Thomas Arthur Rickard Explained

Thomas Arthur Rickard
Birth Date:	29 August 1864
Birth Place:	Crotone, Italy
Death Place:	Oak Bay, British Columbia, Canada
Occupation:	Mining Engineer
Spouse:	Marguerite Lydia Rickard
Parents:	Thomas Rickard (1834-1916) Octavia Rachel Forbes (1837-1879)
Children:	Thomas Jr. (1901–1919) John (1904–1979)

T. A. Rickard (1864  - 1953), formally known as Thomas Arthur Rickard, was born on 29 August 1864 in Italy. Rickard's parents were British, and he became a mining engineer practising in the United States, Europe and Australia. He was also a publisher and author on mine engineering subjects.^[1]

Biography

Family and education

Thomas Arthur Rickard was born in Crotone, Italy, the son of Thomas Rickard, a Cornish mining engineer. His grandfather was a Cornish miner, Captain James Rickard.^[2] His cousin Tom Rickard was mayor of Berkeley, California at the time of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. He was educated in Russia and England.^[1] In 1882 Rickard entered the Royal School of Mines, London from which he graduated in 1885.

Career

• 1885 Assayer, British mining firm, Idaho Springs, Colorado^[1]
• 1886 Assistant Manager, California Gold Mining Co., Colorado
• 1887 Manager, Union Gold Mine, San Andreas, Calaveras County, California^[1]
• 1889-1891 Consultant investigating mines in England and Australia^[1]
• 1891 In charge, Silver/Lead^[1] /Gold mines, French Alps^[1] /Isere district
• 1892-1893 Investigating mines in Western U.S.A.
• 1894 Manager, Enterprise Mine, Colorado
• 1895-1901 State Geologist, Colorado - appointed by Governor McIntyre and re-appointed by the next two governors^[1]
• 1897-1898 Consultant investigating mines in Australia and Canada and other work.
• 1903 Editor-in-chief, Engineering and Mining Journal, New York^[1]
  • In 1903 W.E. Ford published an article in the American Journal of Science naming a new mineral Rickardite after Rickard.^[3]
• 1905 purchased Mining and Scientific Press, San Francisco^[1]
• 1906-1909 Editor, Mining and Scientific Press, San Francisco^[1]
• 1909-1915 Founding Editor, Mining Magazine, London
• 1915-1922 Editor, Mining and Scientific Press, San Francisco
• 1922-1925 contributing editor, Engineering and Mining Journal, following the amalgamation of Mining and Scientific Press with that Journal
• 1925- Devoted his time to writing

Death

Rickard died in Oak Bay, British Columbia on 15 August^[4] 1953.^[1]

Memberships and awards

• Institution of Mining and Metallurgy
  • 1896 elected Member
  • 1903-1909 Member of Council
  • 1932 awarded Gold Medal "in recognition of his services in the general advancement of mining engineering, with special reference to his contributions to technical and historical literature"
  • 1948 made Honorary Member "in recognition of his long and valued services to the mining and metallurgical profession and to the Institution"^[4]
• Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
  • Member^[4]
• University of Colorado
  • Honorary D.Sc.^[4]
• Royal School of Mines (Old Students’) Association
  • 1913 Founder
  • First Honorary Secretary^[4]
• American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers^[4] (AIME)
  • 1935 made Honorary Member^[1]

Published works

• ‘Minerals which accompany gold and their bearing upon the richness of ore deposits’ Trans I.M.M., vol. 6, 1897-8
• ‘Cripple Creek goldfield’ Trans I.M.M., vol. 8, 1899-1900
• A guide to technical writing (1908)^[4]
• 'Across the San Juan Mountains', 1907, Dewey Publishing Company, San Francisco^[5]
• ‘Standardization of English in technical literature’ Trans I.M.M., vol. 19, 1909–10
• ‘Domes of Nova Scotia’ Trans I.M.M., vol. 21, 1911–12
• ‘Persistence of ore in depth’ Trans I.M.M., vol. 24, 1914–15
• ‘The later Argonauts‘ Trans I.M.M., vol. 36, 1926-7
• ‘Copper mining in Cyprus’ Trans I.M.M., vol. 39, 1929–30
• ‘Gold and silver as money metal’ Trans I.M.M., vol. 41, 1931-32^[4]
• Man and Metals (1932)^[1]
• A History of American Mining. New York & London: McGraw-Hill (1932)^{[1] [6]}
• ‘The primitive smelting of copper and bronze’ Trans I.M.M., vol. 44, 1934–35
• ‘The primitive use of gold’ Trans I.M.M., vol. 44, 1934–35
• Retrospect (1937) - his autobiography^[4]
• "Indian Participation in the Gold Discoveries." British Columbia Historical Quarterly 2:1 (1938): 3-18^[6]
• The Romance of Mining. Toronto: Macmillan (1944)^{[4] [6]}
• Historic Backgrounds of British Columbia. Vancouver: Wrigley Printing (1948)^{[4] [6]}
• Autumn Leaves. Vancouver: Wrigley Printing (1948)^[6]

Notes and References

1. Web site: T. A. Rickard (Deceased 1953) . American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers . . 29 November 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191031111912/http://www.aimehq.org/programs/award/bio/t-rickard-deceased-1953 . 2019-10-31 . live .
2. Book: Payton, Philip . Philip Payton . 2005 . The Cornish Overseas: A History of Cornwall's 'great Emigration' . Fowey . Cornwall Editions . 9781904880042 . 31 March 2020 . 388 .
3. Web site: Rickardite . . 1 December 2019 . Ford, W.E. (1903) Rickardite, a new mineral. American Journal of Science: 165: 69-70. . https://web.archive.org/web/20190702003910/https://www.mindat.org/min-3417.html . 2019-07-02 . live .
4. 1953–54 . Thomas Arthur Rickard . Trans I.M.M. . 63 . 503–504 . 29 November 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191031111909/https://www.nmrs.org.uk/resources/obituaries-of-members/obituaries-of-members-names-beginning-with-r/thomas-arthur-rickard/ . 2019-10-31 . live .
5. Book: Rickard . Thomas . Across the San Juan Mountains . 1980 . Bear Creek Publishing Co. . Ouray, Colorado . 0-941026-03-5 . 130.
6. Marshall . Daniel Patrick . 2000 . Claiming the land: Indians, goldseekers, and the rush to British Columbia . PhD . . 3 December 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191203075520/https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/831/items/1.0089642 . 2019-12-03 . live .