Scientific stamp of approval

NERC is forty this year, but parts of the organisation, such as the British Geological Survey (BGS), have a much longer history. BGS’s forerunner, a branch of the Ordnance Trigonometrical Survey, was founded on 11 July 1835. Its founder and first director, Henry Thomas De la Beche, immediately set about creating a Museum of Economic Geology that would contain ‘specimens illustrative of the application of geology to the useful purposes of life’. The museum was established at a house (later two adjoining houses) at Craig’s Court, Whitehall. In April 1839 the eminent analytical chemist, Richard Phillips, was appointed curator, and in July of that year he was furnished with a laboratory where he could analyse rocks, minerals and soils. However, in his role as possibly the first government chemist, Phillips was soon called upon to analyse various unlikely substances such as sweets, seaweed and soap!