From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   Smoot lighting to set the mood on Harvard Bridge   
   Jay London, MIT Alumni Assn, Oct. 28, 2014   
      
   Over 50 years since its debut, the MIT-borne unit of measurement known as the   
   Smoot is still growing in popularity.   
      
   For those uninitiated to MIT, the Smoot was concocted in Oct. 1958 after 7 MIT   
   students calibrated the Harvard (Mass. Ave.) Bridge using 5’7 freshman   
   Oliver Smoot ’62. The unofficial length: 364.4 Smoots, plus one ear. (A   
   plaque commemorating the    
   prank was added to the bridge in 2009.)   
      
   The measurement has long been a calculation used by Google, and in 2011, the   
   word “Smoot” was even added to the American Heritage Dictionary.   
      
   Anyone trekking across the bridge can relive Smoot’s journey; the   
   measurements have endured as permanent markings, and the Cambridge Police   
   often use the marks to report accident locations on the bridge.   
      
   And soon, thanks to a $2.5 million anonymous donation, the marking will be   
   visible to more than pedestrians. According to the The Boston Globe, the gift   
   will pay for state-of-the art LED bulbs that will illuminate the bridge.   
      
   “The design utilizes energy-efficient bulbs on both the roadway and the   
   pedestrian path, adding lighting at a lower level to make the bridge both more   
   attractive and safer," the Globe wrote on October 14. "The roadway lights will   
   be set every 30 Smoots.   
    They will turn on for the night in sequence rather than all at once, a nod to   
   the day more than 50 years ago when the year’s shortest pledge — who would   
   go on to become chairman of the American National Standards Institute and   
   president of the    
   International Organization for Standardization — lay down again and again.”   
      
   The Boston architecture firm Rosales + Partners will oversee the design, led   
   by Miguel Rosales SM ’87, the firm’s president and principal designer. A   
   full conceptual plan of the bridge improvements is now available from the   
   Charles River Conservancy.   
      
   In an MIT News article commemorating the Smoot’s 50th anniversary, Oliver   
   Smoot recounted the unplanned effort needed to calculate the new measurements.   
      
   “I don’t think any of us had the slightest idea how much work was involved   
   with lying down, getting up,” Smoot told MIT News. “They had to help me a   
   great way across the bridge. I started by doing a push-up, and then I   
   couldn’t even do that. It    
   deteriorated from there.”   
      
   https://news.mit.edu/2014/smoot-lighting-to-set-mood-on-harvard-bridge-1028   
      
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