Everything about William Smith Geologist totally explained
William Smith (
March 23 1769 –
August 28 1839) was an
English geologist, credited with creating the first nationwide
geological map. He is known as the "Father of English
Geology", although recognition was very slow in coming. At the time his map was first published he was overlooked by the scientific community; his relatively humble education and family connections preventing him from mixing easily in learned society. Consequently his work was plagiarised, he was financially ruined, and he spent time in
debtors' prison. It was only much later in his life that Smith received recognition for his accomplishments.
Early life
Smith was born in the village of
Churchill, Oxfordshire, into a respectable Farming family, and was related to the
Leveller Col.
Thomas Rainborough MP for Droitwich. Following the death of his father at an early age he was raised by his uncle. In
1787, he found work as an assistant for
Edward Webb of
Stow-on-the-Wold,
Gloucestershire, a surveyor. He was quick to learn, and soon became proficient at the trade. In
1791, he travelled to
Somerset to make a valuation survey of an estate. He stayed there for the next eight years, working first for Webb and later for the
Somersetshire Coal Canal Company.
Life's work
Smith worked at one of the estate's older mines, the Mearns Pit at
High Littleton, part of the
Somerset coalfield and the
Somerset Coal Canal. As he observed the rock layers, or
strata, at the pit he realised that they were arranged in a predictable pattern, and that the various strata could always be found in the same relative positions. Additionally, each particular stratum could be identified by the fossils it contained, and the same succession of
fossil groups from older to younger rocks could be found in many parts of England. Furthermore, he noticed an easterly dip of the beds of rock- small near the surface (about three
degrees) then bigger after the
Triassic rocks. This gave Smith a testable hypothesis, which he termed
The Principle of Faunal Succession, and he began his search to determine if the relationships between the strata and their characteristics were consistent throughout the country. During subsequent travels, first as a surveyor (appointed by noted
engineer John Rennie) for the canal company until
1799 when he was dismissed, and later, he was continually taking samples and mapping the locations of the various strata, and displaying the vertical extent of the strata, and drawing cross-sections and tables of what he saw. This would earn him the name "Strata Smith". As a natural consequence, Smith amassed a large and valuable collection of
fossils of the strata he'd examined himself from exposures in
canals,
road and
railway cuttings,
quarries and
escarpments across the country.
He published his findings with many pictures from his fossil collection, enabling others to investigate their distribution and test his theories. His collection is especially good on
Jurassic fossils he collected from the
Cornbrash,
Kimmeridge clay,
Oxford clay,
Oolitic limestone and other horizons in the sequence. They included many types of
brachiopods,
ammonites and
molluscs characteristic of the shallow seas in which they were deposited. Some of the names he coined (like Cornbrash} are still used today for this formation.
Publication and disappointment
In
1799 Smith produced the first large scale geologic map of the area around
Bath, Somerset. Before, he only knew how to draw the
vertical extent of the rocks, but not how to display them
horizontally. Except that one day he found out exactly how to do it. In the Somerset
County Agricultural Society, he found a map showing the types of soils and vegetation around Bath and their geographical extent. Most of all, they were
coloured. This way, he could draw a geological map from his observations showing the outcrops of the rocks. He took a few rock types, each with its own colour. Then he estimated the boundaries of each of the outcrops of rock, filled them in with colour and ended up with a crude geological map.
In 1801, he drew a rough sketch of what would become "The Map that Changed the World". Because he was unemployed, he could travel across the length and breadth of the country, while meeting some eminent people such as
Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester and the
Duke of Bedford.
In 1815 he published the first
geological map of
Britain. It covered the whole of England and Wales, and parts of Scotland. Conventional symbols were used to mark canals, tunnels, tramways and roads, collieries, lead, copper and tin mines, together with salt and alum works. The various geological types were indicated by different colours; the maps were hand coloured. Nevertheless, the map is remarkably similar to modern geological maps of England. He also published his
Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales in the same year. In this work he recognised that strata contained distinct fossil assemblages which could be used to match rocks across regions.
In 1817 he drew a remarkable geological section from Snowdon to London. Unfortunately, his maps were soon
plagiarised and sold for prices lower than he was asking. He went into debt and finally became bankrupt.
On
August 31 1819 Smith was released from
King's Bench Prison in
London, a
debtor's prison. He returned to his home of fourteen years at 15 Buckingham Street to find a
bailiff at the door and his home and property seized. Smith then worked as an itinerant surveyor for many years until one of his employers, Sir John Johnstone, recognised him and took steps to gain for him the respect he deserved. Between 1824 and 1826 he lived and worked in
Scarborough, and was responsible for the building of the
Rotunda, a geological museum devoted to the Yorkshire coast.The Rotunda was re-opened as 'Rotunda - The William Smith Museum of Geology', on
14 September 2007, by the
Prince of Wales.
Later recognition
It wasn't until February
1831 that the
Geological Society of London conferred on Smith the first
Wollaston medal in recognition of his achievement. It was on this occasion that the President,
Adam Sedgwick, referred to Smith as "the Father of English Geology". Smith travelled to
Dublin with the British Association in 1835, and there totally unexpectedly received an honorary
Doctorate of Laws (LL.D.) from
Trinity College. In
1838 he was appointed as one of the commissioners to select building-stone for the new
Palace of Westminster. He died in
Northampton, and is buried a few feet from the west tower of St Peter's Church, Marefair. The inscription on the grave is badly worn but the name "William Smith" can just be seen.
The modern geological map of Britain is based on Smith's original work, his map being displayed at the
Geological Society in
London, although now protected by a curtain.
Legacy
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