Joseph Garland
Joseph Garland (1841-1899)
1900 Obituary [1]
JOSEPH GARLAND was born in the parish of St. Agnes, Cornwall, on the 6th February, 1840.
Belonging to a mining family and district, he adopted mining as a profession, obtaining his first practical experience at the Wheal Friendship Copper Mines near Tavistock, Devon. That property was then managed by the engineering firm of [[John Taylor and Son (2)|Messrs. John Taylor and Sons, and Mr. Garland energetically pursued his work under the guidance of the late Mr. Richard Taylor.
He spent seven years there, during which he was promoted to the post of Sub-Agent, and eventually left to take up an appointment at the Cape Copper Mines, in little Namaqualand, South Africa. There he improved his knowledge of mining, and, during four years’ residence, applied himself to a thorough and comprehensive study of various technical subjects.
After a brief spell of work in copper mines near Camborne in Cornwall, he became Agent to Lead and Blende properties in Switzerland and in Germany, and in 1872 was appointed Technical and Commercial Superintendent of extensive phosphorite mines at Limburg, in the province of Hessen-Nassau. A Paper on the occurrence and distinguishing features of phosphorite deposits, read about that time before the Miners' Association of Cornwall and Devon, gained for him the first bronze medal of that society. Lead and Blende mining, which was then attracting great attention, next occupied his time at Mehlem on the Rhine, and subsequently at Assheton, near Pwllheli, Carnarvonshire.
He was then engaged as Manager of the Barancannes Copper Mine in Portugal from 1883 to 1886, when ill-health compelled him to return to England. His experience during those years had been largely supplemented by professional visits to mineral concessions in the West Indies, Norway, the Pyrenees, Newfoundland, Brittany, Italy, and almost every mineral district of England and Wales.
From 1886 to the time of his death Mr. Garland acted as Technical Adviser and Inspecting Engineer to Messrs. John Taylor & Sons.
In the winter of 1892 he undertook a protracted journey to New Caledonia, and for several months made a study of the extensive nickel and quicksilver mines in that remote French colony, his observations of technical operations and engineering appliances in that quarter of the globe proving an instructive introduction to his first acquaintance with Australasia. These experiences led to a Paper entitled "Nickel Mining in New Caledonia," which was read before the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy in February, 1894, and gave rise to an interesting discussion.
A detailed examination of Mexican mining operations among the rugged tracts of Zacatecas next involved several months of hard work in a land where modern mining methods are comparatively unknown, and where primitive modes of exploitation and development of mineral properties are not yet altogether extinct.
In 1896 Mr. Garland again visited the Antipodes, and spent a considerable period in the examination and study of many of the gold-bearing properties of Western Australia-a region which, within the last few years, has been remarkable for its rapid growth and development, and has afforded great attractions for engineering and commercial enterprise.
Mr. Garland died at his residence, 39 Sisters Avenue, Clapham, on the 29th August, 1899, in his 60th year. He was a keen observer, and the habit of carefully noting and weighing every fact of technical importance in the elucidation of problems with which he was called on to deal, was one of his striking characteristics. Sound practical experience of a wide and varied character enabled him to speak with the authority of an expert on questions relating to mining. In addition to the Paper already referred to, Mr. Garland contributed the following at different times to the Miners’ Association of Cornwall and Devon, the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, and other bodies:- "The Saline Works at Halle," "On Continuous Jiggers," "Rock-Salt and Carnallite Deposits of Strassfurt, etc.," "Nickeliferous Pyrites of Senjen," "Copper Mining at Tilt Cove," and "Tin Deposits in Galicia."
Mr. Garland was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of London in 1874, and became a Life Member of that Institution. He was greatly interested in the formation of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, of which he served the office of President during the year 1896.
He was elected a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers on the 12th January, 1897.