Five more enter National Mining Hall of Fame in US

Five men who made significant contributions to mining and metallurgy will have their names enshrined in the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum in Leadville, Colo., during a ceremony slated for Sept. 25 at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel in Nevada.

The six inductees — Georgius Agricola, David Brunton, Herbert Goodman, David Mitchell, and Robert Peele — bring to 184 the number of mining greats whose engraved photos and biographical sketches are in the National Mining Hall of Fame.

Thomas Falkie, chairman of the hall’s board of governors, will conduct the ceremony. The keynote speaker will be William Champion, president and CEO of Bingham Canyon.

The 17th annual banquet will begin with a reception at 6 p.m., followed by dinner. For more information, contact Sam McGeorge at the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum by phoning (719) 486-1229. E-mail: director@amigo.net.

Georgius Agricola (1494-1555)

“Who can fail to realize that mining is a calling of peculiar dignity?” was one of many observations Agricola wrote in De Re Metallica, the first book on mining based on field research and observation. He was also the first to use detailed drawings to illustrate specialized methods of working in mines. The book provided a realistic history of mining from antiquity to the mid-16th century.

De Re Metallica was written in Latin and almost immediately translated into German, Italian, and French. It remained the most authoritative reference for miners for about 200 years. In 1912, Herbert and Lou Hoover, who were previously inducted into the Hall of Fame, translated and published an English translation, which remains in print.

Agricola, translated into Latin from Georg Bauer, was born in Glauchau, Saxony, and educated in the classics, philosophy, medicine, and the sciences. He studied at universities in Italy and what is now Germany. In 1527, he took the position of town physician in a Bohemian mining town in the midst of what was the most prolific metal-mining district in Europe. In about 1530, he resigned his position to spend two or three years travelling and studying mines. In 1533, he became town physician in Chemnitz, Saxony, another mining district. Among his many accomplishments, Agricola was a pioneer in the use of pharmacological minerals and the study of diseases affecting miners. He cautioned miners about the dangers of breathing dust.

Agricola is considered the founder of geology as a discipline, and while De Re Metallica was the last and most famous of his books, several others also broke ground in mineral science. De Ortu et Causis Subterranearum was the first work on physical geology; De Natura Fassilium was the first systematic study of mineralogy; and De Veteribut et Navis Metallis reviewed the history of metals and topographical mineralogy. In these works, Agricola paved the way for the systematic study of the earth and its rocks and minerals.

David William Brunton (1849-1927)

Brunton often found solutions to a diverse range of challenges in the mining industry.

The native of Canada recognized the need for something smaller and simpler than the heavy surveying equipment that engineers of his era used in the the field. With this in mind, he came up with the “pocket transit,” a hand-held surveying compass that could also measure horizontal angles. Brunton was awarded a patent for it in 1894, and a watchmaker in Denver, Colo., was contracted to manufacture it. By 1929, about 30,000 Brunton pocket transits were in regular use, and by 1960, that total was approaching 100,000.

In another endeavor, Brunton’s investigation of sampling devices led to the idea that a true sample must cross the entire sampling stream for short periods of time, as opposed to periodic or continuous sampling of a portion of the stream. To accomplish this, he developed and patented an oscillating sampler. He also invented the quartering shovel and the Taylor & Brunton riffle as aids to better sampling. In 1889, Taylor and Brunton erected their first public sampling plant in Aspen, Colo., followed by at least four other such plants at various sites.

Brunton is remembered mostly for his inventions, but he was also a mining engineer. Working at mines on Smuggler Mountain near Aspen during the late 1880s, he supervised the driving of the 2.5-mile Cowenhoven Adit to relieve water problems and speed up ore haulage. He then supervised the sinking of the 1,200-ft.-deep Free Silver shaft, which was collared near the portal of the adit.

In 1890, Brunton went to Butte, Mont., and was hired as a consulting engineer for the Anaconda mines. His work there with Horace Mitchell led to a better understanding of the complicated Butte fault systems. In 1903, at the Rio Tinto mine in Spain, Brunton developed a method of recovering copper from old workings.

Brunton served as president of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers (A.I.M.E) in 1909-1910, and the institute honoured him with its first Saunder’s Gold Medal for Distinguished Service in Mining in 1927. Now, decades later, Brunton products still carry on the legacy of the mining engineer who devised the first pocket transit.

Herbert Goodman (1862-1917)

Goodman founded Goodman Equipment of Chicago, lll., maker of mine locomotives and other mining equipment.

Goodman immigrated to the U.S. from England and studied at the University of Chicago before becoming an inventor and manufacturer. He entered the mining industry when he joined his brother-in-law in developing coal-cutting machines and mine locomotives for the Link Belt Co. In 1900, after 11 years, Goodman purchased Link Belt and organized his own company. In 1905, he became vice-president of the company and continued as general manager until his death in 1917.

Basic designs of Goodman locomotives, cutting machines, and drills paved the way for the mechanization of mines. Portions of machines designed by Goodman were later incorporated into almost all mine locomotives, cutting machines, and drills. Goodman Equipment introduced the first electrical mining locomotive for use in underground mines. The company invented specially designed personnel and materials carriers to move men and materials underground, as well as the first electric coal-cutting machine.

Goodman Equipment ultimately developed an entire product line of locomotives for underground mining and tunneling. Sizes ranged from 1.5-ton Mancha Trammers to 50-ton mainline haulers.

Goodman Equipment also introduced belt conveyors and continuous miners to the coal industry. In May 2003, the company ceased operations when Trident South Africa acquired the global manufacturing and distribution rights for all new Goodman equipment.

David Ray Mitchell (1898-1972)

Mitchell was widely known as an authority on coal preparation engineering, which improves the quality of coal by reducing its sulfur and ash content.

Mitchell assembled the principal U.S. experts in coal preparation to write a book on the specialized field. The result was Coal Preparation, published in 1943 by the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers. The book became the standard text for coal preparation in universities as well as the standard reference book for professional engineers. It has subsequently been updated and revised. In 1996, a fifth edition of Coal Preparation was published, with one of Mitchell’s former students, J.W. Leonard, as editor.

A Pennsylvania native, Mitchell served in the Army Signal Corps (aviation section) in the First World War and subsequently received his bachelor of science and master’s degrees in mining engineering from Penn State. He worked in the coal-mining industry for several years, and from 1927 to 1938 was a member of the faculty at the University of Illinois, advancing from instructor to associate professor. In 1938, Mitchell returned to Penn State as professor and head of mining engineering, advancing to division chief of mineral engineering and dean of the College of Mineral Industries, the position he held until his retirement in 196
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Mitchell was a consultant to numerous mining companies, advised the Pennsylvania Legislature on mine safety problems, and later chaired the governor’s committee on mine safety. Mitchell was editor of several magazines from 1938 to 1961, and wrote more than 100 technical papers.

Robert Peele (1858-1942)

Peele gained recognition for his extensive contributions to mining literature.

He is probably best remembered for editing three editions of Mining Engineer’s Handbook, published in 1918, 1927 and 1941. The Handbook sold more than 100,000 copies worldwide. The 1941 edition, published in two volumes, remained in print until 1989, nearly 50 years after Peele’s death.

Peele was born in New York, N.Y., where he graduated from the Columbia School of Mines in 1883. Upon graduation, he worked in gold and silver mines in North Carolina, Arizona and Colorado and performed mine evaluations in New Mexico, Colombia and Suriname. Later he became superintendent of the Oregon Gold Mining Co. and served in South America as examining engineer for the Peruvian Exploration Syndicate.

In 1891, Henry Monroe formed the Department of Mining Engineering at Columbia University; two years later, he hired Peele as adjunct professor of mining. His students often talked about the intense summer school courses taught by Peele, which emphasized hands-on experience and concentrated on a particular mine every summer.

In addition to Mining Engineer’s Handbook, Peele translated and published a German book by R. Reimer titled Shaftsinking Under Difficult Conditions, and a year later he completed Compressed Air Plant in Mines, a design manual for mining engineers. The latter was later revised under the name Compressed Air Plant.

Peele also pursued a career as a consultant, traveling to and evaluating mining properties as a partner in the consulting firm Olcott, Fearn & Peele (later known as Olcott, Corning & Peele).

Peele is an honorary member of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers and of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy of London. In 1923, he was the unanimous choice of the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America to receive its gold medal for distinguished service in mining literature.