For the moment we identify four really critical pioneers in the development of the study of loess. Four people who carried things on from 1824 and Karl Caesar von Leonhard publishing the first real description of loess in 'Charakteristik der Felsarten'(CdF). The four demarcated pioneers are Charles Lyell, F.von Richthofen, V.A.Obruchev and L.S.Berg. The people who provided the paradigms for loess formation.
From here, from Leicester, the easiest of these to study in detail is Charles Lyell. All four were honoured by their countries of birth and inhabitation but Charles was the one who probably fitted most comfortably into the society of his day. He left a lot of records and there is quite a lot of published biobibibliographical detail. We consider three problems of detail, of behaviour- all relevant to loess. L.G.Wilson in his biography of Lyell touches on the loess connection, but only very lightly; we would like to enlarge.
The three encounters of interest are: (a) in conversation; who did he talk to about loess? when did he first encounter loess in conversation? we know that he talked about loess with Sam. & Charlotte Hibbert at their house in Edinburgh on 5 September 1831- was that his first conversational encounter? (b) in the field: when did he first see the actual material? we have records of him seeing the loess in 1832 when he was on his post-wedding trip with Mary Horner down the Rhine. We are fairly sure that Bronn and/or KCvL showed them some loess. (c) in the literature- this is a tricky question; obviously in the early 1830s there was very little loess literature- what did Lyell see. Hibbert was a great fan of KCvL and we speculate that when Lyell was with the Hibberts in 1831 H showed him a copy of CdF (pure speculation). Lyell wrote about loess in vol.3 of Principles, and this was the key 'spreading the word' moment. What did he know in 1831? We know he made a 6 day visit to the Eifel region in mid-July 1831 (some authorities call this a 6 week excursion but they have been mislead by a very confusing Lyell letter)- did he see loess? did he see only the volcanic stuff he had gone to examine?
From here, from Leicester, the easiest of these to study in detail is Charles Lyell. All four were honoured by their countries of birth and inhabitation but Charles was the one who probably fitted most comfortably into the society of his day. He left a lot of records and there is quite a lot of published biobibibliographical detail. We consider three problems of detail, of behaviour- all relevant to loess. L.G.Wilson in his biography of Lyell touches on the loess connection, but only very lightly; we would like to enlarge.
The three encounters of interest are: (a) in conversation; who did he talk to about loess? when did he first encounter loess in conversation? we know that he talked about loess with Sam. & Charlotte Hibbert at their house in Edinburgh on 5 September 1831- was that his first conversational encounter? (b) in the field: when did he first see the actual material? we have records of him seeing the loess in 1832 when he was on his post-wedding trip with Mary Horner down the Rhine. We are fairly sure that Bronn and/or KCvL showed them some loess. (c) in the literature- this is a tricky question; obviously in the early 1830s there was very little loess literature- what did Lyell see. Hibbert was a great fan of KCvL and we speculate that when Lyell was with the Hibberts in 1831 H showed him a copy of CdF (pure speculation). Lyell wrote about loess in vol.3 of Principles, and this was the key 'spreading the word' moment. What did he know in 1831? We know he made a 6 day visit to the Eifel region in mid-July 1831 (some authorities call this a 6 week excursion but they have been mislead by a very confusing Lyell letter)- did he see loess? did he see only the volcanic stuff he had gone to examine?
