The Bank of Time

This chapter examines the efforts of various geologists to calculate the age of the Earth. Each calculation from geology depended on its own assumptions, and each gave at least a slightly different answer. In the second half of the nineteenth century there was only one way, and that was to compare one's result with that of Lord Kelvin. The temptation proved irresistible to the geological calculators, who “produced an amazing variety of methods and an even greater homogeneity of results.” These include John Phillips, Charles Darwin, and T. Mellard Reade—all of whom employed the hourglass method. This chapter also looks at the calculations made by Samuel Haughton, Charles D. Walcott, and George Darwin to estimate the age of the Earth.