GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA. REPORT OF PROGRESS FOR 1875

Smith, Eugene A.

Verlag: W. W. Screws, Montgomery, 1876

Beschreibung

220pp., including one full-page illustration, tables, and three appendices. Side-stitched in original printed wrappers. Wrappers soiled. Modest tanning, some soiling and mild dampstaining. Very good. Report compiled by Alabama state geologist Eugene A. Smith for the year 1875. Smith was professor of mineralogy and chemistry at the University of Alabama and was appointed state geologist in January of 1873. A graduate of the University of Alabama, he served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War before pursuing his graduate studies at Heidelberg in Germany, where he received an A. M. and Ph.D. in 1868. The present report contains, among other things, an outline and description of the various geological formations that Smith had the opportunity to examine in the previous season's field work. Of particular interest is the report's focus on the iron and coal industries, including Smith's "Historical Account of Coal Mining Operations in Alabama Since 1853," in which he explains that coal was initially used in the state "principally for blacksmithing purposes" before going on to describe the more recent undertakings of coal mining companies in the state. "The necessities of the Confederate Government in 1863," writes Smith, "gave an impetus to the exploration of the Cahaba coal fields, as a large foundry for making cannon and heavy ordnance was located in Selma." Also reprinted here is a selection from Richard P. Rothwell's paper on "Alabama Coal and Iron," described by Smith as "the best account of the Alabama coal fields which has yet been made public." Of further note is an analysis of fossil specimens from the Alabama coal fields written by Leo Lesquerreux, who in a letter to Smith praises "the admirable richness of your coal flora" and an article on the cotton worm by A. R. Grote, director of the Museum of Natural Sciences in Buffalo, N.Y. One of the more interesting examples of the many reports issued by different state geological surveys in the second half of the 19th century. This one was published three years before the founding of the U.S. Geological Survey in 1879 and illustrates the growing ties and overlapping interests among science, government, and industry. Betty Morere Wilson, "The Geological Survey of Alabama and the University of Alabama: A Coordinate History," in Earth Sciences History Vol. 4, no. 1 (1985), pp.59-62. Thomas G. Manning, Government in Science: The U.S. Geological Survey, 1867-1894 (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1967). Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers WRCAM58793

Bibliografische Details

Titel: GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA. REPORT OF ...

Verlag: W. W. Screws, Montgomery

Erscheinungsdatum: 1876