Background
David William Brunton was born on June 11, 1849 at Ayr, Ontario, son of James and Agnes (Dickie) Brunton, both of whom had come from Scotland, where the families are historically known along the border.
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David William Brunton was born on June 11, 1849 at Ayr, Ontario, son of James and Agnes (Dickie) Brunton, both of whom had come from Scotland, where the families are historically known along the border.
David received his general education attending public school.
David went to Toronto at the age of twenty-one and worked as an apprentice under J. C. Bailey, a prominent civil engineer. Three years later he came to the United States, and in 1874-75 he took courses in geology and chemistry at the University of Michigan. Going then to Colorado, he held a variety of jobs for different companies and assisted James Douglas, the Guggenheims, and other pioneers to develop mines and treat the complex ores in the new metal-mining districts then being opened.
With F. M. Taylor, in 1880, he built the first custom-mill at Leadville, where he also became manager of the largest mine in the district, the Colonel Sellers.
In 1888 he was made manager of a group of mines at Aspen, and distinguished himself by driving under Smuggler Mountain the difficult Cowenhoven tunnel, two and one-half miles long, for draining and opening the principal Aspen mines.
Brunton's account of this achievement, for the (British) Institution of Civil Engineers, published in their Proceedings for 1898, won him the Telford Premium. The Cowenhoven initiated him in what became his greatest specialty, driving long tunnels. Later he was associated in the driving of the Roosevelt tunnel at Cripple Creek, where the new Leyner water-feed hammer-drill attracted attention.
While continuing his Colorado engagements, he was retained through the 1890's by the Anaconda interests of Butte, Montana, as consulting engineer in litigation over mining rights and the geology of the apex law. He made visits to Butte to testify and to organize the technical part of the suits, becoming also technical adviser in general to Marcus Daly and H. H. Rogers.
When this work increased, he secured Horace V. Winchell as chief geologist for the Anaconda company, and a staff was developed which greatly influenced American mining by applying geology systematically to mining.
This technique is described in the Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers for July 1905. Brunton opened an office in Denver with F. M. Taylor, and the firm of Taylor & Brunton became noted for skilful and reliable sampling of ores such as smelters buy and mix; for this important work, special machinery had to be designed and plants erected at strategic centers, and a reputation for integrity was essential.
Brunton had invented a mechanical sampler as early as 1884. These developments in sampling were described by him in the Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers for 1896.
The Brunton pocket-transit for engineers, patented in 1904, became popular all over the world because of its simplicity and lightness; during the World War military variations of it were adopted by the United States army and thousands of the instruments were used in France. Brunton was chairman of the War Committee of Technical Societies and an active member of other governmental boards to develop inventions to be used in the war.
Other inventions of his own include a mine pump, a velocipede tunnel-car, a car coupling, improvements in revolving ore roasters and in leaching ores, and a system of round-timber framing for mines.
In 1922 he was made chairman of the board of consulting engineers for the Moffat railroad tunnel in the Rockies.
Though he lived in Denver, he traveled extensively and made examinations of mines in all parts of the world for the Exploration Syndicate of London. He was later called upon to advise on mining methods by many companies, including the Rio Tinto in Spain.
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Brunton was a member of the following societies and clubs: Institution of Civil Engineers; Royal Geographical Society; American Institute of Mining Engineers, of which he was vicepresident, 1897-1898, and president, 19091910; American Society for the Advancement of Science; Colorado Scientific Society; Denver Club, Denver Country Club, and Denver Chamber of Commerce.
Brunton was married on February 11, 1885, to Katherine, daughter of John C. Kemble, a merchant of Stone Ridge, Ulster County, New York, and they had four children.