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
Vilvoorde (; ; ; historically known as ''Filford'' in English) is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality and City status in Belgium, city in the Halle-Vilvoorde district (''arrondissement'') of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Bra ...
, Belgium, second son of R. de Bavay, Knight of the
Order of Leopold / a son of Xavier de Bavay and his wife Marie Thérèse de Bavay née de Bontridder.
[
He was educated at a college in ]Namur
Namur (; ; ) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is the capital both of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration.
Namur stands at the confl ...
, and graduated in 1873 qualified as a surveyor. He undertook further studies at Gembloux, and found employment as a brewer and chemist. In the late 1870s he left for Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
), where he worked as a plantation manager.
In March 1884 De Bavay arrived in Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
and worked as a brewer at Thomas Aitken's Victoria Parade Brewery. Following E. C. Hansen's discovery of the impact of yeast variety on the beer quality, De Bavay grew Australia's first pure yeast expressly cultured for top-fermentation brewing.
His students included Jack Breheny.[
In 1894 De Bavay joined the ]Foster's Group
Foster's Group Pty. Ltd. was an Australian beer group with interests in brewing and soft drinks, known for Foster's Lager, now called Carlton & United Breweries since the company was renamed in 2011. Foster's was founded in 1888 in Melbourne, ...
following a recommendation by Montague Cohen, a director of the company, and made improvements to their lager
Lager (; ) is a Type of beer, style of beer brewed and Brewing#Conditioning, conditioned at low temperature. Lagers can be Pale lager, pale, Amber lager, amber, or Dark lager, dark. Pale lager is the most widely consumed and commercially availab ...
production. He then joined Cohen in wine production, establishing a vineyard at Woori Yallock in partnership with Cohen.
He also acted as a consultant to Perth's Swan Brewery and Hobart's Cascade Brewery and, later, Carlton & United Breweries, in all of which Cohen and Baillieu had an interest.[
In 1889 he proved that Melbourne's water supply was potentially being contaminated by sewage via fireplugs. This led to a State ]Royal Commission
A royal commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue in some monarchies. They have been held in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Malaysia, Mauritius and Saudi Arabia. In republics an equi ...
, resulting in removal of the devices and an immediate improvement in quality of the water supply.
De Bavay was attracted to the "sulphide problem" of Broken Hill, where great mounds of potentially valuable zinc blende
Sphalerite is a sulfide mineral with the chemical formula . It is the most important ore of zinc. Sphalerite is found in a variety of deposit types, but it is primarily in sedimentary exhalative, Mississippi-Valley type, and volcanogenic mas ...
had accumulated, but could not be shipped economically because of the gangue
Gangue () is the commercially worthless material that surrounds, or is closely mixed with, a wanted mineral in an ore deposit. It is thus distinct from overburden, which is the waste rock or materials overlying an ore or mineral body that are di ...
content. If an economical method of separating the ore were developed, a great new industry would be created. C. V. Potter and Guillaume Delprat had made useful work on development of froth flotation and by July 1904 he had evolved his own process, skin or film flotation.
In 1904 he founded de Bavay's Sulphide Process Co. Ltd, with Cohen and William Baillieu, and the following year another company De Bavay's Sulphide Process Co. Ltd to purchase De Bavay's patents.[
In 1909 Amalgamated Zinc (De Bavay's) Ltd was founded to put the process into practice.
After Australia entered the Great War in 1914, De Bavay was approached by the Minister for Defence, ]George Pearce
Sir George Foster Pearce KCVO (14 January 1870 – 24 June 1952) was an Australian politician who served as a Senator for Western Australia from 1901 to 1938. He began his career in the Labor Party but later joined the National Labor Party, ...
, to develop a process for production of acetone
Acetone (2-propanone or dimethyl ketone) is an organic compound with the chemical formula, formula . It is the simplest and smallest ketone (). It is a colorless, highly Volatile organic compound, volatile, and flammable liquid with a charact ...
, needed for manufacture of cordite
Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in Britain since 1889 to replace black powder as a military firearm propellant. Like modern gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burni ...
. Within two weeks he had developed a process based on the fermentation and distillation of molasses
Molasses () is a viscous byproduct, principally obtained from the refining of sugarcane or sugar beet juice into sugar. Molasses varies in the amount of sugar, the method of extraction, and the age of the plant. Sugarcane molasses is usuall ...
. He made a gift of the patent to the Commonwealth of Australia.
De Bavay was put in charge of development and erection of the Government's Commonwealth Acetate of Lime Factory.
De Bavay was naturalized in November 1902. He died at his home on Studley Park Road, Kew, Victoria
Kew () is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, found 5 km east from Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District. Kew is located within the City of Boroondara Local government areas of ...
aged 88. His remains were buried in Melbourne General Cemetery.
Recognition
*De Bavay was appointed O.B.E. in 1920
*He was appointed Consul for Guatemala in 1906
*He received the Papal decoration Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice
:He was invested in two Belgian orders:
:*Chevalier of the Ordre de Léopold in 1902
:*Officer of the Ordre de la Couronne in 1920
:*Commander of the Ordre de la Couronne in 1928
Family
De Bavay married Anna Heinzle (died 27 October 1933) at St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne on 21 March 1885. Their family included:
*Marie de Bavay (16 June 1886 – ) never married
*Captain (Auguste John) Charles de Bavay (12 May 1887 – ) married Vera Tolley (1896– ) on 20 August 1919. He was brewer with Carlton Brewery, she was member of Tolley family, winemakers of South Australia
*Vera de Bavay (19 February 1890 – ) married John Higgs on ?? 1833, lived in Surrey
Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...
, England
*(Francis) Xavier de Bavay (8 September 1895 – 23 February 1955) married Dulcie Lucille Cooper ( – ) on 19 June 1922. He was manager of the Cascade Brewerv Co. Ltd, Hobart
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:De Bavay, Auguste
1856 births
1944 deaths
Belgian emigrants
People from British Ceylon
Immigrants to colonial Australia
Australian physical chemists
Australian brewers
Australian biochemists
Burials at Melbourne General Cemetery
20th-century Australian chemists
19th-century Australian scientists
Australian company founders
Mining company founders
Australian mining businesspeople