On Friday, April 5, 2002, at 08:18 AM, Malcolm Henry wrote:
> William Smith sounds a most interesting guy
For anyone with an interest in W. Smith's fascinating life, 'The Map
that Changed the World', S. Winchester; Viking. 2001; can be highly
recommended.
Smith made a pioneering contribution to the science (some would say
art!) of stratigraphy. Indeed his understanding of the subject was in no
small measure the result of his underground visits made to mines in the
Somerset Coalfield in 1792.
The chicanery and duplicity of leading figures in British geology and
the emergent Geological Society of London and their plagiarism of this
'uneducated' man's geological map of the country is one of the more
shameful episodes in the history of the geological sciences.
At the conclusion of his, eventful, working life, including a spell in
one of London's more notorious debtors prisons, Smith wrote in his diary;
"Thus calmly to enjoy retirement with the never failing resources of a
well-stored mind is the sweetest pleasure of a full-aged man".
With that sentiment I can but fully concur!
Peter Challis
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