Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin

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Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin
University of Wisconsin
University of Chicago
Doctoral advisorAlexander Winchell
Signature

Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin (

Journal of Geology
, of which he was editor for many years.

Biography

Chamberlin was born September 25, 1843, in

Methodist circuit minister and farmer. He attended a preparatory academy before entering Beloit College
, where he received a classical education in Greek and Latin, while becoming interested in natural science. While a student at Beloit he directed a church choir and participated in athletics and debate.

After graduation from Beloit College in 1866, Chamberlin worked for two years as a teacher and later principal in a high school near Beloit. He was married to Alma Wilson in 1867.

In 1868–1869, Chamberlin spent a year taking graduate courses, including geology, at the

glacial stages
in North America is still in use, with minor modifications.

In 1875 he started a business with his brother and sold spring water, a popular brand at the time.[2]

In 1876 Chamberlin became chief geologist for the Wisconsin geological survey, supervising the completion of the survey and the publication of the four-volume report, for which he authored sections on glacial deposits,

US Geological Survey in 1881. He later was president of the University of Wisconsin
(1887 to 1892).

In 1890,[3] and again in 1897,[4] Chamberlin wrote "The method of multiple working hypotheses", in which he advocated the importance of simultaneously evaluating several hypotheses, rejecting those that conflict with available data, and ending with the one hypothesis supported by the data. This stood in contrast to what he called the single ruling theory, which encouraged scientists to find supporting data and not challenge it with difficult tests. The paper is considered a landmark [5] on the scientific method, was an inspiration for the approach called strong inference, and was reprinted in 1965.[6]

In 1892 Chamberlin accepted the offer to organize a department of geology at the new

Chicago Academy of Sciences
.

In 1899 Chamberlin wrote, An Attempt to Frame a Working Hypothesis of the Cause of Glacial Periods on an Atmospheric Basis, and developed at length the idea that changes in climate could result from changes in the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and wrote about climate actions:

When the temperature is rising after a glacial episode, dissociation is promoted, and the ocean gives forth its carbon dioxide at an increased rate, and thereby assists in accelerating the amelioration of climate.

A study of the life of the geological periods seems to indicate that there were very notable fluctuations in the total mass of living matter. To be sure there was a reciprocal relation between the life of the land and that of the sea, so that when the latter was extended upon the continental platforms and greatly augmented, the former was contracted, but notwithstanding this it seems clear that the sum of life activity fluctuated notably during the ages. It is believed that on the whole it was greatest at the periods of sea extension and mild climates, and least at the times of disruption and climatic intensification. This factor then acted antithetically to the carbonic acid freeing previously noted, and, so far as it went, tended to offset its effects

It now becomes necessary to assign agencies capable of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at a rate sufficiently above the normal rate of supply, at certain times, to produce glaciation; and on the other hand, capable of restoring it to the atmosphere at certain other times in sufficient amounts to produce mild climates.[7]

Chamberlin was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1901 and the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1903.[8][9]

In 1905, Chamberlin and

accretion is still well-regarded. From his theories and other geological evidence he concluded that Earth was much older than assumed by Lord Kelvin
(ca 100 million years) at the time. His speculations about the source of energy for such a long-lived Sun were prescient, involving the ability of the Sun to somehow extract energy from the inner structures of the atom.

In 1905, Chamberlin was elected to the American Philosophical Society.[10]

From left to right, E. D. Burton, T. C. Chamberlin, Joseph Beech, Y. T. Wang (interpreter), and R. T. Chamberlin (T. C. Chamberlin's son) at Santai County, Sichuan, during an exploratory trip through China in 1909 as part of the Oriental Educational Investigation Commission.

In 1909, he and his son Rollin Thomas Chamberlin traveled to the East as members of the Oriental Educational Investigation Commission led by Ernest DeWitt Burton, and supported by John D. Rockefeller to reconnoiter the Eastern world as a potential site for the humanitarian projects of the nascent Rockefeller Foundation.[11][12]

Chamberlin was awarded the inaugural

Penrose Medal of the Geological Society of America in 1927.[14] He was president of the Geological Society of America in 1894.[15]

Chamberlin remained active professionally up until his death in

Chicago
on November 15, 1928.

His papers are housed at the University of Chicago archives and the Beloit College archives. The Beloit College archives also contain the papers of his son, Rollin T. Chamberlin (1881-1948), who was also a geologist, and later chaired the geology department at the University of Chicago.

The University of Chicago.[17] The lunar crater Chamberlin and a crater on Mars[18] are named in his honor. He is the namesake of Mount Chamberlin
in California.

Works

  • Outline of a Course of Oral Instruction (1872)
  • Geology of Wisconsin (1877)
  • Preliminary paper on the terminal moraine of the second glacial epoch (U.S. Geological Survey, 1882)
  • The rock scorings of the great ice invasions (U.S. Geological Survey, 1886)
  • Chamberlin, T. C. (1890). "The method of multiple working hypotheses".
    S2CID 7481185
    .    )
  • Contribution to the Theory of Glacial Motion (1904)
  • With R. D. Salisbury, Geology (three volumes, 1907–09)
  • The Origin of the Earth (1916)
  • "Biographical Memoir of Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin: 1843-1928". In Biographical Memoirs, vol. 15. Washington: National Academy of Sciences.

See also

References

  1. ISBN 9780877795438
    ), p. 1099.
  2. ^ "Chamberlin Springs: Rest & Research Since 1875". Beloit College.
  3. PMID 17782687
    . (see 1965 reprint for free fulltext)
  4. JSTOR 30054868
    .
  5. doi:10.1641/B570708
    .
  6. S2CID 7481185
    . (free fulltext)
  7. doi:10.1086/608524
    .
  8. ^ "Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. February 9, 2023. Retrieved January 24, 2024.
  9. ^ "Thomas C. Chamberlin". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved January 24, 2024.
  10. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved January 24, 2024.
  11. ^ Mather, Kirtley F. (May 23, 2018). "Chamberlin, Thomas Chrowder". encyclopedia.com. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  12. ^ "Guide to the Ernest DeWitt Burton Papers 1875-1969". lib.uchicago.edu. 2007. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  13. ^ "Penrose Gold Medal". Society of Economic Geologists. Archived from the original on December 28, 2012. Retrieved May 15, 2012.
  14. ^ "Penrose Medalists". The Geological Society of America, Inc. Retrieved May 15, 2012.
  15. ISBN 0-8137-1155-X
    .
  16. ^ Beloit College Archives, "Thomas C. Chamberlin".
  17. ^ "Chamberlin House". Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
  18. doi:10.1016/0019-1035(75)90146-3
    .

Further reading

External links

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Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin
Academic offices
Preceded by
President of the University of Wisconsin

1887-1892 		Succeeded by
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