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https://exhibits.library.illinois.edu/s/rbml/item/3943
- Title
- The natural history of animals, vegetables, and minerals
- Description
- An early and influential example of the geotheory approach to calculating an age of the Earth was carried out by Georges-Louis Leclerc (Comte de Buffon). This section displays several tables from Buffon’s Historie Naturelle, Generale et Particuliere (1775), which consisted of experiments to determine the cooling rate of various molten metallic spheres. In his second of two geotheories, Buffon used these empirical measurements to estimate the time required to cool a molten Earth to the solid one we observe today. His estimate was on the order of 100,000 years. This number is far younger than the widely accepted, modern measurement of 4.55 billion years, but Buffon’s theory contained two crucial aspects that separated it from other geotheories of the time. First, the theory achieved a middle ground between an Earth that was only a few millennia old, and one that was infinite. Second, it inferred a directional nature to Earth’s history, with a beginning (molten sphere) and eventually end (frozen, lifeless world).
- Call Number (click link to view in library catalog)
- 500 B86hEk
- See Also
- Full Text Available at HathiTrust
- Authors
- Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc
- Full Title
- The natural history of animals, vegetables, and minerals : with the theory of the earth in general
- Date
- 1775
- From the Exhibit
- In Search of Lost Time: Earth’s Chronology
- Publisher
- T. Bell
- Location
- London
- Language
- English
- Rights
-
This item is the physical property of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Intellectual property rights, including copyright, may reside with the materials' creator(s) or their heirs.
The Rare Book & Manuscript Library's reproduction and publication policies are available here: https://www.library.illinois.edu/rbx/collections/reproduction-services/. The library welcomes requests for reproductions made from works in our collections, though restrictions may apply to certain materials. Please contact the library with any questions at askacurator@illinois.edu. - Type
- Text
- Medium
- Book
- Bibliographic Citation
- Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de. Historie Naturelle, Generale et Particuliere. Vol. 1. London: T. Bell, 1775.