William smith biography geologist
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WILLIAM SMITH BIOGRAPHY
Portrait of William Smith aged 68 (courtesy of The Geological Society)
Cary’s New Map of England & Wales, with part of Scotland (1794)
William Smith’s Geological Map of Oxfordshire (1820). Location of Smith’s birth place at Churchill shown bygd the red star
William Smith (1769–1839), surveyor and geologist, was born on 23th March 1769 at The Forge, Churchill, Oxfordshire, the son of John Smith (1735–1777), the village blacksmith, and his wife, Ann (1745–1807). He was educated at the village school, which he attended until about 1780. In later life he was to write “If I could have felt the same confidence in writing that I have in Draining and Floating, this Essay might have made its appearance sooner; but inom find less difficulty in directing the labours of the spade, than those of the pen” and later “and there can be no doubt but it would be much better for society, and much more conducive to improvements in agriculture, if farmers’ sons w • William 'Strata' Smith (23 March 1769 – 28 August 1839) was an Englishgeologist, who created the first nationwide geological map. Like another great scientist of his time, Michael Faraday, he was the son of a blacksmith. His geological discoveries were made when, as a young man, he was a surveyor, and so travelled the country. Smith's greatest discovery was that sedimentary rocks of a similar age held fossils of a similar type. So he could identify them when they were at the surface in different parts of the country. Smith put together the historical geology of Britain (England and Wales) and southern Scotland into a single record. At the time his map was published he was almost unknown to the scientific community. His humble family and education meant he did not mix easily in learned society. His work was plagiarised, he was financially ruined, and he spent time in debtors' prison. It was only later in his life that Smith got recognition for w • TRAVAUX Hugh Torrens COMITÉ FRANÇAIS D'HISTOIRE DE LA GÉOLOGIE (COFRHIGEO) (séance du 31 mai 1989) It is sadly remarkable that this anniversary is likely to go quite unnoticed in the country of Smith's birth. So I accepted an invitation from France, to attempt this short appreciation of William Smith, with particular delight ; as Smith was one who made, and can be shown to have made, a great original contribution to geology. But I have tried not to be motivated by any chauvinism ; a concept of which the English seemed strangely unaware until educated from France ! RECENT HISTORIOGRAPHY. William Smith has suffered enormously at the hands of recent historians. We have been told of a "suspicion" that the importance of the verbal dissemination of his results and ideas, before he himself published his m William Smith (geologist)
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COMITÉ FRANÇAIS D'HISTOIRE DE LA GÉOLOGIE
- Troisième série -
T.III (1989)
In Commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the death of William Smith (1769-1839).