Science and Government: John Phillips (1800–74) and the Early Ordnance Geological Survey of Britain

Abstract

In 1835 the Ordnance Geological Survey was established, with Henry De La Beche as its Director. His enterprise was not the first national geological survey to be patronised by a government: in France and the USA surveys were started in 1825 and 1823 and employed geologists temporarily.1 De La Beche’s Survey was unusual at the time in that it not only endured but grew, even though government regarded it as temporary. It was also unusual in that, though not the first experiment by which geological surveying and research were pursued under the auspices of the Ordnance Survey, it survived, whereas most other attempts foundered. John MacCulloch’s Scottish work, begun in 1814 and completed in 1836, was for government a painful example of jobbery and uncontrolled expenditure.2 From the 1820s, Richard Griffith unofficially exploited his posts in the Irish Ordnance Survey and by 1835 had raised no alarm in government circles. From 1832, Joseph Portlock worked officially in the Irish Ordnance Survey on geology until in 1840 the project had become so expensive that government stopped it.3 For England, fast becoming the workshop of the world, the economic argument in favour of geological surveying as part of the Ordnance Survey carried less weight than for Ireland. Even so, Thomas Colby, the Superintendent of the Ordnance Survey, encouraged a few surveyors to colour Ordnance maps geologically in the early 1830s. A fifth experiment was proposed, but not carried out, in 1831 when it was suggested to government that William Smith, the ageing Father of English Geology, should be appointed colourer of the Ordnance maps.4KeywordsGeological SurveyGeological SocietyBritish AssociationPhilosophical MagazineGeological SystemThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.