James Hutton
eBook - ePub

James Hutton

The Genius of Time

  1. 304 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

James Hutton

The Genius of Time

About this book

Discover one of the Scottish Enlightenment's brightest stars.Among the giants of the Scottish Enlightenment, the name of James Hutton is overlooked. Yet his Theory of the Earth revolutionised the way we think about how our planet was formed and laid the foundation for the science of geology. He was in his time a doctor, a farmer, a businessman, a chemist yet he described himself as a philosopher – a seeker after truth.A friend of James Watt and of Adam Smith, he was a polymath, publishing papers on subjects as diverse as why it rains and a theory of language. He shunned status and official position, refused to give up his strong Scots accent and vulgar speech, loved jokes and could start a party in an empty room.Yet much of his story remains a mystery. His papers, library and mineral collection all vanished after his death and only a handful of letters survive. He seemed to be a lifelong bachelor, yet had a secret son whom he supported throughout his life.This book uses new sources and original documents to bring Hutton the man to life and places him firmly among the geniuses of his time.

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Yes, you can access James Hutton by Ray Perman in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Technology & Engineering & Science & Technology Biographies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. Preface
  6. 1. He cared more about fossils . . .
  7. 2. Not ten days in which I was not flogged
  8. 3. He shall not commit the filthy crimes . . .
  9. 4. All that . . . is absurd and false
  10. 5. More keen of martial toil . . .
  11. 6. I shall die like a cock . . .
  12. 7. Turning soot into gold
  13. 8. Hutton dreaded nothing so much as ignorance
  14. 9. Wrote by the finger of God
  15. 10. Lord pity the arse that’s clagged to a head
  16. 11. Look with a kinder eye towards me
  17. 12. A Junto of Jacobites and Tories
  18. 13. The operation of subterraneous fire . . .
  19. 14. Time . . . is to nature endless
  20. 15. His ideas are magnificent . . .
  21. 16. . . . having found the most perfect evidence
  22. 17. I was much weakened by it
  23. 18. In some respects a foreign tongue
  24. 19. The doctor will not easily submit
  25. 20. Death only as a passage
  26. 21. Ages may be required
  27. 22. Hutton every day strikes me with astonishment
  28. 23. What Newton achieved . . .
  29. Hutton’s timeline
  30. Glossary of geological terms
  31. Glossary of scientific terms
  32. Sources
  33. Notes and references
  34. Index