Gustav(us) Wolff, Doctor of philosophy and high spending NZ patentee

[Matthew Gibbons]

I’ve researched the background of New Zealand’s top spenders on patent fees in the 19thC and have detailed information on 19/20 of them now. However, if anyone has any suggestions on Gustavus Wolff, who described his occupation as "doctor of philosophy" and who patented gold mining inventions in Grahamstown (modern day Thames, NZ) in 1871 I would be very grateful.

There is a World Catalogue entry for a person from Germany (1819-1873) who called himself Gustav(us) Wolff and was a philosopher: http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-nr89-17545/

On NZ’s Papers Past Wolff largely appears because of his patents, e.g.:  http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=EP18710922.2.17.2&srpos=1&e=-------10--1----0gustavus+wolff--

There is also a shipping departure for a Dr and Mrs Wolff in 1872
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=DSC18720507.2.4&srpos=52&e=01-01-1870-31-12-1874--10--51----0wolff-ARTICLE-

I'm trying to work out whether the World Cat Wolff, who published on philosophy in several languages, and the Grahamstown patentee might be the same person. For instance, Wolff might have travelled to Australasia (he also applied for patents in NSW and Victoria) for a break. Wolff’s work has been cited by a number of philosophers but I have not located a biography and he is unknown to those researching Germans or mining history in NZ.

The Wolff and Harland Wolff visited NZ (as Woolf in 1885) but did not have a PhD (http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=CHP18850225.2.59&srpos=6&e=-------10--1-byDA---0woolf+harland+zealand--)

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to best approach this?
Thanks, Matthew

[rosball]

There is apparently a Dr Gustav Wolff from Dusseldorf who wrote a book/report "On Australian Gold"
which he presented to the Royal Society of NSW in 1877

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28397262

regards
  Ros

[Matthew Gibbons]

Thanks Ros, I had missed this and it is very helpful. It is more likely that this is the right Dr. Wolff. The 1878 Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, p. 243 give the title of Wolff’s publication as ‘On Australian gold deposits’. Since it would have been added to their library I’ll attempt to get hold of a copy.