The Age of the Universe (1800s)
The 1800s ended with a number of unresolved problems. The Michelson-Morley experiment of 1887 had not only disproved all known theories of light when it showed that the aether does not exist, but it had yet unknown implications for the nature of space and time. Olbers' paradox remained unsolved, and there was increased worry about how long the Sun could continue to burn.
In the 17th century, English physicist Isaac Newton had suggested that the Sun was fuelled by comets, arguing that the "fixed stars that have been gradually wasted by the light and vapours emitted from them for a long time, may be recruited by comets that fall upon them; and from this fresh supply of new fuel these old stars, acquiring new splendour, may pass for new stars" (Newton, pp.502). By the end of the 1800s, it had been suggested that the Sun could be fuelled by a chemical process like combustion, yet even if the entire mass of the Sun were made of petrol, it would still only burn for about seven thousand years (1).
This would not have been considered a problem in the 1700's, when the age of the Earth was accepted to be about six thousand years, having been created on the 23rd of October 4004 BC. This date had been calculated by Irish Bishop James Ussher. He started by adding the male lineage from Adam through to Solomon and beyond the time of Solomon, he cross-referenced the lineage of Kings with known historical data (Fuller, pp.5). Yet by the end of the 1800s, science had begun to suggest that the Earth must be at least thirty five thousand times older than this.
The first three dinosaurs to be identified were all found in England, the first belonged to the herbivorous Iguanodon, discovered in Sussex by geologist Gideon Mantell in 1822 (Dean, pp.73). The second was the carnivorous Megalosaurus, discovered in Oxford and identified by geologist William Buckland in 1824. The third was the armoured Hylaeosaurus, also discovered in Sussex and first identified by geologist Gideon Mantell in 1833. English biologist Richard Owen coined the term Dinosauria to encompass all three genera, in 1842. Dinosauria is derived from the Greek words deinos, which is translated as 'terrible, powerful or wondrous' and the word sauros, which means 'lizard'.
The Star Garden
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Iguanodon Megalosaurus Hylaeosaurus
In 1859, English biologist Charles Darwin suggested that our current stage of evolution would require at least two hundred million years. Darwin claimed estimations "that about sixty million years have elapsed since the Cambrian period" are probably false as this "appears a very short time for the many and great mutations of life, which have certainly occurred since the Cambrian formation; and the previous one hundred and forty million years can hardly be considered as sufficient for the development of the varied forms of life which already existed during the Cambrian period" (Darwin, pp.286). It seemed that whole eons of the past were undocumented.
In 1878, Darwin's son, astronomer George Darwin, suggested that the Earth and Moon had once been part of the same molten mass but had broken apart. Astronomers now think that this occurred when it was hit by an object the size of Mars. Darwin's theory showed that it would take about fifty six million years for the Moon to becoming tidally locked with the Earth so that we only see one side.
In 1897, Scottish physicist William Thomson, also known as Lord Kelvin, argued that it would take between twenty and forty million years for the Earth to cool to its current temperature from a molten state (Burchfield pp.43). And finally, in 1899, Irish physicist John Joly showed that it would take eighty to one hundred million years for the oceans to have accumulated their current salt content through mineral erosion. We now know that the Earth is about four and a half billion years old. This was determined by American physicist Clair Cameron Patterson using the radioactive dating of meteorites in 1953.
References
Burchfield, J.D., 1990, 'Lord Kelvin and the age of the earth', University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Darwin, C. R., 2001, 'On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life', Adamant Media Corporation, Boston
Dean, D.R., 1999, 'Gideon Mantell and the Discovery of Dinosaurs', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Fuller, J.G., 2005, 'A Date to Remember: 4004 BC', Earth Sciences History, Vol.24
Newton, I., 1848, 'Principia', Motte, A. (trans.), New York Public Library, New York