J.J. Beringer died on March 28th, 1915, aged 58 years.
He was born at Penzance, Cornwall, and educated at Redruth. In 1877, he won a Royal Exhibition and took the course of the Royal School of Mines in London. In 1880 he passed his examination with distinction, obtaining the Associateship Diploma. In 1881 he became assistant to Professor A.K. Huntington in the chemistry and assaying department at King’s College, where his work was very highly appreciated.
From 1882 to 1891 he was lecturer to the Miners’ Association, and public analyst for the county of Cornwall. From 1882 down to the date of his death, he was principal of the School of Metalliferous Mining, Camborne, of which he also was made a governor, and it was mainly in that position that he distinguished himself as a lecturer of remarkable ability on mining and metallurgical subjects, not only by his erudition, but also by his sympathetic hold on his students.
He was the author of a text-book on assaying, which has gone through ten or more editions and remains a standard work in use in all parts of the world. His death was partly due to weakness induced by severe and continuous overwork, and especially by the loss of vision in one eye due to his close applications to microscopic and ultra-microscopic work.
Mr. Beringer was elected an Honorary Member of the Institution in 1913 in recognition of the distinguished services he had rendered to the science and industry of metallurgy.
Vol. 24, Trans I.M.M. 1914-15, pp. 502-3
