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National Geographic : 1915 Feb
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY AT A meeting of the Board of Man agers, January 20, which was at tended by every member of the Board in Washington, Mr. O. H. Titt mann, Superintendent of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, who for the past five years has been the Vice-President of the Society and was one of its founders, was unanimously elected President to succeed the late Henry Gannett, and Rear Admiral John E. Pillsbury, United States Navy, retired, was unanimously elected Vice-President. The other offi cers of the Society were re-elected. President Tittmann was born at Belle ville, Illinois, August 20, 1850. At the age of 17 he entered the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey and has worked his way up to the superintendency of that world-famous scientific bureau. During his career many notable experiences have been his lot. In 1874 he went to Japan as assistant astronomer of an expedition to observe the transit of Venus. In the years immediately following he was en gaged in coast-survey work on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. From 1889 to 1893 Mr. Tittmann was in charge of the United State standards of weight and measure. In 1890 he went to Paris to bring to the United States the standard meter which is now so carefully kept at the Bureau of Standards and which has become the basis of all our exact measures. At the same time he studied the systems of standards at Paris, London, and Berlin. He was a delegate to the International Geodetic Conference in Berlin in 1895, and became a member of the Permanent Commission of the In ternational Geodetic Association in 1900. In 1895 he became assistant in charge of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Office, and in 1899 Assistant Su perintendent. His appointment as Super intendent of the Survey dates from De cember, 1900. Mr. Tittmann was appointed to repre sent the United States in marking the boundary between Alaska and Canada, and in 1904 was appointed United States Commissioner of the Alaskan boundary and northern boundaries excepting the Great Lakes. Rear Admiral John E. Pillsbury was born at Lowell, Massachusetts, December 15, 1845, and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1867, becom ing an ensign in 1868 and a captain in 1902. For ten years he was engaged in coast-survey service, commanding the Coast Survey steamer Blake, during which time he made a very complete in vestigation of the phenomena of the Gulf Stream. He anchored the Blake in that ocean current and kept it there for a period of two years, observing the cur rent at various depths below the surface by means of an instrument of his own invention. He established the position of the axis of the stream off Cape Hat teras and in the Straits of Florida and determined many of the laws by which its flow is governed. (See "The Grandest and Most Mighty Terrestrial Phenom enon," by John E. Pillsbury, in the NA TIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, August, 1912.) He commanded the dynamite cruiser Vesuvius off Santiago during the Spanish-American War. In 1905 he was chief of staff of the North Atlantic fleet, and chief of the Bureau of Navigation in 1908-1909. IMPORTANT NOTICE Members of the Society are urged to remember the following facts: All remittances covering annual dues, purchase of books, panoramas, maps, bound volumes, etc., should be made di rect to the National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C. Remittances should be made by New York draft, postal, or express money order. Cash should not be sent unless the letter is registered. Inasmuch as the Post-Office Depart ment does not reforward second-class mail, the GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE will not follow you unless you notify us of your change of address, giving the old address at the same time. It takes three weeks in order to make a change of address effective, because of the necessity of ad dressing 400,000 magazine wrappers in advance. In sending in nominations please use the blank form always to be found in the back part of the magazine, or write for booklet of application forms, which will be furnished upon request.
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