Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
(1891-1931): from the geological viewpoint', in Lewis and Knell, The Age of the
Earth (2001), pp. 139-155, who also note that Joseph Barrell's paper was first read in
two parts at the University of Illinois in January 1912, four years before it was
reprised at the Albany meeting.
The standard biography of Walcott is the two-volume set by Ellis L.
Yochelson, Charles Doolittle Walcott, Paleontologist (Kent, Ohio & London:
Kent State University Press, 1998), and Walcott: Smithsonian Institution
Secretary, Charles Doolittle Walcott (Kent, Ohio & London: Kent State
University Press, 2001). Yochelson describes in more detail Walcott's contribution
to the geochronological debate in two papers: ' ''Geologic time'' as calculated
by C. D. Walcott', Earth Sciences History 8, part 2 (1989), 150-158, and that
co-authored with Cherry Lewis detailed above.
William Johnston Sollas' major contributions were 'The age of the Earth',
Nature 51 (1895), 533, and 'Anniversary address of the President: position of geology
among the sciences; on time considered in relation to geological events and to the
development of the organic world; the rigidity of the Earth and the age of the
oceans', Proceedings of the Geological Society 65 (1909), lxxxi-cxxiv. The latter
was used as Chapter 1 in his book The Age of the Earth (London: T. Fisher Unwin,
1905). For more on John Joly see P. N. Wyse Jackson, 'John Joly (1857-1933) and his
determinations of the age of the Earth', in Lewis and Knell, The Age of the Earth
(2001), pp. 107-119. His relevant publications were his paper 'The age of the Earth',
Philosophical Magazine, Series 6, 22 (1911), 357-380 [Reprinted in the Annual
Report of the Smithsonian Institution (for 1911), 271-293 (1912)], and Chapter 1
in his book Birth-time of the World and Other Scientific Essays (London: T. Fisher
Unwin, 1915) which contained the transcript of his lecture delivered on 6 February
1914 to the Royal Dublin Society.
Table
10.1
is largely derived from Charles Schuchert, 'Geochronology, or the
age of the Earth on the basis of sediments and life', in Adolph Knopf, Physics of the
Earth IV. The Age of the Earth (Washington: Bulletin of the National Research
Council, Number 80, 1931), pp. 10-64.
Chapter 11. Thermodynamics and the cooling Earth revisited
An almost contemporary biography of William Thomson is that by Andrew Grey,
Lord Kelvin: An Account of His Life and Work (1908). A more recent account is
given by Crosbie Smith and M. Norton Wise, Energy and Empire: A Biographical
Study of Lord Kelvin (Cambridge University Press, 1989). A more popular treatment
is given by Mark McCartney, 'William Thomson: king of Victorian physics',
Physics World 15, part 12 (2002), 25-29, which is an abridged version of his
