Alexander Dallas Bache (1806-1867), US physicist and great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin. Bache graduated at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1825. He was professor of natural philosophy and chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania from 1828. He travelled to Europe from 1836 to 1838, reporting on the education systems. In 1843, he was appointed superintendent of the United States coast survey. He obtained funding to complete the mapping of the whole coast and a vast mass of magnetic and meteorological data was collected, including data on the Gulf Stream. Photograph circa 1855.