Rating  - The accidental geologist
As a fan of the history of science, it is not that moment of "Eureka" that fascinates me but of "Is that supposed to happen?" And this book fits that perfectly. It follows the story of the father of modern geology, William Smith, and some of the obstacles he faced. Unlike some other books of this genre, this book takes an in-depth look at William Smith's life, and the outcome was not always flattering. He faced many obstacles, some imposed by conservatives within the world of science and some self-imposed. Interestingly, Smith did not set out to discover geology, he just happened to be observant while working on canal construction and he connected the dots --more like rock strata-- much the same way that Fleming did in the discovery of penicillin. This book is a must read if you are interested in how needless conservatism can hold back good science.
Rating - Highly Recommended.
Prior to about 1800, Geology did not exist as a science. Oh, there were people who were interested in various aspects of it, but the science was born with the publication of James Hutton's book on "The Theory of the Earth" in 1795. Then, in about the next half century, what we now regard as "modern geology" came into being. Most of the leading characters in this fascinating history were from the British Isles. Let's say that this was the period of time from the publication of Hutton's book up to the Publication of Darwin's ideas regarding evolution. Well, it was a scientific revolution that led to our understanding of the Earth and it's complex history and led to the understanding of the history of life on our planet. It carried profound social implications that are argued right down to the present time.
William Smith was one of the most important contributers to the development of modern geology. He's an interesting character in that he was not highly known or highly regarded until after his death. Scientists, in those days, were mostly from the elite classes and were tied in with a museum or university, whereas Smith was an orphan from a working-class family and he was largely self educated, both in civil engineering and in geology. He somehow managed to get a job with a coal company that involved constructing a canal from the northern coal district southward to the population centers of southern England. This task brought him into contact with the earth and he recognized that he was crossing major layers of the earth's exposed crust. He recognized each of the layers (now referred to as formations), recognized that they followed in a sequential order and plotted their distribution on a base map. Well, this type of thing is rather routine in the present world, but it had never been done until Smith's time and was a revolution in itself. As he was mapping his formations he became interested in the peculiar petrified remains (what we now call fossils) that he observed in the sedimentary rocks. Smith recognized them as formerly living things, but he had little knowledge of biology and many of the remains were of a type that were wholly extinct. No problem. There were a lot of more educated amateur collectors around that aided him with their understanding. Smith observed and collected more and more fossils and finally announced that each of his formations contained it's own distinctive remains and these remains followed one another in a determinable order. This was a stunning discovery and proved to be very controversial. The prevailing thoughts of the day said that fossils occurred at random. No one had ever guessed that they occurred in an order. Well, Smith had his maps and could demonstrate his discovery to anyone who might be interested. Furthermore, the formations followed superposition with the oldest on the bottom and the youngest on the top; thus, if you showed the order of fossils you showed the order in which the different types of life appeared and disappeared through the interval of time represented by the formations. It was a simply amazing discovery and led to the development of the modern geologic time scale. It is now known as "faunal (and floral) succession," one of the basic principles of geology. All of this might seem rather elementary in view of today's knowledge, but this was about 30 years prior to the publication of Darwin's book on evolution. Darwin, by the way, was said to regard William Smith as a most ingenious man.
Simon Winchester steps in and chronicles this most important period in the history of geology. He portrays Smith himself and the early 1800s world in which Smith functioned. He really does an excellent job. I've always regarded Smith as one of the most important early geologists and Winchester does a fine job of giving me a feel or the early 1800s social and scientific setting in which Smith operated. Oh, one might remark that Winchester is a bit of a windbag, or that he writes with a British accent. No problem at all. He gives a wonderful account of William Smith's life and times. I highly recommend this fine book to anyone who is interested in the history of geology.
Rating - interesting read
I'd read Krakatoa and enjoyed that, so I thought I'd give Map a try. It took me a while to get into it, but I was well rewarded. The author does a nice job recreating the pre-Darwinian geology scene in Britain. I'd never known much at all about the whole coal-and-canal connection and found it fascinating. I did think that I knew a lot more about geology and paleontology - obviously, I was wrong, as I'd never heard of William Smith, whom the author has convinced me is an extremely important figure.
The author is a good writer who writes books about very interesting subjects. I hope he keeps 'em coming. My only complaint is that, at least in this book, the writing is somehwat repetitive (though this wasn't a problem with Krakatoa, as far as I remember).
Rating  - Agreed, a magazine article turned into a book.
I did find this story interesting but its drawn out way too long. This story would have made a nice feature article in the "New Yorker" but I suppose the distribution is better in a book. Still it could have been told in about 1/2 the words used. Not that I'm not fascinated by geology, I am, it's just that I can take only so much about walking England and picking up shells.
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