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Jackson's Revenge

Although Jackson's participation in the Albert mines controversy would not be considered unethical by his own definition, it is suggested that Jackson was out to discredit Gesner, and how better to do it than to be the chief spokesman for Gesner's mining adversaries. Dr. Jackson first visited Albert Mines in 1851, on behalf of Edward Allison of the Albert Mining Company. He studied, amoung other things, fossils and mineral samples from the area to determine whether Albertite was a coal or a bitumen, presenting several of his findings to the Boston Society of Natural History.

He proposed that this new material be named Asphaltic Coal and that it would be valuable for the manufacture of gas. Subsequent events proved that this Asphaltic Coal was indeed good for gas manufacture. On May 21, 1851, Jackson spoke further about albertite. He said that he had collected two specimens of ganoid fishes in which one of them also showed nearly perfect traces of fossil plants. The importance of the fossils was that if it could be shown that albertite came from plant fossils, it suggested that it was a coal, otherwise it could be considered a bitumen as Gesner claimed.

In 1851, Jackson presented speciments that settled for him that albertite was a coal rather than bitumen. He presented six plant species, including a perfect stem of a Lepidodendron, a well-known plant of the coal formation. This fossil rendered any further search into the geologicalage of the fish-bearing rocks of the mine unnecessary. He showed expanded leaves, resembling a species of palm, a number of stems appeared to have been succulent hollow stems, specimens of Lepidostrobus with the fruit in relief and the counter-print in the rock, and a palm-like leaf unidentified as to species.

In 1852, Gesner was embroiled in a famous legal battle against the Albert Mining Company over the right to mine albertite. The Albert Mining company held coal mining leases for the area, leases that Gesner had tried and failed to purchase for himself. In his case, Gesner argued that albertite was not a coal, and therefore that he should be allowed to mine it with the non-coal mining leases he subsequently purchased. Based on the evidence from many sources, including Dr. Jackson, the jury found that albertite was a coal, and Gesner lost the case and the right to mine albertite.

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