Thomas Sterry Hunt | |
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| Born | September 5, 1826 |
| Died | February 12, 1892 (aged 65) |
| Occupation(s) | Geologist, chemist |
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Thomas Sterry Hunt (September 5, 1826 –February 12, 1892) was an American geologist and chemist.
Thomas Sterry Hunt | |
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| | |
| Born | September 5, 1826 |
| Died | February 12, 1892 (aged 65) |
| Occupation(s) | Geologist, chemist |
| Signature | |
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Thomas Sterry Hunt (September 5, 1826 –February 12, 1892) was an American geologist and chemist.
Hunt was born at Norwich, Connecticut. He lost his father when twelve years old, and had to earn his own livelihood. In the course of two years he found employment in a printing office, in an apothecary shop, in a book store and as a clerk. He became interested in natural science, and especially in chemical and medical studies, and in 1845 he was elected a member of the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists at Yale—a body which four years later became the American Association for the Advancement of Science. [1]
In 1848 he presented a paper in Philadelphia On Acid Springs and Gypsum Deposits of the Onondaga Salt Group. [2] At Yale he became assistant to Benjamin Silliman Jr., and in 1846 was appointed chemist to the Geological Survey of Vermont. In 1847 he was appointed to similar duties on the Geological Survey of Canada in Montreal under Sir William Logan, and this post he held until 1872. [1] Upon arriving in Canada, Hunt began studying the crystalline rocks of eastern Canada, sulphate and phosphate deposits, the composition of mineral waters, and the oil resources in Enniskillen Township. [3] In the Report of the Geological Survey for 1849-1850, Hunt analyzed a one hundred pound sample of bitumen from Enniskillen Township, noting that the mineral could be used to create asphalt, caulking material for ships or illuminating gas. [4] Hunt's report drew attention to the bitumen despots in Southwestern Ontario and helped ignite the first oil boom in Enniskillen Township. [5] [6] In December 1860, Hunt travelled to the Enniskillen oil fields and recorded that James Miller Williams and other entrepreneurs had sunk over 100 oils wells and mined somewhere between 300,000 and 400,000 gallons of oil. [7] [8] He resigned to become professor of geology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was elected an Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1851. [9]
In 1857, he invented a chromium oxide-based ink [10] while teaching at Université Laval, in response to an appeal for measures to fight counterfeiting. The ink ended up being used on various bank notes, including the US government's Civil War bank notes. This is the origin of the term "Greenback". [11]
In 1859 he was elected fellow of the Royal Society, and he was one of the original members and president of the Royal Society of Canada. In 1861, he was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society. [12] He was made Chevalier or the Legion of Honor in France and an honorary doctor of laws of the University of Cambridge. He was a frequent contributor to scientific journals, writing on the crystalline limestones, the origin of continents, the chemistry of the primeval earth, on serpentines, etc. He also wrote a notable Essay on the History of the names Cambrian and Silurian (Canadian Naturalist, 1872), in which the claims of Adam Sedgwick, with respect to the grouping of the Cambrian strata, were forcibly advocated. [1] Hunt was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1873. [13]
Building upon John Tyndall's research on greenhouse gases, Hunt first proposed the theory which linked climate change from the Carboniferous to the modern age to concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in an 1863 submission to the American Journal of Science and Arts. [14] He further explored at a meeting for the British Society for the Advancement of Science in the fall of 1878. This was well before Arrhenius established the theory of the greenhouse effect. Hunt later hypothesized that the high concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide in the geologic past was of cosmic, rather than volcanic, origin. [15]
He died in New York City on February 12, 1892. [16] The Thomas-Sterry-Hunt International Ecological Reserve, an ecological reserve in Quebec, Canada was established on September 7, 1988.
His publications include:
In January, 1878, Thomas Sterry Hunt married Anna Rebecca, daughter of Mr. Justice Gale, of Montreal. She was born and educated in Montreal, Quebec. Her early years were spent on a farm adjacent to Montreal. After her father's death, in 1865, she and her two sisters, Baroness von Friesen, and Mrs. Stuart of Quebec, travelled extensively in Europe. The couple moved to Boston, and travelled extensively both before and after her husband's death in February, 1892. Mrs. Hunt was a linguist, and authored volumes of poems. [17]
Sir William Edmond Logan, FRSE FRS FGS, was a Canadian-born geologist and the founder and first director of the Geological Survey of Canada.
George Mercer Dawson was a Canadian geologist and surveyor. He performed many early explorations in western North America and compiled numerous records of the native peoples.
The Geological Survey of Canada is a Canadian federal government agency responsible for performing geological surveys of the country developing Canada's natural resources and protecting the environment. A branch of the Earth Sciences Sector of Natural Resources Canada, the GSC is the country's oldest scientific agency and was one of its first government organizations.
Imperial Oil Limited is a Canadian petroleum company. It is Canada's second-largest integrated oil company. It is majority-owned by American oil company ExxonMobil, with a 69.6% ownership stake in the company. It is a producer of crude oil, diluted bitumen, and natural gas. Imperial Oil is one of Canada's major petroleum refiners and petrochemical producers. It supplies Esso-brand service stations.
Petrolia is a town in southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is part of Lambton County and is surrounded by Enniskillen Township. It is billed as "Canada's Victorian Oil Town" and is often credited with starting the oil industry in North America, a claim shared with the nearby town of Oil Springs.
Frank Dawson Adams was a Canadian geologist.
Alexander Murray, was a Scottish geologist. Murray is best known for his career with the Geological Survey of Canada and the Geological Survey of Newfoundland.
James Miller Williams was a Canadian-American businessman and politician. Williams is best known for establishing the first commercially successful oil well in 1858 and igniting the first oil boom in North America. Williams is commonly viewed as the father of the petroleum industry in Canada.
Sir John William Dawson (1820–1899) was a Canadian geologist and university administrator.
Robert Bell was a Canadian geologist, professor and civil servant. He is considered one of Canada’s greatest exploring scientists, having named over 3,000 geographical features.
John Henry Fairbank was variously a surveyor, oilman, inventor, banker, politician and fire chief in Lambton County, Ontario. Fairbank is best known for his invention of the jerker-line pumping system, which quickly spread across the world its introduction in the mid-1860s. Fairbank Oil, established by Fairbank in 1861, is the oldest continually operating petroleum company, and the company's property, known as the "First Commercial Oil Field", is included in the List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Ontario.
Charles Nelson Tripp was a bitumen businessman in Ontario. Tripp is best known for his role in the formation of the International Mining and Manufacturing Company in 1854, the world's first incorporated oil company. Tripp and his brother Henry were among the first to exploit Enniskillen Township's bitumen deposits following Thomas Sterry Hunt and Alexander Murray's reports on the region and helped kickstart the first oil boom in Enniskillen Township.
Thomas-Sterry-Hunt International Ecological Reserve is an ecological reserve in Quebec, Canada. It was established on September 7, 1988.
Alexander Winchell was an American geologist who contributed to this field mainly as an educator and a popular lecturer and writer. His views on evolution aroused controversy among his contemporaries; today the racism of these views is more cause for comment.
William Henry McGarvey was a Canadian business magnate, entrepreneur and politician. McGarvey is best known for his exploits in Galicia, where he operated a highly successful petroleum company. McGarvey was one of the most successful "foreign drillers" of Petrolia, becoming a multimillionaire before the outbreak of the First World War destroyed his business.
Henry George Vennor was a Canadian geologist and ornithologist who became well known as a weather forecaster.
Jacob Lewis Englehart was a Canadian-American business magnate, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Englehart is best known for his role in the formation of Imperial Oil in 1880 to combat the growing influence of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil. Englehart was one of the most successful oil refiners in Canada during the 1800s and oversaw the completion of the Temiskaming and North Ontario Railway.
Hugh Nixon Shaw is an Irish-Canadian oil producer and businessman. Shaw is best known for being misidentified as the discoverer of the Shaw well, Canada's first oil gusher, on January 16, 1862.
John Shaw was an American oil driller, businessman and photographer. Shaw is best known for striking Canada's first oil gusher at Oil Springs on January 16, 1862. Shaw's oil gusher marked the beginning of the first oil boom in Enniskillen Township, as speculators rushed to Oil Springs seeking similar fortunes.
The International Drillers is the name given to the more than 500 drillers from Lambton County who worked in oil fields across the world between December 1873 to the mid-1940s. Many of the International Drillers grew up learning the oil business in Enniskillen County and provided the skilled labour, expertise and technology necessary for the development of the global petroleum industry.
Works by or about Thomas Sterry Hunt at Wikisource | International | |
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