Thomas Sterry Hunt | |
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| Born | (1826-09-05)September 5, 1826 |
| Died | February 12, 1892(1892-02-12) (aged 65) |
| Occupation(s) | Geologist,chemist |
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Thomas Sterry Hunt (September 5, 1826 – February 12, 1892) was anAmericangeologist andchemist.
Hunt was born atNorwich, 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 anapothecary 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 theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science.[1]
In 1848 he presented a paper inPhiladelphiaOn Acid Springs and Gypsum Deposits of the Onondaga Salt Group.[2] At Yale he became assistant toBenjamin Silliman Jr., and in 1846 was appointed chemist to the Geological Survey of Vermont. In 1847 he was appointed to similar duties on theGeological Survey of Canada inMontreal underSir William Logan, and this post he held until 1872.[1] Upon arriving in Canada, Hunt began studying thecrystalline rocks of eastern Canada,sulphate andphosphate deposits, the composition ofmineral waters, and the oil resources inEnniskillen Township.[3] In the Report of the Geological Survey for 1849-1850, Hunt analyzed a one hundred pound sample ofbitumen from Enniskillen Township, noting that the mineral could be used to createasphalt,caulking material for ships orilluminating gas.[4] Hunt's report drew attention to the bitumen despots inSouthwestern Ontario and helped ignite the first oil boom inEnniskillen Township.[5][6] In December 1860, Hunt travelled to the Enniskillen oil fields and recorded thatJames 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 becomeprofessor ofgeology atMassachusetts Institute of Technology. He was elected an Associate Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1851.[9]
In 1857, he invented achromium oxide-based ink[10] while teaching atUniversité 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 theRoyal Society, and he was one of the original members and president of theRoyal Society of Canada. In 1861, he was elected as a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society.[12] He was made Chevalier or theLegion of Honor inFrance and an honorary doctor of laws of theUniversity of Cambridge. He was a frequent contributor to scientific journals, writing on the crystallinelimestones, the origin of continents, the chemistry of the primeval earth, on serpentines, etc. He also wrote a notableEssay on the History of the names Cambrian and Silurian (Canadian Naturalist, 1872), in which the claims ofAdam Sedgwick, with respect to the grouping of theCambrianstrata, were forcibly advocated.[1] Hunt was elected a member of theNational Academy of Sciences in 1873.[13]
Building uponJohn Tyndall's research ongreenhouse gases, Hunt first proposed the theory which linkedclimate change from theCarboniferous to the modern age to concentrations ofcarbon dioxide in the atmosphere in an 1863 submission to theAmerican 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 beforeArrhenius 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 inNew York City on February 12, 1892.[16] TheThomas-Sterry-Hunt International Ecological Reserve, an ecological reserve inQuebec, 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 inMontreal,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'sdeath in February, 1892. Mrs. Hunt was a linguist, and authored volumes of poems.[17]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hunt, Thomas Sterry".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 937. Works by or aboutThomas Sterry Hunt atWikisource| Professional and academic associations | ||
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| Preceded by | President of the Royal Society of Canada 1884–1885 | Succeeded by |
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