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The SMOOT as unit of Length

Since I (George Smoot) was a n MIT student and then graduate (class of1966 and 1970), many people have asked if I was the Smoot used to measurethe distance across the Harvard bridge which stretches from back-bay Bostonto Cambridge and carries the traffic from Massachusetts avenue which isthe main street cutting through MIT at that point. I always denied it butmany people were sure since now one was claiming responsibility. Up tothat point the only Smoots to attend MIT were I and a distant relativeOliver R. Smoot. Since then as detailed below, Oliver's son has attendedMIT and no doubt been subject to the same queries.
This apparently appeared in "People Weekly", April 24, 1989, v. 31, p.93+

Harvard Bridge spans the Charles River linking Boston and Cambridge. In 1958 Lambda Chi Alpha took 5' 7" MIT freshman pledge Oliver R. Smoot,Jr. and rolled him head over heels the entire length of the bridge. Every ten smoots they calibrated the bridge, painting marks. The bridgewas found to be exactly 364.4 smoots plus an ear. Successive pledgeclasses repainted the markings.

In 1987 the Mass. Dept. of Public Works decided the concrete of thebridge was due for replacement. They had no plans for smoot preservation. The Boston Press tracked down Oliver R. Smoot, Jr. who was then age 48,and executive vice president of Computer and Business Equipment ManufacturesAssociation in Washington D. C. He had no plans of being reused fornew markings.

The Mass. Metropolitan District Commission, the government body in chargeof the bridge went on record in support of smoots. They stated, "Werecognize the smoots' role in local history. That's not to mean thatthe agency encourages graffiti painting. But smoots aren't just anykind of graffiti. They're smoots! If commemorative plaquesand markers are not installed by the state once the bridge work is done,then we'll see that it's done."

Stephen Smoot, a son of Oliver R. Smoot, Jr, was then age 21 and attendingMIT was ready to redo the smoot measurements, although he was 5'11", soeverything would be off.

There are a couple of pictures of Oliver R. Smoot, of MIT students readyto redo measurements with Stephen Smoot, and of a plaque that reads:
"This plaque place in honor of THE SMOOT which joined the angstrom,meter and light year as standards of length, when in October 1958 the spanof this bridge was measured, using the body of Oliver Reed Smoot, M.I.T.'62 and found to be precisely 364.4 smoots and one ear. Commemoratedat out 25th reunion June 6, 1987 M.I.T. Class of 1962"

Another clipping states that the Mass. Dept. of Public Works gave twoSmooted sections of sidewalk to the MIT museum at a ceremony. ContinentalConstruction Company of Cambridge also agreed to make the new concretesidewalk slabs 5' 7" long to coincide with the Smoots, instead of the usual6' increments.

End of SMOOT-D Digest V99 Issue #23

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