SOME NEW BOOKS. 



Thomas Sopwith, M.A., F.R.S. With Excerpts from his Diary of Fifty-seven 

 Years. By Benjamin Ward Richardson, M.D., F.R.S., &c. 8vo. London 

 Longmans & Co., i8gi. Svo. Pp.400. Price 6s. 



AS a worker in Applied Science, the name of Thomas Sopwith takes 

 a distinguished position. Born in 1803 at Newcastle-upon- 

 Tyne, and brought up as a land surveyor, he was in early life 

 much occupied with surveys of mines and roads, in planning the 

 construction of bridges and other architectural works. Indeed, in 

 1829 he was successful in competing with McAdam — then in the 

 zenith of his fame — for the construction of a road in the North of 

 England. In course of time he was engaged on many surveys 

 for railways in different parts of the country, and in connection with 

 these labours he was brought into contact with the Stephensons, with 

 William Smith, Telford, and others. He made an important mineral 

 survey of the Forest of Dean, and the large models which he con- 

 structed of this and other districts won him, in 1842, the honour of a 

 Telford Medal at the Institute of Civil Engineers. Throughout the 

 greater part of his life, Mr. Sopwith was more or less intimately con- 

 nected with the mining district of Alston Moor, of which he published 

 plans and geological sections, and in 1833 a small volume, in which the 

 Physical features, Geology, and Antiquities were described, together 

 with a particular account of the lead mines. From 1838-41 he acted 

 as a Commissioner on behalf of the Crown in the Dean Forest, and 

 from 1845 to 1866 he held the chief agency of Mr. Beaumont's lead 

 mines in Northumberland and Durham, residing twelve years at 

 Allenheads. 



Throughout his career the careful record of facts was a constant 

 aim with Mr. Sopwith. He advised the publication of accounts of 

 railway sections, and, in conjunction with Dr. Buckland and Sir 

 Charles Lemon, was instrumental in gaining the establishment of the 

 Mining Record Office. He was naturally interested in the formation 

 of the Museum of Economic [now " Practical "] Geology, and 

 published in 1843 the first guide to the Museum. He also published 

 " A Treatise on Isometrical Drawing, as applicable to Geological and 

 Mining Plans," Sec, a work which met at the time with marked 

 success, and of which a second edition afterwards appeared. 



To geologists, Sopwith's Geological Models — brought before the 

 Geological Society in 1841 — are familiar. Constructed of various 

 kinds of wood, they served admirably to represent the nature of 

 stratification, of outcrops, faults, and mineral veins. Figures of them 

 were published by Lyell in his " Elements of Geology." 



The character of the man is illustrated by the remarkable diary 

 which he kept for the long period of fifty-seven years. This diary has 

 furnished the chief materials for the biography. It contains records 

 of all the leading events in Mr. Sopwith's life, of individuals he met, 

 of occurrences that came under his observation, together with extracts 



