engineering

Preston Bassett

Preston Bassett is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Preston Bassett rather than just read about it. In short: Preston Rogers Bassett (March 20, 1892 – April 30, 1992) was an inventor, engineer, and pioneer in instruments for aviation. Biography Preston Rogers Bassett was born in Buffalo, New York, son of urban planner Edward Murray Bassett and Annie Preston Bassett.

Key takeaways

Preston Bassett belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Preston Bassett to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Preston Bassett from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Preston Rogers Bassett (March 20, 1892 – April 30, 1992) was an inventor, engineer, and pioneer in instruments for aviation.

Biography Preston Rogers Bassett was born in Buffalo, New York, son of urban planner Edward Murray Bassett and Annie Preston Bassett. Geologist Isabel Bassett Wasson was his sister. He received an A.B. from Amherst College in 1913 and attended the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1913-1914. He received two honorary degrees, an M.A. and a D.Sc., from Amherst College, and an honorary LLD from Adelphi College. He married Jeanne Reed Mordorf in 1919 and had four children. Jeanne Reed Mordorf was born November 1, 1893, in Trenton, NJ, graduated from Vassar College in 1915. They were married in Brooklyn May 24, 1919. Their home from 1925 to 1952 was 104 Broadway, Rockville Centre, NY.

Career at Sperry Bassett worked for the Sperry Gyroscope Company for his whole career, where he rose from research engineer (1914) to Chief Engineer (1929), Vice-President in Charge of Engineering (1932), General Manager (1944), and President (1945-1956). He was also Vice President of the merged Sperry Corporation (1950-1957). He held 35 patents awarded between 1920 and 1937, including several for improved high-intensity carbon arc lights used in anti-aircraft searchlights and movie projectors. He helped Albert A. Michelson use arc light and gyroscope technology to measure the speed of light at Mount Wilson in June, 1924. He also developed the first soundproofing systems for airplanes and worked closely with Sperry founder Elmer Ambrose Sperry on several flight instruments based on gyroscopes, especially the gyrocompass, crucial to flying safely at night and in bad weather. The first blind landing (now called an instrument landing) was made by aviation pioneer Jimmy Doolittle in 1929 using Sperry instruments.

Later life and work Bassett's many interests in addition to aviation included antique collecting, early technology, and history of Long Island and New England. He was President of the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences (1947), Nassau Historical Society (1947-1954), Friends of Old Bethpage Village (1966-1970), and Keeler Tavern Preservation Society in Ridgefield, Connecticut (1968-1972). He served as Vice President of the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities (1962-1972) and New York State Historical Association in Cooperstown, New York (1964-1975). He served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (1952-1961). He was a director of Abilities, Inc., a company that employed the handicapped. He was a fellow of the American Physical Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Institute of Aeronautical Sciences. He was a member of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) from 1954 to 1958, when it became the present National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He was a keen observer of atmospheric phenomena encouraging others to look skyward to see the optical effects of clouds, raindrops, and ice crystals. He painted still lives and landscapes. He wrote books and articles on topics ranging from Long Island Craftsmen to Shadow Bands and Searchlights. His lectures to local groups on these topics were very popular. In his eighties and nineties he embarked on an "uncollecting" program in which he gave antiques to the Smithsonian Institution, Henry Ford Museum, Mead Art Museum, Old Bethpage Village, Farmers' Museum, Keeler Tavern, and others, always encouraging the museums to put his antiques into historical context. He died on April 30, 1992, at the age of 100.

References

Bassett, Preston R. Life and Times of Preston R. Bassett. (privately published, April, 1976) The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York, J. T. White: 1892-) Early Contributions to Aviation Online Course, including (in Session 3) Bassett's role in blind flying and searchlights US Patent search page, search for Preston and Bassett in Inventor name, 1790-present

Further reading Jessup, Peter. Interview with Preston R. Bassett on Motion Pictures and Blind Flying (24 pp, Columbia University: Oral History Project, July 1980) Jaffe, Bernard Michelson and the Speed of Light, Biography of a Scientist (197 pp, Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1960) Bassett, Preston R with Margaret F. Bartlett; illustrated by Jim Arnosky. Raindrop stories. (40 pp., New York: Four Winds Press, 1981) Bassett, Preston R; Arthur L. Hodges. The History of Rockville Centre. (244 pp, Uniondale, New York: Salisbury Printers, 1969) Bassett, Preston R. Shadow Bands and Searchlights. Popular Astronomy, Vol. XXXIII, No 4, pp 1–5, April, 1925. Bassett, Preston R. Passenger Comfort in Air Transportation. Journal Aeronautical Science, Vol. 2, pp 48–50, March, 1935. Bassett, Preston R. Long Island, Cradle of Aviation. Long Island Forum, Amityville, NY, pp 1–42, November, 1950. Bassett, Preston R. Sperry's Forty Years in the Progress of Science. Sperry Scope Corporate Newsletter, 1950. Bassett, Preston R. The Local Potters of Long Island. The Long Island Courant, Vol. 1, No 1, pp 1–14, March, 1965. Bassett, Preston R. Towns in the Ridges. The Bulletin of the Antiquarian and Landmarks Society of Connecticut, Vol. XVII, No 1, pp 6–10, July, 1965. Bassett, Preston R. The Silver Betty Lamp. The Rushlight, Vol. XXXVI, No 1, pp 9–10, February, 1970.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Preston Bassett

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Preston Bassett claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Preston Bassett before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Preston Bassett ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Preston Bassett

In research: Preston Bassett appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Preston Bassett in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Preston Bassett is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1892 births, 1992 deaths, 20th-century American engineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Preston Bassett outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Preston Bassett in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Preston Bassett means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Preston Bassett out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Preston Bassett in simple terms?

Preston Rogers Bassett (March 20, 1892 – April 30, 1992) was an inventor, engineer, and pioneer in instruments for aviation. Biography Preston Rogers Bassett was born in Buffalo, New York, son of urban planner Edward Murray Bassett and Annie Preston Bassett.

Why does Preston Bassett matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Preston Bassett?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Preston Bassett.