King of Siluria: How Roderick Murchison Changed the Face of Geology - Softcover

John L. Morton

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0954682904 ISBN 13: 9780954682903

Publisher: Brocken Spectre Publishing, 2004

Synopsis

This is the story of one of the most successful pioneers of Geology in the 19th century. From joining the Geological Society in 1824, Roderick Impey Murchison (1792-1871) became its President only seven years later! He went about his investigation of older rocks in Wales and Eastern Europe with boundless energy and was the first to differentiate and name the Silurian, Devonian and Permian periods of geological time. He was commissioned by Czar Nicholas I to report on the mineral wealth of Russia, and undertook in one summer a hazardous journey, by various forms of transport, of over 14,000 miles, from St. Petersburg via the Urals to the coalfields in the south. The Czar rewarded him with a Russian knighthood. He later received a baronetcy from Queen Victoria. To these honours were added a further seventeen major awards from governments and scientific societies across Europe. Murchison was the author of more than 350 publications for a wide range of British and foreign journals; his greatest work was the 768-page 'The Silurian System'. He was also President of the Royal Geographic Society for many years and was a champion of world exploration, including David Livingstone's travels in Africa and Sir John Franklin's search for a Northwest Passage. During the 1849 meeting of the British Association in Birmingham, Murchison led an excursion to the Dudley Caverns, inviting members of the public to join the delegates. Nearly 15,000 people took advantage of his invitation to a lecture on the submarine formation of the rock. He wore for the occasion a high-crowned Tyrolean hat and a shepherd's plaid scarf. He took them to the top of the Wren's Nest, where he was enthroned by the Bishop of Oxford, to everyone's amusement,as 'King of Siluria'. After extensive reearch, John L. Morton has presented Murchison's remarkable lifestory in detail and included forty illustrations, sixteen in colour.

About this title

About the Author

John Morton was educated at Merchant Taylors' School near Northwood, Middlesex. Through the R.A.F. Section of the Combined Cadet Forse he won a Flying Scholarship and gained a Pilot's Licence before he could drive a car. He was commissioned during National Service in the Royal Air Force and trained as a pilot on piston Provosts and Vampires. He joined British European Airways in January 1956 and progressed through flying Herons, Viscounts, Comets, and Boeing 707s to Lockheed Tristars. He was granted his first command in 1967 and culminated his career as a Route Training Captain. During thirty-seven years, he logged 17,600 flying hours, covering an estimated eight million miles. He has published a small booklet explaining the opeational aspects of airline flying for the layman and including a number of anecdotes from his long career. It is entitled 'Whatever were you thinking of, Captain? A Handbook for Airline Passengers'. Genuinely believing that his Queen's Scout Award was a major factor in his being selected for aircrew training, he has tried to put something back into Scouting. He was District Commissioner for Horsham, West Sussex, in the 1980s and has served over thirty-five years as a warranted Leader and in administrative roles in the movement. Following retirement, he studied for a BSc degree with the Open University, reading General Science, Astronomy, Geology and the History of Science. For seventeen years he edited 'Stonechat', the magazine of the Horsham Geological Field Club and he is the author of 'Strata', a biography of William Smith, another of the great pioneers of 19th-century geology (available from Amazon or Brocken Spectre Publishing). Largely on the strength of his authorship of 'Strata' John Morton was, in 2001, elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of London.

Edition details

• Publisher: Brocken Spectre Publishing
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0954682904
• ISBN 13: 9780954682903
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272