James Croll

BGS image ID: P742383

James Croll was born in 1821, the son of a Perthshire stonemason and crofter. He was to suffer from ill health throughout his life. In 1864, while working as janitor, he published the paper The physical cause of the change of climate during geological epochs. This proposed the theory that variations in the earth’s orbit were responsible for cyclical climate changes, including ice ages. In 1867 he was offered the position of office-keeper at the Scottish branch of the Geological Survey. This job left him sufficient freedom to pursue his climate studies and resulted in the publication of the book Climate and Time (1875).

In 2010 the Quaternary Research Association established the James Croll Medal, its highest award for merit.

Andrew L Morrison

Letter about C B Wedd being a German spy

BGS image ID: P842013

This letter is from W H Spaull who was a magistrate at Oswestry. He is enquiring about geologist Charles Bertie Wedd (1868-1945) who was allegedly up a tree sketching near an army camp and mistaken for a German spy and almost lynched! This letter as well as showing some of the dangers a field geologist may face also demonstrates the fear of German spies less than two months after the outbreak of World War 1.

Posters about the Geological Survey and World War I

Andrew L Morrison   

Parish's Loam Work, Erith.

BGS image ID: P201180

Parish's Loam Work, Erith. This is the southern portion of the great pit, entered along the southern tramline. View looking south and shows mode of working. A small adit is made at foot of the face. The overlying sand is shovelled down, with the truck placed at mouth of adit. This causes the curious aspect of the face. The sand does not show bedding unless seen very closely. This exposes the whole thickness of the Thanet Sand, about 70 feet, with an ill-defined capping of the pebbly series.

Date taken: 27/06/1911

Old photograph number: A01191

Bob McIntosh

Oblique aerial view of Blindwells Opencast Site, Tranent, 1996.

BGS image ID: P001315

Oblique aerial view of Blindwells Opencast Site, Tranent, East Lothian, looking from the east-north-east. Working opencast coal site, in coals of the Limestone Coal Formation, showing various stages in the process. The working face is in the foreground; backfilled spoil in the centre - colours of each load derive from different materials, white and pale brown = sandstone, pale and dark grey = siltstone and shale, dark brown = glacial till overburden; black area = coal storage, pale brown areas = restored overburden. Top left is worked area fully restored to agricultural use. Bottom right is undisturbed ground.


Bob McIntosh

Joseph Beete Jukes M.A., F.R.S.

BGS image ID:  P505852

Joseph Beete Jukes 1811-1869. Born at Summerhill, near Birmingham. Studied under Sedgwick. Worked in Newfoundland and on H.M. Ship 'Fly' surveying the coast of Australia and New Guinea. Joined the Geological Survey of Great Britain and Ireland in 1846 and by 1850 was appointed to the post of Director of Geological Survey Ireland.

More details can be found in Joseph Beete Jukes page in the new biographical resource: Pioneers of the British Geological Survey. Browse the 'Pioneers'

BGS image ID:  P575755

Bob McIntosh

Scottish oil shale distillates, 1905 vintage.

BGS image ID: P528115

Samples of the different distillates and products that are produced during the processing of Scottish oil-shale. Samples on the left contain distillates that are intermediary stages in the process such as the crude oil, crude distillate (green oil), blue oil. Samples on the right are the final products that are marketed for a range of uses e.g. motor spirit, lighthouse oil, cleaning spirit.

Top row, left to right: Crude Shale Oil, Crude Distillate, Blue Oil, Heavy Oil and Paraffin, Crude Naptha, Crude Burning Oil. 
Bottom row, left to right: Crude Scrubber Naptha, Sulphate of Ammonia, Ammoniacal Liquor, Motor Spirit, Lighthouse Oil, Power Oil, Cleaning Spirit.

BGS image ID: P528117

Diagram illustrating processes of manufacture in the Scottish oil-shale industry.

The diagram shows the complete process from the original shale through the various treatments and distillations and showing the end products. The process can be conveniently considered in two stages. The raw oil-shale is distilled/heated in retorts in the absence of air and in the presence of steam. This allows the shale to undergo decomposition and distillation into crude oil and ammonia. The second stage is refining the crude oil. The object is to obtain from the crude oil various types of refined oil and wax as required by the prevailing markets at the lowest possible working cost and with the smallest amount of capital spent on refining plant.

Other samples from the Scottish Shale oil industry

Bob McIntosh

Westfield Opencast Coal Mine, 1977.

BGS image ID: P001513

Oblique aerial view of the Westfield Opencast Coal Mine from the north-east Fife Region. Cut to extract the abnormally thick development of coals (Boglochty Beds) in the Passage Group of the Namurian of the Scottish Carboniferous succession. The excavation is about 200 metres deep and has cut through strata from just above the top of the Middle Coal Measures (Westphalian B) down to the Calmy Limestone of Namurian (E2) age. At the top are the processing plants. The Westfield Open Pit was worked by Costain Mining Limited on behalf of the National Coal Board Opencast Executive.

Excavation commenced in 1955 on the site of the former Kirkness Colliery, production started the following year, 1956. It was regarded at the time as the largest opencast in the UK and possibly Europe.


Old photograph number: D02514

Photograph taken 1977.

Bob McIntosh

Ball clay manufactures, Heathfield Potteries, Newton Abbot.

BGS image ID: P208108

Heathfield Potteries, Newton Abbot. Bovey Tracey ball clays. Great Western Potteries, Heathfield. Pipe making. Clay is fed on the floor above, into the pipe press (on left) and moulded under pressure. The picture shows a pipe partly removed from the press. On removal it is put vertically on a wooden slab and placed on a revolving table (in front of central figure) where, while turning, it is trimmed and has grooves made at both ends with a comb. The pipe is then stocked for drying before firing.

BGS old photograph number: A08186.  Date of photograph 1945.

BGS image ID: P208109

Heathfield Potteries, Newton Abbot. Bovey Tracey ball clays. Great Western Potteries, Heathrfield. Various irregularly shaped articles such as drain traps, ? section pipes and special bends which cannot be made mechanically are moulded by hand. The photograph shows a mould partly made on the bench. On the floor are several drain trap moulds, two completed drain traps and a curved ? section pipe.

BGS old photograph number: A08187. Date of photograph 1945.

Bob McIntosh

Cartoon by H T De la Beche

BGS image ID: P832328

This cartoon was drawn by Henry De la Beche and features himself. The writing at the bottom says "Opportunity of studying the effects of rain on glass. Devon 1831". This would have been during the time that De la Beche was carrying out a geological examination of South Devonshire for a hobby. His income came from a sugar plantation in Jamaica but money was running short and he would have found delays caused by the weather very frustrating.

Andrew L Morrison

Making grindstones, Messrs. Armitage's Quarry, Normanton

BGS image ID: P206950

Messrs. Armitage's Quarry, Normanton, Yorkshire. Looking NE. Middle Coal Measures. Grindstone constructed from Woolley Edge Rock, a massive Coal Measure sandstone.

BGS old photograph number A07025. Date taken: 1936

Bob McIntosh