The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology Audiobook (Free)

From the author of the bestselling The Professor and the Madman comes the fascinating story of William Smith, the orphaned son of the English country blacksmith, who became enthusiastic about creating the world’s initial geological map and ultimately became the daddy of contemporary geology.

In 1793 William Smith, a canal digger, made a startling breakthrough that was to turn the fledgling science of the history of the planet earth — and a central plank of established Christian religious beliefs — on its head. He about The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Contemporary Geology pointed out that the stones he was excavating were arranged in layers; more important, he could see quite clearly that the fossils found in one layer had been completely different from those found in another. And out of this realization emerged an epiphany: that by following the fossils, one could trace layers of stones as they dipped and rose and fell — obvious across Britain and, indeed, clear across the world. Determined to create his profoundly essential discovery by developing a map that could display the hidden underside of England, he spent twenty years traveling the length and breadth of the kingdom by stagecoach and by walking, studying rock and roll outcrops and fossils, piecing collectively the image of this unseen universe.

In 1815 he published his epochal and remarkably beautiful hand-painted map, more than eight ft tall and six foot wide. But four years following its triumphant publication, and along with his youthful wife going continuously mad to the idea of nymphomania, Smith ended up in debtors’ prison, a sufferer of plagiarism, swindled out of his recognition and his earnings. He left London for the north of England and continued to be homeless for ten long years as he sought out function. It wasn’t until 1831, when his company, a sympathetic nobleman, brought him into connection with the Geological Culture of London — which experienced earlier rejected him a fellowship — that at last this noiseless genius was showered using the honors lengthy overdue him. He was summoned south to receive the society’s highest award, and King William IV provided him a lifetime pension.

The Map That Changed the World is, at its foundation, a very human being tale of endurance and achievement, of 1 man’s dedication in the face of ruin and homelessness. The world’s coal and essential oil industry, its precious metal mining, its highway systems, and its railroad routes had been all derived completely from your creation of Smith’s first map.; and with a keen vision and thoughtful detail, Simon Winchester unfolds the poignant sacrifice behind this world-changing discovery.