Page 68 - Handbook of Gold Exploration and Evaluation

Nature and history of gold 49

others of his discoveries which included the binomial theorem, and differential
and integral calculus, his three standard laws of motion and the law of universal
gravitation form the basis of Newtonian mechanics, most of which is still in use
today. His concept of `uniformitarianism' suggested that the same types of river
currents that produce characteristic sediment structures today must have
operated similarly in the past, if the same structural types are visible in ancient
sediments. Newton's `First Law of Motion' is fundamental to all aspects of
sedimentation in both field and processing plant operations.
Robert Hooke (1635±1703) originated Hooke's Law, which states that `The
tension in a lightly stretched spring is proportional to its extension from its
natural length'. His inventions included a telegraph system, spirit level,
universal joint and marine barometer. Hooke's discoveries led to the manu-
facture of clocks powered with springs instead of weights and watches that
became precision instruments. Some of his hypotheses relating to planetary
motion may have foreshadowed Newton's proposition that an inverse-square
law of gravitational attraction to the sun will produce elliptical orbits for planets.
In 1682 Edmond Halley observed the `Great Comet' which was later named
Halley's Comet in his honour.

1.2.6 Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution (18th and 19th centuries) marked a period of
enlightenment in which technology was to become of equal importance to pure
science and philosophy. Philosophies of the ancients were revived in the
renewed belief that simple classical laws could be used to explain problems in
physics, chemistry and biology. Immanuel Kant, a leading philosopher of the
18th century reconciled empiricism and rationalism by asserting that knowledge
is gained from both reasoning and experience. However, Goethe and von
Schiller and some other philosophers were troubled by such extreme materialism
and expressed the holistic view of nature as a single organism imbued with
spirit. Diverse philosophical trends such as these fostered political revolution
and USA Presidents Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson became part-time
scientists.
The medieval science alchemy (Arabic al-Kimya) dominated most chemical
thought in Europe until the Industrial Revolution and the birth of a new science
termed `Geology' by Horace de Saussure. In 1807 the Geological Society of
London became the first scientific society devoted to the science of geology.
During the same year a Swiss chemist, Berzelius, with his students, developed
the underlying principles of mineralogy upon which the present classification of
minerals depends.
In mathematics, Jakob Bernoulli (1654±1705) discovered a series of complex
numbers used in higher mathematics (Bernoulli numbers). Johanne, brother of
Jakob, developed exponential calculus and his son Daniel proposed the