William Henry Fitton
William Henry Fitton (* January 1780 in Dublin, † May 13 1861 in London) was an Irish geologist.
Fitton was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. In 1798 he was awarded a senior scholarship. At this time he began to be interested in geology, and built a Fossililensammlung on. After graduating in 1799, he opted for the medical profession. In 1808 he moved to Edinburgh, where he heard the lectures of Robert Jameson. His interest in science grew, especially on geological topics. In 1809 he moved to London to study medicine and chemistry. Two years later he held his first lecture to the Geological Society of London, a description of the geology in the area of Dublin and some rare minerals in Ireland. In 1812 he took over a medical practice in Northampton, which took several years for his time fully occupied. In 1816 he received the title of Medical Doctors (MD) in Cambridge.
1820 Fitton settled down in London. Since he had married a wealthy lady, he could devote himself entirely to the geology. Between 1824 and 1836 he studied geological formations in the south east of England from the border area Cretaceous / Jurassic, and published his results in the essay Observations on some of the Strata in between the Chalk and the Oxford Oolite, in the South -east of England ( Transactions of the Geological Society, series 2, Volume IV ), which was known as Fitton 's strata below the Chalk ( Fitton layers beneath the chalk). In this work, he determined the correct sequence and relationship of Upper and Lower Greensand and the Wealden and Purbeck Formation, and described its structure in detail.
Already in 1815 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society and was 1827-1829 President of the Geological Society of London. His house became a meeting place for scientists, and during his presidency he held a regular Sunday evening held discussion group for all members of the Geological Society. Between 1817 and 1841 he wrote numerous articles for the journal Edinburgh Review, including meetings of the groundbreaking books by William Smith, Charles Lyell and Roderick Murchison. For the Philosophical Magazine in 1832 and 1833 he wrote a treatise on the development of geology in England ( Notes on the Progress of Geology in England). In 1852 he received the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society. His copy was discovered by Wollaston from the metal palladium, which was used 1846-1866 for all the medals that price.
His only based on their own work release from this period was a geological description of the environment of Hastings (A Geological Sketch of the Vicinity of Hastings ), which appeared in 1833. According to the autobiography of Charles Babbage, he invented around 1825 the thaumatrope, which was later sold commercially by John Ayrton Paris and the invention is usually attributed.