Frank Dawson Adams

Background

Frank Dawson Adams was born on September 17, 1859 in Montreal, Quebec. Adam's father, Noah Adams, belonged to the distinguished Adams family of New England. Frank`s mother, Frances Tait Dawson, was a United Empire Loyalist from Northern Ireland.

Education

At nineteen Frank Adams graduated with first rank honors in natural science from McGill University, where he came under the influence of the scholarly principal, W. Dawson (no relation), and the versatile and magnetic B. J. Harrington of the department of chemistry and mineralogy. Comfortable family financial circumstances allowed Adams to study chemistry and mineralogy at Yale University (1878-1879), and later to attend several sessions at Heidelberg University. Later Adams earned a Ph.D. at Heidelberg University.

Career

In 1880 Adams joined the Geological Survey of Canada as assistant chemist and lithologist. After spending 1880 to 1889 in government service, Adams joined the staff at McGill as lecturer (18901893); he followed Dawson as holder of the Logan chair of geology in 1893. He began lecturing at McGill in 1889 and held a number of prominent positions there, including Logan Professor of Geology, Dean of Applied Science, Director of the Redpath Museum, Acting Principal, Vice-Principal and Dean of Graduate Studies.

One of the first tasks given him by the director, A. R. C. Selwyn, was to determine the nature and origin of certain rocks from southern Quebec. In order to work out these derivations and associations, Adams requested, and was granted, leave of absence to master the new petrographic technique being developed by H. Rosenbusch at Heidelberg. He completed this work to Selwyn’s satisfaction and was next assigned to study areas of partly foliated anorthosites in southwestern Quebec that William Logan had considered to be the upper and stratified portion of the Laurentian series. To this difficult task he applied his newly won skill in the use of the petrographic microscope, an instrument with which he had become familiar in Heidelberg and which he was probably the first in Canada to use. He was able to demonstrate conclusively not only the igneous origin of the anorthosites but also the sedimentary origin of some of the Grenville crystalline rocks upon which Logan had supposed the anorthosites rested. The presentation of the results of this study gained him the Ph.D. summa cum laude at Heidelberg. The publication of his thesis (1893) established Adams as one of the North American experts in the use of the petrographic microscope. Several publications resulted from his work with the Geological Survey, among the more important being descriptions of Precambrian rocks north of Montreal and St. Jerome (1896), based on field work carried out from 1885 to 1891.

The Laurentian system had been considered by Logan to consist of two divisions, the lower a complex of metamorphosed sedimentary rocks, which he named Grenville and Ottawa, and an upper, or Norian, division, made up largely of anorthosite, which was considered to be an altered and crystallized sediment. This anorthosite, well exposed around Morin, Quebec, was very carefully inspected by Adams, who showed that it was composed largely of plagioclase feldspar, with few accessories. He established its igneous nature both by his petrographic determinations in the laboratory and by the intrusive contacts with the Grenville rocks that he was able to demonstrate in the field. He attributed the marked differences in grain size to crystal fracturing, which in places was carried to granulation. He also recognized that the Laurentian granites, then supposed to be the oldest rocks of the Canadian shield and possibly part of the original crust, were intrusive into metamorphic rocks, which therefore must have preceded them in time and space. These conclusions were among the foundations upon which the modern classification of the Precambrian series rests.

After leaving the Geological Survey and joining the staff of McGill, Adams devoted the summers of 1902 to 1908 to the mapping and description of the forbiddingly difficult Haliburton and Bancroft areas of southern Ontario. In his report (1910), written with A. E. Barlow, who had collaborated with him during the later years of the project, he showed that the oldest rocks were highly metamorphosed sediments, now gneisses, schists, quartzites, and marbles, and assigned them to the Grenville series. He found widespread intrusions of granite, diorite, and gabbro penetrating the Grenville rocks, and correctly attributed most of the metamorphism to the thermal effects of the abundant granite bodies.

Adams noted that the metamorphism of the stratified rocks became more intense and the sedimentary rocks were “fretted away and [ultimately] represented only by occasional shreds and patches of amphibolite,” as the intrusive granites were approached. His discovery of nepheline syenite adjacent to granite and marble bodies was of great scientific importance, and paved the way for their later industrial exploitation.

At McGill, Adams could not fail to be impressed by the peculiar rocks of Mount Royal. He found that the same general rock types prevailed in the halfdozen prominent hills dotted across the Paleozoic plain between Montreal and the Appalachian front. He announced the occurrence of these remarkable rock types in his paper “The Monteregian Hills: A Canadian Petrographical Province” (1903).

Close study of the deformed foliated gneisses and schists of the Grenville area had stimulated Adams’ curiosity concerning the causes of such structures and the possibility of their being duplicated in laboratory experiments. Aided by colleagues in the engineering laboratories at McGill, he started a sequence of experiments, spread over the first decade of the present century, utilizing a gigantic (for that time) press in which he could subject rocks to enormous pressures.

High pressures had long been used to test the strength of cubes of rock to determine architectural suitability; but to duplicate the conditions within the earth’s crust, Adams subjected cylinders of rock encased in metallic tubes to compression under high confining pressures—for the most part less than pounds per square inch but on one occasion 296,725 pounds per square inch. Manipulation of the apparatus allowed Adams to develop differential stresses and presumably to imitate the conditions under which some of the foliated rocks may have originated; he was also able to correlate some of the experimentally developed structures with natural ones observed in the field. The influence of this work upon our understanding of metamorphic processes is profound, and it has contributed in no small measure to the development of modern ideas of mountain building.

Adams’ first paper in this field, written with J. T. Nicholson, concerned a thumb-size cylinder of Carrara marble that he exposed to a confining pressure of pounds per square inch; after 124 days the column had shortened by 11.4 percent of its original height. Examined microscopically, it showed many of the characteristics peculiar to the Grenville marbles. Never before had properties of metamorphic rocks been imitated in controlled experiments. Adams returned to this topic several times, and by using the highest available pressure, 296,725 pounds per square inch, he developed in his samples a schistose structure essentially similar to that of some highly metamorphic calcareous rocks. One interesting result was his discovery that quick-loading techniques caused calcite to yield to stress along intergranular slip planes, giving a cataclastic structure, whereas slow increase in loading produced intracrystalline polysynthetic twinning.

Other experiments were designed to record the plasticity of rocks under high pressures, up to 200,000 pounds per square inch. Most soft materials were easily deformed, but the harder rocks, such as granite, failed along fracture lines, yielding zones of granulation; this corroborated Adams’ own early ideas of the granulation of anorthosite by crystal fracturing. Other studies were directed to the determination of the depth at which pressure would close cavities in rocks. In granite, one of the least plastic rocks, Adams determined that cavities could exist as deep as eleven miles below the surface. One of his last papers on experimentation (1917), written with J. A. Bancroft, showed that the strength of rocks increases with pressure, and hence with depth in the crust, the conclusion being that rocks at great depth have great strength.

Adams became dean of the Faculty of Applied Science in 1908 and dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies in 1922. He retired in 1924, after thirty-five years of arduous service. He was also employed as a chemist and petrographer for the Geological Survey of Canada from 1913-1914, was Deputy Director of Khaki University in Britain, and actively participated in a number of national and international geological organizations, including the Geological Society of Canada.

Adams retired from McGill in 1924 and traveled widely while continuing his geological research and study. In the decade following his retirement from active participation in university affairs, he and Mrs. Adams traveled widely, and following their third visit to Ceylon, he published the first complete geological report and map of that island (1929). Adams had always been intrigued by the beginnings of geological thinking, and during his travels he visited most of the Old World universities whose libraries held a wealth of early geological treatises. Wherever he could, he acquired early writings and amassed what was certainly the greatest such collection in private hands (now kept, intact, at McGill). This formed the basis for his scholarly work Birlli and Development of the Geological Sciences (1938), a text that will long remain a standard treatment of the subject.

In 1942, Adams bequeathed over fifteen hundred volumes to the McGill Library including many early works on geology, mineralogy, volcanology, and paleontology. The publications date from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries, with particularly strong holdings in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

One of the most visually spectacular volumes is pictured here: a plate from the Supplement to Campi Phlegraei: Being an Account of the Great Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the Month of August 1779, by Sir William Hamilton. The supplement contains “5 Plates Illuminated from Drawings Taken and Colour’d after Nature, Under the Inspection of the Author, by the Editor Mr. Peter Fabris.”

Also in this collection is Jesuit natural philosopher Athanasius Kircher’s work on magnetism, Magnes, sive De arte Magnetica opus tripartitum (1643 ed.) which, among other things, describes his construction of a magnetic clock. Many significant works by philosophers of science are also represented.

Seven titles of the collection are incunables (books printed during the first fifty years of printing technology). Among these is one printed near the end of the fifteenth century (the precise date is uncertain) titled Judicium Jovis in valle amenitatis habitum, by Paulus Niavis (1460–1514), which recounts a trial of a man accused of mining mountains, conducted by the Roman god Jupiter.

Adams died in 1942 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Achievements

• A member of the Geological Survey of Canada 1880-89, Logan Professor of Geology at McGill 1892-1922, dean of applied science at McGill 1905-19, and acting principal and VP there 1919-22, Adams was Canada's most eminent geologist of the first half of the 20th century. Applying petrographic techniques learned at Heidelberg, where he obtained his PhD, he laid the foundations of modern igneous and metamorphic petrography in Canada. His experimental work on the flow of brittle rocks proved as revolutionary in geology as the work in physics of his colleague Ernest Rutherford, establishing him as the founder of modern structural geology.
  
  Adams was one of the first North American experts in the use of the petrographic microscope, an instrument which he was probably the first in Canada to use.
  
  Another Adams`s achievement was in his discovery of nepheline syenite adjacent to granite and marble bodies, which was of great scientific importance, and paved the way for their later industrial exploitation. Because of the clarity of the writing, the painstaking carefulness of the descriptions, and the logical deductions, Adams’ report has become one of the classics of Canadian geology.
  
  Adams`s research and a sequence of experiments utilizing a gigantic (for his time) press in which he could subject rocks to enormous pressures, has contributed in no small measure to the development of modern ideas of mountain building. His other valuable experiments were designed to record the plasticity of rocks under high pressures, up to 200,000 pounds per square inch. Other studies were directed to the determination of the depth at which pressure would close cavities in rocks. To Adams must go the credit for establishing the phase of geological investigation upon a sure engineering foundation. His reputation as a pioneer in the field is secure.
  
  Adams was also the first in his field who published the first complete geological report and map of the Ceylon island (1929).
  
  A prominent educator, Adams strongly promoted development of graduate studies in Canada. In 1918, as a lieutenant-colonel overseas, he became deputy director of Khaki University, an innovative Canadian plan to further the education of troops awaiting demobilization. After retiring in 1922 he produced the first geological map of Ceylon (Shri Lanka) and published his definitive history, The Birth and Development of the Geological Sciences (1938).
  
  He was also president of the Twelfth International Geological Congress (Montreal, 1913). His achievement were greartly recognized and Adams received honorary degrees from McGill, Toronto, Queen’s, and Mount Allison universities, and Bishop’s College. He became a foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1917. Adams also found time to devote to many philanthropic and social benevolences. In 1942, Adams bequeathed over fifteen hundred volumes to the McGill Library including many early works on geology, mineralogy, volcanology, and paleontology, most publications date from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries, with particularly strong holdings in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
  
  A recognized leader in his field, Adams was awarded the Flavelle Medal in 1937, which is given for outstanding contributions to biological science, in 1937. Prior to that, Adams was awarded the Lyell Medal in 1906. In 1939 for his remarkable contribution to science he was awarded the Wollaston Medal, which is the highest award granted by the Geological Society of London.
  
  The Frank Dawson Adams Building at McGill University is named in his honor. A plaque in his honor was erected on the Redpath Museum on the McGill campus in 1950.
  
  

Works

More photos

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  • On the Amount of Internal Friction Developed in Rocks During Deformation and on the Relative Plasticity of Different Types of Rocks (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from On the Amount of Internal Friction Developed...)

  • Preliminary Report On Geological Investigations In Southwestern Nova Scotia

    (This work has been selected by scholars as being cultural...)

  • The national domain in Canada and its proper conservation: presidential address before the Royal Society of Canada, 1914

    (The national domain in Canada and its proper conservation...)

  • National Academy Of Sciences Of The United Stattes Of American Biographical Memoir Of James Furman Kemp 1859 1926

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  • An investigation into the elastic constants of rocks, more especially with reference to cubic compressibility

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  • An experimental investigation into the flow of marble

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  • On the igneous origin of certain ore deposits

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  • Notes On the Iron Ore Deposits of Bilbao, Northern Spain

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  • The Birth and Development of The Geological Sciences

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  • An Investigation Into the Elastic Constants of Rocks: More Especially with Reference to Cubic Compressibility

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  • The Honorary Advisory Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and Its Work. a Brief Resume of the Activities of the Council Up to 1921

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  • An Experimental Investigation Into the Flow of Marble - Primary Source Edition

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  • Biographical Memoir Of James Furman Kemp, 1859-1926: National Academy Of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs, V16, First Memoir

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  • The Need for Industrial Research in Canada (Classic Reprint)

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  • McGill and Science: The Early Development of Scientific Studies at McGill University (Classic Reprint)

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  • Géologie des Régions d'Haliburton Et Bancroft, Province d'Ontario

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  • Papers from the Dept. of Geology Volume 1-10

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  • The artesian and other deep wells on the Island of Montreal Volume 20-23

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  • Problems Of American Geology: A Series Of Lectures Dealing With Some Of The Problems Of The Canadian Shield And Of The Cordilleras...

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Religion

Frank Adams was deeply but quietly religious. His History of Christ Church Cathedral (1941) was a tribute to the church to which he was devoted and to his wife, Mary Stuart Finley, to whom the book was dedicated.

Personality

Frank Adams was a dedicated bookworm and bibliophile, who had gathered a large and marvelous collection of books, including many early works on geology, mineralogy, volcanology, and paleontology, a large portion of which he later donated to the McGill Library in a quantity of over fifteen hundred volumes.

Interests

• bibliophile

Connections

In 1892 Frank Dawson Adams married Mary Stuart Finlay.

Father:

Noah Adams

Adams’ father, Noah Adams, belonged to the distinguished Adams family of New England.

Mother:

Frances Tait Dawson

Frank`s mother, Frances Tait Dawson, was a United Empire Loyalist from Northern Ireland.

collaborator:

A. E. Barlow

From 1902 to 1908 he collaborated with Adams during the later years of the project of mapping and description of the forbiddingly difficult Haliburton and Bancroft areas of southern Ontario.

collaborator:

J. T. Nicholson

He collaborated with Adams Adams’ on the paper concerning a thumb-size cylinder of Carrara marble.

Wife:

Mary Stuart Finlay

associate:

Harry Rosenbusch

Friend:

Andrew Cowper Lawson

Adams met a fellow-student, Andrew Cowper Lawson, at the Yale Scientific School, and in 1888 they published a joint paper on their investigation of the mineral scapolite.

colleague:

Victor Goldschmidt

Victor Moritz Goldschmidt (January 27, 1888 in Zürich – March 20, 1947 in Oslo) was a Norwegian mineralogist considered (together with Vladimir Vernadsky) to be the founder of modern geochemistry and crystal chemistry, developer of the Goldschmidt Classification of elements.

References

• Mind over Magma: The Story of Igneous Petrology Mind over Magma chronicles the scientific effort to unravel the mysteries of rocks that solidified on or beneath Earth's surface from the intensely hot, molten material called magma. The first-ever comprehensive history of the study of such igneous rocks, it traces the development of igneous petrology from ancient descriptions of volcanic eruptions to recent work incorporating insights from physical chemistry, isotope studies, and fluid dynamics. Intellectual developments in the field--from the application of scientific methods to the study of rocks to the discovery of critical data and the development of the field's major theories--are considered within their broader geographical, social, and technological contexts. Mind over Magma examines the spread of igneous petrology from western Europe to North America, South Africa, Japan, Australia, and much of the rest of the world. It considers the professionalization and Anglicization of the field, detailing changes in publication outlets, the role of women, and the influence of government funding. The book also highlights the significant role that technological developments--including the polarizing microscope, high-temperature quenching furnaces, and instrumental analysis--have played in the discovery of new data and development of revolutionary insights into the nature of igneous rocks. Both an engagingly told story and a major reference, Mind over Magma is the only available history of this important field. As such, it will be appreciated by petrologists, geochemists, and other geologists as well as by those interested in the history of science.
• The Geological Society of America, 1888-1930: A Chapter in Earth Science History