Read The Map That Changed the World Online
Authors: Simon Winchester
The Map That Changed the World (38 page)
physical and mental illness of, 213, 238, 244, 262, 272, 294
n
Smith, Sydney, 195
n
Smith, William:
ambition of, 61–62, 85, 149, 195–96
ancestry of, 16
n
award named for, 170
n
–71
n
awards and honors given to, xix, 209, 280,
283,
286–89, 293–95,
293
birth of, 11–12, 17, 22
n
cartography as obsessive interest of, 61
n,
194
character of, xviii, 101, 137, 149, 159, 193–94, 198, 232, 268
county maps of, 268, 271
death of, 299 in debtors’ prison,
3,
5–6, 148, 236, 255–61,
259
diaries and autobiographical writings of, xix, 9
n,
32, 52, 54, 56–57, 64, 65, 74, 75, 87–88, 89, 95, 100, 124, 159–60, 202, 203, 206–7, 212, 219, 227, 242, 246, 253, 256–57, 259–60, 262–63, 267, 272, 273, 291–92
as drainage engineer, 150–51, 155, 207–9, 246
early geological interest of, 27–34, 52–53
final years of, 291–99
financial troubles and ruin of, xviii, 137–38, 146, 193, 213–14, 236, 241, 244–45, 247, 251–64, 268–69
geological map of,
see Delineation of The Strata of England and Wales with a part of Scotland, A
geological writings of, 65–68, 119–20, 156–60, 250, 289
as lecturer, 272–73
memorials for, 299–300
money earned by, 61, 101, 138, 208, 241–42
nickname of, 65
n,
193
notion of making maps introduced to, 124–25
pension granted to, 294
period of exile of, xviii, 9–10, 264, 269–80
Phillips’s biography of, 131–32, 201, 204, 220, 228, 245
n,
269–70, 272, 278, 295
physical appearance of, 5, 194–95
plagiarism of writings and map of, xviii, 146–49, 214, 228–31, 237–38, 253
n
post-chaise fares paid by, 242
n
properties owned or rented by, 5, 6–7, 101, 102–5,
103, 104,
115, 136–37, 203–5,
205,
241–42, 243, 244, 245, 259, 262
quarry venture of, 243–44, 245, 256, 268
rehabilitated reputation of, xviii–xix, 264, 266, 278–79
rheumatism of, 273
self-image of, 213
social standing of, 105, 114–15, 123–24, 136, 149, 155–56, 213, 225–26
Smith, William (WS’s uncle), 27, 53, 55, 242
Smith & Cruse, Land Surveyors, 197
Society of Arts, 196–97, 203, 204, 209, 219
Somerset Coal Canal Company, 127, 198 canal committee of, 90, 92
WS as surveyor for, 51–52, 58, 61, 77–78, 83–91, 92–101, 115
WS fired by, 137–38, 146, 151, 241
WS’s survey charts for, 141
Somerset Coal Measures, 48–51, 62–75,
73,
115 age of, 48, 64, 68 geology of, 64–68 stratification of, 48, 49,
63,
64, 70–75
Somerset
County
Agricultural Report,
124–25
Somerset Guardian,
82
Sowerby, James, 240
Spain, 114, 130
Staffordshire
(Plot), 93
stages, 168
n
Stanley, Sir John, 246
steam engines, 17, 46, 50, 65
Steno, Nicolaus, 37, 38
n,
39
Stephens, James, 151, 156
Stonesfield slate, 187 Stowey, 57, 60
Strachey, John, 89, 93
Strata Identified by Organized Fossils
(Smith), 250
stratification:
first use of term, 65
n
formulation of WS’s theories on, 74–78, 84, 87–91,
87,
97–100, 115–20
of Somerset Coal Measures, 48, 49,
63,
64, 70–75
WS’s first observations of,
63,
65–68, 71–74, 115
WS’s tabular list of, 132–36,
135,
148
Stratigraphical System of Organized Fossils, The
(Smith), 250
stratigraphy, 100
strike, in marls, 66
subzones, 168
n
“Sunday man,” 257
n
Swan Inn, 103, 120, 124
“Table of Strata” (Smith), 131–36,
135,
148, 289
Tapster’s Baths, 204
Taylor, A., 126, 128
tectonic plates, 48–49, 68, 116–17,
116,
175
teilzones, 168
n
terebratulids, 33,
33,
40
Tethyan Ocean, 116,
116
textile industry, 17
Theory of the Earth, The
(Hutton), 68–69
Thomas, Dylan, 208 time, Korean myth of, 69
n
Tisbury coral, 110
Titanites,
179,
181
Titfield Thunderbolt, The,
80–81
Toarcian stage, 168
n
Torrens, Hugh, 110
n,
293, 294
n
Townsend, Joseph, 115, 124, 128–36, 144, 146, 147, 148, 215, 300
background of, 129
death of, 289
n
fossil collection of, 114, 129–30
writings of, 130, 214
WS’s “Table of Strata” dictated to, 131–36
Trevithick, Richard, 232
n
Triassic period, 87
n,
174
trilobites, 64
Trim Bridge, WS’s offices in, 204, 205, 211, 242
Trinity College, Dublin, 265, 295
Tucking Mill House, 103–5,
103, 104,
115, 124, 197, 203, 242, 300
WS’s mortgages on, 136, 205, 211–12, 243, 244, 256
Tull, Jethro, 20
United States, WS offered job in, 253–54
University Museum, Oxford, 54, 64, 65
Uranus, 123
Ussher, James, 13, 15
n,
24, 25, 38
n,
41, 69
n,
285
Vale of Wardour, 110
Vansittart, Nicholas, 246
Variscan orogeny, 48–49, 50–51, 68, 71
n
Vernon, William, 278–79, 286
Victoria, Queen of England, 297
n
Villiers, A. J. M. Brochant de, 236
virtue, divine, and placing of fossils, 36
vis plastica,
35
Voelcker, Augustus, 123
Wales, 90, 140, 142, 207, 208, 266
Walks Through Wales
(Warner), 114
n
Wallace, Alfred, 106 Warner, Richard, 115, 253
writings of, 114, 147–48, 214
WS’s work plagiarized by, 148, 214
Watt, James, 17, 24
n,
46
Watts, Billy, 31
Webb, Edward, 54–55, 57, 97, 141
Webster, Thomas, 234, 284
Wedgwood, Josiah, 17, 24
n,
44
Wells Cathedral, 59
Werner, Abraham, 226, 227, 231
Wesley, John, 51
Westminster Abbey, 243 Westminster Palace, 296–99,
296
Whitehurst, John, 94
Wilkes, John, 22
Wilkinson, John, 18
Wilkinson, Robert, 144
William IV, King of England, 294
William Smith Award, 170
n
–71
n
Williamson family, 274
Wollaston, William Hyde, 281–82, 283
Wollaston Medal, 281–83,
283,
286–89, 293–94,
293
Wood, Searles Valentine, the Elder, 111
Woodward, John, 93–94
Woodward, Samuel, 113
Worcester & Birmingham Canal, 97
Wyon, Benjamin, 293
Yeo River, 232
n
York Asylum, 294
n
York Minster, 97–100
Yorkshire, 272, 276
Young, Arthur, 154
Young, George, 111–13
SIMON WINCHESTER
’s many books include the
New York Times
bestsellers
The Professor and the Madman, Krakatoa, A Crack in the Edge of the World,
and
The Man Who Loved China.
He was made Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty The Queen in 2006, and he lives in western Massachusetts.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
LSO BY
S
IMON
W
INCHESTER
The Man Who Loved China
*
A Crack in the Edge of the World
*
The Meaning of Everything
Krakatoa
*
The Fracture Zone
*
The Professor and the Madman
*
The River at the Center of the World
Small World
Hong Kong: Here Be Dragons
Pacific Nightmare
Pacific Rising
Korea: A Walk through the Land of Miracles
*
Outposts
*
Prison Diary: Argentina
Stones of Empire
Their Noble Lordships
American Heartbeat
In Holy Terror
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Jonathan Cape (Random House) for permission to reprint an excerpt from
The Floating Egg: Episodes in the Making of Geology
, copyright © 1998 by Roger Osborne.
Late Jurassic paleogeographic map by C. R. Scotese, PALEOMAP Project (www.scotese.com). For further information, please consult C. R. Scotese,
Atlas of Earth History
, Vol. 1,
Paleogeography
, PALEOMAP Project (Arlington, Tex.: 2001), p. 52.
THE MAP THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
. Copyright © 2001 by Simon Winchester. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Adobe Digital Edition September 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-197827-2
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*
All too little is known about these particular days in Smith’s life, since his diary, normally filled with even the most mundane details of his life, remains blank and abjectly silent. Only circumstantial evidence, together with the writings of his nephew and his own reminiscences written many years later, allows us to hazard a guess at how Smith functioned during this exceptionally trying time.
†
Smith made a stuttering attempt at an autobiography very late in life: He made pages of notes, from which these remarks are drawn.
*
Few outside the world of the rigid Christian fundamentalists today accept the strict interpretation of James Ussher’s arithmetic, which he explained in his monumental work of 1658,
Annalis Veteris et Novi Testamenti
. But nonetheless a 1991 survey showed that fully 100 million Americans still believed that “God created man pretty much in his own image at one time during the last ten thousand years,” and anecdotal evidence now suggests that this number is climbing. This might suggest that aspects of the religious climate into which William Smith was born—and that he was to help start changing—are now starting to return.
