James Croll (1821-1890)

James Croll was a Scottish scientist who developed a theory of climate change based on changes in the Earth's orbit. He was 'singlarly modest and unobtrusive'.

Born in 1821 on a farm near Wolfhill in Perthshire, the son of David Croll, mason, and his wife Janet Geddes. He was largely self-educated. At 16 he became an apprentice wheelwright, but it appears that he was unable to continue following an accident to his left arm. He then became a tea merchant in Elgin.

In the 1850s he managed a temperance hotel in Blairgowrie, and was then an insurance agent in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Leicester. In 1859, he became a janitor at the museum of the Andersonian University in Glasgow. He was able to use the university library to get access to books, and taught himself physics and astronomy to develop his ideas.

From 1864, Croll corresponded with Sir Charles Lyell on links between ice ages and variations in the Earth's orbit. He theorized that changes in the earth's orbit could cause the Gulf stream to be diverted, bringing less heat to the Arctic. More ice would then lead to more sunlight being reflected, causing a feedback loop. His ideas were published in the Philosophical Magazine in 1864. This led to a position in the Edinburgh office of the Geological Survey of Scotland, as keeper of maps and correspondence, where the director, Sir Archibald Geikie, encouraged his research. He published a number of books and papers which "were at the forefront of contemporary science", including Climate and Time, in Their Geological Relations in 1875. He corresponded with Charles Darwin on erosion by rivers.

In 1876, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society, and awarded an honorary degree by the University of St Andrews. He retired in 1880 because of ill health, and died on 15 December 1890 at 5 Pitcullen Crescent, Perth, Scotland.

The above information is largely condensed from the Wikipedia entry.

See Also

Loading...