This is an interesting link that leads to other areas:
http://news.discovery.com/earth/200-year-old-map-changed-how-we-see-the-world-150120.htm
Cheers,
Derek
Great post, Derek.
"While Smith’s work earned him a place in history, oddly, it also contributed to his financial ruin. Though he made a lot of money as a surveyor, Smith invested unwisely in real estate, and got so heavily into debt that he had to sell his famed collection of fossils to the British Museum. The map was a chance for him to get in the black again, but it didn’t sell well enough, in part because another surveyor published his own competing version. As a result, the creator of the first great geological map ended up in debtor’s prison in 1819."
Now that's funny, "made a lot of money surveying"
There was a good book written about him a few years back (I have a copy) that was pretty interesting. The detail that went into hauling the coal across England via the canals and ox teams. Plus all the geology:
The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology
By Simon Winchester
