Henry Clifton Sorby

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Henry Clifton Sorby (May 10, 1826 – March 9, 1908), English microscopist and geologist, was born at Woodbourne near Sheffield in Yorkshire.

He attended Sheffield Collegiate School.

He early developed an interest in natural science, and one of his first papers related to the excavation of valleys in Yorkshire. He subsequently dealt with the physical geography of former geological periods, with the wave-structure in certain stratified rocks, and the origin of slaty cleavage.

He took up the study of rocks and minerals under the microscope, and published an important memoir "On the Microscopical Structure of Crystals" in 1858 (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.). In England he was one of the pioneers in petrography; he was awarded the Wollaston medal by the Geological Society of London in 1869. When president of the society, he published in his addresses the results of original researches on the structure and origin of limestones, and of the non-calcareous stratified rocks (1879-1880).

He had previously been president of the Royal Microscopical Society. He wrote on the construction and use of the micro-spectroscope in the study of animal and vegetable colouring matter, and in later essays he dealt with such varied subjects as the microscopical structure of iron and steel, and the temperature of the water in estuaries.

He also applied his skill in making preparations of invertebrate animals for lantern-slides. In 1882 he was elected president of Firth College, Sheffield. Sorby also worked hard for the establishment of the University of Sheffield and had a university hall of residence named after him, Sorby Hall, which was built in the 1960's and demolished in August 2006. There is also a wing at the Northern General Hospital named after him.

Both the International Association of Sedimentologists and the Yorkshire Geological Society have Sorby Medals named in honour of Sorby's achievements in geology.

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This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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