John Williams (mineral engineer)
Welsh mineral engineer who first described vitrified forts, 1777
- Nationality
- Welsh
- Profession
- Mineral engineer and surveyor
- Known for
- First scientific description of vitrified forts
- Work
- An Account of Some Remarkable Ancient Ruins, Lately Discovered in the Highlands, and Northern Parts of Scotland (1777)
- Also wrote
- The Natural History of the Mineral Kingdom (1789)
The Welsh mineral engineer whose 1777 book was the first to describe Scotland's vitrified forts, stone walls partly melted into glass.
What is John Williams known for?
John Williams was an 18th-century Welsh mineral engineer who worked as a surveyor of mines and estates in Scotland. In 1777 he published An Account of Some Remarkable Ancient Ruins, Lately Discovered in the Highlands, and Northern Parts of Scotland, written as a series of letters.
The book was the first scientific description of what are now called vitrified forts: hilltop enclosures in Scotland, such as Tap o' Noth in Aberdeenshire and Craig Phadrig near Inverness, whose stone walls had been fused into a glassy mass by intense heat. The 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica calls him one of the earliest British geologists.
He also wrote The Natural History of the Mineral Kingdom (1789). His work began a debate that continued into the 20th century, when experiments such as Childe and Thorneycroft's in 1937 showed that burning timber-laced walls could produce vitrification.
He first described the vitrified forts scientifically in 1777.
Mentioned on these pages
- Rabbit holeVitrified forts
Sources
- John Williams, An Account of Some Remarkable Ancient Ruins (1777), Internet ArchivePrimary text
- Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911), 'Vitrified Forts', WikisourceReference
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