Henry Clifton Sorby

Henry Clifton Sorby ( born May 10, 1826 in Woodbourne at Sheffield; † 10 March 1908 in Sheffield ) was an English naturalist.

Life

Sorby attended the Kollegiatschule in Sheffield and then devoted himself to scientific studies on his estate in Broomfield Sheffield. He achieved considerable success in particular through the application of microscopic research on physical objects and physical methods to geological problems.

Sorby pointed first to the microscopic study of crystals and rocks, as well as their importance for theoretical conclusions out. He was thus able to demonstrate the mechanical origin of the foliation. He published his first work related thereto in 1858 in the " Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society " (Vol. XIV) under the title On the microscopic structure of crystals, Indicating the origin of minerals and rocks. He also turned on the first spectral analysis in microscopic examinations and constructed a spectroscope for analyzing colored liquids, such as blood. His studies on the microscopic nature of the steel and the meteorites are also of high value. Sorby is considered the founder of the customer of the sediments, the sedimentology.

The first experiments with thin sections go Boricky back to him. Sorby published this method for the first time in 1858 in an article in the Journal of the Geological Society of London.

Henry Clifton Sorby died on March 10, 1908 on his country estate in Broomfield Sheffield. He was buried in the churchyard of Eccleshall.

Honors

In 1857 he was elected as a member ( "Fellow" ) to the Royal Society, in 1874, the Royal Medal awarded him. Sorby was also a member of the Geological Society of London, which in 1869 awarded him the Wollaston medal. In 1872 he received the Gold Medal of the Dutch Society of Sciences. From the University of Cambridge, he received an honorary doctorate. Sorby was President of the Royal Microscopical Society. He was the first President of the Yorkshire Naturalists Union. He was the first president of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

According to him, Dorsa Sorby, a group of ridges on the moon, named.

Swell

• Entry at the Royal Society (English )