THE MAP THAT CHANGED THE WORLD (Viking. Hardback. 338 pages) by Simon Winchester

Here's a book title to attract the attention of surveyors.

The bi-line "The Tale of William Smith and the Birth of a Science", may not so appealing to surveyors, but it gives the clue that this book is another in a category that is increasing in popularity: non-fictional stories about emerging technology.

"The Surgeon of Crowthorne" (also by Simon Winchester), "The Map Maker's Dream", "The Great Arc" and the best known of this new genre "Longitude."

The hero of "Longitude" - clockmaker John Harrison - and the hero of "The Map That Changed the World" - surveyor/geologist William Smith share two important characteristics.

They were both brilliant men of humble origins and they both suffered at the hands of the aristocracy. This is good material for a book.

William Smith as a surveyor in the field - particularly in mining and canal-building - reached the conclusion that:

..all the rocks that had been laid down in sediments at a particular time in a particular place are laid down in a way that has much the same characteristics, and most particularly just the same fossils, and always appear in the same vertical order.. no matter where they are found.

In the late 1700s this theorising questioned the accepted accounts of creation as written in the Bible.

For this discovery William Smith was (eventually) accorded the title of "The Father of Geology."

The main story-lines in the book concern the trials and tribulations Smith encountered in the preparation of the first geological map of England and the reluctance of the leaders of the Geological Society of London (cultured dilettantes) to accept him.

In some ways Smith was his own worst enemy. He was a poor business man. He made an unfortunate marriage. He sought to climb the social ladder by demeaning himself. And he was singularly deficient in the art of introducing himself to public notice.

The author of this book, Simon Winchester, goes to some pains to point out he has training in geology. He "goes over the top" in his praise of Smith.

... that one half-educated Oxfordshire yeoman, working alone, with compass and notebook and clinometer and an abiding appreciation of the beauty and importance of fossils, could surmise with such accuracy what a thousand surveyors and professional geologists in the decades since have really only succeeded in confirming, is little short of a miracle.

And, to the point of being repetitive, he takes every opportunity to ridicule anyone who obstructed his hero, Smith, in the slightest way.

Concentrating on these "popular" aspects, I believe Winchester has missed making the discovery that William Smith was a surveyor first and a geologist second.

When Smith is released from debtor's prison in London he travels direct to Yorkshire and joins the staff of a surveying practice. Years later, in retirement, when he has been accepted as a leading geologist, he is taken on a tour of northern Ireland - but rather than showing interest in geology, Smith spends his time talking to farmers about surveys for irrigation channels.

However, my objections to Winchester and my rating of this book below "Longitude" and "The Great Arc" may have its origins in the Winchester opinion that:

He (Smith) could make maps and make surveys ...- anyone with a modicum of skill could do that.

R.J.Wenholz
Canberra