Timeless order: William Smith (1769–1839) and the search for raw materials 1800–1820

Torrens, Hugh S.

doi:10.1144/gsl.sp.2001.190.01.06

Cited by 19 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…They were able to work out a local succession of strata overlying the coal (2, 161-2) and described workings at Radstock, Camerton and around Midsummer Norton. During the summer of 1796, William Smith was working on the Somerset Coal Canal (Torrens, 2001), although it seems unlikely that the travellers encountered him.…”

Section: The Second Journeymentioning

confidence: 99%

Geology and landscape in SW England in the late eighteenth century, as recorded in the travel journals of William George Maton (1774–1840)

Mather

2014

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In the summer of 1794 William George Maton, together with his friends Charles Hatchett and Thomas Rackett, embarked on a tour into Cornwall visiting the more southerly parts of Dorset and Devon en route. Rackett and Maton completed a second tour two years later, covering the rest of Dorset and Devon together with Somerset. An account of the tours was subsequently published by Maton, providing a contemporary description of SW England during the latter part of the eighteenth century. This was perhaps the first description of the region by scientifically aware travellers. They explored valleys, descended mines, visited smelters and collected minerals and must be regarded as among the earliest geotourists. Many sites which they visited, such as Roche Rock in Cornwall, Kent's Cavern in Devon and Wookey Hole in Somerset, became major attractions for geoscientists in the following centuries. Discussions in the text suggest that the travellers looked at the rocks with neptunist eyes. Maton summarized the geological and mineralogical references on a map which used shading with lines rather than colour to differentiate individual strata. Although rudimentary and inaccurate, the map is of considerable historic importance.

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Section: The Second Journeymentioning

confidence: 99%

Geology and landscape in SW England in the late eighteenth century, as recorded in the travel journals of William George Maton (1774–1840)

Mather

2014

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“…127-130). By these means he converted so many to his cause (Torrens 2001). Costs of publication were, anyway, prohibitive, especially for a man with pictorial ambitions.…”

Section: Rewriting Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Knell

2009

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“…Much of the well-known conflict between Greenough and William Smith (1769-1839) (Knell 2000Torrens 2001Torrens , 2003Herries Davies 2007, p. 44 ff.) about their respective geological maps (Smith 1815; Greenough 1820) was probably due to Greenough's preoccupation with a geological Theory for the whole of the globe.…”

Section: Fossils and Stratigraphymentioning

confidence: 99%

George Bellas Greenough's 'Theory of the Earth' and its impact on the early Geological Society

Kölbl‐Ebert

2009

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George Bellas Greenough, co-founder and first President of the Geological Society of London, became interested in geology when he went to study law in Göttingen. There he attended lectures given by Professor Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, an admirer of Jean-André de Luc, who greatly influenced Greenough's geological ideas. Greenough himself was not an original researcher, but saw his scientific task as a most diligent gatherer of information and as a critical and – as he felt – impartial reviewer of his fellows' research. In 1819 he published a book entitled A Critical Examination of the First Principles of Geology in a Series of Essays. In this book, as well as in many of his numerous private notes, he struggled with the question of how to develop a proper scientific method for the new science of geology, striving for firm principles and definitions as a basis for geological observations. Although he despised theorizing on general principles, especially when it concerned those whom he called the Huttonians or Plutonists, he himself was not free of a theoretical concept in which he judged the validity of data. This bias sometimes became a drag on scientific ‘progress’ because his preoccupation with his own Theory led him to dismiss important developments such as William Smith's biostratigraphy when they did not fall within his horizon of interest. Thus Greenough, and with him the new Society, was slow to recognize their importance and value.

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Timeless order: William Smith (1769–1839) and the search for raw materials 1800–1820

Cited by 19 publications

References 23 publications

Geology and landscape in SW England in the late eighteenth century, as recorded in the travel journals of William George Maton (1774–1840)

Geology and landscape in SW England in the late eighteenth century, as recorded in the travel journals of William George Maton (1774–1840)

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

George Bellas Greenough's 'Theory of the Earth' and its impact on the early Geological Society

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