Assaying
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Background
In 1873 the candidate for the Certificate of Assayer at the Ballarat School of Mines were required to pass the following subjects:
Assaying
Candidates could either present themselves for both of the above Subjects at one Examination, or they may present themselves for the first Subject at one half-yearly Examination, and the remaining Subject at a second examination, but not more than two half-yearly examinations must intervene between the first and second examinations.[1]
- THE VICTORIAN SCHOOL OF MINES. (From the S. M. Herald.) THE school of mines is one of the institutions of Ballarat. ... The chemical laboratory is a very interesting sight when all the students are engaged at their several experiments. This laboratory is fitted with all the appliances and chemicals necessary for studying inorganic chemistry to its highest stages; and so also are the metallurgical departments, with their twelve smelting - furnaces used for assaying ores as well as smelting gold. Last year no less than 66,408 oz. of gold and 715 oz. of silver were smelted in these furnaces, and 2114 assays and analyses were made. The school, in the matter of assays, offers a great boon to miners who come in with their gold, not knowing its real value. All they have to do is to go to the school and get their cake of the precious metal assayed, and they are told to the fraction of a penny what the gold-buyer or bank should give. There are also cupellation furnaces and a blast furnace, the balances for ascertaining the specific gravity of substances, and for weighing in connection with quantitative analysis to the 1000th part of a grain. A feature connected with the school of mines is the yet unfinished pyrites works. The extraction of the gold from pyrites and the utilization for commercial purposes of other substances connected with pyrites are peculiarly important to Ballarat, because were a simple and inexpensive method devised there are millions and millions of tons of: quartz that would then be made remunerative. With this thought in their minds two scientific gentlemen invented the school of mines self-acting rotatory furnace. This, for lack of funds, has not been completed as yet, but the amount in hand for the purpose. is daily increasing, and it will eventually be. an accomplished fact. It is in contemplation also to erect machinery shops,in connexion with the school, and it is purposed to construct a steam-engine to do at once the work of the pyrites treatment and the machine room. A model shaft and mine too are being prepared for on the reserve, so that practical mining of the most thorough character may be taught on the ground.[2]
Staff Members
- 1873-1880 Joseph Flude, Metallurgy, Assaying, Chemistry
- 1873-1893 William E. Burbidge, Lecturer and Demonstrator in Metallurgy and Assaying.
- 1923-1939 H.R.W. Murphy, Assaying and Cyaniding
- 1940-1941 R.M. Hannah, Assaying and Cyaniding
- 1941-1954 J.R. Allsop, Assaying and Cyaniding
Students
John Dickinson - Frederick Holst - William F.M. Johnson - H.R.W. Murphy - Leonard P. Seal - R. T. Vale
Ballarat School of Mines Certificate of Competency in Assaying (including Metallurgy)
| # | Name | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Frederick James Gromm | 1874 | |
| Alexander Hughes | 1874 | |
| Alexander Thompson Morrison | 1874 | |
| Richard Taylor Vale | 1874 | |
| Isaac Lewis(New Zealand) | 1875 | |
| Robert Malachy Serjeant | 1875 | |
| Samuel Ernest Figgis | 1875 | |
| Samuel Baird | 1875 | |
| John Rowe | 1875 | |
| Charles Flude | 1876 | |
| Matthew Dougald Hamilton | 1876 | |
| John Sharp | 1876 | |
| William Edward Burbridge | 1882 | |
| Stephen Harris | 1882 | |
| James Robert Bradshaw | 1883 | |
| William Thomas Henry Corbould | 1883 | |
| William Thomas Gronow | 1883 | |
| Arthur Edward Hogue | 1883 |
Also See
References
--C.K.Gervasoni 09:56, 27 February 2014 (EST)