This book was written by Simon Winchester , author of The Professor and
the Madman , a writer that brings to life some of the unsung heroes that
help create the world we know today . In this book he weaves the tale of
the man who discovered the geologic history of the world and changed the
way we saw it 's creation forever .
Plot Summary
William Smith was born the son of a blacksmith in Oxfordshire England in
1769 . After the death of his father he and his siblings were sent to
live with an aunt and uncle that lived nearby . This event gave him his
first glimpse at geology- the stones that his dairymaid aunt used to
weigh the butter were actually fossilizations of a sea urchin common to
the English coast .
At the age of eighteen , he began working for a surveyor , which began his
education about land and it 's formations . In 1791 we went to work for a
coal mining operation . This allowed him to begin to study the earth and
it 's layers . He noted that certain types of coals were found in the same
layers throughout England "And through all of this , in mine after mine ,
in quarry after quarry , what was perhaps the most crucial realization of
all in this time of early , primitive discovery -- the...