Potter, Charles Vincent (1859 - 1908)

Summary

Charles Potter arrived in Victoria in 1885 and in the 1890s established himself as a consultant brewer, chemist and engineer. He secured Victorian patents for treating cereals for brewing, a gas engine for a motor car, a washing compound and other ideas 1887-1903. He is best remembered for his work on concentrating sulphide ores being mined at Broken Hill by a flotation process, which he discovered and patented in 1901.

Published resources

Book Sections

• Davey, Christopher J., 'Potter, Charles Vincent (1859-1908), analytical chemist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 11: 1891 - 1939 Nes-Smi, Geoffrey Serle, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1988), pp. 264-265, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/potter-charles-vincent-8084. Details

Edited Books

• Engineers Australia ed., Anything is possible: 100 Australian engineering leaders (Barton, A.C.T.: Institution of Engineers, Australia, 2019), 136 pp, https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/2025-08/EA2_Anything%20is%20possible_0.pdf. 'A mixed and malted career - Charles Potter' p.34. Details

Journal Articles

• Spurling, Tom; Webb, John Mark, 'The Great War brought us tragedy but it also birthed Australian science', The Conversation (2015), https://doi.org/10.64628/AA.t4cqjfqsn. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q21536414. Details
• 'Potter, Charles Vincent (1859-1908)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1464007. Details

See also

• Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Online edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 3 May 2000, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/index_p.html. Details
• McPhee, Margaret, Dictionary of Australian Inventions and Discoveries (St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 1993), 175 pp. Reference on page 57. Details