Edgar Smart, son of William Fleet Smart and his wife Anne, was an engineer who spent some time on the Witwatersrand during the eighteen-nineties. He was listed as a member of the Chemical and Metallurgical Society of South Africa in January 1897, but his membership had lapsed by 1899. As co-author with Charles Butters*, who had played a leading role in establishing the Rand Central Ore Reduction Company in 1894, he wrote an extensive paper, "Plant for the extraction of gold by the cyanide process...", which was published in the Minutes of Proceedings of the (British) Institution of Civil Engineers (1894-1895) and as a pamphlet (London, 1895, 47 pp). Later he was co-author with Henry F. Julian* of Cyaniding gold and silver ores... (London, 1904), a practical treatise dealing with both technical and commercial investigations of the cyanide process, the theory and practice of the chemistry on which it is based, working methods, and the design, construction and cost of the necessary plant. It included references to mining methods on the Witwatersrand. Several later editions were published up to 1921.
Edgar Smart died while on active duty with the South African Labour Corps during World War I (1914-1918). He was survived by his wife, Annie H. Smart, born Batten, and three children. He may be the same person as E. Smart, who was associated with the Public Works Department of the Transvaal Colony around 1904.
