James Hutton was an early geologist, He's even called the "Father of modern geology"
He was born in Scotland on the 14th of June in 1726. He was one of five children of a merchant who was Edinburgh City Treasurer, who sadly, died when James was still young.
James' mother insisted that he get and education at the Edinburgh High school, where he was mainly interested in Math and science. He then attended the University of Edinburgh when he was 14.
Hutton inherited from his father the Berwickshire farms of Slighhouses, a lowland farm which had been in the family since 1713, and the hill farm of Nether Monynut. In the early 1750s he moved to Slighhouses and set about making improvements, introducing farming practices from other parts of Britain and experimenting with plant and animal husbandry. He recorded his ideas and innovations in an unpublished treatise on The Elements of Agriculture.
This developed his interest in meteorology and geology. In a 1753 letter he wrote that he had "become very fond of studying the surface of the earth, and was looking with anxious curiosity into every pit or ditch or bed of a river that fell in his way”. Clearing and draining his farm provided ample opportunities. Playfair describes Hutton as having noticed that “a vast proportion of the present rocks are composed of materials afforded by the destruction of bodies, animal, vegetable and mineral, of more ancient formation”.
His theoretical ideas began to come together in 1760. While his farming activities continued, in 1764 he went on a geological tour of the north of Scotland with James Clerk Maxwell, ancestor of the famous James Clerk Maxwell.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
James Hutton.
Across the wide river.
Across the wide river is a story about The Rankin family, Lowry Rankin specifically.
The Rankins lived in Tennessee in the 1800's when slavery was still a very big problem. Lowry's father was John Rankin, an abolition minister.
The book is based on actual events and an obviously actual family, but it still mostly fiction.
In the beginning of the book, Lowry thinks everything in Kentucky is great and had only seen the "alright" side of slavery, that was until he was going to bible school with his friend Sherwood, who just happened to be a slave. after the lesson, Sherwood went outside so Lowry and his father could talk, and then they heard screams. Someone who had a problem with Sherwood learning had whipped him. That would be the beginning of Lowry seeing the bad side of slavery.
After all this, they Rankins made the decision to move across the river into Ohio the to the town of Ripley.
They lived in town for a while, but they didn't really like it, so John Rankin bought some land on top of a hill and built a house for them.
Lowry started school, and got bullied for his accent, so for the next few years, he didn't talk much outside of his home. One girl stood up for him though. Her name was Amanda Kephart. It was love at first sight for him.
Little did Lowry know, his parents had become involved in the underground (Underground railroad). That was, at least, until a slave came to his house looking for someone to take him to the next house.
From then on, he was involved with the underground railroad.
As Lowry grew up he wanted to be a carpenter. He even had a little internship with his uncle for a while. But as the issues with slavery got worse, He decided he wanted to be an abolition minister. So he went to Cincinnati to Lane seminary. Even there though, he had to transport slaves. With all the school, late nights taking slaves to safety, poor nourishment and whatnot, he got sick and had to leave to go back home.
After that he gave up on being a minister for a while and just focused on being a carpenter again.
After a series of events, Lowry saved more slaves, got the girl and would eventually become a name synonymous with abolition.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Recipe time!?
yeah apparently. xP
Okay!
Snicker doodles. You need,
- Cookie dough
- Snickers
Then you gotta put a snicker in the cookie (me and my mom usually cut it in half so it'll fit)
and then smoosh the dough around the snicker so it's all covered and then repeat til ya got all the cookies done. then put them in the oven for however long your cookie directions says.
Easy right? yep. ^_^
Monday, August 15, 2011
Indian Steps Museum.
Last Thursday, my mom and I went to this small museum called Indian Steps museum.
(the way Indian Steps got its name was, back a few hundred years, Indians that lived along the Susquehanna carved steps into the rocks along the river, that were footholds to make fishing easier. these steps have been underwater for quite some time though.)
Indian Steps museum was started by a man named John E. Vandersloot.
He found the area when he was on an outing with his friends. He instantly loved the property and bought it.
While he was gardening, he would find arrow heads, stone tools, pottery and other little pieces of artifacts. He also collected artifacts that his neighbors would share with him. After a while, he had quite a large collection. During the construction of Vandersloot's cabin (which is now the museum building) he had more then 10,000 of the artifacts embedded into the stones to form designs, like birds, animals, reptiles and to tell the story of the Indians that had lived there.
When Vandersloot died in 1936, his property was acquired by Pennsylvania Water & Power Company, owner-operator of the hydro power plants at Holtwood, three miles down the stream. In 1939, the company leased the estate to the Conservation Society of York County, founded in 1922. In 1955 Pennsylvania Power and Light Company bought the assets of the former company, and on December 3, 1956, PP & L presented the estate to the Society for the payment of 'one dollar.'
It's very unlikely that Vandersloot thought that anything would come from his hobby, let alone a whole museum. But I'm sure he would be glad that everything is being kept for people to see and learn about.
You can tell, by the inscription that is carved into a stone above the doorway to enter the museum that says :
"I entreat all those who pass this way to safely guard and preserve these former possessions of and monuments to an ancient Indian people.
Owner and Builder, Indian Steps Cabin, 1912"
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Matthew Fontaine Maury
Born : 1806
Died : 1873
Maurys ancestry can be traced back to 15th century france.
His grandfather (reverend James Maury) was a teacher to 3 future U.S. presidents: Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Munroe.
He was born in Virgina, but then moved to Tennessee when he was five.
He wanted to be in the navy like his older brother John Minor Maury, but when he caught yellow fever and after fighting pirates while an officer in the U.S. Navy, and died from it, his father forbade Matthew to join. He eventually joined anyway though.
When a leg injury left him unable for duty at sea, Maury spent his time studying navigation, meteorology, winds, and currents. His hard work on and love of plotting the oceans paid off when he became Superintendent of the Naval Observatory and head of the Depot of Charts and Instruments. Here Maury studied thousands of ships' logs and charts. He published the Wind and Current Chart of the North Atlantic, which showed sailors how to use the ocean's currents and winds to their advantage and drastically reduced the length of ocean voyages. Maury's uniform system of recording oceanographic data was adopted by navies and merchant marines around the world and was used to develop charts for all the major trade routes.
Speech Assignment:)
Alright so i just started a new homeschool group, and my first assignment is to write a short paragraph on myself.
so here we go,
