THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCIENCE OF GEOLOGY DURING THE GROWTH OF THE RAILROAD INDUSTRY - HOW THESE TWO DISCIPLINES GREW SYNERGISTICALLY THROUGHOUT THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY

As the 1700's drew to a close, inventions such as James Watt's steam engine announced the advent of the Industrial Revolution. These devices needed a source of fuel and it soon became apparent that geologists (to find the coal) and railroads (to transport the coal to where people lived) were in this growth cycle together. This presentation focuses on the beginnings of the railroad industry with the spotlight on the exponential need for scientists to find fuel deposits and to map out railroad routes on geologically stable ground and together create markets so railroads had products to transport. From the geologist's point-of-view, passenger trains quickly delivered large survey parties to distant lands, roadbed construction cut into hillsides and mountains exposing hitherto unseen strata creating a wonderland for geologists, and railroads could then be used transport specimens and ore samples back east. Rapid expansion of both disciplines began in earnest in the early 1800's and continued unabated until the 1920's. Correllation of the growth patterns of the number of miles of railroad constructed match closely with the number of geologic treatises written. This synergy continues today with talk of extending the Alaskan Railroad south through Canada to join the rail network in the Lower 48 so that the tremendous mineral wealth along the proposed corridor could then be used to transport mineral products economically to market. Ironically, this study is being led by a geologist who understands the wealth that could be unlocked by combining geology and rail transport.