Camera Store - The Hell of Retail

A Great Quote

Nineteenth-century scientist James Croll was the guy who pretty much figured out when, how, and why, Ice Ages happen. He was a stonemason’s son who had only the most basic education, but always read all he could find about science. He started his work life as a millwright, and after many other jobs became a janitor at a museum. At the museum’s library, he read enough physics to be able to formulate the most detailed mathematical analysis of his time regarding planetary motion (and thus Ice Ages, among other interesting effects). This got him work as a geologist, and he was eventually elected a fellow of the Royal Society and published more on the relationships between a planet’s motions and its climate. I wonder how many ex-janitors the Royal Society ever had among their fellows. “Good Will Hunting”s got nuttin’ on this guy.

I bring him up because he once said

“The strong natural tendency of my mind towards abstract thinking somehow unsuited me for practical details of daily work”

If only people could still get away with saying things like that nowadays.

posted by Remus