Martin Hotine Friend and Pro

CHARLESA. WHITTEN* National Geodetic Survey Rockville, Md. 20852 Martin Hotine Friend and Pro Memorial Lecture "I hold every man a debtor to his profession; from the which as men of course do seek to receive coun- tenance and profit so ought they of duty to endeavor themselves by way of amends to be a help and Martin Hotine ornament there unto."-Bacon. ARTIN HOTINE used this introductory respectful pattern. 1 M paragraph from Francis Bacon's pen to A playwright might describe Hotine's life preface a paper on "Professional Organiza- as a continuous and logically planned series tion" which he presented in London at the of episodes. Whether Hotine was preparing 1947 Conference of the Commonwealth the script, setting the stage, leading the ac- Survey Officers. I selected the same para- tion, or greeting the guests after the per- graph for this memorial lecture because of formance, his keen sense of timing and his the insight it provides of Hotine's philosophy natural appreciation of the dramatic have on professionalism-whether it be surveyor, made the story of his life unique for the in- photogrammetrist, geodesist, mathematician, ternational surveying and mapping fellow- administrator, or statesman. His talents were ship. I great and he shared his tremendous enthu- siasm with friends and colleagues throughout his entire life wherever he might be and EARLY LIFE-FIRST WORLD WAR-EDUCATIONL whatever the responsibility he faced. All of FAMILY i us who were privileged to~beassociated with him in any way can recall many exciting in- We may consider the first third of his like cidents-some of action, some of discussion, as a fitting prologue to a full career of service some of debate-each in a very special way to his government plus all the other govern- identifying this outstanding man as a true ments associated with Great Britain. Botn professional. June 17, 1898, he received his early educa- In his associations with friends and co- tion at Southend High School in Essex and workers, he requested that titles of rank or was graduated from the Royal Military Acad- distinction not be used; he much preferred emy at Woolwich on June 6, 1917, being the use of surnames for professional col- commissioned in the Corps of Royal Engi- leagues and reserved the first name or familiar neers, the "top cadet of his batch." In the nickname for his closer friends. Therefore, First World War, following additional train- whenever I mention any of his colleagues, I ing at the School of Military Engineering at will endeavor to follow this informal yet fully Chatham, he was sent to India for service in the Queen Victoria's Own Bombay Sappdrs * Retired. Lecture presented at the Annual and Miners. His company moved up the Convention of the American society of photo- Northwest frontier where there was incessant grammetry, Washington, D.C., March 1973. guerilla fighting with German-trained hill 821 I 822 PHOTOGRAMMETRIC tribes. Later his company moved on into and Bridget has made a home for a family Persia at the invitation of the Persian Govern- of her own. Religious faith was a tremendous ment to suppress some unruly tribesmen. force in their lives. They were devout Chris- Along with the skirmishing, his company was tians and active in their support of the Catho- accomplishing some of the engineering re- lic Church. quirements-building roads and railways, placing telegraph lines, and, of course, sup- plying the supporting surveying and mapping. AIR SURVEY COMMITTEE-RESEARCH OFFICER- His mental challenge during those years PHOTOGRAMMETRY- WTHODS-TEXTS was the mastery of unmasterable languages. In 1925 Hotine was appointed to the Air He learned to read, write, and speak Urdu, Survey Committee of the British War Office the language of the Moslems in India, and serving as its Research Officer. Here he used also Persian. In 1920, his company was sent the opportunity to devise practical methods into Mesopotamia, now Iraq, where sporadic of using aerial photographs for topographic fighting with Arab guerillas was still going on mapping. His mathematical ability, his ex- along the banks of the Euphrates. Peace was perimental aptitude, his tremendous energy, slow in coming, but, finally, in 1922 he was and his special gift of writing were all com- ordered back to England for post-war courses bined in producing four professional papers, at Magdalene College, Cambridge University, each of book length, and finally, in 1931, a and advanced studies at Chatham. textbook, Surveying from Air Photographs. The prologue must also include his mar- The analytical procedures and graphic meth- riage to Kate Amelia Pearson on August 9, ods he devised became the basis for all map- 1924. I remember sitting under the stars in ping, civilian and military, and as we shall St. Mark's Square in Venice with Kate and see later, for economic development. The Martin along with other friends listening to concepts became identified as the Arundel them recall their courtship days when they Method. Generally, the proper noun identi- were participating in amateur theatricals. fier relates to a person, but in this case They told us that in 1916 Martin's school Arundel is the place where the method was had decided to put on Shakespeare's "Mer- first used. Arundel is a small village in South- chant of Venice." Kate had been chosen from ern England just a few miles north of the a neighboring girls' school to play Portia and, Channel. The photogrammetric target would of course, Martin was playing Bassanio. At have been Arundel Castle, seat of the Duke the dress rehearsal, before a mixed audience of Norfolk, Earl Vice-Marshall of England. from both schools, Martin went beyond the Although this first episode or Act I of the action indicated in the lines and planted a Hotine Drama might be titled Photogram- kiss on Kate's cheek. leavineu a tell-tale mark metry, it was during this period that the prick from his, at that time, grease paint mustache, of his pen began to be noted in the United much to her embarrassment, so she said, but, States. Bowie and Hayford, working through needless to say, to the general amusement of the International Association of Geodesy, had the others. been able to persuade the countries of the They could not have selected a better time world to adopt a new ellipsoid, and, for and place for sharing their memories with greater persuasion and geodetic diplomacy, friends. Those of you who have known these it was identified as the International Ellip- two, realize that they could have been tre- soid. But Hotine was quick to note that Bowie mendously successful as professionals in the continued to use Clarke's 1866 Spheroid for theatre. However, the story unfolded in the North America. Also, Hotine expressed his more traditional way: military service, ad- concern about the use of Laplace azimuths vanced education, home, family, profession. in triangulation networks. In the Empire They had been engaged before his long tour Survey Review, he wrote of the fact that the of duty in India and Persia, but waited until error of observation for azimuths was con- he had completed his post-war training and siderably larger than that of horizontal direc- education to be married. tions in triangulation. Therefore, he reasoned Even though the family is basic to the that the use of azimuth observations could whole drama of life, I should introduce them distort the more accurate triangulation. Quot- at this point in the prologue. The Hotines ing in part, "Personally, I know very little were blessed with three daughters: Margaret about the subject, but I have an open mind has devoted her life to theatrical work, Janet and I can appreciate an argument. If the real has given her life in service to the church, geodesists can be induced to fight in the same MARTIN HOTINE-FRIEND AND PRO 823 1 ring, we may get at the truth. Therefore, I of small angles and complete ignorance of shall endeavor to prove that both sides are field conditions, is not a just god and would wrong." I do not know if any others entered likely over-favour the long and possibly in- the ring, but some months later, Hotine con- accurate line." tinued his discussion in the Empire Survey One can reread accounts of this African Review. He had relaxed somewhat, perhaps project in the Empire Survey Review, but I reaIizing that azimuths observed in the must use one more quotation to show the latitudes of the United States did not have as complexity of geodetic problems in consider- large errors as observed in the latitudes of ing different parts of the world, particularly Great Britain. different continents: "for good or evil, the He also wondered why those responsible Clarke 1880 Spheroid has come to stay in1 for the theoretical applications in the United Africa and will not be replaced anymore than1 States seemed to ignore the classical method the Clarke 1866 figure has been displacedl of defining a datum, in particular, the origin. by Hayford in America." Bowie has chosen to use the same geographic Extending an arc of triangulation from1 coordinates for Meades Ranch, the origin Rhodesia northward along the east side of of the then new 1927 Datum, as had been Lake Tanganyika through trackless brush' calculated from the original New England and jungle, infested with tsetse flies, was a Datum and later perpetuated into the U.S. task that only humans could ac~omplish.~ Standard Datum. Quoting in part again from Back-packing food, blankets (for some of Hotine, "The fact that the constants of the the points were at high altitudes), building Clarke 1866 Spheroid are just right for this suppIies, surveying equipment, and, of course4 purpose, and that the regional attraction rifles, for protection from lions or for acquird varies with closely approximate uniformity ing fresh game, required a small army of from east to west, is probably the most amaz- native porters, sometimes as many as 250.1 ing stroke of luck in the history of Geodesy.

Load more