The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology
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From the author of the bestselling The Professor and the Madman comes the fascinating story of the father of modern geology.In 1793, William Smith, the orphan son of a village blacksmith, made a startling discovery that was to turn the science of geology on its head. While surveying the route for a canal near Bath, he noticed that the fossils found in one layer of the rocks he was excavating were very different from those found in another. And out of that realization came an epiphany: that by following these fossils one could trace layers of rocks as they dipped, rose and fell - clear across England and clear across the world.Obsessed with creating a map that would showcase his discovery, Smith spent the next twenty years traveling England alone, studying rock outcroppings and gathering information. In 1815 he published a hand-painted map more than eight feet tall and six feet wide. But four years later, swindled out of his profits, Smith ended up in debtors'... BusinessWeek Well-researched narrative.
List of IllustrationsPrologue1Escape on the Northbound Stage12A Land Awakening from Sleep113The Mystery of the Chedworth Bun274The Duke and the Baronet's Widow425A Light in the Underworld596The Slicing of Somerset797The View from York Minster928Notes from the Swan1069The Dictator in the Drawing Room12110The Great Map Conceived13911A Jurassic Interlude16312The Map That Changed in World19213An Ungentlemanly Act22214The Sale of the Century23915The Wrath of Leviathan25116The Lost and Found Man26517All Honor to the Doctor281Epilogue291Glossary of Geological and Other Unfamiliar Terms Found in This Book303Sources and Recommended Reading311Acknowledgments317Index321
