Robert Plot

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Image:Dr Robert Plot of Magdelen Hall Oxford.jpg

Robert Plot (Borden, Kent, England, 1640 December 13 – Borden, 1696 April 30), was a British naturalist, first Professor of Chemistry at Oxford University and the first keeper of the Ashmolean Museum.

He is known for looking for natural curiosities in several English counties, writing Natural History of Oxfordshire in which he described the fossilized femur of a giant (now known to be from the dinosaur Megalosaurus) and Natural History of Staffordshire, in which he describes a double sunset¹, and also, reported the existence of a long-forgotten network of underground tunnels. According to the book, the entrance to these long-forgotten caves was discovered by a farm workman, who while digging a trench, discovered a large iron plate beneath the dirt. The "hatch" was large and oval, with an iron ring mounted on it [1]. Whether or not the tunnels exist, the story has become part of a worldwide urban legend of interconnected subterranean cities.

In 1677 he became a fellow of the Royal Society due to his exhibit of minerals, and in 1682 became the society's Secretary and joint editor of the Philosophical Transactions. In the field of chemistry he searched for a universal solvent that could be obtained from wine spirits, and believed alchemy was necessary for medicine. After 1686 Robert Plot focused more on archaeology, but misinterpreted Roman remains as Saxon. He stressed the unusual, studied echoes to learn about air, mineral waters, and recognised types of earth in layers, but believed fossil shellfish were coincidental mineral crystallisations, and that some spring water must originate from the sea flowing through underground channels.