significant astronomical observations of Venus and Uranus, and serve as the treasurer of Pennsylvania during the Revolutionary War. He would become the first director of the US Mint, and even produced its first coins, hand-striking them using metal from flatware donated by George Washington.

Today, Rittenhouse is remembered through Rittenhouse Square, one of Philadelphia's original city squares, and the David Rittenhouse Laboratory, which houses the Physics and Astronomy and Mathematics departments at the Univerisity of Pennsylvania (a building I've spent a number of weekends in, especially for someone not from Philadelphia or a UPenn student).