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Auction: 19020 - British and World Historic and Commemorative Medals and Tokens: e-Auction 3
Lot: 199

National Academy of Great Britain, Arts, Manufactures, Sciences, Agriculture and Commerce, AR gilt Prize Medal, by Pinches, awarded to "A. Durand, France", 67mm., 134.74g (MJP pp.111), a small edge bump at 11 o'clock, otherwise near extremely fine, very scarce; also, Society of Arts Manufactures and Commerce, AR Prize Medal, 'Session 1902-03', by E Fuchs, awarded to Archibald P. Head, 'For his paper on the South Russian Iron Industry', 55.5mm. 92.6g, good fine with edge knocks (2)

With collector's tickets of purchase for September 2001 and 'St Michel, October 2000 respectively

Archibald Potter Head (1866-1905), a member of the Iron and Steel Institute's obituary was published by the society and read as follows: "He died on June 21, 1905, from the effects of a railway accident during a journey from Chicago to New York. He was the son of the late Mr. Jeremiah Head, well known in the iron and steel industries, and in the engineering world, both at home and abroad. He was born at Redcar in 1866, and educated at Clifton College, and in 1884 became a pupil at the works of Messrs. Hawthorn, Leslie & Co., Newcastle-on-Tyne, remaining there till 1888. After leaving Newcastle he went through the engineering course at University College. On leaving college in 1890 he joined his father in his consulting practice in Middlesbrough, and when the latter established his business in London in 1893 he was taken into partnership, the firm being known as Jeremiah Head & Son.

On the death of his father he carried on the business alone till 1904, when he took his brother, Mr. B. W. Head, into partnership. His firm represented the European interests of the Wellman, Seaver, Morgan Company, of Cleveland, Ohio, and he spent a considerable portion of his time in the United States, for he was managing director and consulting engineer of the Otis Steel Company at Cleveland, Ohio. He was appointed managing director in 1899, and had been secretary to the company since 1895. It was his practice to visit these works twice annually, and it was while returning home from the last of these visits that he met with his death. He was elected a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1885, an associate member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1894, and a member in 1901. Papers were read by him before that Institution, for one of which, on "The Lake Superior Iron Ore Mines, and their Influence upon the Production of Iron and Steel," read during the session 1898-1899, he obtained the Telford premium. To the Society of Arts he contributed, in 1902, an important paper on the South Russian iron industry.

He was a frequent attendant at meetings of the Iron and Steel Institute, to which he was elected a member in 1890. In 1899 he read a paper on tilting open-hearth furnaces. He had acted as scrutineer, and at the May meeting this year he moved the vote of thanks to the President."

For further reading, see: "The south Russian iron-industry": Society of Arts [London], Vol. 51, pp. 73-89

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