Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
In this connection Alfred Nier continued to date rocks for
Holmes, until Nier's interests turned him in another direction
and, despite eventually having eight mass spectrometers at his
disposal, he was unable to dedicate any of them to analysing
lead. Holmes went elsewhere for his analyses, to Tuzo Wilson's
laboratory in Toronto, but a few years later Nier visited Holmes
in Edinburgh and the two finally met. In 1960, in the last letter
he wrote to Holmes, Nier tells how he had been asked to give
an illustrated after dinner speech to geologists:
Included was the delightful photograph made in your garden in July
1954 when Mrs. Nier and I visited you and Mrs. Holmes. Those who
had never met you were delighted to see what the 'father' of geological
time scales looked like!
With his health progressively deteriorating, Holmes began to
have attacks of auricular fibrillation. Although not life-threat-
ening, the very rapid and irregular contractions of the muscle
fibres of the heart were exhausting, coming on without warn-
ing and putting him out of action for several days. For a while
he worked only in the mornings, having to rest every afternoon
to decrease the frequency of the attacks. But eventually, in 1955,
he submitted his resignation to the Crown and retired from
Edinburgh University in 1956. However, despite his complaints
to Reginald Daly about bureaucracy, he did not exactly succumb
to administrative over-load, and his passion for research never
diminished. In his last years at the University he frequently
delegated his administrative duties to other members of sta¬,
or simply did not turn up to meetings, such that a special minute
adopted at a Senate meeting at the time of his retirement includ-
ed the telling words:
To him life is work and work to him means geological research. If his
seat at times has been vacant at Senatus, his absence must be weighed
against his contributions to science.
In the year of his retirement the Geological Societies of both
London and America presented this physicist-turned-geologist
with their highest awards for his 'outstanding accomplishment
