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The Royal Society: Science in the Making

Unpublished paper, 'On the straining of Earth due to secular cooling' by Charles Davison

Reference number: AP/70/4

Date: 1894

Description

Davison writes: 'If the coefficient of dilatation (e) and the conductivity (k) are constant at every point within the earth, and if the temperature (V) was initially the same throughout, the depth of the surface of zero strain after 100 million years is 2.17 miles, the total volume of the crust folded and crushed above that surface is about 184,500 cubic miles, and the mean thickness of the crushed rock spread over the whole surface of the earth is 4.95 ft. (taking e = 0.0000057, k = 400, V = 7000° F .). The smallness of these figures has been claimed by some geologists as a new and strong argument against the contraction theory of mountain evolution.'

Includes two graphs relating to the depth of surface of zero strain over time.

Subject: Mathematics / Physics / Chemistry

Received 10 January 1894. Read 15 February 1894. Communicated by [John Henry] Poynting.

Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, an abstract of the paper was published in volume 55 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'On the straining of the Earth resulting from secular cooling'.

A version of this paper was published in Davison in The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science: Davison, Charles. 'On the straining of the earth resulting from secular cooling.' The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, volume 41, number 249 (1896), pp. 133-138.

Reference number
AP/70/4
Earliest possible date
1894
Physical description
Ink on paper
Page extent
13 pages
Format
Manuscript

Creator name

Charles Davison

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Citation

Charles Davison, Unpublished paper, 'On the straining of Earth due to secular cooling' by Charles Davison, 1894, AP/70/4, The Royal Society Archives, London, https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/ap_70_4/unpublished-paper-on-the-straining-of-earth-due-to-secular-cooling-by-charles-davison, accessed on 21 January 2025

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