Samuel Pierpont Langley was born on August 22, 1834, in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Langley attended the Boston Latin School and English High School of Boston before serving as an assistant at the Harvard College Observatory. After that, he worked as a professor of mathematics at the US Naval Academy. While there, he also worked on restoring the school’s small observatory. In 1867, Langley moved to the Western University of Pennsylvania and became director of the Allegheny Observatory, as well as an astronomy professor. When he arrived, the observatory was in need of repair and new equipment. He raised money for the renovations by distributing standard times to the railroads.