Leslie Bradford (9 March 1878 – 20 June 1943) was a mining engineer in Australia credited with several important inventions in the treatment of metal-bearing ores.
History
Bradford was born in India, a son of George A. Bradford, Minister of Salt in the Indian Government, and was educated at
Bishop Cotton's school. In 1892 he moved with his parents to Adelaide, South Australia, where he studied for four years at the
School of Mines
A school of mines (or mining school) is an engineering school, often established in the 18th and 19th centuries, that originally focused on mining engineering and applied science. Most have been integrated within larger constructs such as minera ...
, and was their youngest student to gain diplomas for mining, metallurgy, and chemistry.
In 1897 he gained employment with the Block 14 Company of
Broken Hill
Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is ...
as assistant assayer, and the following year was put in charge of that section. In 1898 he joined
BHP
BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...
at their treatment works in
Port Pirie
Port Pirie is a small city on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia, north of the state capital, Adelaide. The city has an expansive history which dates back to 1845. Port Pirie was the first proclaimed regional city in South ...
, and in 1899 was appointed their chief assayer and metallurgist.
While at Port Pirie he developed a process of separating sulphide ores by
froth flotation
Froth flotation is a process for selectively separating hydrophobic materials from hydrophilic. This is used in mineral processing, paper recycling and waste-water treatment industries. Historically this was first used in the mining industry, wher ...
, earlier investigated by
G. D. Delprat
Guillaume Daniel Delprat Order of the British Empire, CBE (1 September 1856 – 15 March 1937) was a Netherlands, Dutch-Australian metallurgy, metallurgist, mining engineer, and businessman. He was a developer of the froth flotation process fo ...
and
Charles Vincent Potter. Bradford's breakthrough was the use of copper sulphate to promote the process. In February 1919 he was granted a patent, and extended to Edward Horwood,
Edwin Thomas Henderson, and the Broken Hill Proprietary a percentage of royalties received. In 1928 his patent rights were conditionally extended a further five years.
William Piper was involved in later developments, as were Sir
Herbert Gepp
Sir Herbert William Gepp (pron. "Jepp") (28 September 1877 – 14 April 1954) was an Australian industrial chemist, businessman and public servant.
History
Gepp was born in Adelaide, a son of William John Gepp (1843 – 27 March 1915) and his wif ...
and
Auguste de Bavay
Auguste Joseph François de Bavay (9 June 1856 – 16 November 1944) was a brewer and industrial chemist in Australia.
History
De Bavay was born in Vilvoorde, Belgium, second son of R. de Bavay, Knight of the Order of Leopold / a son of Xavier de ...
.
In 1901 he began working with chemist
A. D. Carmichael in developing the Carmichael-Bradford desulphurisation process for treatment of sulphide ores prior to smelting, which enabled recovery of valuable metal from the great piles of
tailings
In mining, tailings are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore. Tailings are different to overburden, which is the waste rock or other material that overlie ...
at the mines, and led to the founding of the
Zinc Corporation
Consolidated Zinc was an Australian mining company from 1905 to 1962.
History
The company's initial operations focused on extracting zinc from mine tailings of the Broken Hill Ore Deposit at Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia. The company ...
. Their company Carmichael–Bradford Desulphurising Co. was founded in 1908 to manage international patents; apart from
BHP
BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...
little interest was shown and the company was wound up in 1912.
In 1915 he was transferred to the Company's steelworks at
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
where he worked on refinements to their
open hearth furnace
An open-hearth furnace or open hearth furnace is any of several kinds of industrial furnace in which excess carbon and other impurities are burnt out of pig iron to produce steel. Because steel is difficult to manufacture owing to its high melt ...
s.
[D. F. Fairweather, 'Bradford, Leslie (Les) (1878–1943)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bradford-leslie-les-9564/text16849, published first in hardcopy 1993, accessed online 25 December 2018]
Bradford resigned in 1920 to found with
Ernest James Kendall the Bradford-Kendall steel foundry on Botany Road,
Botany, New South Wales
Botany is a suburb in south-eastern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Botany is located 11 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the Bayside Council.
Botany sits on the northern shore of Botan ...
.
He was lured back to BHP in 1924 to manage their steelworks, retaining his interest in the foundry.
[
He became General Manager of BHP in 1935 and Chief Executive Officer in 1938.][
In 1940 he founded Bradford Insulation to exploit ]rockwool
Mineral wool is any fibrous material formed by spinning or drawing molten mineral or rock materials such as slag and ceramics.
Applications of mineral wool include thermal insulation (as both structural insulation and pipe insulation), f ...
from the smelter's slag
Slag is a by-product of smelting (pyrometallurgical) ores and used metals. Broadly, it can be classified as ferrous (by-products of processing iron and steel), ferroalloy (by-product of ferroalloy production) or non-ferrous/base metals (by-prod ...
, which was otherwise wasted.[
]
Recognition
*A laboratory in the South Australian Institute of Technology (now University of South Australia) was named for him
*A portrait by Sir William Dargie
Captain (armed forces), Captain Sir William Alexander Dargie (4 June 1912 – 26 July 2003) was a renowned Australian painter, known especially for his portrait paintings. He won the Archibald Prize, Australia's premier award for portrait ...
is held by the University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...
.
*He was awarded the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) provides services to professionals engaged in all facets of the global minerals sector and is based in Carlton, Victoria, Australia.
History
The Institute had its genesis in 1893 with ...
bronze medal in 1938.
Personal
Bradford died at his home, 2 Macquarie Road, Toorak, Victoria
Toorak () is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Stonnington local government area, on Boonwurrung Land. Toorak recorded a population of 12,817 at the 2021 ...
, after a long illness, survived by his wife, three sons, and twin daughters .
Family
George Augustus Bradford (c. 1840 – 30 June 1917) married Amelia Caroline Moore (1842 – 1910) on 6 July 1867
*Miss M. M. C. Bradford (1868 – )
*Miss M. C. Bradford (1870 – 1944)
*Miss E. M. Bradford (1872 – 1942)
*Ashley Vere Bradford (1871 – 1 August 1936) never married
*H. M. Bradford (1874 – 1954) assistant manager, Broken Hill North
*F. C. Bradford (1876 – 1927) electrical engineer, BHAS, Port Pirie
*Leslie Bradford (9 March 1878 – 20 June 1943) married Mabel Ellen Müller (1879 – 1965) on 26 April 1902.
They had a home in Sussex Street, Glenelg
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bradford, Leslie
1878 births
1943 deaths
Australian chemists
20th-century Australian inventors
20th-century Australian businesspeople
History of Broken Hill