The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Darton, Nelson Horatio

DARTON, Nelson Horatio, American geologist: b. Brooklyn, N.Y., 17 Dec. 1865. He received a common school education and became an analytical chemist and geologist. In 1886 he became geologist to the United States Geological Survey, from which in 1910 he was transferred to the post of geologist to the Federal Bureau of Mines of the Geological Survey. In 1912 he again became geologist to the United States Geological Survey. His chemical researches were on sugar refining, tannic acid and water analysis; the latter led to the elimination of 300 polluted pump wells in Brooklyn. He is a specialist in geology of underground waters, and much of his later work consists of government reports on artesian conditions and structural materials. He edited the Survey's first bibliography of North American geology from 1732 to 1891 in ‘Survey Bulletin 127’ (1906), and has published many articles in magazines and scientific journals.