The Practice of British Geology, 1750–1850

Hugh Torrens

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9780860788768
• eBook ISBN: 9781040247778
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

Geology is the most historical of all sciences. Yet its own history remains neglected, especially the many aspects of how geology was practised in the past. This volume analyses the careers of some important practical figures in English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish geology between 1750 and 1850. These include people who would have regarded themselves more as mining engineers (or 'coal viewers' as they were then called in the vital coal industry) or 'mineral surveyors' as today's mineral prospectors were first called (from 1808), or even inventors. Their expertise, in the land which led the industrial revolution, took them all over the world. Those included here went to Italy, and South (Peru) and North America (Virginia and Canada). The practice of geology, through the search for mines and minerals, has been much less attended to by historians than the geology which was undertaken by leisured amateurs - even though practical geology was as important in the past as the oil industry is today.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Acknowledgements
• I Some Thoughts on the Complex and Forgotten History of Mineral Exploration Journal of the Open University Geological Society 17. Chandler's Ford, 1997
• II The British 'Mineral Engineer' John Williams (1732-1795), his Work in Britain from 1749 to 1793 and as a Mineral Surveyor in the Veneto and North Italy between 1793 and 1795 Le Scienze della Terra nel Veneto dell 'Ottocento. Venice, 1998
• III Geological Communication in the Bath Area in the Last Half of the Eighteenth Century Images of the Earth: Essays in the History of the Environmental Sciences, ed. L.J. Jordanova and R. Porter. Faringdon, 1997
• IV Le 'Nouvel Art de Prospection Miniére' de William Smith et le 'Projet de Houillère de Brewham': Un essai malencontreux de recherche de charbon dans le sud-ouest de l'Angleterre, entre 1803 et 1810 De la Géologie à Son Histoire: Livre Jubilaire pour Franςois Ellenberger, ed. G. Gohau. Paris, 1998
• V Patronage and Problems: Banks and the Earth Sciences Sir Joseph Banks: A Global Perspective, ed. R.E.R. Banks et al.. Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, 1994
• VI John Farey (1766-1826) an Unrecognised Polymath, incuding John Farey, Bibliography with Trevor D. Ford General View of the Agriculture and Minerals of Derbyshire, John Farey, sen., vol. 1, reprint. Matlock Bath, 1989
• VII Coal Hunting at Bexhill 1805-1811: How the New Science of Stratigraphy was Ignored Sussex Archaeological Collections 136. Lewes, 1998
• VIII James Ryan (c. 1770-1847) and the Problems of Introducing Irish 'New Technology' to British Mines in the Early Nineteenth Century Science and Society in Ireland: The Social Context of Science and Technology in Ireland, 1800-1950, ed. P. J. Bowler and N. Whyte. Belfast, 1997
• IX Arthur Aikin's Mineralogical Survey of Shropshire 1796-1816 and the Contemporary Audience for Geological Publications British Journal for the History of Science 16. London, 1983
• X The Scientific Ancestry and Historiography of The Silurian System Journal of the Geological Society 147. Bath, 1990
• XI Joseph Harrison Fryer (1777-1855): Geologist and mining Engineer, in England 1803-1825 and South America 1826-1828. A Study in 'Failure' Geological Sciences in Latin America: Scientific Relations and Exchanges, ed. M. M. Lopes and S.F. Figueirôa. Campinas, 1995
• XII William Edmond Logan's Geological Apprenticeship in Britain 1831-1842 Geoscience Canada 26. St. John's, 1999
• XIII James Buckman (1814-1884) English Consulting Geologist and his Visit to the Guyandotte Coal-Fields in 1854 with William R. Brice Southeastern Geology 38. Durham, NC, 1999
• Index