The Map that Changed the World
The Map that Changed the World is a book by Simon Winchester about English geologist William Smith and his great achievement, the first geological map of England and Wales.
Smith's was the first national-scale geological map, and by far the most accurate of its time. His pivotal insights were that each local sequence of rock strata was a subsequence of a single universal sequence of strata and that these rock strata could be distinguished and traced for great distances by means of embedded fossilized organisms.
Winchester's book narrates the intellectual context of the time, the development of Smith's ideas and how they contributed to the theory of evolution and more generally to a dawning realisation of the true age of the earth. The book describes the social, economic or industrial context for Smith's insights and work, such as the importance of coal mining and the transport of coal by means of canals, both of which were a stimulus to the study of geology and the means whereby Smith supported his research. Land owners wished to know if coal might be found on their holdings. Canal planning and construction depended on understanding the rock and soil along its route.
Related topics, such as the founding of the Geological Society of London, are included. Smith's map was published by John Cary, a leading map publisher. Winchester describes the practice of publishing at the time as well as the system of debtor's prisons through his account of the sojourn of Smith in the King's Bench Prison.
Book format details
Simon Winchester was born in 1944, and The Map that Changed the World was published in 2001 by Harper Collins, while Winchester retains the copyright. The first edition is illustrated by Soun Vannithone. It includes an extensive index, glossary of geological terms, recommended reading and (lengthy) acknowledgements, as well as many stippled images (of consistent style). The last numbered page is page 329. There are 16 chapters, and single clay paper sheet in the middle containing colour plates of Smith's famous map and a modern geological map for comparison. (Smith's map is less complete, but essentially in agreement with the modern map). An image of Smith's first table of strata, and first (circular) geological map are also included. Just after the contents section, there is a 5-page section giving extensive details on the illustrations (such as the names of the chapter heading fossils). Each chapter begins with an inset image of a fossil, and a large first Capital. The dust-cover of the book can be removed and unfolded to reveal a larger print of the map in question.
The contents
One: Escape on the Northbound Stage
Two: A Land Awakening from Sleep
Three: The Mystery of the Chedworth Bun
Four: The Duke and the Baronet's Widow
Five: A Light in the Underworld
Six: The Slicing of Somerset
Seven: The View from York Minster
Eight: Notes from the Swan
Nine: The Dictator in the Drawing Room
Ten: The Great Map Conceived
Eleven: A Jurassic Interlude
Twelve: The Map That Changed the World
Thirteen: An Ungentlemanly Act
Fourteen: The Sale of the Century
Fifteen: The Wrath of Leviathan
Sixteen: The Lost and Found Man
Seventeen: All Honor to the Doctor.
Escape on a Northbound Stage
A plausible but whimsical description of the day on which William Smith was let out of debtor's prison. It inducts the reader into the interpretation of the time and place to be held consistently throughout the book. Smith is described physically, as heavy-set balding and plain-looking, and emotionally as quitting London in disgust. He is leaving London with nothing other than his wife, nephew, and such possessions as they can carry. It is implied that these circumstances are the result of unjustified discrimination from the scientific elite. The chapter ends with a brief note that 12 years later the injustice was in some measure redressed.
A Land Awakening from Sleep
A description of the social circumstances of the time of the birth of Smith. It begins by emphasising that the date of 4004 bc, for the beginning of the world, computed from the genealogy tables of the bible, was firmly accepted by most; the idea that the world was any older was considered implausible. Explanations based on Noah's flood were acceptable in scientific circles. But, in the year 1769, as Smith was born, James Watt was patenting a steam engine, cloth manufacture was improving, the postal service was viable. New technology and information was rapidly becoming available or even common-place. "William Smith appeared on the stage at a profoundly interesting moment: he was about to make it more so."