1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Binney, Edward William

BINNEY, EDWARD WILLIAM (1812–1881), English geologist, was born at Morton, in Nottinghamshire, in 1812. He was articled to a solicitor in Chesterfield, and in 1836 settled at Manchester. He retired soon afterwards from legal practice and gave his chief attention to geological pursuits. He assisted in 1838 in founding the Manchester Geological Society, of which he was then chosen one of the honorary secretaries; he was elected president in 1857, and again in 1865. He was also successively secretary and president of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester. Working especially at the Carboniferous and Permian rocks of the north of England, he studied also the Drift deposits of Lancashire, and made himself familiar with the geology of the country around Manchester. On the Coal Measures in particular he became an acknowledged authority, and his Observations on the Structure of Fossil Plants found in the Carboniferous Strata (1868–1875) formed one of the monographs of the Palaeontographical Society. His large collection of fossils was placed in Owens College. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1856. He died at Manchester on the 19th of December 1881.