William Leitch | |
|---|---|
| Born | 20 May 1814 |
| Died | 9 May 1864 (aged 49) |
| Resting place | Cataraqui Cemetery, Kingston, Ontario, Canada |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Citizenship | British |
| Education | Bachelor of Arts, 1837 Master of Arts, 1838 Doctor of Divinity, 1860 |
| Alma mater | University of Glasgow |
| Known for | Earliest known scientific description of rocket-powered spaceflight |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy, Natural history, Mathematics |
William Leitch (20 May 1814 – 9 May 1864) was a Scottish astronomer, naturalist and mathematician, and a minister of the Church of Scotland. Leitch studied mathematics and science at the University of Glasgow, and moved to Canada in 1860 to take the post of principal at Queen's University.
Space historian Robert Godwin published in October 2015 his discovery that Leitch gave the first modern scientific explanation of the potential for space exploration using rockets (1861).[1] Leitch was said to be "a distinguished astronomer, naturalist and mathematician",[2] and his proposal for rocket spaceflight came four decades prior to more well-known proposals by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1903), Robert Esnault-Pelterie (1913), Robert H. Goddard (1914), and Hermann Oberth (1923). Leitch's rocket spaceflight description was first provided in his 1861 essay "A Journey Through Space", which was later published in his book God's Glory in the Heavens (1862).[3] This description correctly attributed rocket thrust to the "internal reaction" (Newton's laws of motion) and correctly identified that rocket thrust is most effective in the vacuum of space. In the third edition of his biography of Leitch, Godwin explained Leitch's connections to the Boston community, and specifically how both Leitch and Robert Hutchings Goddard both knew and corresponded with patent attorney Orson Desaix Munn.[4]