bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Temperature Measurements Below the Earth's Surface: A History of Records
Authors: Buntebarth Günter
Published: April 2015

The first documentation of temperature records in the subground derives from the cellar of the Observatory of Paris where the records started in 1671. An important problem in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was the solution of the effect of the radiation of the Sun on the temperature of the Earth. Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier (1768-1830) contributed with the theoretical treatment of heat conduction problems at the beginning of the nineteenth century. At the same time, several special solutions which are applied to the Earth were reported. The contemporarily developed technique of measurement used mercury thermometers which are optimized for borehole records. Thermocouples and electrical resistances were also introduced in the nineteenth century. Modern electronics using semiconductors or quartz oscillators achieved a remarkable progress in resolution and accuracy of records in the Earth's subsurface. An early temperature log was reported in 1871 when a borehole near Berlin, Germany reached a depth of 1,270 meters. The temperature data supported a parabolic law of temperature variation with depth, which caused a general discussion about the temperature in the Earth's interior. The increasing interest in thermal problems yielded not only linear functions but also two-dimensional temperature distributions as well as time-dependent functions. On the basis of subsurface temperature records at Tbilisi, Georgia, a map of isopleths was constructed in 1901 and a map of tautochrones of daily variations at Beograd, Yugoslavia in 1911. After special attention to the effect of inhomogeneities and water movements on the temperature field in the subsurface, a recent topic has been the evaluation of climate variations and global warming by temperature records in the subsurface.
Karl Sapper: Geologist, Ethnologist, and Naturalist
Authors: McBirney Alexander , Lorenz Volker
Published: April 2015

In the course of twelve years at the end of the nineteenth century, Karl Sapper (1866-1945) carried out the first extensive geological exploration of Central America and southern Mexico. Despite his fragile health and frequent attacks of malaria, he did this almost entirely on foot, covering hundreds of miles through the dense rain forest and over mountainous trails. At the same time, he recorded the languages and folklore of the indigenous tribes, and described ancient Mayan ruins he discovered in the Peten and Yucatan. For nearly half a century, his maps and reports remained the principal source of geological information for the entire region between Tuantepec and Panama, and his notes on the native languages are even now the only records we have for several Mayan dialects. On his return to Germany Sapper taught at the University of Strasburg until the city reverted to France after the First World War. He eventually took a position at the University of Wuerzburg, where he established the Institute for American Studies and fostered scientific research throughout Latin America.
My First Geological Expedition Along the Rivers of the North of European Russia
Authors: Milanovsky Evgeny
Published: April 2015

A translation is provided of an autobiographical account of the first geological excursion, in 1939, by E. E. Milanovsky, one of the doyens of Russian geology, through northwest Russia, accompanied by copies of some of the drawings he made at that time.
A. B. Vistelius: First IAMG President and Visionary Mathematical Geologist
Authors: Whitten E.
Published: April 2015

Personal reflections on the belief of A. B. Vistelius (1915-1995) in the pivotal importance of quantitative hypothesis testing and his pioneering development and mathematical testing of actual genetic geological models. His appeal to have this approach accepted as the primary focus of IAMG was ignored at the founding meeting of the Association in Prague during the Russian invasion of 1968. Subsequently, he always championed the use of forward problems in the earth sciences and concomitantly lacked enthusiasm for inventory-type and inverse problems.
Pioneers in Mathematical Geology
Authors: Merriam Daniel , Howarth Richard
Published: April 2015

Statistical and mathematical techniques have been used in the earth sciences for about one-hundred years, but only after the introduction of the electronic computer in the mid-Twentieth Century did a revolution in the science take place. The story of the quantification of geology is best told through the works of those who fostered the dramatic change. Here is chronicled the contributions of six pioneers in numerical geology in short exposés by authors close to, and knowledgeable of, the people and their work. The pioneers include F. Chayes (American), J. C. Griffiths (American/Welsh), W. C. Krumbein (American/German), G. Matheron (French), R. A. Reyment (Australian/Swede), and A. B. Vistelius (Russian). These magnificent six also played a major role in forming the International Association for Mathematical Geology in 1968 at the International Geological Congress in Prague, Czechoslovakia.
A Date to Remember: 4004 BC
Authors: Fuller J.
Published: April 2015

Archbishop James Ussher's fabled date of 4004 BC for the Creation of the World was not his, and was not introduced to English Bibles by him. Long before Ussher, the number 4004 had arisen from the period of Adam's captivity, four thousand years, to which had been added a four-year adjustment to the early Christian calendar. These two component numbers were wholly unrelated. Ussher's famous work Annals of the World cited dates in three ways: (1) according to the Julian Period, (2) as ‘Years of the World’ beginning at the Creation, and (3) as years Before Christ, or BC. Printing of dates BC in English Bibles, for example 4004 BC, was introduced in 1701, almost fifty years after Ussher's death, by William Lloyd, chronologer, scholar, politician and, at that time, Bishop of Worcester.
The Lipalian Interval: A Forgotten, Novel Concept in the Geologic Column
Authors: Yochelson Ellis
Published: April 2015

Fieldwork of C. D. Walcott during his U.S. Geological Survey career may be artificially divided into two, intertwined segments, an earlier one concerned mainly with Paleozoic beds, but especially the Cambrian, and a later one involved mainly with strata below undoubted Cambrian rocks. Despite Walcott's diligent search, hardly any fossils were found in these older strata, and those discovered did not assist in biostratigraphy. Years later, when attempting to explain the issue of a diverse Cambrian fauna seemingly without any antecedents, Walcott developed a hypothesis to explain the absence of earlier fossils based on geological, rather than biological, features. He suggested that a widespread unconformity at the top of the Proterozoic represented an interval of time, the Lipalian, in which such an earlier fauna developed elsewhere, but was not recorded in any outcrop. The concept of naming a gap, to represent a major missing segment of geologic time, did not result in any comment from the geologic community and the Lipalian Interval vanished. The recently accepted Ediacaran Period, at the end of the Proterozoic, in a sense validates Walcott's concept of the Lipalian.
Between Science and Industry: On the Establishment, Organisation and Practices of the Swedish Geological Survey in the Nineteenth century
Authors: Nordlund Christer
Published: April 2015

The present article provides an historical analysis of the Swedish Geological Survey (SGU) during the first half-century of its existence. Focus is placed mainly on the origins, organization and social conditions of the institution, though its mapping activities will not be neglected. The questions posed are: For what purposes was the SGU established? To what extent was the geological survey in Sweden shaped by the institution's socio-economical context? What type of social conflicts did arise and how did the SGU handle them? In what way did the survey change over time and how did the publication of maps and other publications evolve? The article is based on source material housed in the rich archives of the SGU in Uppsala, and in particular on the first director Axel Erdmann's (1814-1869) unpublished chronicle of the early years of the SGU and his son, Edvard Erdmann's (1840-1923) illustrated manuscripts concerning the institution's social life, but also on published sources, such as official governmental reports and notes written by the institution's own geologists.
Geological Surveys in the Tropics: The Brazilian Experience (1875-1934)
Authors: Figueirôa Silvia
Published: April 2015

This paper presents and discusses three case studies of scientific organizations involving geology, based on successive institutional models of geological surveys, namely: the "Geological Commission of Brazil", the "Geographical and Geological Commission of São Paulo", and the "Geological and Mineralogical Survey of Brazil". The issues linked to the exploitation of the land opened the way to the development of geological sciences in Brazil. Contrary to what one might expect, in view of Brazil's considerable mineral resources, the institutionalization of geology was linked more directly to agriculture rather than to mining. It was the interests of agriculture, especially those related to coffee planting, that influenced the direction of research and the results obtained.
Gravity Surveying in Early Geophysics. II. From Mountains to Salt Domes
Authors: Howarth Richard
Published: April 2015

Progress in measurement of the force of gravity and its contribution to the understanding of geology, and to exploration for oil and mineral deposits, from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century is reviewed. Initially, work focused on determination of the mean density of the Earth. Pendulum observations during the trigonometric survey of India (1805-43) revealed a low-density zone beneath the Himalayas and led to development of the Pratt and Airy compensation models in 1855, followed by Dutton's concept of isostatic compensation in 1889. Use of the Eötvös torsion balance (1889) to map the gravity field over an oil-bearing structure in 1915-16 heralded economic applications. By the 1920s, it was being widely used to search for oil-bearing salt domes, coal and mineral deposits. With the introduction of the gravity meter in the 1930s, the torsion balance fell into disuse and the modern era of gravity surveying and prospecting began. With the development of progressively more sensitive instruments, the gravity meter has retained its place, becoming an essential companion to 3-D seismic surveys and, with new instrumentation, gradiometry has seen a revival as an extremely powerful exploration tool.
Genesis of a Geophysical Icon: The Bullard, Everett and Smith Reconstruction of the Circum-Atlantic Continents
Authors: Everett J. , Smith A.
Published: April 2015

The first computer fit of the continents had its origins in a controversy over Warren Carey's visual fit between South America and Africa. Sir Harold Jeffreys denied that there was a fit, but Sir Edward Bullard considered the fit to be impressive. Bullard suggested quantifying the fit to Jim Everett, a graduate student at the time. Everett did so, developing his own method from his mathematical background, and computed the fit for the South Atlantic. Alan Smith, then a research assistant, used his geological knowledge and worked with Everett to fit together all the circum-Atlantic continents. Thus Bullard had the idea of quantifying the fit, and Everett and Smith implemented it. Then Smith extended the method to fits beyond the Atlantic. The outcome owed much to Bullard's leadership, and to the lively and open discussions that prevailed during coffee and tea at Madingley Rise, which housed the Department of Geodesy and Geophysics of the University of Cambridge at that time.
Hugo Rühle von Lilienstern and His Palaeobotanical Collection: An East–West German Story
Authors: Mohr Barbara , Kustatscher Evelyn , Hiller Cornelia , Böhme Gottfied
Published: April 2015

The ‘Rühle collection’ is one of the largest remaining historical collections of Central European Triassic fossils and is now located at the Berlin Museum of Natural History (MfN). The collector, Hugo Rühle von Lilienstern, a medical doctor who lived in southern Thuringia, was a dedicated palaeontologist. From the 1950s his home and collection area were situated in a region that became the borderland between the two German States. The fate of the collection was thus closely interwoven with East-West German history after World War II. The scientific value of these mostly Middle to Late Triassic Central European fossils and its standing compared to other late Triassic palaeobotanical collections is evaluated.
Into the Field Again: Re-Examining Charles Darwin's 1835 Geological Work on Isla Santiago (James Island) in the Galápagos Archipelago
Authors: Herbert Sandra , Gibson Sally , Norman David , Geist Dennis , Estes Greg , Grant Thalia , Miles Andrew
Published: April 2015

In 1835 Charles Darwin's geological observations on Isla Santiago (James Island) in the Galápagos Islands led him to important insights as to the process by which different varieties of igneous rock might be produced from the same volcanic vent. His work figured in a tradition of interpretation that began with the work of George Poulett Scrope and would end in the twentieth century with the theory of magmatic differentiation of igneous rocks through the process of crystal fractionation. This article reports on the findings of an expedition to Isla Santiago in July 2007 during which we were able to locate samples of igneous rocks similar to those collected by Darwin. We have used these, together with Darwin's original specimens and transcriptions of his field notes, to examine how his understanding of the separation of the trachytic and basaltic series of magmas developed from his initial field observations through to publication of Volcanic Islands in 1844.
The Discovery of Fossil Vertebrates on Missouri's Western Frontier
Authors: McMillan R.
Published: April 2015

Fossil-bearing sites containing predominantly mastodon, Mammut americanum, remains were discovered west of the Mississippi River on the Osage River in Upper Louisiana only a few decades after the discovery by Longueuil of similar remains at Big Bone Lick in Kentucky. The first excavations were conducted in the 1790s by Pierre Chouteau, a fur trader and member of the founding family of St Louis. Chouteau's work was documented by several early travelers, including Georges-Henri-Victor Collot and later by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, among others. It was from Chouteau's excavation that the first mastodon molar from west of the Mississippi River reached Baron Georges Cuvier in Paris, having been sent from Philadelphia by Benjamin Smith Barton. Early nineteenth-century travelers continued to mention the Osage River locality and, by 1816, William Clark displayed fossil specimens in his St Louis Museum. By 1840 the indefatigable fossil collector and museum entrepreneur, Albert C. Koch, began extensive digging in the Osage River basin along with sites in the Bourbeuse River valley and at Kimmswick along the Mississippi River in Missouri. Koch's extensive collection of mastodon bones enabled him to assemble a mounted specimen that he named the Missourium, an exaggerated and poorly reconstructed skeleton that was later identified and properly reassembled by Richard Owen at the British Museum. The specimen was later purchased by the trustees of that museum. The publicity surrounding Koch's work stimulated a veritable ‘bone rush’ to the Osage River in the years preceding the Civil War, with some of the fossils making their way into the collections of the American Philosophical Society and the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Following the Civil War, interest shifted to the Mississippi valley and the Kimmswick site just south of St Louis, where ongoing excavations became an attraction during the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St Louis. C. W. Beehler, a St Louis resident, was responsible for the work, a venture that attracted scientists from the Smithsonian as well as other institutions. While none of the principals in the early exploration of fossil sites in Missouri had scientific training, the fact that their collections were passed on to scientific practitioners in Philadelphia, Washington, Paris, and London contributed to the expanding body of information that aided in the development of the field of vertebrate paleontology.
Bouguer Redeemed: The Successful 1737-1740 Gravity Experiments on Pichincha and Chimborazo
Authors: Smallwood John
Published: April 2015

During the 1735-1745 French Academy of Sciences expedition to Peru, Pierre Bouguer conducted two experiments confirming Newtonian gravitational attraction and estimating the mean density of the Earth. One set of experiments determined the variation in gravity with altitude using a pendulum at sea level, Quito (2,860 m) and the summit of Pichincha (4,784 m). Qualitatively correct, Bouguer reported a smaller decrease in gravity than that predicted from altitude increase alone, but he calculated that the mean density of the Earth was nearly five times that of the near-surface rocks, an overestimate by a factor of at least two. The better reported experiment was an attempt to detect the deflection of the vertical near the mountain Chimborazo. There was a large difference between Bouguer's predicted plumb-line deflection, 103", and that which he and La Condamine measured, just 7". I have investigated both experiments using a digital elevation model to compute the vertical and horizontal components of the gravity field caused by topography, and include the regional gravity signature of the Andean crustal root. The modelling indicates not only that Bouguer's pendulum measurements were extremely accurate, but also that his observations allow a good determination of the significant isostatic effect. In contrast, on Chimborazo, contrary to recent suggestions, isostatic effects are negligible, and Bouguer's deflection was, within error, in line with the modelled plumb-line deflection from topography. Both Bouguer's pendulum and plumb-line measurements were reliable and therefore he should now be redeemed from any inference of failure.
New Biographical Data on Henry Clifton Sorby (1826 - 1908)
Authors: Bishop Michael
Published: April 2015

Henry Clifton Sorby was one of the pioneers of the microscopic study of rocks in thin section, and pioneered the microscopic study of etched metal surfaces. He was also one of the first to study sedimentological problems by experimental means, and later in life did much original research on blood, marine biology and archaeology. This paper records the discovery of the diary of his father Henry Sorby (1790-1846) covering the years 1845-1846, which documents new biographical data and sheds new light on Henry Clifton Sorby's formative years as a scientist. Most important, the diary records that HCS's primary interest up to 1846 was in chemistry, with a secondary interest in geology, in both of which in intended to further himself by studying under Justus von Liebig and John Phillips. Following a tour of southern England in 1846 which led him to pursue a considerable amount of geology, geology became a more active interest upon his return home. Members of his family, their friends, and friends of his own making with special interests in geology and other sciences can be identified, who were influential in encouraging HCS's own scientific interests.
William Hunter (1718-1783) As Natural Historian: His ‘Geological’ Interests
Authors: Durant Graham , Ian Rolfe W.
Published: April 2015

Hunter was an influential figure who built up large natural history collections, amongst which minerals predominated. He was not a mere collector, however, and both his library and collections were sought out by contemporary workers.

Analytical mineralogy only emerged from its alchemical background towards the end of Hunter's lifetime, and his library contains most of this early mineralogical literature, to some of which at least he was a subscriber. He also possessed a number of lapidaries, one of them a unique manuscript, and several specimens indicate his interest in medical mineralogy. The contents of Hunter's mineral and rock collections reflect the interests of his day: there is a piece of the Siberian iron mass which was only accepted as a meteorite in 1794, after Hunter's death, and lavas from Vesuvius, together with his subscription copy of Hamilton's classic 1776 study of that volcano. Lavas from Iceland - perhaps from Sir Joseph Banks - reflect the Plutonist - Neptunist debate, and Hunter's museum was also visited by Raspe, the German Neptunist.

Hunter (1768) was the first to establish, on comparative morphological grounds, that the American mastodon differed from living elephants, and that it must therefore be extinct - an idea with which Buffon had toyed in 1761. A recently published manuscript of 1770-1773 shows that Hunter realised the Irish ‘elk’ was quite different from the living American moose, contrary to the then current opinion, and that it too must be extinct. It was to be another forty years before Cuvier demonstrated this difference in comparable detail. Hunter thus broke the Great Chain of Being twice, at the high level of quadrupeds, only one down the ladder of life from man and monkey. This was an important contribution to Enlightenment thought, since "one step broken, the great scale's destroyed" (Pope, 1733).

Hunter acquired the foremost collection of Recent corals in Europe, on Fothergill's death in 1781. Corals not only linked inert with living parts of the Chain of Being but, with newly discovered coral islands, formed part of Whitehurst's 1778 theory of the Earth for constructing land.

Between 1764 and 1778, Hunter commissioned many drawings of bodily concretions, which were primarily of medical concern. Hunter may also have had an interest in them as part of the ‘stoniness’ problem, for the light they might shed on the fossilisation question.
The Age of the Earth From Judaic Traditional Literature
Authors: Ginsburg Dov
Published: April 2015

The calculation of the Earth's age, based on ascribing approximately 40 years to each generation mentioned in the Talmud, results in a total of 5,740 years from the "birth" of Adam. For modern scientists holding traditional viewpoints, this "dating" has led to conflicts which have been explained by various semantic gymnastics. The most common of these is that the Biblical "six days of creation" refers not to days as we know them, but to vast periods of time. However, an examination of the writings of Rabbi Abbahu, Rabbi Abbaye, in the Talmud and Midrash, suggest a concept more akin to our present knowledge. Simon Hahasid in the Talmud estimated the Earth's age as 40,000 years. Based on these early sages, many writers of Jewish religious philosophy in the 10th-12th centuries give ages of the Earth from 50,000 to 100,000 years. Certain Kabbalists from Spain in the 12-13 centuries calculated the Earth's age at 900,000 to 2.5 billion years. A continuation of these concepts are expressed throughout Jewish traditional literature from the Middle Ages to the present by Jewish philosophers and Rabbis such as Maimonides, Rabbi Judah Halevi, Rabbi Israel Lipschitz and others.
Part of the History of the Origin of Transform Faults
Authors: Coode Alan
Published: April 2015

At least two people came up with the idea for transform faults at roughly the same time. One was a world-renowned Canadian geophysicist, Tuzo Wilson, and the other myself, a graduate student working with Keith Runcorn in Britain. Wilson presented his thoughts about the faulting of ridges at a colloquium in the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in February 1965, which I attended. After the presentation, we discussed the correct interpretation of the mechanism. I suggested that we publish our ideas in parallel and let the scientific community decide which was correct. Wilson published my ideas, as did I.
Inventing the Present: Historical Roots of the Anthropocene
Authors: Davis Robert
Published: April 2015

In 1833, Charles Lyell proposed that the current post-glacial geological epoch be termed Recent. In the late 1860s, Paul Gervais suggested Holocene as a more appropriate name for the same epoch. In 2000, Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer jointly proposed that a new epoch beginning in the late eighteenth century should be named Anthropocene to connote that the human-determined geological signature is now, and for the foreseeable future will be, the predominant physical force shaping the Earth. Such a conclusion by geoscientists will not, and perhaps should not, pass unnoticed by politicians, environmentalists and other academic disciplines. Based upon a review of the early debates over the role of a deity in geological causation, the power of classification and nomenclature, and distinctions between organic and inorganic in geological processes, this paper traces the historical transition from Recent to Holocene to Anthropocene and concludes that the conceptual space for creating the modern Anthropocene was carved during the nineteenth-century foundation of geology.
Sketching Rocks and Landscape: Drawing as a Female Accomplishment in the Service of Geology
Authors: Kölbl-Ebert Martina
Published: April 2015

Women as amanuenses have played an important role in early British geology. Among their varied tasks often was the sketching and drawing of fossils, landscape and outcrops.

Such drawings served several purposes. They were used to give an idea of landscape and outcrops in publications or to figure new species in palaeontological papers, but they also served as proxies for individual fossils in dialogues conducted by means of letters. Mary Anning used them to advertise new finds to potential buyers, while Mary Buckland painted huge displays to be used in her husband's lectures. Drawing was part of the education of ‘accomplished’ British women in the early nineteenth century. Like music, embroidery and dancing, drawing was often taught in special schools or academies, sometimes by quite competent artists. Other women, however, such as Mrs Mantell, were self-taught or had to familiarise themselves with new techniques, learning to do line engravings and how to make lithographs in order to illustrate her husband's books more cheaply.

In Germany or France, by comparison, the ability to draw was less central to girls' education, who in Germany at least were expected instead to excel in cooking, knitting and other household duties. But even there, an amateur palaeontologist might fall back on the assistance of his daughter, when he needed someone to illustrate his letters with drawings of specimens.
Carsten Egeberg Borchgrevink (1864-1934): The Man Who Claimed to be the First to Set Foot on Antarctica
Authors: Branagan D.
Published: April 2015

Carsten Borchgrevink continues to be one of the most enigmatic Antarctic explorers. He made two visits to Antarctica, briefly in 1895, and much longer in 1898-1900. Today it is acknowledged that he made significant contributions to Antarctic exploration. He made a claimed first discovery of terrestrial plant life in 1895. He led the first party to winter on Antarctica in 1899 in very difficult weather conditions. His expedition made a year-long continuous record of weather conditions, and glacier movement was briefly measured. Useful zoological data were obtained, but the death of Hanson, the zoologist and loss of some of his records, lessened their possible value. New plants, some insects, and shallow sea-water fauna were discovered. Extensive photographic records were obtained. The 1898-1900 expedition noted the reduction in the seaward extent of the Ross Ice Sheet. It discovered what later became known as the Bay of Whales, and there made the first ascent onto the Ross Sea Barrier, showing that travel inland was feasible in that region, ‘opening the way to the South’. A reasonable estimate of the then position of the South Magnetic Pole was made. In addition Borchgrevink showed the effectiveness of kayaks for local water transport, and dogs with trained dog-handlers for land travel (and companionship). His expedition was underpinned by good planning for housing, equipment (including use of the recently invented Primus Stove), clothing (notably shoes lined with sennegrass) and food. His scientific party was well-chosen for their abilities, but national and social differences played a part in periods of tension with the leader, who was inclined to overestimate his own scientific ability. The achievements of the expedition were given little recognition for most of his life, particularly in Britain, in part because of his initial success, over a period of some years, in gaining financial support for his expedition in the face of strong opposition from ‘official’ British scientific bodies. In addition his rather brash and abrasive personality, some public quarrels and perhaps a rather quirky sense of humour did not make him popular. His achievements have been obscured to some extent by inaccurate and exaggerated criticisms of his activities.
Administering science: the paper form of scientific practice and geological fieldwork
Authors: Klemun Marianne
Published: April 2015

Drawing on the fieldwork undertaken on behalf of the Austrian Geological Survey in the 19th century, I should like to analyse those practices that may be understood as ‘administration procedures’. Using a variety of selected handwritten materials that were produced during fieldwork in the context of the geological mapping project (1848-1867) of the Habsburg Monarchy, commissioned by the Royal Imperial Geological Survey in Vienna, I should like to examine the route from subjective observation to written documentation, the conceptualization of experience and the strategies of writing, and also the procedures for standardization. Through this perspective, fieldwork becomes a procedure that is materialized on paper.

Every piece of fieldwork involves, in principle, countless administrative acts and procedures. These are preceded by the instructions which, in functional terms, occur at two different levels. One level provides a methodology for the acquisition of knowledge; the other level concerns the bureaucracy, or the organizational framework, within which the fieldwork takes place. On the one hand the investigator is seeking to optimize the acquisition of knowledge, whilst on the other hand the checking of both the subject and the object of the investigation is a concomitant feature of both levels.
James Merrill Safford
Authors: Stearns Richard
Published: April 2015

James Merrill Safford (1822-1907), famous for geological investigations of Tennessee, taught chemistry and biology, as well as geology, for 52 years. He held administrative posts in medicine, and his teaching, even of geology, was mostly to would-be physicians, engineers and pharmacists. His education in Silliman's laboratory at Yale, during 1847, probably was the key to his success.

From 1848 to 1873 he taught full-time at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, except for leave in 1854-56 to work for the geological survey of Tennessee. During the Civil War hiatus, 1862-1866, he taught preparatory languages on a private basis, operated his farm, and investigated oil and gas properties.

After 1875, Safford held part-time teaching posts. He was a half-time Professor of Geology and Biology at Vanderbilt University and taught chemistry as a proprietor in a Medical Department jointly operated by Vanderbilt and the University of Nashville. He was also secretary of the Medical Faculty and Dean of the Pharmacy Department at Vanderbilt.

Safford was a pleasant, friendly man, who quoted classical poetry and lead early morning prayers. Through 1869, his professional contributions mainly consisted of survey work in geology. Later he mainly applied geology to health, agriculture, and resource development.
The Geological Survey of Alabama and the University of Alabama: A Coordinate History
Authors: Wilson Betty
Published: April 2015

Foe almost 140 years geological education at the University of Alabama and the work of the Alabama Geological Survey have been closely tied together. The Survey and the University utilize overlapping personnel and at times in the past have shared the same space. They are so intimately related that they have one coordinate history.
Development of Wallace's Perception of Biogeography, 1848-1859
Authors: Brooks John
Published: April 2015

Alfred Russel Wallace produced his two-volume treatise, Geographical Distribution of Animals, the first comprehensive treatment with an evolutionary perspective, in 1876. His active interest in the subject, however, began three decades earlier. In 1848, he embarked for Amazonia to seek evidence for species formation by examining the relationship between the distribution and affinity of related species. A series of papers based on his discoveries in the following decade presented not only Wallace's theory of evolution but also his concept of the regional aspects of geographical distribution as the resultant of both physiographic events and the origin and extinction of species. These conceptual papers were all published before Charles Darwin's, On the Origin of species (1859).
The British Reception of Alfred Wegener's Continental Drift Hypothesis
Authors: Marvin Ursula
Published: April 2015

Wegener's hypothesis was introduced to Britain in 1922. First heralded as a revolution in thought, possibly comparable with that initiated by Copernicus, it was quickly attacked as groundless speculation, negating all known facts about the thickness and solidity of the earth's crust. As advocates and opponents joined the battle, some British scientists saw how it could help to solve geological problems and adopted a cautiously favorable attitude toward Wegener's basic idea of continental motion, although they disputed the details. In 1928, a British geologist proposed convection currents as the mechanism for splitting continents and rafting apart the fragments, thus providing a crucial element to the model that, decades later, would aid in the transformation of continental drift to plate tectonics. At the time of Wegener's death in 1930, his hypothesis remained under strong attack, yet support was well-established among Britain's independently-minded scientists.
International Arenas of Geological Debate in the Early Nineteenth Century
Authors: Rudwick Martin
Published: April 2015

Modern historians of the earth sciences should follow Zittel's example by recognising the intrinsically international character of their subject. As a brief example, this paper describes three scientific meetings that took place, on English-, French- and German-speaking soil, during one sample year (1835) in the "early classical" period of the history of the earth sciences. The meetings illustrate the structure and dynamics of the international geological community a century and a half ago, and the role of social interaction in the shaping of new consensual knowledge about the earth.
James Hall's Amateurs
Authors: Wells John
Published: April 2015

Besides the various professional fossil collectors employed by James Hall to work in particular parts of the state, there were many "amateurs" for whom fossils were more or less of an avocation. From the middle 1840's to the end of the Hall era, the names of more than 150 amateurs can be counted - farmers, teachers, professors, students, clergymen, businessmen, physicians, and men of leisure, ranging from those who collected purposefully to those who casually picked up a specimen here and there. Very many of their finds came to Hall or the State Cabinet; many became types of new species to be described and figured by Hall, the collector's name often becoming the species eponyms. A sampling of their finds gives a glimpse of the activities of amateurs from 1847 to the time of Hall's death in 1898.
Walcott in Albany, New York: James Hall's "Special Assistant"
Authors: Yochelson Ellis
Published: April 2015

C. D. Walcott was associated with James Hall in Albany, New York, from 1876-1879, although for at least seven of these 33 months he was in the field. During most of this interval he was a "special assistant" working at both the New York State Museum and Hall's private laboratory, and publishing papers as directed by Hall. Walcott spent two long field seasons collecting Middle Paleozoic fossils, and in spite of his activity was abruptly discharged by Hall. Throughout his stay in Albany, Walcott pursued research interests of his own, after regular working hours. Walcott learned a great deal of paleontology during his time in Albany, probably more from study of the fossil collections and Hall's library than from direct conversation with Hall, for he considered Louis Agassiz his mentor. In July, 1879, Walcott joined the new U. S. Geological Survey and rose to be Director of that agency, subsequently becoming Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Perhaps the most important thing Walcott learned in Albany was how to lobby legislators for science, a skill he honed throughout his subsequent career.
The Geological Sciences at Harvard University from 1788 to 1850
Authors: Frondel Clifford
Published: April 2015

Formal course instruction in mineralogy and geology began in Harvard College in 1788 with Benjamin Waterhouse. He also assembled in the 1780's a reference and teaching collection of minerals, rocks, and ores—the first natural history collection at Harvard—that, following a gift by an English friend, J. C. Lettsom, became a cynosure of the College. Following Waterhouse's dismissal in 1812, the instruction was carried on by John Gorham until 1824. Waterhouse, his colleague Aaron Dexter, and Gorham all were professors in the Harvard Medical School, established 1782. The latter two men successively held an endowed chair therein, the Erving Professorship of Chemistry and Materia Medica. They produced some notable graduates: Parker Cleaveland in 1799, Lyman Spalding in 1797, Joseph Green Cogswell in 1806, John White Webster in 1811, John Fothergill Waterhouse in 1813, and Samuel Luther Dana and James Freeman Dana in 1813.

Following years of futile effort by the Administration to establish a professorship of mineralogy and geology, with Cogswell as the selected candidate, the instruction in mineralogy and geology fell to John White Webster in 1824 in the Chemistry Department. The Erving Professorship also passed to him, with a change in title to Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy. Webster's death in 1850, following his conviction for murder in a famous trial, terminated the first period of development of the geological sciences at Harvard. In this period, in spite of the early start by Waterhouse, Harvard lagged much behind the developments at Yale and other colleges in New England and beyond. The main period of development of the geological sciences at Harvard come in the latter 1800's. It was a consequence primarily of the founding of the the Lawrence Scientific School in 1848, with its emphasis on the applied aspects of the sciences, the appointments of Josiah Dwight Whitney and Raphael Pumpelly in 1865 and 1866, respectively to a School of Mines and Practical Geology endowed as a sub-unit therein, and the appointment of Josiah Parsons Cooke in 1850 as successor to Webster in the Chemistry Department.
The Influence of the University of Heidelberg on the Development of Geology in North America Between 1860 and 1913
Authors: Mahler Julianne , Pfefferkorn Hermann
Published: April 2015

The University of Heidelberg, in Heidelberg, West Germany, had a significant influence on the development of the geological sciences in North America between 1860 and 1913. During these years, in a reversal of the current scene, the brightest young scientists of North America came to Europe to pursue graduate studies. Of these scientists, twelve came to Heidelberg to study the geological sciences and then returned to North America to make significant contributions in their field. For example, two students developed the CIPW normative calculations; one performed the first quantitative laboratory experiments, duplicating rock deformation in the earth's crust; another student became the first "geologist-in-charge" of the United States Geological Survey (USGS); and a fifth mapped Yellowstone before it was a national park. The students came to Heidelberg to learn the newest techniques from professors such as Rosenbusch, Bunsen, and Salomon-Calvi. They also learned to develop theories based on the technique of detailed and careful observation that these men used. They caught the excitement about the world around them exuded by these same men, and they, in turn, spread what they had learned in Heidelberg when they returned to North America as professors and members of the USGS.
The Imaginary Lyellian Revolution
Authors: Elena Alberto
Published: April 2015

Historians and philosophers of science have usually followed Kuhn in his appraisal of Lyell's contribution to geology as a major scientific revolution. Nevertheless a detailed analysis of the historical evidence rather support a different view: Lyell's work did not establish any paradigm to be unanimously accepted by his colleagues. Thus Kuhn's model of scientific change does not authorize us to speak of a Lyellian revolution in geology. On the contrary such an interpretation is a recent historiographic myth, originated with Gillispie's Genesis and Geology and promptly prevailing as a result of Kuhn's highly influential The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
Exploitation and Uses of Metals in Ancient Israel According to Biblical Sources and Commentaries
Authors: Ginzburg Dov
Published: April 2015

Many verses of the Old Testament contain references to metals, their places of origin, their manufacture, their trading and their uses, both in cult and in everyday life. These verses appear to represent what was common knowledge at those times about gold, silver, copper, tin, lead and various alloys, and the roles they played in the economy and in some rituals.

A review is presented of these references and their translations, as well as of the comments by various classical and widely-studied Bible commentators.
Geological Time and Psychological Time
Authors: Kitts David
Published: April 2015

The ‘flow’ of time from the future to the past through a dimensionless present is a dramatic feature of our experience. In this paper I argue that the flow of time has found its way into the practice of stratigraphy where it has been detrimental to our clear conception of geologic time.
Surveying the Nomenclature of Geologic Time
Authors: Tracey Joshua
Published: April 2015

Publication in 1976 of the International Stratigraphic Guide climaxed a movement toward unification of nomenclature begun a century earlier when an American committee formed to promote an international meeting of geologists. American stratigraphic practice during the remainder of the 19th Century developed chiefly through the needs of the United States Geological Survey for uniform standards in geologic nomenclature and cartography. The requirement for maps which were usable by the intelligent layman for practical purposes led Directors King and Powell to emphasize the mapping of lithology, rather than time units delineated faunally. This approach was not universally accepted and led to bitter dispute. H. S. Williams and C. D. Walcott deserve credit for clarifying the distinction between terms for time and terms for rocks. Under Director Walcott, the 1890 codification of Powell was modified and formalized into the 1904 "Rules" of the U.S. Geological Survey. A major distinction was the placing in separate sections those rules concerned with lithologic units and those concerned with time and correlation. This dual classification, fundamental to all United States and North American stratigraphic codes during this century, has become a guiding principal in the international efforts at standardization of usage.
George G. Simpson (1902-1984): Getting Started in the Summer of 1924
Authors: Laporte Léo
Published: April 2015

In the middle of his first year of graduate work in vertebrate paleontology at Yale, George Gaylord Simpson began looking about for employment for the coming summer. He needed a job that would not only further his paleontological education, but also, with a wife and infant daughter to support, one that would pay him a salary, however modest. He eventually obtained a position prospecting for Tertiary mammals in Texas and New Mexico as a field assistant to William Diller Matthew of the American Museum of Natural History.

By the end of the summer, Simpson established himself as an energetic and highly successful field man, having made two major fossil discoveries, thereby impressing both Richard Swan Lull, his major advisor at Yale, and Matthew, whom he would eventually succeed at the American Museum as curator of fossil mammals. When Simpson returned to Yale in the fall, Lull, despite his earlier refusal, permitted him to study the Marsh Collection of Mesozoic mammals for his dissertation. Matthew, too, was enthusiastic about Simpson's demonstrated abilities for he became Simpson's mentor, acting as informal off-campus advisor for his dissertation and eventually an advocate for Simpson's appointment at the American Museum.

Simpson also learned, the hard way, about scientific protocol and professional territoriality when a short paper he wrote describing the geologic results of his work in New Mexico was suppressed by Childs Frick, honorary curator of the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology who had supported the New Mexico (and Texas) excursion with his own funds. Frick's financial support of the Museum apparently gave him greater influence than Matthew who, as chairman of Vertebrate Paleontology, had initially approved Simpson's paper for publication in the Museum Bulletin.
Collectors and Entrepreneurs: Hatcher, Wortman, and the Structure of American Vertebrate Paleontology Circa 1900
Authors: Rainger Ronald
Published: April 2015

John Bell Hatcher (1861-1904) and Jacob L. Wortman (1856-1926) were two of the most prominent figures in late nineteenth-century American vertebrate paleontology. Working at leading centers for the science, including Yale's Peabody Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh, each was responsible for significant discoveries of fossil vertebrates and notable contributions to taxonomy and biostratigraphy. Yet both had itinerant and, by their own admissions, highly frustrating careers. Traditionally their problems have been explained in terms of personality, as a result of their sensitive, volatile temperaments. Yet their careers and difficulties also reflect the structure of American vertebrate paleontology at the time, a discipline centered in museums and under the direction of wealthy, powerful entrepreneurs. Men such as Othniel Charles Marsh and Henry Fairfield Osborn financed and helped to promote work in vertebrate paleontology, but the context within which such work was conducted also limited opportunities for Hatcher, Wortman, and others.
Stranger in a Strange Land: A Brief History of the Paleontological Operations at Dinosaur National Monument
Authors: Chure Daniel , McIntosh John
Published: April 2015

Discovered in 1909 by Earl Douglass of the Carnegie Museum, the Dinosaur Quarry (DQ) at Dinosaur National Monument has proven to be one of our best windows into the large vertebrate community of the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic). To date, the remains of several hundred individuals belonging to sixteen species of dinosaurs and other vertebrates have been found. The DQ has produced more species, skulls, juveniles, and complete skeletons than any other Morrison Formation quarry. Between 1909 and 1924, the DQ was actively quarried and over 700,000 lbs. of fossils were collected. In 1958 the National Park Service enclosed the unexcavated area of the DQ within a building with both exhibits and research facilities. Since that time over 2,000 bones have been uncovered and left in situ, just as they were deposited. The concept of an enclosed quarry with an in situ exhibit of fossils has been successfully followed at a number of parks both within the U.S. and abroad.