• I was an 18th and 19th century Scottish geologist and physicist.
  • Born in Edinburgh, I lectured in natural philosophy at the famous university there.
  • In 1828 I invented a prism, named after me, which uses the doubly refracting property of Iceland Spar, and which proved vital in the evaluation of polarized light.
  • I devised a novel and new means of preparing thin sections of rocks for examination under the microscope.
  • My reluctance to be published meant that my valuable discoveries remained essentially unknown for many years.

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