Show DEATH OF A R WILFLEY NOTED INVENTOR I 1 A R wilfley mining engineer and mechanical genius internationally known for his inventions and recognized a an authority on ore treatment died sunday february 1927 at his california home in whittier where he spent most of his time during the last few years in the hope ol 01 of 1 regaining his health he is survived by his wife two sons george and elmer and an only daughter may the family brought the body from california and the funeral was held from his denver home 1300 high street on sunday february mr wilfley was a veteran of the inventive class which has been responsible for placing g the metal mining industry on the high plane which it occupies today he withstood the many hardships of the early mining days of colorado he went to colorado from missouri and located at kokomo kokomos where he made his original experiments and through his tireless efforts and research the mining industry is greatly indebted to him for the invention of the wilfley concentrating table which made possible the treatment of ores which theretofore could not be satisfactorily handled he constructed the first tables at a plant in kokomo kokomos colorado in the year 1896 these tested out with such good results that hie he opened up a shop at 1937 larimer larime street denver in which 1396 tables were manufactured in july 1896 it became necessary to secure larger quarters moved to ind and and the manufacturing plant was streets in january 1910 it again became feces necessary to enlarge the plant and it was moved to its present location huron street up to the present time over tables have been built and shipped to all parts of the world wherever there is mining the name wilfley is well known mr wilfley also recognized the fact that it was possible to increase metal recoveries in the milling of ores by treating the slimes and very fine material pulps culps and for this purpose invented and installed a special table which he called a slime table thus his efforts and ideas might be considered as a forerunner of the flotation process which is now in vogue being in close contact with all ore milling problems he appreciated the fact that the methods of handling mill pulps culps were inefficient and costly the belt and bucket elevator was a cumbersome and expensive equipment to maintain and the ordinary pumps were not altogether suitable so after years of experimental work he perfected his sand and slime pump which more than fulfilled his greatest expectations and supplanted the ordinary equipment for doing this work in the largest ore dressing plants of the world he was interested in mining to a great extent in colorado especially at silverton kokomo kokomos san juan and the red mountain district he was also interested in mining in arizona and alaska he has been associated with the mine and smelter supply company which has acted as his selling agent and who later took over the manufacture of the wilfley con cent rating table at the time of his death he was a stock i holder and consulting engineer of this company com pany in the death of mr wilfley colorado and the mining fraternities of the world have lost a man who has perhaps done as much for the advancement of mining in general as any other man |