Hall, James (1761–1832)

Scottish geologist. He was one of the founders of experimental geology and provided evidence in support of the theories of Scottish naturalist James Hutton regarding the formation of the Earth's crust. He was made a baronet in 1776.

Hall set out to prove his friend Hutton's ‘Plutonist’ geological theories (the view that heat rather than water was the chief rock-building agent and shaper of the Earth's crust). By means of furnace experiments, he showed with fair success that Hutton had been correct to maintain that igneous rocks would generate crystalline structures if cooled very slowly. Hall also demonstrated that there was a degree of interconvertibility between basalt and granite rocks; and that, even though subjected to immense heat, limestone would not decompose if sustained under suitable pressure.

Hall was born in Berwickshire (Borders region) and spent much of the 1780s travelling in Europe. He undertook extensive geological observations in the Alps and studying Mount Etna in Sicily. He was also won over to the new chemistry of Antoine Lavoisier.

Hall, James (1793–1868)

US lawyer and author. He saw combat in the War of 1812, then quit the army in 1818 after a dispute with his commanding officer. Settling in Shawneetown, Illinois, he practised law, was elected state treasurer (1828), and edited the Illinois Monthly Magazine (1830), an early midwestern literary journal. He moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1832, and, while working as a banker there, he wrote a series of books on the early frontier, including The Romance of Western History (1857). He also collaborated with Thomas L McKenney in writing History of the Indian Tribes of North America (1836–44; 1884). Hall was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.