44 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 





For 



Machinery. 



For Processes. 



In 1887 



. 



9 



7 



1888 



. 



19 



17 



1889 





29 



23 



1890 





30 



22 



Unfortunately for some of the patentees, as well as the public, 

 many patents are found unsuitable for practical and profitable 

 working on a large scale, though feasible in theory, and thus it 

 is that we hear so little about them. 



I may be pardoned if I point out a few of the prizes for inven- 

 tions of commercially workable methods — there is yet the " Gold 

 in pyrites " problem. Chlorination has in its details advanced con- 

 siderably and the working been cheapened, yet our local conditions 

 in many parts are such, that chlorination is too expensive. A 

 good method by which Gold can be effectively extracted from raw 

 or un roasted pyrites would seem to be the method of the future. 

 Our Antimony ores are now an important item of export, yet it 

 is only a portion of the ore which is raised that finds a market in 

 Europe. The man and the method to utilize the heaps of low 

 grade ores is wanted. Gold in payable quantities is often 

 associated with the Antimony, so that in solving the problem of 

 treating low grade Antimony ores, both the saving of the Gold 

 and the Antimony has to be taken into consideration. 



The Silver and Lead production of this Colony, important as 

 it is, will yet attain to greater dimensions. Here, too, is ample 

 scope for inventiveness. A few months ago a notice appeared in 

 our newspapers stating that " in view of the millions of tons of 

 Galena ore now in sight in the mines at Broken Hill, special 

 attention is being given to the matter of treating." It may not 

 be generally known that the sulphide ores of the Barrier mines 

 carry, in addition to their silver and lead contents, considerable 

 percentages of Zinc, sufficient indeed that, could a workable 

 method of extracting and saving it be got, Australia would 

 become one of the World's great Zinc-producers. To-day not a 

 ton of Zinc is saved from those ores carrying it in important 



