Williams, George K.

Description

Agent TypePersonIdentifierUMA-AG-000001345Place of BirthTarnagulia, VictoriaActivities & OccupationsEngineersGenderMaleHistoryGeorge Kenneth Williams was born at Tarnagulla Victoria in 1896 and studied mining engineering at the University of Melbourne and he gained his Doctorate of Engineering in 1934. He began his working career at Broken Hill Associated Smelters - it was during his employment here that he first started looking at developing more efficient processes in the separation of lead bullion from gold or silver. In 1921 Williams was transferred to Port Pirie where he worked with O.H. Woodward and he and was quickly promoted to a supervisory role.

During the late 1920s and 1930s Williams worked on his ‘continuous refining process’ and received support for testing from Colin Fraser (BHAS). The tests were a success and the process was patented. Williams was appointed as Metalurgist at BHAS in 1933 where he worked on perfecting the blast furnace technology, in 1947 he moved to London and worked as a Metalurgist Consultant with Consolidated Zinc Corporation. Later he moved back to Melbourne and was employed by Consolidated Zinc Pty Ltd (Conzinc Riotinto of Australia).

He retired in 1966 and was elected as fellow at the University of Melbourne in 1967. The university established the GG Williams laboratory for extractive metallurgy. He died on 6 April 1974.

Item

Accession

Dates

Date21/02/1896-6/04/1974

Names

TitleDrGiven NameGeorgeMiddle NameKennethFamily NameWilliams

University of Melbourne Archives

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Williams, George K.