author
Arthur J. (Arthur Joseph) Hoskin
b. 1869
A mining engineer and educator, he wrote with the practical clarity of someone who knew the industry from the inside. His best-known work explains mining as a real business rather than a gamble, making a technical world feel accessible to general readers.
1 Audiobook
The Business of Mining A brief non-technical exposition of the principles involved in the profitable operation of mines
by Arthur J. (Arthur Joseph) Hoskin
About the author
Arthur J. Hoskin, identified by Project Gutenberg as Arthur Joseph Hoskin, was born in 1869. He is best known for The Business of Mining (1912), a book that set out to give readers a clear, non-technical explanation of how mines could be operated profitably and responsibly.
The book presents him as a consulting and general mining engineer, a former professor of mining at the Colorado School of Mines, western editor of Mines and Minerals, and a member of professional organizations including the American Institute of Mining Engineers and the Colorado Scientific Society. Those roles help explain the tone of his writing: practical, informed, and aimed at readers who wanted solid guidance rather than speculation.
Hoskin's surviving reputation today rests largely on that straightforward approach. Instead of treating mining as romance or risk alone, he wrote about it as a field that demanded knowledge, discipline, and sound judgment.