William Smith
1769–1839
Civil engineer and geologist. Worked as a land surveyor, including making underground surveys for coal, and for the Somerset coal canal. This work enabled Smith to work out the succession of geological strata by means of their fossil content, a breakthrough at the time. Published geological maps. Nicknamed ‘Strata Smith’. Awarded the Wollaston medal of the Geological Society of London, 1832.
Sources
ODNB
DSB
Bibliography
DSB: Dictionary of scientific biography. Edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie and Frederic L. Holmes. 18 vols. including index and supplements. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1970–90.
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
