May Brothers and Company
Alfred, who was only seven at the time, attended school until the age of 15 when he then began work as a "picky-boy" – a menial job involving sorting ore on the surface of the mine.
[3] The fact that workers could obtain better positions in the new colonies based on skill and merit was one of the reasons Frederick's father had chosen to bring his family to Australia.
[4] During the 1860s, the part of Yorke Peninsula known as the Copper Triangle – in particular the towns of Moonta, Wallaroo and Kadina – experienced a mining boom.
His company James Martin & Co was a manufacturer of mining and agricultural implements, and his foundry in Gawler was the largest in the area, employing at times over 700 men.
[1] The May Brothers shop and foundry was located on 4 acres (1.6 ha) of land situated on the southern side of Gawler, strategically placed next to the railway lines.
[1][11] At first the firm concentrated on essential items for farms, factories and mining, but Frederick's inventive nature, reflected in his philosophy "It's not enough to simply give people what they want; we must make things they haven’t even thought about yet...",[12] meant he was continually designing new products.
[1][16] For a young business finding it difficult to gain the trust of Australian farmers who preferred importing machinery from larger more established companies in the US and Britain,[17] the success of the exhibit was a great advertisement.
The May Brothers Patent Compound Jigger was another breakthrough invention for the firm, although one that took the mining community – who were hesitant about the new company – some convincing.
The jigger, a concentrator that treated ore on the surface, was unveiled shortly after the Jubilee Exhibit in 1887, and an order from the Umberrumberka mine in New South Wales arrived within months.
It was the first of its kind in use on the field[1][18] A pair of 1000 horsepower winding engines built for the Delprat Shaft in Broken Hill in 1900/1901[19] were designed by head draughtsmen John Wesley, draughtsman William J.
[20] In 1910, he unveiled the Climax Complete Harvester, which cut a seven-foot swathe and enabled one man to strip, clean and bag 20 acres (8 ha) of wheat in one day.
In an effort to diversify, they attempted to break into the automobile market by forming a public company with J. H. Jones of Adelaide, appointing former South Australian premier Sir Richard Butler as chairman.
Unable to meet costs, the company was liquidated in 1928, and all that remains now of the workshop and foundry in Gawler is the street bearing its name.
