Clement le Neve Foster

Background

He was the second son of Peter Le Neve Foster, and was born at Camberwell on the 23rd of March 1841.

Education

After receiving his early education at Boulogne and Amiens, he studied successively at the Royal School of Mines in London and at the mining college of Freiburg in Saxony.

Career

In 1860 he joined the Geological Survey in England, working in the Wealden area and afterwards in Derbyshire. Conjointly with William Topley (1841 - 1894) he communicated to the Geological Society of London in 1865 the now classic paper "On the superficial deposits of the Valley of the Medway, with remarks on the Denudation of the Weald". In this paper the sculpturing of the Wealden area by rain and rivers was ably advocated. Retiring from the Geological Survey in 1865, Foster devoted his attention to mineralogy and mining in Cornwall, Egypt and Venezuela. In 1872 he was appointed an inspector of mines under the home office for the S. W. of England, and in 1880 he was transferred to the N. Wales district. In 1890 he was appointed professor of mining at the Royal College of Science and he held this post until the close of his life. His later work is embodied largely in the reports of mines and quarries issued annually by the home office. He was elected F. R. S. in 1892. While investigating the cause of a mining disaster in the Isle of Man in 1897 his constitution suffered much injury from carbonic-oxide gas, and he never fully recovered from the effects. Besides his official work, Foster produced numerous reports, and advised on many questions connected with mining and mining legislation. He served on various departmental committees and royal commissions, including those for the Chicago and the St. Louis Exhibitions. He was a juror at the Inventions Exhibition in 1885, at Paris in 1867, 1878, 1889, and 1900, also at Chicago in 1893. He died in London on the 19th of April 1904. He published Ore and Stone Mining, 1894 (ed. 5, 1904); and The Elements of Mining and Quarrying, 1903.

Achievements

• He received the legion of honour for services at Paris in 1889 and he was knighted in 1903. His principal work was a textbook on 'Ore and Stone Mining' (1894; 7th edit, revised by Prof. S. Herbert Cox, 1910), and he wrote the article on Mining in the 9th edition of the 'Encyclopædia Britannica. ' He was also author of a textbook on 'Mining and Quarrying' (1903) and of numerous memoirs and papers in the 'Proceedings' of the Geological and other scientific societies and in various scientific periodicals. From 1894 he edited the mineral statistics issued by the home office, and the annual reports on mines and quarries. While he achieved considerable reputation as a geologist and metallurgist, it was as a miner and a mining expert that he was really eminent. Though at the beginning of his inspectorship his energy in imposing novel restrictions and in insisting on the reform and improvement of existing methods was little appreciated by the mining community, he ultimately won in both his districts the esteem alike of miners and mine-owners.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Investigation of Mine Air

    (191 pages, frontispiece and 43 illustrations. A classic o...)

  • A Text-Book of Ore and Stone Mining (1894 )

    (Originally published in 1894. This volume from the Cornel...)

Membership

Fellow of the Royal Society

Personality

He was distinguished for his extensive scientific and practical knowledge of metalliferous mining and stone quarrying.

Connections

He married in 1872 his cousin, Sophia Chevallier, second daughter of Arthur F. Tompson of Belton, Suffolk, and had one son and two daughters.

Father:

Peter Le Neve Foster

For many years he was a secretary of the Society of Arts.

Wife:

Sophia Chevallier