Uriah A. Boyden

Uriah Atherton Boyden (February 17 1804 – October 17 1879) was a Boston inventor and mechanical engineer. He was the brother of Seth Boyden.

He designed a water turbine that became known as the Boyden turbine.

His will left about a quarter of a million dollars to a suitable astronomical institution that would build an observatory on a mountain for the better atmospheric seeing conditions than those available at lower altitudes.

His heirs challenged the will, but it was found valid. In 1887, Edward Charles Pickering convinced the trustees of Boyden's will to award the Boyden Fund to Harvard College Observatory, of which he was director.

Although he initially planned to establish an observatory at Mount Wilson, those plans were abandoned (although the Mount Wilson Observatory was later built by a different group). Instead, needing an observation station for southern hemisphere skies, Harvard College Observatory established the "Boyden Station" at Arequipa, Peru in 1889.

In 1927, Boyden Station was moved to South Africa due to better weather conditions and became known as the Boyden Observatory.

The Boyden Public Library in Foxboro, Massachusetts is also named after him.

The National Museum of American History in Washington, DC is home to the Uriah A. Boyden Papers.

External links

* [http://www.rootsweb.com/~mafhs/foxuriahboyden.htm Uriah Boyden biography]

* [http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/23907 Harvard in Peru, Part I]
* [http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/14564 Harvard in Peru, Part II]
* [http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/14640 Harvard in Peru, Part III]