What is the Earth made of? Two geochemists did the sums
In 1924 Frank Wigglesworth Clarke and Henry Stephens Washington compiled mineral and rock analyses into a systematic account of the relative abundance of the elements in Earth’s crust.
The story
Which elements make up the ground beneath our feet, and in what proportions? To answer, Frank Wigglesworth Clarke and Henry Stephens Washington brought together a great many chemical analyses of minerals and rocks and worked them into one systematic reckoning. The United States Geological Survey issued the result in 1924 as Professional Paper 127.
It runs to 117 pages of tables and the reasoning that goes with them. It comes from an important period in the growth of geochemistry, when scientists were learning to describe the solid Earth in measured quantities rather than in words alone, and it shows that method at work: a mass of separate analyses, added up into a single picture of the crust.
This copy went to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum almost as soon as it was printed; the museum’s stamp is dated AUG 9 1924. It is in an institutional binding of half brown leather and dark cloth, with bright marbled endpapers. The leather is scuffed, the corners are frayed, and the spine is splitting at the head. It has not been collated.
Details
- Date
- 1924
- Publisher
- Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.
- Edition
- Professional Paper 127 (1924)
- Binding
- half_leather: Institutional half leather and cloth with colorful marbled endpapers
- Condition
- Half brown leather and dark cloth covers, spine edge deterioration and splitting at head, leather scuffs, frayed corners. Striking marbled endpapers. Smithsonian Institution National Museum accession stamps and ink numbers, lightly toned interior. Collation not performed.
- Stamp
- Smithsonian Institution / National Museum / 265848
- Stamp
- AUG 9 1924
