A pair of vintage handmade blacksmith tongs with two handles called reins, which are riveted together to form a hinge joint for the long 90 degree right angled flat edged tongs. The blacksmith opens and closes the tongs using the handles. They are made of flat mild steel. They were used for holding steel in position and turning it over during forging operations.blacksmithing tools, forging tools, metalworking tools, furnace tools, tools

A pair of small vintage handmade blacksmith tongs with two handles called reins, which are riveted together to form a hinge joint for the flat edged tongs. The blacksmith opens and closes the tongs using the handles. They are made of flat mild steel. They were used for holding steel in position and turning it over during forging operations.blacksmithing tools, forging tools, metalworking tools, furnace tongs, tools

A pair of long handled vintage handmade blacksmith tongs with two handles called reins, which are riveted together to form a hinge joint for the flat edged tongs. The blacksmith opens and closes the tongs using the handles. They are made of flat mild steel. They were used for holding steel in position and turning it over during forging operations.blacksmithing tools, forging tools, metalworking tools, furnace tongs, tools

This tuyere (word from French origin) was used by professional blacksmiths and or cattlemen before and during the Kiewa Hydro Electricity Scheme was being constructed. The need to use a furnace or forge in the shaping of metal rods, horse shoes and pipes is both a rural necessity and a construction, on site requirement. The "inventiveness" of cattlemen and construction workers to produce metal objects not available "off the shelf" is one of the inherent traits not only of rural self sufficiency but in the "pioneer" days of rural isolation one of survival.This tuyere is of great significance to the Kiewa Valley and its regions because it highlights one of the greatest strengths of the rural (especially isolated) life and its folk living there, and that is the great human factor of adaptability and survival techniques in sometimes harsh and demanding environmental circumstances. The inventiveness and the attitude, "she'll be right mate", demonstrates life on the land where specialised blacksmith activities can be found in non "professionals" because of the fact that "someone" has to do the job. This is one of the differences between country "rural" life and that found in cities and larger towns.This iron cone shaped tuyere has a small hole (diamenter 25mm) starting within an ever enlarging cone (amplification of the air pressure going through) delivering varying hot or extremely hot air into a furnace or hearth which intensifies the heat to allow the "shaping" of metal objects. The larger "flared" cone extension allows for the directed air to be spread and not concentrated.blacksmith tool, tue, bellows, fashioning metal, forge manufacturing process

The depicted Ballarat School of Mines Assaying Furnace probably dates back to the mid 1890s. The photo first appears in the Ballarat School of Mines Calendar for 1900, but references to these facilities were mentioned in 1887. These facilities were updated and expanded on several occasions. Black and white photograph of the assay furnaces at the Ballarat School of Mines. The Assay-room contained 16 smelting furnaces, 16 muffle furnaces fro coke, charcoal, bituminous coal and gas, and featured all the usual tools and appliances. There was an adjoining weighing room.ballarat school of mines, scientific equipment, assaying, laboratory, mining

The 1st edition of this famous work, giving an excellent account of the machinery used in late 19th century metal mining in the UK and overseas is very rare. It covers a wide range of equipment - pumps, steam engines, drills, winding engines, stamps & concentration mills, aerial ropeways, tramways and early uses of electricity etc. Brown hard cloth covered book. xvi 564 pages with additional advertisements, with over 300 illustrations and drawings, some fold out. Chapters include Water as a motive power, Wind engines and ventilating machinery, Steam boilers/engines and oil engines, hoisting machinery, draining of Mines, pumping engines, rock drilling machinery, boring machinery, concentration machinery, sizing and classifications trommels, joggers and jigging, fine concentration, milling of gold ores, milling of silver ores, amalgamation plates and machinery, dry and roasting machinery, chlorination and cyandide processes for the extraction of gold, electricity as a motive power for mining, electric lighting and blasting, aerial wire ropeways, transport by rail and road. There a a number of lovely line illustrations in the book including: Poncelot's undershot waterwheel; Fromont furnace;Victor turbine; Pelton waterwheel; Root's positive blower;Cross section and front elevation of Lancashire boiler; Robey's Compound Mill Engine; Portable Winding Plant; Iron Pit Head Gear ; Loading Arrangement in an Incline Shaft; kibble; Worthington Pump; California Pump; Scram's Air Compressor; Rock drill Bits; Special Sharpening tools; Boring tools;Rotating Picking table; Ore Feeder; roller crusher; stamp battery; round buddle; slime table; vanner; amalgamating plant; belt elevator;roasting furnace;splicing wire rope; capel; tipping waggon;mining, cornish pump, linkenbach table, water wheel, ventilation, oil engine, california, america, water, steam boilers, steam engines, oil engines, pumpimg, rock drilling, boring, jiggers, milling, silver, gold, drying and roasting, chlorination, cyaniding, lead, zinc, copper, electricity, electric lighting, wire ropes, transport, wind engine, poppet head

Cast iron mercury bucket, used to hold mercury, potentially in the process of recovering minute pieces of gold mixed in soil and sediments. See research page for description of one process of using mercury to extract gold.gold mines, mining equipment, mercury bucket, miners used mercury in a number of ways to amalgamate gold, with each mill or battery operator having their preferred method depending on the nature of the ore. by the late 1850s the most common way of crushing goldbearing quartz ores or consolidated alluvial cements was in a stamp battery. the battery featured heavy iron stamp heads held in a frame, with each head often weighing up to 500 pounds (226 kg) or more (see msv 1880, page 45) (birrell 2005). stamp heads were lifted and dropped by a rotating overhead cam shaft driven by a steam engine or water wheel. ore was fed into a large cast-iron battery box, mixed with a steady stream of water, and pulverised by the stamp heads. in some batteries, mercury was placed in the base of the boxes to amalgamate with freed gold. the violent agitation of the mercury in the mortar box, however, could cause the mercury to break into myriad tiny globules that were carried away by the water with the tailings, thus losing a certain amount of gold in the process (thompson 1867; ritchie & hooker 1997). the water and sand slurry was splashed by the falling stamps from the box through fine mesh screens and onto inclined wooden tables below the mortar box (figure 2). the tables were covered with copper sheets or plates coated with mercury, which caught and amalgamated with a portion of the gold. the grey putty-like amalgam was periodically scraped off the sheets and retorted in a furnace to collect the gold and recover the mercury for reuse. mercury was inevitably lost from the plates, while poor maintenance resulted in further losses of gold and mercury in the tailings. mercury use and loss from gold mining in 19th century victoria. peter davies1, susan lawrence, and jodi turnbull, department of archaeology and history, la trobe university.

Two copies of Auction Catalogue for an auction sale of Machine tools, pressed, electric furnaces and General equipment at the No. 2 Store, Cordite Avenue Maribyrnong held on Thursday, 27th June, 1946. Page 1 contains a Special Notice. Page 2 Conditions of Sale Pages 3 to 16 contains photos of presses and lots up to 103. There are five photos of presses. £, S, & D columns down the page beside the lot numbers.business, auctioneers, j h curnow & son pty ltd, ian dyett collection - auction catalogue - commonwealth disposals commission 27/6/1946, j h curnow & son pty ltd, j l jamieson & co, w g wedd, prahan telegraph print

One of Phillip Islands earliest industries was chicory farming. The first kiln was constructed in 1870. The chicory scoop was used for turning the chicory over on a mesh floor above the furnace. This scoop was imported from Europe in the late 1880's.Chicory scoop with wooden handle, wooden scoop and steel joins and reinforcments.phillip island, wood, steel, tool, chicory, kiln, chicory scoop