The Map That
Changed the World
William Smith and
the Birth of Modern Geology
by Simon Winchester
Published in 2001 by HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
329 pages, price
$26.00
Other than a hazy notion about the science of geology beginning with the
Scotsman, James Hutton, in late eighteenth century, my own history of geology
tended to begin with the oil well that Edwin L. Drake drilled near Titusville,
PA. in 1859. This book takes the reader back to the beginning, when
some students were promoting the term "geognosy" for the science; to the
era of Charles Dickens when wealthy nobles ruled over almost all scientific
endeavor.
The Map That Changed the World is essentially a eulogy to William
Smith. He was born the son of a blacksmith in 1769, orphaned at the
age of eight and raised in poverty. By the age of eighteen. Smith had acquired
a book titled "The Art of Measuring" and taught himself enough about surveying
to get hired as an assistant to a surveyor. Within a couple of years
he was surveying canals for coal barges and observing first hand the rocks
and fossils that were to be found under the soil. Later experience
inspecting coal mines gave him access to the same rocks and "Strata" Smith,
as he was later nicknamed by the locals, was off.
He had an inquiring mind and at first made a good living as the world's
first consulting geologist; he was known in Europe and Russia. But,
as is common to the profession, it was a feast or famine life and he eventually
spent eleven weeks in debtors' prison. Geology was Smith's life and
he was the first to conceive and publish a geologic map (8' X 6' of England)
in 1815 and is credited with being the first geologist to understand and
use fossils (especially Jurassic ammonites) for identifying and correlating
rocks of the same age. However, it was only at the end of a long
and energetic life that he received the recognition that he deserved.
Much of the book focuses on the field work Smith did across England and
his later conflicts with the wealthy scientific dilettantes of the day.
One supporter, Dean William Buckland-a geology professor at Oxford, is
notable for trying to eat his way through the entire animal kingdom.
To his taste, the only thing worse than mole was the bluebottle fly.
The author has studied geology and knows his subject well. A "colonial"
reader is hampered by not knowing English geography and all the towns and
place names but, it is refreshing to see geology written about by someone
who recognizes its importance to the modern world. The Map That
Changed the World gives the reader a good sense of the time and place
of early nineteenth century England and, it does a good job of conveying
some of the excitement and confusion that accompanies the birth of
a new science.
Bob Stolzle
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