Some Science Guys -- Dr McConeghy

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Eratosthenes Measures the World in Ancient Egypt -- 200 BC

Eratosthenes was born in the Greek city of Cyrene in Libya in 276 BC, educated in Athens, and died in the Greek City of Alexandria in Egypt in 194 BC.

Remember that Alexander the Great, a Macedonian Greek, conquered Egypt and around 330.B.C he founded a new city there which he modestly named after himself, Alexandria. One of his generals took over Egypt when Alexander died. Then for 300 years the gneral's descendants were rulers of Egypt and were called "Hellenic" (Greek for "Greeks"). There was a long series of Greek rulers who were mainly called Ptolemy if they were male or Cleopatra (Greek for "Father's Glory") if they were female. This line continued right down to the famous Cleopatra who fooled around with Julius Caesar - she was actually Cleopatra Theo Philopater (the VII) and her father was Ptolemy XII Auletes. But that was a lot later, she became queen in 51 B.C.

About 245 B.C. Eratosthenes was brought from Athens to Alexandria by the Hellenic (Greek) Pharoah Ptolemy II Euergetes to be the tutor for the Pharoah's son. A few years later he became the 3rd Head Librarian of the Great Library, the Mouseian (Library of the Muses), which had been built by the previous Greek Pharoahs Ptolemy I and Ptolemy II Philadelphus to house copies of the works of the Greek writer Aristotle and other scrolls. He probably got the Alexandria job because the 2nd head librarian, Callimachus, had been one of his teachers in Athens. Nothing like a good "networking" connection!

Eratosthenes was a very ingenious thinker. He gave improved solutions to several classic math problems, invented a method for studying prime numbers which is still taught today, and used sophisticated Greek geometrical reasoning to accurately measure the distance to the sun, the distance to the moon, and the tilt of the Earth on its axis. Eratosthenes was a very diligent worker and wrote a lot about the library and its books.

Historical accounts from the ancient historian Strabo and several later authors tell us that Eratosthenes made a very good estimate of the actual size of the earth by the following method: one day as he was researching in the library he found a book that said, on the longest day of the year the reflection of the sun could be seen at the bottom of a deep well in the city of Syene, in southern Egypt.

This is an important observation. It means that in Syene the sun had to be directly overhead on that day of the year. But, he knew that on Midsummer Day the sun at Alexandria did cast a small shadow. That is, the sun was nearly, but not quite, directly overhead -- about a 7 degree angle. If the earth was flat, this would not be possible. The earth had to be curved and the distance from Alexandria to Syene had to represent 7/360ths of the total.

OK, if it is about 500 miles between the two cities, then 500/7 x 360 = about 25,700 miles around the earth -- that is, by simple geometry he could calculate the angles and the whole distance around the earth. He didn't have an accurate clock, astronomical instruments or measuring devices, but still, since the actual distance is now measured as a little less than 25, 000 miles he did pretty well for 200 B.C.!

Columbus?

But what about Columbus? Didn't he "prove the world was round?'

Ha! the idea that in 1492 educated people thought the earth was flat is silly. The story of Columbus arguing with people about whether the Earth was round or flat was probably made up around the year 1800 by the American author Washington Irving for a book he was writing about Columbus.

The real argument with Columbus was not whether the earth was round, but whether it was possible to sail far enough to get around it -- to sail to China.

The Spaniards wanted to get to China and the Orient in order to trade for spices, silk and other valuable goods as Europeans had been doing for centuries. But, in the late 1400s they could not sail through the Mediteranean. At that time the Turks and other Muslim rulers had blocked the trade routes. In 1454 the Turks captured the major Christian city of Constantinople (Istanbul) and cut off trade almost completely. Europeans were desperate for the Asian spices, and there was a fortune to be made by anyone who could get them. Portuguese sailors were trying to get to China and India by working their way eastward around Africa, but Columbus wanted to sail directly westward to reach China.

What was the argument?

Columbus said he could sail west to China. The Spanish court geographers said it was impossible. The disagreement was not about whether the Earth was flat -- only ignorant peasants believed that! The argument was about how far it was to China.

Every trader knew that it was approximately 9,000 to 10,000 miles eastward from Europe to China by the ancient trade routes -- those roads had been travelled for centuries. And, the geographers knew that the Earth was about 25,000 miles around, so that meant that sailing westward to China could be a 15,000 mile trip or more. No one, including Columbus, believed that their ships could sail that far without stopping for repairs and supplies. And, that's why the King of Spain was so reluctant to give Columbus any ships or sailors. Once Columbus set sail, no one expected to see him alive again! In the end the King just gave Columbus some old ships that weren't worth much, and prisoners from the local jail for sailors -- no one would miss them.

What was Columbus' big idea?

Columbus claimed that the distance around the world was only about 18,000 miles at most -- he was depending on the estimate made by the ancient scholar Ptolemy whose calculations translate to about 18,600 miles in modern terms. That meant that in Columbus' calculations, the distance to China by sea was only 7,000 to 8,000 miles rather than 15,000. That was still a very long sail, further than any European ship had ever sailed out of sight of land. But, it was a lot shorter than going all the way around Africa to China. He thought that with luck he might make it, and he was courageous enough to take a chance.

Unfortunately for Columbus, the King's court geographers were almost exactly right and he was dead wrong. It is over 13,000 miles westward from Spain to China. His leaky ships would never have made it all the way! But fortunately for Columbus, when he had sailed less than 4000 miles and his ships were starting to have problems, America got in the way and saved him from being drowned. He was foolish and wrong, but he was also brave and determined. Without his persistence, the Americas might not have been discovered for hundreds of years more.... the United States would probably never have existed. World history would have been totally different! So, was he a hero or not?

p.s. Like many famous historical figures, our image of Columbus is quite distorted. The accounts of his appearance written by people who actually knew him all agree that he had red hair and a fair, ruddy complexion. He was Italian, but from the North of Italy, not Sicily. (see the classic biography, Admiral of the Ocean Sea by S.E. Morison)

Galileo represents one of the first true experimentalists. In a time when studying Nature meant studying ancient books and the Greek philosopher Aristotle (d 322 BC) dominated science, Galileo pursued knowledge on the basis of observation from nature, rather than arguing from philosophical rules. This rejection of ancient authority led him into a confrontation with the Roman Catholic church, one of the notable steps in the emergence of freedom of thought in Western society.

Galileo's approach to learning about Nature, the concept of observation and experimentation as the basis for understanding, may have emerged from a tradition in his family. His father, Vincenzo, was a skilled musician who had studied the lute by performing little experiments involving the tuning of the strings. Every music theorist knows that the rules of harmony are based on mathematical formulae and Galileo was notable for his insistence that understanding Nature depended on understanding mathematics. He said, "the language of God is mathematics."

Galileo observed many aspects of Nature, though he was not so wide ranging in his interests as Leonardo had been in the 1400s. Times were changing, and Galileo was able to publicly pursue his interests in detail over extended times, rather than having to speculate merely in coded notebooks as Leonardo had done. Galileo was interested in what we would call physics. He thought up and carried out a series of important experiments that established very strong arguments against some of the most widely held beliefs of the time. These results conflicted directly with the teachings of the authorities in the schools and the church. He did not contradict the authorities for the sake of being argumentative - the key point is that he showed direct physical evidence, using experiments that could be reproduced, that the old ideas were wrong.

For example, shortly after 1600 the telescope was invented in Holland. Galileo received a description of how it worked and immediately began building his own copies. Soon he could build telescopes of about 20x power magnification. This became a profitable business for him, as he sold many telescopes to the ship masters trading to Italian ports. What he did that no-one else did, or no-one else realized was important, was to look at the sky.

When you look at the sky through a telescope, stars do not look larger - they are much too far away to appear magnified. But planets are a different story. When you look at Jupiter with even a very small telescope, you can see a round disk. And, with a telescope of only 20x or 25x power you can clearly see the four small moons which circle around Jupiter. When you look at the Earth's Moon, you can see valleys, scars, and mountain ranges. If you arrange to project the image of the sun on a surface (looking at the sun directly through a telescope could destroy your eyes) you see that it has imperfections - the dark patches that we call sun spots. Also, he observed Venus and saw that it went through phases similar to the phases of the Moon, an argument for the Sun being in the center of the Solar System. Galileo was the one of the first humans to see any of these things.

These observations contradicted the ancient authorities who said, first, that all the heavenly bodies circled the Earth; and second, that the heavenly objects were perfect in form, not scarred or blotted. Galileo made it plain to see that the ancient authorities were just wrong. Anyone could get a telescope, do what he described and see what he had seen. Interestingly enough, there were many scholars who were so dedicated to the ancient authorities, that they simply refused to look through the telescope because they were afraid they would have to change their ideas. This was a great example of the saying "Don't confuse me with facts, my mind's made up!"

There was a long complicated series of arguments about the arrangement of the Solar System. Is the Earth in the middle or is the Sun in the middle? The church said that the Sun circled around the Earth. Galileo supported the models that said that the Earth circled the Sun, and he wrote a book about it.

In the Christian Bible, Psalms 93:1 and Psalm 104:5, and Ecclesiastes 1:5 speak of the "firm" and "established" position of the earth. In accord with these scriptures, in 1616 the Inquisition ordered Galileo not to "hold or defend" the idea that the Earth moves and the Sun stands still at the center. However, Galileo continued to think about this idea, and some years later when a friend of his became Pope Urban VIII, he was able to get permission to publish his book "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems." 1632

Galileo's book is essentially like a conversation in which one person defends the idea that the Sun in in the center, and the other claims that the Earth is in the center. Pope Urban was a believer in the Earth centered idea, so when the book came out he was not pleased that the character arguing in favor of that idea was made to look silly. The Pope was angry and Galileo was ordered to report to Rome for trial on suspicion of heresy.

After an extended series of hearings and negotiations, the 69 year old Galileo was convicted and forced under threat of torture to publicly retract his ideas of the Sun being in the center, an idea which was formally condemned as heretical. He was imprisoned for life (commuted to permanent house arrest) and another decree soon made it illegal to publish or print any of his past or future books. This is the translated text of the court's sentence:

We say, pronounce, sentence, and declare that you, the said Galileo, by reason of matters adduced in trial, and by you confessed as above, have rendered yourself in the judgement of this Holy Office vehemently suspected of heresy, namely of having believed and held the doctrine which is false and contrary to the sacred and divine Scriptures —that the Sun is the centre of the world and does not move from east to west and that the Earth moves and is not the centre of the world; and that an opinion may be held and defended as probable after it has declared and defined to be contrary to the Holy Scriptures; and that consequently you have incurred all the censures and penalties imposed and promulgated in the sacred canons and other constitutions, general and particular, against such delinquents.

From which we are content that you be absolved, provided that first, with a sincere heart and unfeigned faith, you abjure, curse, and detest before us the aforesaid errors and heresies and every other error and heresy contrary to the Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church in the form prescribed by us for you.

And, in order that this your grave and pernicious error and transgression may not remain altogether unpunished and that you may be more cautious in the future and an example to others that they may abstain from similar delinquencies, we ordain that the book of the "Dialogue of Galileo Galilei" be prohibited by public edict.

We condemn you to the formal prison of this Holy Office during our pleasure, and by way of salutary penance we enjoin that for three years to come you repeat once a week the seven penitential Psalms. Reserving to ourselves liberty to moderate, commute, or take off, in whole or in part the aforesaid penalties and penance. (XIX, 402-406)

Some writers have condemned Galileo for cowardice. Other writers who were in conflict with the church suffered torture and death rather than confess that they were wrong. Galileo had to kneel down in front of the altar and swear that he had changed his mind. According to legend, when he was kneeling and swearing that the Earth stands still, he whispered "per il muovo" meaning "but it still moves."

Galileo did write one more important book, Two New Sciences, but it was published in the Netherlands, where the Pope had no power over the press. It was a kind of grand summary of what he had learned about physics, and it was one of the most important books in the history of science, admired by Isaac Newton and other physicists right up to modern times. Because of the knowledge and the system of studying nature shown in this book, the great physicist Albert Einstein called Galileo "the Father of Modern Science."

The church reversed its position in later years and in fact the Roman Catholic church itself printed a complete uncensored version of all of Galileo's works in 1741. However, as late as the 1990s there have still been arguments about whether Galileo was properly convicted!

BISHOP USSHER DATES THE WORLD: 4004 BC (written by Donald Simanek)

James Ussher (1581-1656), Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland, and Vice-Chancellor of Trinity College in Dublin was highly regarded in his day as a churchman and as a scholar.

Of his many works, his treatise on chronology has proved the most durable. Based on an intricate correlation of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean histories and Holy writ, it was incorporated into an authorized version of the Bible printed in 1701, and thus came to be regarded with almost as much unquestioning reverence as the Bible itself.

Having established the first day of creation as Sunday 23 October 4004 BC, by the arguments set forth in the passage below, Ussher then calculated the dates of other biblical events, concluding, for example, that Adam and Eve were driven from Paradise on Monday 10 November 4004 BC, and that the ark touched down on Mt Ararat on 5 May 1491 BC `on a Wednesday'.

Ussher's spellings have been faithfully kept in the following excerpt.

"For as much as our Christian epoch falls many ages after the beginning of the world, and the number of years before that backward is not only more troublesome, but (unless greater care be taken) more lyable to errour; also it hath pleased our modern chronologers, to adde to that generally received hypothesis (which asserted the Julian years, with their three cycles by a certain mathematical prolepsis, to have run down to the very beginning of the world) an artificial epoch, framed out of three cycles multiplied in themselves; for the Solar Cycle being multiplied by the Lunar, or the number of 28 by 19, produces the great Paschal Cycle of 532 years, and that again multiplied by fifteen, the number of the indiction, there arises the period of 7980 years, which was first (if I mistake not) observed by Robert Lotharing, Bishop of Hereford, in our island of Britain, and 500 years after by Joseph Scaliger fitted for chronological uses, and called by the name of the Julian Period, because it conteined a cycle of so many Julian years."

"Now if the series of the three minor cicles be from this present year extended backward unto precedent times, the 4713 years before the beginning of our Christian account will be found to be that year into which the first year of the indiction, the first of the Lunar Cicle, and the first of the Solar will fall. Having placed there fore the heads of this period in the kalends of January in that proleptick year, the first of our Christian vulgar account must be reckoned the 4714 of the Julian Period, which, being divided by 15. 19. 28. will present us with the 4 Roman indiction, the 2 Lunar Cycle, and the 10 Solar, which are the principal characters of that year."

"We find moreover that the year of our fore-fathers, and the years of the ancient Egyptians and Hebrews were of the same quantity with the Julian, consisting of twelve equal moneths, every of them conteining 30 days, (for it cannot be proved that the Hebrews did use lunary moneths before the Babylonian Captivity) adjoying to the end of the twelfth moneth, the addition of five dayes, and every four year six."

"And I have observed by the continued succession of these years, as they are delivered in holy writ, that the end of the great Nebuchadnezars and the beginning of Evilmerodachs (his sons) reign, fell out in the 3442 year of the world, but by collation of Chaldean history and the astronomical cannon, it fell out in the 186 year c Nabonasar, and, as by certain connexion, it must follow in the 562 year before the Christian account, and of the Julian Period, the 4152. and from thence I gathered the creation of the world did fall out upon the 710 year of the Julian Period, by placing its beginning in autumn: but for as much as the first day of the world began with the evening of the first day of the week, I have observed that the Sunday, which in the year 710 aforesaid came nearest the Autumnal AEquinox, by astronomical tables (notwithstanding the stay of the sun in the dayes of Joshua, and the going back of it in the dayes c Ezekiah) happened upon the 23 day of the Julian October; from thence concluded that from the evening preceding that first day of the Julian year, both the first day of the creation and the first motion of time are to be deduced ."from -- J. Ussher, The Annals of the World iv (1658)

The above excerpt makes no mention of the time of day at which creation occurred. In popular references one often finds it given as 9 A.M., and this is wrongly attributed to Ussher. Andrew White explains that it was actually another Bible scholar, Sir John Lightfoot (1602-1675), who wrote that: "heaven and earth, centre and circumference, were created all together, in the same instant, and clouds full of water," and that "this work took place and man was created by the Trinity on October 23, 4004 B.C., at nine o'clock in the morning."

(see Craig, G. Y. and E. J. Jones. A Geological Miscellany. Princeton University Press, 1982.)

From Ussher to Slusher, from Archbish to Gish: or not in a million years..." by Colin Groves.

James Hutton 1726 - 1797

James was the son of a wealthy Scottish family. They sent him to the University of Edinburgh, already a famous center for the study of science and technology as a result of the Industrial Revolution advances which were going on all around it. James loved science and studied chemistry and medicine. After finishing school, he returned home and lived the life of a wealthy Gentleman-farmer, spending most of his time in his hobby, rocks.

About 1768 he moved back to Edinburgh and became a part of the scientific community there which included his friends, the brilliant mathematician John Playfair, and the famous chemist Joseph Black.

At that time the new science of geology had a major argument about whether rocks were formed under the ocean (neptunic) which was suggested by the many fossils of sea life found in sedimentary rocks, or, formed mainly from volcanos (plutonic) as could be seen in some areas.

Hutton studied the problem and decided that the real answer was that rocks came from a variety of forces acting in several ways. In 1785 he gave a lecture which explained that the forces which formed rocks in the distant past were similar to the forces now acting on rocks, such as erosion, uplift, intrusion, etc. Hutton's ideas became known as "Uniformitarianism" because he said that the same, uniform forces had acted in the past as act now. 

An important point is, if mountains and continents were formed by the same forces as are acting now, it must have taken a very long time for the earth to be shaped. It could not possibly have formed from a single flood or a few events, and could not be just 6000 years old as many people believed. It had to be very old...probably millions of years, or even older!

Here is just one example of the kind of thing that Hutton noticed. This idea is called "Angular Uncomformity." (diagrams adapted from, and photos of Siccar Point and China Ranch by Prof B. Waggoner)

diagrams adapted and photo from B Waggoner

Obviously, it had to take a VERY long time for this kind of series of events to happen.

Hutton's ideas were published in some complicated books during his lifetime, notable in 1795, but the most widely read version of his ideas was published in a book done after Hutton's death by his friend John Playfair Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth (1802).   Hutton's ideas were carried on by the greatest geologist of the 19th century, Charles Lyell.

William Smith

Fossils have been long studied as great curiosities, collected with great pains, treasured with great care and at a great expense, and shown and admired with as much pleasure as a child's hobby-horse is shown and admired by himself and his playfellows, because it is pretty; and this has been done by thousands who have never paid the least regard to that wonderful order and regularity with which nature has disposed of these singular productions, and assigned to each class its peculiar stratum.

William Smith, notes of January 5, 1796

This is part of Smith's 1815 map. The first ever published that accurately showed the age and proper relationship of rocks. The first true geological map. Once Smith had shown the way, geologists all over the world began to create these sorts of maps. This was a huge advance, it allowed miners and prospectors to understand how minerals are distributed, and greatly increased the amounts of natural resources that were available for industry and commerce. From The Map that Changed the World by Simon Winchester, a biography of William Smith.

William Smith was born on March 23, 1769. His family was not wealthy and he received only an elementary education. However, like many intelligent and ambitious men of his generation, he studied on his own, and with the Master Surveyor Edward Webb. Gradually he learned mathematics, geometry and the primitive geology of the day.

Smith became a skillful and reliable surveyor. His work allowed him to travel widely across Britain. After 1793 he worked with John Rennie (1761 - 1821. Another Scot, the great builder of the London bridges and transport system) and other notable engineers involved with road and canal construction on several important projects.

Smith's responsibilities as surveyor allowed him to spend many days in what was both his profession and his hobby, the detailed study and collection of rocks. He learned more about rocks than any man alive, and he took meticulous notes of what he saw. Smith noticed a very important thing, that the fossils in rocks were always in a certain order. Smith wrote that he could find the same fossils in the same order in similar rocks even in different parts of the country. This very important observation is called the "principle of faunal succession."

In the 1700s there were very few scientific journals so in many areas the local intelligentsia formed scientific clubs or societies where people could gather to discuss the latest theories or discoveries in all areas of science. Although he was not a university graduate, in 1796 his intelligence and reputation for ingenious and successful work led to Smith being elected to the agricultural society at Bath, England where he could meet other amateur scientists. He wanted to be a member of the prestigious Geological Society of London, but his lowly birth and lack of education kept the doors closed against him.

Smith was the first surveyor to use fossils as a tool for mapping rocks by their stratigraphic order. After 1799 he worked on jobs in several parts of Britain, and made a number of side trips all over England and Wales to examine the rocks. He wanted to produce a map of the entire country using his new system. Smith was not rich, but so many people were impressed with his ideas that 400 subscribers advanced him money to complete his work. In 1815 the map was finally published. at first it did not attract much attention, but after a few years as more and more people saw the map and began to understand how important it was, he became more and more respected. Finally, in 1831 the prestigious Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society was presented to this humble man, and he received a pension from the British government for his outstanding work. Link to full version of the map

President Adam Sedgwick of the Royal Geologic Society said:

"If, in the pride of our present strength, we were disposed to forget our origin, our very speech betrays us: for we use the language which he taught us in the infancy of our science. If we, by our united efforts, are chiselling the ornaments and slowly raising up the pinnacles of one of the temples of nature, it was he that gave the plan, and laid the foundations, and erected a portion of the solid walls, by the unassisted labour of his hands."

links about Smith and more about fossil collections from Britain and the world

Geology history of geology up to present day

Charles Lyell,

Geology did not really exist during James Hutton's life, or in the early part of WIlliam Smith's life. The first real Geological Society was not formed until 1807 in London, and that was mainly a club for Gentlemen. Geology in the modern scientific sense was invented by Charles Lyell.

Charles Lyell (1797 - 1875) was a famous professor and scientist, born in Scotland the year that Hutton died, and only a few miles away... then raised in England, he became a student of geology and eventually a famous professor.

As more and more information was collected about the rocks and development of the earth, Lyell wrote and explained the developing ideas.  His book, "The Principles of Geology, being an attempt to explain the former changes of the Earth's surface by Reference to Causes now in Operation" went through 11 different editions from 1830 to 1872 as people learned more and more about geology.  "Principles of Geology" was the standard Geology textbook for geologists all around the world for forty years, and was still in use in many schools well into the 20th century. It really started the entire science of Geology.

Lyell was a friend, teacher, and colleague of Darwin (who had his book on HMS Beagle), a supporter and explainer of the ideas of Hutton and Smith, and had a a huge influence on modern science. One of the things that is important about him is his efforts to clearly explain complicated ideas. If you were to try to read any scientific or scholarly book of the 1600s (like for instance, Ussher's text quoted above on this page), it would be nearly impossible. In those days people simply hadn't figured out how to arrange a book and give examples and illustrations that helped the reader follow the ideas. Lyell was part of a new generation of scientists who were intent on seeing that scientific ideas were spread thoughout the world. They made clear, readable and well-documented books that students could use to understand new ideas. Lyell didn't personally make any great new discoveries, but you can understand why Lyell is remembered if you consider the question: Who is more important, the person who thinks up an idea? or the person who explains the idea so that other people can understand and act on it?

ps: it is not an accident that there were a lot of personal connections between Smith, Hutton, Darwin, Lyell, Galton, etc. The concepts of personal trust and contact, having a mentor or "guru", and "networking" are not new ideas!

Alfred Wegener 1880 -1930

(from The Alfred Wegener Institut for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhavn, Germany)

He was born in Berlin, the son of a minister. According to his friends, he became interested in Greenland as a child, and often played and pretended that he was training for an expedition. He was an athlete and a good student who completed a PhD in Astronomy in 1905. However, he was really interested in meteorology, the new science of weather which was just coming into existence. He experimented with kites and balloons and once competed in an dangerous International Balloon Contest which he won, staying aloft for 52 hours -- the 1906 world record! Also in 1906 he first went to Greenland as part of a Danish expedition. When he returned he became a lecturer at the University of Marburg.

In 1910 Wegener picked up an idea which many people have had, that the coast lines of the continents along the Atlantic ocean have matching shapes. Of course, anyone can notice this, but Wegener became almost obsessed with the idea. He began to think about it seriously and to accumulate whatever evidence he could find that related to the idea. He continued with his meteorologic science work making two more trips to Greenland, but in January, 1912 he gave a lecture in which he described the idea that became known as "Continental Drift." The idea that continents actually have moved with time, and that they have matching shapes because in fact they were connected millions of years ago.

The idea that continents drift around is a pretty radical idea, and he had little proof. No one paid much attention to that lecture.

Wegener served in the German Army in World War One and was badly wounded in the leg. During a long period of recovery, he continued his scientific writing and in 1915 he published his ideas about moving continents in a book which was translated into English in 1924. His ideas were not well received.

You lose some....

"Wegener's hypothesis in general is of the footloose type, in that it takes considerable liberty with our globe, and is less bound by restrictions or tied down by awkward, ugly facts than most of its rival theories."

This comment, written by Dr Rollin Chamberlin in the 1920s, ridicules Wegener's ideas...

Wegener's reception by the scientific community is a very good illustration of both the strength and weakness of the world of science.

The Origin of Continents and Oceans, giving Wegener's theory, was published in 1915, and expanded editions were published in 1920, 1922, and 1929. Of course, Wegener's theory was not perfect when he first published it. It left many unanswered questions. In 1915 we did not know much about the bottom of the sea, and no one knew anything about tectonic plates. So, Wegener could not explain how the continents moved. He thought that the continents were sort of like ships that were plowing through the crust of the earth, probably moved by tidal currents in the lava below. There are many objections to this view.(for more information about Wegener's ideas and our modern proofs of movement of the surface of Earth see wegener at the University of California)

So, when Wegener presented his ideas, it was reasonable to reject his theories. He was not a trained geologist, nor did he hold a degree in geology. He did not have a prestigious position at a famous university or institute. His ideas were not supported by a large amount of evidence. His basic idea was pretty wild!... that continents moved around!

We say, "Extraordinary ideas require extraordinary proof!" So, it was basically a correct move to reject his ideas -- and they were rejected, or received with scepticism. Even more than that, he was ridiculed to some extent. And, he died before his ideas were accepted. So, on one hand, in a classic way he represents the scorned rejected thinker... the independent man who is more right than the experts!

You win some...

On the other hand, Wegener also represents the strength of the scientific system. He did not stand up and say that he was a genius and other people were fools, or whine about being misunderstood, or get a persecution complex. He said, "let's look at the evidence and prove me right or wrong!"

He gathered evidence from many workers, suggested ways in which his theory could be proved or disproved, and convinced many scientists that his ideas were right. As time went on, more and more evidence accumulated to show that he was right. Every time an experiment or expedition was carried out, more people became convinced that he was correct. More and more scientists agreed with him each year. Within a few years many people were suggesting more ways in which evidence could be found. It wasn't just him any more. The whole scientific community was testing and observing to see if his idea was right.

Wegener continued to work to gather evidence for his ideas until 1930. In September of that year he coordinated an expedition to set up an isolated weather station on the Greenland ice cap. After some weeks of severe weather, he led a rescue mission to deliver supplies to a crew of scientists far out onthe ice. Most of the people who agreed to help him with the mission abandoned him before he successfully arrived to save the crew. Despite weather of -54 degrees, he insisted on returning the next day to the main base. He was never seen alive again.

Here is the current state of our understanding of this idea at the official US Geological Survey Tectonic Plates

ands some more links:

National Earthquake Center

History of Geology

Plate Tectonics