This new method used ammonia and coal as starting materials and was able to meet the rising demands on sodium cyanide for the gold leaching by the MacArthur-Forrest process.

On 13th December 1916, he was among three members of the Institute of Metals (alongside Thomas Turner and Professor Alfred Kirby Huntington) to propose the election of Georgina Elizabeth Kermode.

Inventor of Processes for the manufacture of cyanides, ammonia, fuel gas and paraffin oils, which have had an important influence on these industries.

Scientific papers: - 'The Specific Gravity of Paraffin solid, fused, and in solution (Journ Chem Soc, 1883); 'The Nitrogen of Crude Petroleums and Paraffin Oils' (Journ Soc Chem Ind, 1891); 'The Action of Ammonia on Metals at High Temperatures' with Prof G G Henderson (Journ Chem Soc, 1901); 'The Minute Structure of Metals' (Brit Assoc Report, 1901); 'Surface Flow in Crystalline Solids,' and 'The Effects of Heat and of Solvents on Thin Films of Metal' (Roy Soc Proc, vol lxxii, 1903); 'Granular and Spicular Structure in Solids,' and 'The Intensification of Chemical Action by the Emanations from Gold and Platinum' (Brit Assoc Report, 1903); 'The Surface Structure of Solids' (Hurter Lecture, 1903); 'The Hard and Soft States in Metals' (Phil Mag, August 1904); 'The Action of certain Gases on Glass in the Neighbourhood of Hot Metals,' and 'The Relations between the Crystalline and Amorphous States as disclosed by the Surface Flow of Solids' (Brit Assoc Report, 1904); Technical papers: - 'Production of Ammonia from Minerals' (SCTJ, 1884 and Journ Soc Arts, 1885); 'New Form of Gas Thermometer' (ibid, 1895); ' new System of Cooling Oils for the Extraction of Paraffin' (ibid, 1885); 'The Waste Gases from Oil Stills' with J B McArthur (ibid, 1887); 'Thirty Years of Progress in the Shale Oil Industry' (ibid, 1897); 'Review of the Coal Consumption of the United Kingdom' (ibid, 1899), since brought up to 1904 at the request of the Royal Commission on Coal Supplies; 'The Position of the Cyanide Industry' (International Congress on Applied Chemistry, Berlin, 1903)[2] He was president of the Society of Chemical Industry from 1898-9,[3] of the chemical section of the British Association in 1905, of the Institute of Chemistry in 1909–12, and of the Institute of Metals in 1916–8.

[4] In 1877, he married Emma Clarke Newnham, usually referred to as Lady Bielby, who was a great supporter of women's organisations, particularly in practical ways behind the scenes.