James Cosmo Newbery (28 June 1843 – 1 May 1895), generally referred to as Cosmo Newbery or J. Cosmo Newbery, was a United States-educated Australian museum administrator and industrial chemist, and co-developer of the Newbery-Vautin chlorination process for

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

extraction. Newbery was the fourth son of William Boxer Newbery, born near

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 152,916 residents as of 2025. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn ...

Grand Duchy of Tuscany The Grand Duchy of Tuscany (; ) was an Italian monarchy located in Central Italy that existed, with interruptions, from 1569 to 1860, replacing the Republic of Florence. The grand duchy's capital was Florence. In the 19th century the population ...

. When quite young he emigrated to the United States of America, and ultimately graduated as

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. After leaving Harvard, Newbery studied at the

Royal School of Mines The Royal School of Mines comprises the departments of Earth Science and Engineering, and Materials at Imperial College London. The Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics and parts of the London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Bioe ...

, Jermyn Street, London, and in 1865 was appointed analyst to the

Geological Survey of Victoria Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

—an appointment which he held until 1868, when the department was abolished. In 1870 he was appointed to Superintendent of the Melbourne Industrial and Technological Museum and Analyst to the Department of Mines; he additionally assumed the role of Instructor in Chemistry and Metallurgy at the Museum Laboratory. Newbery was a member of the

Royal Society of Victoria The Royal Society of Victoria (RSV) is the oldest scientific society in Victoria, Australia. Foundation In 1854 two organisations formed with similar aims and membership, these being the Victorian Institute for the Advancement of Science (found ...

and was Honorary Superintendent of Juries and Awards at the Melbourne International Exhibition (1880). He married, in 1870, Catherine Maud Florence, daughter of George Hodgkinson. In 1881 he was created C.M.G. Newbery collected food samples and analysed them for contaminants in his laboratory, laying the foundation for the prevention of adulterated foods of 1905. An improved method of gold extraction using chlorination—developed by Newbery and Claude Vautin in 1890 (the Newbery-Vautin chlorination process)—achieved global adoption, and Newbery was recognized as an authority on gold amalgamation. Newbery died at home in Hotham Street, East St Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria on 1 May 1895. The town of Cosmo Newbery, Western Australia is named for him.

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External links

The Newbery-Vautin Chlorination Process
at Gutenberg.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Newbery, James Cosmo 1843 births 1895 deaths Australian chemists Australian metallurgists 19th-century Australian inventors Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Harvard University alumni 19th-century Australian public servants Grand Duchy of Tuscany people Immigrants to the United States People from the Colony of Victoria