William Henry Fitton

William Henry Fitton 1860

William Henry Fitton (born January 1780 in Dublin , † 13 May 1861 in London ) was an Irish geologist .

Life

Fitton was educated at Trinity College , Dublin. In 1798 he received an upper school scholarship. At this time he took an interest in geology and built up a collection of fossils. After graduating in 1799, he decided to become a doctor. In 1808 he moved to Edinburgh , where he heard Robert Jameson's lectures. His interest in the natural sciences grew, especially geological topics. In 1809 he moved to London to study medicine and chemistry. Two years later he gave his first lecture to the Geological Society of London , a description of the geology of the Dublin area and some of Ireland's rare minerals . In 1812 he took over a doctor's practice in Northampton , which took up his time for several years. In 1816 he received the title of Medical Doctor (MD) in Cambridge .

In 1820 Fitton settled in London. Having married a wealthy lady, he was able to devote himself entirely to geology. Between 1824 and 1836 he studied geological formations in the south-east of England from the Cretaceous / Jurassic border area , and published his results in the essay Observations on some of the Strata between the Chalk and the Oxford Oolite, in the South-east of England (Transactions of the Geological Society, series 2, Volume IV) serving as Fitton's strata below the chalk ( Fitton layers beneath the chalk was known). In this work he determined the correct sequence and relationship of Upper and Lower Greensand and that of the Wealden and Purbeck Formations , and described their structure in detail.

In 1815 he had been elected a member of the Royal Society and was President of the Geological Society of London from 1827 to 1829. His home became a meeting place for scientists, and during his presidency he held a regular Sunday evening discussion group for all members of the Geological Society. Between 1817 and 1841 he wrote numerous articles for the Edinburgh Review , including reviews of the seminal books by William Smith , Charles Lyell and Roderick Murchison . For Philosophical Magazine he wrote a treatise on the development of geology in England in 1832 and 1833 ( Notes on the Progress of Geology in England ). In 1852 he received the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society. His specimen was made from the metal palladium discovered by Wollaston , which was used for all medals for this award between 1846 and 1866.

His only publication from this period based on his own work was a geological description of the area around Hastings ( A Geological Sketch of the Vicinity of Hastings ), which appeared in 1833. According to the autobiography of Charles Babbage , he invented the thaumatrope around 1825 , which was later sold commercially by John Ayrton Paris and to which the invention is usually attributed.

literature

• Fitton, William Henry . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 10 : Evangelical Church - Francis Joseph I . London 1910, p. 440 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
• KC Gass: Fragments of History . In: Specialized Quality Publications . Wisconsin Rapids 2000 (41 pages).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Patrick N. Wyse Jackson: Sir Richard John Griffith (1784-1878): A Portrait in Oils by Stephen Catterson Smith (1806-72) . In: Irish Journal of Earth Sciences . tape 26 , 2008, p. 45–51 ( ria.ie [PDF; 972 kB ]).