William Smith (geologist)

Infobox Scientist
name = William Smith
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caption = William Smith
birth_date = Birth date|1769|03|23
birth_place = Churchill, Oxfordshire
death_date = Death date and age|1839|08|28|1769|03|23
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nationality = English
field = geology
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known_for = geological map
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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 traveled to Somerset to make a valuation survey of the Sutton Court estate, and building on earlier work in the same area by John Strachey. [cite web|url=http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/gsl/geoscientist/features/page1017.html|title= Smith's other debt|work=Geoscientist 17.7 July 2007|publisher=The Geological Society|accessdate=2008-08-13] 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 had 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.Palmer, Douglas (2005) Earth Time: Exploring the Deep Past from Victorian England to the Grand Canyon. Wiley. ISBN 780470022214]

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 was not 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

* The first geological map of Britain, much copied in his time, and the basis for all others.
* Geological Surveys around the world owe a debt to his work.
* A crater on Mars is named after him.
* The Geological Society of London presents an annual lecture in his honour.
* In 2005, a William Smith 'facsimile' was created at the Natural History Museum as a notable gallery character to patrol its displays, among other luminaries such as Carl Linnaeus, Mary Anning, and Dorothea Bate. [ [http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prehistoric/reviews/05_11_shindler.htm Review by Miles Russell] of "Discovering Dorothea" by Karolyn Shindler at ucl.ac.uk (accessed 23 November 2007)]

References

Other sources

* John L Morton, "Strata" (New Edition, 2004), Horsham: Brocken Spectre Publishing. ISBN 0-9546829-1-2
* Simon Winchester, "", (2001), New York: HarperCollins, ISBN 0-14-028039-1
* John Phillips, " [http://www2.odl.ox.ac.uk/gsdl/cgi-bin/library?e=d-000-00---0munahi10--00-0-0-0prompt-10---4------0-1l--1-en-50---20-about---00001-001-1-1utfZz-8-0&a=d&c=munahi10&cl=CL3.5.4&d=munahi010-acd Memoirs of William Smith] " (1844, republished with additional material by Hugh Torrens, 2003 ISBN 0-9544941-0-5).
* A.Taylor, "A History of the Taylor Family", (1986), Privately Published.

External links

* [http://gsahist.org/biographies/001WmSmith.htm Biography of William "Strata" Smith.]
* [http://www.williamstratasmith.co.uk William "Strata" Smith and his achievements in Scarborough.]
* [http://www.british-towns.net/national_maps/soil_strata.asp Image of Smith's geological map of England and Wales and part of Scotland, published in 1815.]
* [http://www.unh.edu/esci/wmsmith.html Full-size replica of Smith's map at the Durham campus of the University of New Hampshire.]
* [http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/Giants/WilliamSmith/ NASA Earth Observatory biography]
* [http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=18023 NASA Earth Observatory page on William Smith's Geological Map]
* [http://www2.odl.ox.ac.uk/gsdl/cgi-bin/library?e=d-000-00---0munahi10--00-0-0-0prompt-10---4------0-1l--1-en-50---20-about---00001-001-1-1utfZz-8-0&a=d&c=munahi10&cl=CL3.6.7 Works of William Smith at the Oxford Digital Library]

ee also

*Geology of the United Kingdom