MELLOR, JOSEPH WILLIAM (1869-1938) was born at Huddersfield, Yorkshire, the son of Job Mellor, a loom-tuner, who came to New Zealand in 1879 and was employed for two years by the Kaiapoi Woollen Co. Joseph went to the Kaiapoi school, and when the family moved to Dunedin in 1881 he completed his schooling at the Linden school (Kaikorai). At the age of 13 he became a handy boy in the establishment of H. S. Fish (q.v.), and afterwards passed through the boot factories of Simon brothers and McKinlay, and finally became a clicker in Sargood and Sons.

During these years Mellor continued his education at the Dunedin Technical School and, being deeply interested in chemistry, he built a small laboratory in his garden. Determined to gain an advanced education, he matriculated in 1892 from the Technical School and by the recommendation of one of the directors (G. M. Thomson, q.v.), he was awarded a bursary which took him to the University. He had difficulty with Latin but made good progress with his studies in chemistry (under Professor Black). In 1897 he graduated B.Sc., and won a senior scholarship, and in 1899 he gained first-class honours and was awarded the Exhibition science scholarship. He taught for a few months at Lincoln Agricultural College and, having married Miss Emma Bakes (of Lincolnshire, who was brought up in Auckland) they sailed for England.

Mellor continued his studies at Owens College, Manchester, where he graduated D.Sc. in 1902. He was then appointed chemist to the Pottery Manufacturers' Federation, and took up his residence at Newcastle-under-Lyme. Three years later he was appointed director of the research laboratories of the federation, which he controlled until 1937. In 1909 the federation commenced to co-operate in research with concerns interested in refractory materials, and this association continued to develop until 1920, when the British Refractories Research Association was formed, under the joint auspices of the pottery federation, the gas manufacturers and the British iron and steel federation. Their fine new laboratory at Shelton, Stoke-on-Trent, which was opened in 1934, was called the Mellor laboratory. In the early years of the century Mellor moved into the forefront of chemists, and became the leading authority in inorganic chemistry and ceramics. His researches in refractory materials comprised a vast amount of original work. During the war he was called in to advise on the production of steel and was able to replace to some extent the German scientists upon whom the industry had largely relied. He declined a decoration for his services, but received the C.B.E. in 1938 and a gift of £1,500 from the federation which he had served with such distinction. A leading authority in ceramics, he was honorary secretary of the Ceramic Society of Great Britain and was one of only 14 honorary members elected by the American Ceramic Society (1932). He was elected to the Royal Society in 1927.

Mellor commenced in 1902, with the first edition of Higher Mathematics, the publication of a long series of scientific works of high value. In 1904 he published Chemical Statics and Dynamics and in 1905 The Crystallisation of Iron and Steel. His other works include Elementary Inorganic Chemistry (1930), Intermediate Inorganic Chemistry, Applied Physics and Ceramics, Modern Inorganic Chemistry (1912), Physics and Industry (1925), Treatise on the Ceramic Industry (1913) and his monumental Comprehensive Treatise on Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry, which appeared in 16 volumes at intervals between 1922 and 1937. Mellor was a great lover of poetry, whimsey and nonsense, and the Ceramic Society published in 1934 his Uncle Joe's Nonsense. He was a clever artist, and many of his cartoons appeared in his own books and in the Staffordshire Evening Sentinel. A fine private library, efficiently catalogued, enabled him to produce his noble succession of textbooks with no apparent difficulty. As a youth he learned to play chess and he competed in several New Zealand tournaments and contributed a chess column for some years to the Evening Star (Dunedin). He died on 24 May 1938.

Mellor, op. cit.; Otago Univ. Calendar; The Dominion, 2 Aug 1932; New Zealand Times, 1 Jan 1902; Otago Daily Times, 31 May, 1 Jun 1938; The Times (London), 28 May 1938; S. J. in New Zealand Railways Magazine, 1 Sep 1938 (p)

Reference: Volume 2, page 42

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