Hal Williams Hardinge

(1855-1943)

1983 Charter Member, Mining's Past

Hal Hardinge graduated from high school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After working for a few years to earn money, he enrolled at the Colorado School of Mines. During his college years, he continued working as a prospector. Upon graduation, he founded a consulting practice which took him to most mining areas in the western United States and Canada. This vast amount of exposure to mining and milling operations enabled Hardinge to develop new devices to improve the industry. The results of his efforts are manifested in over 60 patents covering a variety of devices, ranging from a washer, to his best known invention, the cylindrical/conical grinding mill that bears his name. Although it took nine years to overcome the skepticism and opposition to the Hardinge mill, the evidence of its superiority silenced opposition.

During World War I, Hardinge worked without remuneration for the U.S. Bureau of Mines. 

He founded the Hardinge Company to manufacture his grinding mill, as well as other inventions and was active in the operation and management of that company until he was 84, four years before his death.

Print Version     Previous     Archive     Next