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Auction: 19007 - Coins and Commemorative Medals: Winter Auction
Lot: 401

'Snelus was a remarkable man: an expert shot - one of the best in the country - being from 1866 for twelve successive years a member of the 'English Twenty'. He was also an enthusiastic horticulturalist, and a staunch conservative in much demand for public meetings.' Iron and Steel Institute, Sir Henry Bessemer Prize Medal, 1883, in gold, by G T Morgan for J Pinches, awarded to the celebrated metallurgist Mr. George J. Snelus, 51mm., 91.71g (BHM 2955), light hairlines in otherwise brilliant fields, extremely fine, rare, and of historic and industrial interest, in original, if slightly distressed, dark blue felt case of issue by John Pinches, 27. Oxendon St, London.

George James Snelus F.R.S. (1837-1906), originally of Workington, Cumberland, was an internationally renowned metallurgist, credited with being the first man to make pure steel from impure iron with the assistance of a Bessemer converter. His achievement as a result of the successful dephosporisation of the pig iron came through the addition of limestone into the convertor (Patent 3530, October 3, 1879). Sharing his discovery with Sir Henry Bessemer, the celebrated Victorian Steel pioneer, Snelus would be recognised with this gold Prize medal from the Iron and Steel Institute, which he would later further repay by serving as its Vice President. Snelus continued to manage the West Cumberland Iron and Steel Works, but owing to the company's monopoly of haematite ores would ironically ignore his innovation. Evidently a restless spirit, Snelus would also argue for the use of steel in railway tracks, a campaign that has indirectly impacted the lives of almost everyone alive on Earth today. He would also serve 32 years in the 1st Cumberland Rifle Volunteers, being noted as a "very successful shot", and eventually retiring with the rank of Honorary Major, with a Long Service Medal. He died, aged 68, in June 1906 at Ennerdale Hall, Frizington, Cumberland.


2019 marks the 150th Anniversary of the Iron and Steel Institure, which since 1975 has operated under Royal Charter as the "Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3)".


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Sold for
£3,200

Starting price
£2000