astronomy

Harold Finlay

Harold Finlay is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Harold Finlay rather than just read about it. In short: Harold John Finlay (22 March 1901 – 7 April 1951) was a New Zealand palaeontologist and conchologist. Biography Finlay was born in Comilla, India (now Bangladesh), on 22 March 1901, to a family of Baptist missionaries.

Key takeaways

Harold Finlay belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Harold Finlay to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Harold Finlay from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Harold John Finlay (22 March 1901 – 7 April 1951) was a New Zealand palaeontologist and conchologist.

Biography Finlay was born in Comilla, India (now Bangladesh), on 22 March 1901, to a family of Baptist missionaries. He was left a paraplegic after contracting poliomyelitis at the age of four, but was able to participate in field excursions. The family moved to Dunedin in 1906. He graduated from the University of Otago with B.Sc. and M.Sc. He received the Hamilton Memorial Prize of the New Zealand Institute in 1926 and a D.Sc. in 1927. His main research interest was marine and non-marine malacofauna of New Zealand, both recent and fossil. Much of his work focused on mollusc taxonomy and biostratigraphy. After graduation, Finlay ran into financial hardship, living off of research grants, and occasional work as a contract consultant for oil exploration companies. Finlay was appointed to the Geological Survey of New Zealand in 1937, where he worked a micropaleontologist studying Foraminifera. Due to this shift in scope, Finlay sold his mollusc collection to the Auckland Institute and Museum, of which there were an estimated 14,000 specimen lots, and 437 type specimens for the species that Finlay had described. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1939, and was awarded the society's Hector Memorial Medal in 1941. Finlay died, unexpectedly, at his home in Wellington on 7 April 1951.

Personal life Finlay married Jean Dorothy Waterson Gillies in 1937.

Bibliography Many of Finlay's works were published in Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand abbreviated as Trans. N.Z. Inst. (incomplete; complete only for publications from Trans. N.Z. Inst.) 1923

Finlay H. J. 1923. Some Remarks on New Zealand Calliostomidae, with Descriptions of New Tertiary Species. Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 54, pp. 99–105. Finlay H. J. & McDowall F. H. 1923. Fossiliferous Limestone at Dowling Bay. Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 54, pp. 106–114. 1924

Finlay H. J. 1924. A Chemical Investigation of Pintsch Oil. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 55, 1924, Finlay H. J. 1924. Three Fossil Annelids new to New Zealand. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 55, 1924, Finlay H. J. 1924. New shells from New Zealand Tertiary Beds. Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 55, 1924, pp. 450–479. Finlay H. J. 1924. New Zealand Tertiary Rissoids. Trans. N.Z. Inst. vol 55, 1924, pp. 480–490. Finlay H. J. 1924. The Molluscan Fauna of Target Gully. Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol 55, 1924, pp. 494–516. Finlay H. J. 1924. Additions to the Recent Molluscan Fauna of New Zealand. Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol 55, 1924, pp. 517–526. Finlay H. J. 1924. The Family Liotiidae, Iredale, in the New Zealand Tertiary: Part 1—The Genus Brookula. Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol 55, 1924, pp. 526–531. Finlay H. J. & McDowall F. H. 1924. Preliminary Note on the Clifden Beds. Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 55, pp. 534–538. Finlay H. J. 1924. Two New Species of Magadina. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 55, 1924, Finlay H. J. 1924. Some necessary changes in Names of New Zealand Mollusca. Proc. Mal. Soc. (Lond.), vol. 16, pt. 2, pp. 99–107. Finlay H. J. 1924. List of Recorded Relationships between Australian and New Zealand Mollusca. Rep. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vol. 16, pp. 332–343. 1925

Finlay H. J. 1925 Some Modern Conceptions Applied to the Study of the Caenozoic Mollusca of New Zealand. Verbeek Mem. Birthday Vol., pp. 161–172. 1926

Finlay H. J. 1926 New Shells from New Zealand Tertiary Beds: Part 2. Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 56, 1926, pp. 227–258. Finlay H. J. 1926 On Iredalina, new genus: a Volute without plaits. Proc. Mal. Soc. (Lond.), vol. 17, pt. 1, pp. 59–62. 1927

Finlay H. J. 1927. Additions to the Recent Molluscan Fauna of New Zealand.—No. 2. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 57, 1927, pp. 485–487 Finlay H. J. (19 January) 1927. New Specific Names for Austral Mollusca. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 57, 1927, pp. 488–533. Finlay H. J. (23 December) 1927. A Further Commentary on New Zealand Molluscan Systematics. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 57, 1927, 320-485. 1928

Finlay H. J. 1928. The Recent Mollusca of the Chatham Islands. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 59, 1928, pp. 232–286 1930

Finlay H. J. (23 August) 1930. Additions to the Recent Molluscan Fauna of New Zealand. No. 3. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 61, 222-247. (PDF) Finlay H. J. 1930. Invalid Molluscan Names. No. 1. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 61, 1930 Finlay H. J. 1930. New Shells from New Zealand Tertiary Beds. Part 3. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 61, 1930, pp. 49–84 Finlay H. J. 1930. Notes on Recent Papers dealing with the Mollusca of New Zealand. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 61, 1930, pp. 248–258 Finlay H. J. 1930. Revision of the New Zealand. Shells Referred to Fusinus. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 61, 1930 1931

Finlay H. J. 1931–1932. On Turbo postulatus Bartrum: Does it indicate a Pliocene Connection with Australia? Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 62, 1931–32 Finlay H. J. 1931–1932. On Austrosassia, Austroharpa, and Austrolithes, New Genera; with some Remarks on the Gasteropod Protoconch. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 62, 1931–32, pp. 7–19 Finlay H. J. 1931–1932. On the Occurrence of Strebloceras in New Zealand. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 62, 1931–32 Finlay H. J. & Laws C. R. (23 May) 1931. A Second Species of Planorbis from New Zealand. Trans. N.Z. Inst. Volume 62, 1931–32. 23-25. 1938

Finlay H. J. 1938–1939. New Zealand Foraminifera: Key Species in Stratigraphy—No. 1. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 68, 1938–39, Finlay H. J. 1938–1939. New Zealand Foraminifera: The Occurrence of Rzehakina, Hantkenina, Rotaliatina, and Zeauvigerina. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 68, 1938–39 1940

Finlay H. J. 1940. New Zealand Foraminifera: Key Species in Stratigraphy. No. 2. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 69, 1940 Finlay H. J. & Marwick J. 1940. The Divisions of the Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary in New Zealand. Trans. Roy. Soc. N.Z., vol. 70, pp. 77–135. 1946

Finlay H. J. 1946–1947. The Microfaunas of the Oxford Chalk and Eyre River Beds. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 76, 1946–47, Finlay H. J. 1946–1947. The Foraminiferal Evidence for Tertiary Trans-Tasman Correlation. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 76, 1946–47 1947

Finlay H. J. & Marwick J. 1947. New Divisions of the New Zealand Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary. N.Z. Journ. Sci. Tech., vol. 28, (sec. B), pp. 230–236. 1950

Benson W. N. & Finlay H. J. 1950. A Post-Tertiary Micro-Fauna in a Concretion Containing Cancer novae-zealandiae. Trans. N.Z. Inst., Volume 78, 1950, 269-270.

References

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Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Harold Finlay

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Harold Finlay claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Harold Finlay before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Harold Finlay ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Harold Finlay

In research: Harold Finlay appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Harold Finlay in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Harold Finlay is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1901 births, 1951 deaths, 20th-century New Zealand scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Harold Finlay outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Harold Finlay in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Harold Finlay means in your own words.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Harold Finlay in simple terms?

Harold John Finlay (22 March 1901 – 7 April 1951) was a New Zealand palaeontologist and conchologist. Biography Finlay was born in Comilla, India (now Bangladesh), on 22 March 1901, to a family of Baptist missionaries.

Why does Harold Finlay matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Harold Finlay?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Harold Finlay.