James Percy Ault

James Percy Ault (October 29, 1881, Olathe, Kansas – November 29, 1929, Apia, Samoa) was an American geodetic surveyor, geophysicist, geomagnetic researcher, and captain of the research vessel Carnegie. As captain of the Carnegie, he discovered submarine mountain ranges off the western coast of South America and provided empirical confirmation of the Chandler wobble.

He died with all his collaborators with the exception of a few sailors who went ashore, in circumstances that remained unexplained when the ship exploded on November 29, 1929 at the port of Apia in the Samoa Islands. A gas tank is said to have exploded. Very seriously injured, he died during transport to the hospital.

Biography Ault graduated in 1904 with an A.B. from Baker University. As an undergraduate at Baker University, he served from January 1901 to June 1904 as an observatory assistant in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey's magnetic observatory in Baldwin, Kansas. William Charles Bauer, a physics and chemistry professor at Baker University, was impressed by Ault's abilities and gave him a recommendation to Louis Agricola Bauer, director of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism and William Charles Bauer's brother. Immediately after completing his undergraduate degree in June 1904, Ault joined the Carnegie Institution of Washington (CIW) as a magnetic observer in the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. He remained a CIW employee for the rest of his life.

Ault was elected in 1923 a fellow of the American Physical Society. He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Geographical Society, the American Geophysical Union, Chevy Chase Citizens Association, the Cosmos Club, and the National Geographic Society. His papers stored at the Carnegie Institution include an extensive correspondence between him and his wife. He is buried in Fort Lincoln Cemetery in Brentwood, Maryland.

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