New Zealand's Technological Participation in the International Goldfields

The Example of the Stamper Battery

Bibliographic Data

ID4025754
AuthorsPeter Petchey (0000-0002-8986-5806, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume60
Issue2
Pages494-522
Publication date2019-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueTechnology and Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0040-165X • E-ISSN: 1097-3729
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/tech.2019.0033
PMID31204340
OpenAlexW2949243440
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited12

New Zealand's gold rushes of the early 1860s followed similar rushes in California and Australia, and mining technology was imported from those fields from the outset. Over the subsequent decades international mining technology was developed and improved. The question that this article asks is: how did New Zealand fit into the international hard-rock goldfields? Was it merely a follower of overseas technology, or did it participate more actively in the development of mining technology? Based on an extensive archaeological survey of surviving machinery, this article argues for a model of technological participation, which acknowledges that New Zealand was a small player, but that New Zealanders participated with agency in the mining industry, rather than simply being actors using imported machinery and technology

Agency (philosophy · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Engineering · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · Metallurgy and Cultural Artifacts · Mining and Resource Management