The Gold Process

T Hodkinson engineering works in King Street, South Newtown, which he founded in 1884. Photograph taken in 1912
Image Courtesy City of Sydney Archives

The off-beat clamour of the battery went on for the full twenty four hours of each day during crushing.

The two five-head stampers in the Stamper Battery Shed were manufactured by T Hodkinson and Co. Engineering Works, Newtown, NSW and are numbered No 55 and No 56. The battery’s foundations are built of concrete to keep the stamper mounted in the one position and stop it from shaking. No other machine reduces ore as well as a gravity stamp. These stamps were able to reduce 100mm (4ins) quartz to sand at a rate of approximately 1 tonne per hour using 11.190kw (15hp) per 10 head stamper.

Cr Reg Kidd Admiring the Stamper Battery

Water is fed into the boxes to wash the ground sand and gold over copper plates coated with mercury. Water from the bailing buckets was directed by a shoot into the battery; the greater quantity of water the more rapid was the stamping.