William Manners
MANNERS, William George, ABalSM MAusIME (1864-1924)
William George Manners was born at Scarsdale near Ballarat in Victoria on December 19, 1864 the son of mine manager William Manners and his wife Catherine Manners nee Clarke. While working at the Phoenix Foundry, he studied part time for seven years at the Ballarat School of Mines from which he received, in 1886, one of the first engineering certificates issued by the School. He then moved to Broken Hill where he was appointed engineer for Broken Hill Pty Block 14 Co. Ltd and, in 1891-93, for the Tarrawangee Flux and Tramway Company which quarried limestone for use as flux at the Broken Hill mines.
On June 26, 1889 he married Margaret Brown, the daughter of a Ballarat iron founder, at Ballarat in Victoria . They had five sons and a daughter. Two of the sons served in WW I. The youngest son, George Seddon Manners was also an engineer.
After taking part in a prospecting expedition around Artlunga in the Northern Territory, Manners arrived in Kalgoorlie in 1895. Martin, of the Gawler mining machinery manufacturer, had recommended his employment to Charles Kaufman of London and Globe Gold Corporation, and Kaufman appointed Manners manager of the Gold Crown mine at Kanowna. He worked there for a year during the establishment of the mine and then resigned to set up his own business as a mining engineer and contractor. However, as the demand for new works at Kanowna was diminishing, he returned to Kalgoorlie where he accepted an offer from London and Hamburg Gold Recovery Co. to work as a treatment plant design engineer.
London & Hamburg Gold Recovery Co. was the holder of the bromocyanide gold treatment patents and was developing the Diehl process for the treatment of the Golden Mile sulpho telluride ore under its chief chemist, Ludwig Diehl. While at London and Hamburg, Manners worked on the design of the conversion of the oxidised ore treatment plants of both Lake View Consols and Hannan’s Brownhill to sulpho telluride ore treatment plants using the Diehl process. He worked at London and Hamburg for a year before leaving to join S.G. Turrell in the contracting company, Turrell and Manners (Turrell’s former partner Kay having retired).
In 1901 Turrell and Manners obtained a contract from Golden Horseshoe Estates, Kalgoorlie’s largest gold producer, to prepare the detailed drawings for, and to build, its No.1 sulphide ore mill, a conversion of its 50 head oxidised ore mill. This mill was opened in April 1902 and, later in 1902, work started on new 100 head stamp mill called No.2 sulphide mill for which Manners also did the detailed drawings. The mill included Edwards Duplex furnaces to treat the concentrates (which previously had been sent to the Fremantle smelter). The No.2 Mill of 1906 was probably the most advanced version of stamp mill treatment in Kalgoorlie.
In 1901 02 Turrell and Manners also had the contract to do the detailed drawings for, and build, the King Battery on Hampton Plains, a 20 head battery and treatment works with a capacity to treat 100 tons per day. In 1904 Turrell and Manners was dissolved. Manners re established W.G. Manners & Company and practised as a mining engineer, draughtsman and patent attorney in Kalgoorlie. From 1904 he was the only registered patent attorney on the goldfields, the other two ones in the state having offices in Perth.
From 1904 to 1922 Manners registered 160 Commonwealth patents (18% being provisional), 104 of which were related to mining and metallurgy, the commonest categories of these being filtering machines (21), rock drill bits (12) and roasting furnaces (8). A number of the patents he registered were of international significance, including the 5 by G. Ridgway relating to vacuum filters. For some of these Manners also took out Transvaal (15) and Mexican (7) patents. He also did patent investigations for clients and took out three sealed patents in his own name.
In 1906 Manners, as secretary for a group of investors, floated a new company Light of Israel Goldmining Co which developed a mine at Davyhurst. Over ten years the mine produced 1093 fine oz of gold at a yield of 5 dwt per ton. In the same year Manners designed the refurbishment of the plant for North End Gold Mines in Kalgoorlie which was adopting an all sliming treatment process and was one of the first mines, apart from Great Boulder Pty Ltd, to adopt the Ridgway Mk.1 automatic vacuum filter. In the following year, he designed and supervised the erection of the plant for a new company, Sons of Gwalia South Ltd (Leonora). Like the established Sons of Gwalia Ltd, it was floated by Bewick Moreing’s agency company, London & Western Australian Exploration Co. Ltd. The new mine, whose leases were to the south of those of the Sons of Gwalia, operated independently for a number of years before being eventually absorbed by the parent company.
In 1908 Manners designed a new treatment plant for St Georges Gold Mines (Mt Magnet) which was owned by Boulder No.1 Co. of Kalgoorlie. Following the trend in Kalgoorlie operations the treatment plant was an all sliming plant and was one of the first to use Ridgway Mk.2 vacuum filters. These operated at a much slower speed than the Mk.1 type but had a greater capacity and could be adjusted more readily for variations in slime composition. In 1909 Manners travelled to central New South Wales to design a new plant for Cobar Goldmines and a reconstruction of the treatment plant of Occidental Goldmining Co.
In 1910 Manners bought land near Denmark in south western Western Australia and started the development of a farm but, in 1911, he accepted an offer to design a large mining plant in Rhodesia for a London company, Cam and Motor Mines. Leaving the farm’s development to one of his sons, he travelled to the company’s head quarters in London and then to Rhodesia to study the mined ore and conditions at the mine. He returned to London to prepare the plans and specifications for the mine, then to let contracts for the machinery and to inspect its manufacture. Returning to Rhodesia he supervised the installation of the machinery and returned to Western Australia in 1913. Unfortunately, the Denmark farm had not been a success, and Manners returned to his engineering and patent practice in Kalgoorlie.
In 1913 he designed new machinery and a poppet head for Riverina South Leases at Mulline and, in 1914 15, he was responsible for design and installation of machinery and treatment plant for a new mine, Ida H Ltd at Laverton. Subsequently his practice involved mainly the redesign and relocation of existing mines and plants. He was elected a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining Engineers in 1909. He was a member of the Kalgoorlie Municipal Council until 1922 when he retired through ill health.
W G manners died at Kalgoorlie on December 10, 1924 and was survived by his wife, five sons and a daughter.
His published papers include:
‘Facts about inventions’, KM 19 Jan 1906;
‘Power transmission', WAMBEJ 3 Mar 1906;
‘Electric mine signalling’, WAMBEJ 17 Mar 1906;
‘Mechanical appliances used on the mines of Western Australia, JCMWA, 8, 1909, 'Part 1: Launderers, rope haulage, flying fox', pp.14 23, 'Part 2: Push conveyors, weighing feeder, conveyor belt automatic tripper’, pp. 59 68.
In 1904 he registered in his own name provisional Commonwealth Patent 508 for an ‘improved centrifugal filter’ which he did not complete. In 1909 he registered Commonwealth Patent 14264 for the ‘treatment of auriferous and argentiferous ores’ which was not renewed. Also in 1909 he registered Commonwealth Patent 14625 for ‘an improved centrifugal filtering machine’ which was renewed in 1916.
References:
JCMWA 1905;
WAMBEJ 1 May 1909, p.4;
R.B. Manners, 'So I headed West', Kalgoorlie, 1992, pp. 109 21, 149 51, 173 76, 210 11, 266 72;
Patent Register of W.G. Manners.
