The New International Encyclopædia/Rotch, Abbott Lawrence

ROTCH, Abbott Lawrence (1861—). An American meteorologist, born in Boston. He graduated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1884, and in the next year established near Boston the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory. There he made researches on the clouds and introduced the use of kites for weather observations. Rotch edited, in part, The American Meteorological Journal (1886-92), and in 1891 was appointed to the international committee on the nomenclature of clouds. His publications include the annual reports of the Blue Hill Observatory (1887 et seq.) and a popular work, Sounding the Ocean of Air (1900).