Practical geology and the early Geological Society

Abstract

Historical accounts of the interests and activities of the Geological Society of London have often portrayed the Society as indifferent to practical geology and as being focused instead on fieldwork and gentlemanly debate. However, the Society's founders displayed a wide range of interests in the applications of geology and mineralogy. The British Mineralogical Society had been established in 1799 to elucidate the mineral history of Britain and to amass practical information for the benefit of British mining, and the members of this society later brought with them into the Geological Society their practical and mineralogical interests. Close study of the early projects of the Geological Society shows that the membership at this time had a great interest in the practical applications of geology, and especially mining. However, it is clear that there was a significant change in the Society's programmatic activities in the late 1810s and 1820s, when the Society moved away from practical geology. These changes reflected a changing membership.

The road to Smith: how the Geological Society came to possess English geology

“…The birth of the Society has been described as the logical culmination of a social and intellectual trajectory which sees interests and overlapping memberships flowing through the British Mineralogical Society, the Askesian Society and the Geological Society (Weindling 1979(Weindling , 1983Torrens 2009;Veneer 2009). The ephemeral nature of these earlier incarnations of a 'geological' society is important to understanding the growing possibilities for socialized participation in this emerging field, but we cannot say that one begat the other.…”