Bendigo Advertiser "The way we were" from 1999. United iron works: taken in 1900. Abraham Roberts first established himself as a blacksmith in Wills Street, Sandhurst. Later his sons Abraham junior and William joined the business and it traded as the United Iron Works. With hard work the foundry grew until it covered three acres bound by Wills , King and Mitchell Streets. The firm established itself throughout the colony for excellence in their work. Much of their work can still be seen around Bendigo including the overhead bridge at the railway station.newspaper, bendigo advertiser, the way we were

Typed notes on Bendigo Foundaries. Notes mention some of the foundries that were in Bendigo, the work they did, where they were, and where some of their work can be seen.document, bendigo foundaries, horwood & sons, girton college, the victoria foundary, andrew harkness & co, palmer river diggings, george lansell, robert harkness, abraham roberts, united iron works, laanecoorie weir, bendigo railway station, coles new world supermarket, target stores, taylor horsefield's engineering works, improved harvester, hugh victor mckay, holland bros., state rivers & water supply, civic buildings, st aiden's, bendigo hospital, carter & brown, osborn bros, bendigo building society, a'becket chambers, fortuna, george lansell, lansell mine, army survey regiment, jorgenson's, st killian's fence, redpath & brown

Abraham Roberts Family, the Roberts family in Australia, from Cornwall UK to Bendigo Vic, a collection of family history starting with Abraham Roberts who arrived in Australia in 1853, written by Diane.L.Penberthy, nee Roberts. Abraham Roberts founded United Iron Works and then A.Roberts and Sons foundry Wills St Bendigo. Contains black and white and colour photographs in a spring bound cover.Diane.Penberthygenealogy, family, roberts

Abraham Roberts (1819-1897), ironfounder, was born on 13 July 1819 in Cornwall, England, son of Abraham Roberts, blacksmith, and his wife Mary, née Pentreath. Nothing is known of his education and early training but it is likely that he served an engineering apprenticeship and worked in engineering workshops in Cornwall. Undoubtedly he observed much machinery among the tin mines of Cornwall and absorbed the principles of sound engineering design and high-grade workmanship, which bore fruit in his later years in Sandhurst (Bendigo). On 19 August 1841 he married Elizabeth Tonkin at the parish church at Paul, Cornwall. Roberts arrived on Bendigo in 1853 with his family and engaged in gold-prospecting, then about 1861 opened the United Iron Works, a small engineering shop in Williamson Street, making forge and hand tools. With expansion the business moved to Mitchell Street, until by 1880 it absorbed an entire block covering three acres (1.2 ha) in the heart of the town and employed nearly two hundred men. Three of his sons, William, Abraham and Arthur, helped to run A. Roberts & Sons. As well as being a skilful and enterprising engineer, Roberts was a shrewd businessman, who anticipated that the market for machinery on the local goldfields would diminish, and widened the sphere of his activities accordingly. Though the requirements of the mining industry maintained the firm, no class of foundry work was ignored. Roberts secured orders for machinery for the two major Broken Hill mines and built steam winding engines for several Western Australian mines, as well as undertaking orders for machinery in South Africa and New Zealand. He introduced poppet-heads constructed of steel to the Bendigo goldfield and the 105-head stamp battery for Lansell's Big Blue mine was the largest quartz-crushing battery in Australia at that time. The pair of steam winding engines built by his works for the Hustler's Royal Reserve Co. were the largest on the Bendigo field. The company also carried out steamship repairs, bridgework and many important railway contracts and in 1891 supplied the largest outlet valves in Victoria at Laanecoorie weir.Two photographs in black and white of the picnic for employees of Messrs A. Roberts and Sons in 1897. Photographs are mounted on piece of red cardboard. A. Roberts and Sons owned a foundry that was established in 1865. The event was noted in the Bendigo Advertiser on 18 March 1901.'1897' in ink top right hand corner.bendigo, foundry, roberts and sons, picnic, 1897

Documents and copies of photos related to various Cornish enterprises in Bendigo: a. Line drawing (faint) of foundry owned by the Roberts family (Mitchell, Wills and King streets); b. copy of article from unknown source re United Iron Works with details of the firm and Roberts principals - William Roberts, Abraham Roberts and Arthur Roberts - with copies of photographic portraits (Bartlett Bros.) - bad copy with LH side of text partly illegible; c. copy of article titled 'Goyne's Battery Gratings re John Goyne and history of the business (submitted by person living at ''Rosemundy'', Goynes Road, Epsom - Goyne's home then on 20 acres); d. Photograph of old Robinson photo of Bendigo Stamper Grating Factory, Epsom and five men posed in front of large timber building (badly cut photo with LH edge missing. original photo (9 x 13) of ''Former Bendigo Cornish Fuse Factory'' (handwritten inscription on reverse) taken in recent times (hint - car in driveway); f. copy from un-named book of J Nankervis's Ham and Bacon Curing Factory, Golden Square - drawing of the establishment and a photos of winning display of small goods at the Bendigo Show (no date); g. copy from un-named book of photo of premises of A J Williams, Lily and McKenzie Streets - wooden structure with sign indicating Hardware Merchants and ??Mines Furnisher?? , showing three horse-driven small wagons (delivery?); h. copy of photo of Cornish store(1880s) at White Hills - mention of Frederick Stuckenschmidt (married Miss Mary Smith), William Mathews (original owner?) - corner brick building with family posed outside alongside horse and light cart;. reproduction of exhibit in Bendigo Spring Show, 1915 , the ''Made in Bendigo Exhibition'' - first prize awarded to Messrs H M Legg & Co. Progress Jams, preserves, tomato sauce, tomatoes products, candied peels etc. (folded and small tear).bendigo, buildings, early bendigo businesses, bendigo stamper grating factory. epsom. j. nankervic ham and bacon curing establishment. golden square. bendigo cornish fuse factory. cornish stores. messrs h. m. leggo and co. abraham roberts. arthur roberts. william roberts. goyne's battery gratings.

"The United Pyrites Company's Works are situated about three quarters of a mile from Spargo Brothers, and are on the northern side of the Marong road, in Pinch-gut Gully. Two processes are followed at these works, viz., the amalgamating process and the treatment by means of chlorine gas. The latter is called the Newbery-Vautin system, and the mode pursued is that laid down by Mr. Cosmo Newbery and Mr Vautin, whose names have been given to the process. Mr. Edwards manages these works. Three reverbatory furnaces are used to roast the pyrites, which is weighed in the truck before being put into the furnaces. At this weighbridge a sample of each lot is kept, and if the yield is not equal to expectation, the works are carefully gone over to see where the fault occurs. Care is taken at the furnace to regulate the heat, otherwise the pyrites might slag instead of roasting evenly right through. An immense revolving furnace (made of boiler iron) was used at these works. It was found to be suitable for treating blanket sand, but was not a success for roasting coarse pyrites. The process of amalgamating by means of Chilian mills is the same in these works as at the Western Works, but the United Works are on a larger scale, and eleven mills are utilised. It is the chlorine gas process which is most interesting here. The gas is made from sulphuric acid, black oxide of manganese, and common salt, and the gas is introduced into huge vats, where it works its way through a filter of pieces of quartz and then through the bed of roasted pyrites lying above. The action of the gas transforms the gold into chloride of gold. This is easily dissolved in water, and in that form is drawn off into huge delf jars, where the use of sulphate of iron precipitates the gold to the bottom. A small battery—eight head of stamps in two boxes—is in use here to crush small consignments of stone sent for trial. Test crushings come from all the Australasian colonies, and even from India. The jars used are manufactured at Epsom, and some of the salt used is also of home manufacture, from the Salt Lakes on the Northern plains. Mr. Edwards took us over a new building in course of erection, and in which the chlorine gas is to be generated in the midst of the pyrites— a still further advancement in the new process. There is some very good machinery in this new building, and the tailings from the ordinary pyrites works will also be treated by this chlorine gas system, which has been found to work well at Mount Morgan, in Queensland. The purest of gold is obtained by this process, the gold passing in solution into a charcoal filter, from which it emerges in the shape of metallic gold. We saw some nice cakes of retorted gold at the works. One of 26oz. was from some New Zealand pyrites (2½ tons), and assayed over 23 carats. There were also cakes of Avoca gold, of silver, and of the tremulous amalgam." (The Argus, 4 February 1887)Two handwritten letters to the Ballarat School of Mines on Bendigo United Pyrites Company Letterhead.bendigo united pyrites company, pyrites, ballarat school of mines, j.j. deeble, joel deeble, joel james deeble, a.m. dean, fred j. martell, martell, s.h. cowan, letterhead

Blue hard covered books. .2) Volume III Irrrigation Structures and Distrubution Systemirrigation, water canals, tunnels, flumes, pipes, concrete pipes, wrought iron and steel pipes, wooden pipes, california, diversion works, weirs, spillways, canals, check gates, railroad crossing, america, united states of america, university of california, yellowstone river, colorado, arizona, windlass hoist, twin falls, idaho, arkansas valley, truckee-carson, salmon river, umatilla, cippoletti weir box