Edmund Gybbon Spilsby died at New York, U.S.A., on May 28th, 1920, in his 75th year.
Born in London on December 6th, 1845, he was educated in Belgium at the University of Louvain and subsequently took courses at Clausthal, in Germany. In 1864 he was appointed assistant engineer of the Eschweiler Société at Stolberg, with charge of operations on the company’s properties in Sardinia and Tunis. In 1867 he became engineer of the Austro-Belgian Metallurgical Co., at Corphalie, Belgium, having charge of their interests at Bensberg, Germany, and in Croatia.
In 1870 he went to America to investigate into that country’s zinc and lead resources for the same company, and while there was connected with zinc mining litigation for several years. He built the zinc works at Landisville, which he operated until 1877, and he was also connected with mining on the north shore of Lake Superior and many of the Western states and territories.
In 1879 he built the first coke furnace for smelting iron in Virginia, and in the following year he opened the Hoile gold mine in South Carolina, of which he was manager until 1887. In that year he was appointed managing director of the Trenton Iron Co., a position which he held until 1896, when he started in practice as a consulting engineer in New York City. During the later years of his life he was chiefly connected in a consultative capacity with iron and manganese enterprises in Brazil.
Mr. Spilsby was elected a Member of the Institution in 1905.
Vol. 30, Trans I.M.M., 1920-21, pp.483-4
