Jameson's research into flotation began when he was at Imperial College London, in 1969. A colleague, Dr J. A. Kitchener of the Royal School of Mines, pointed out that many of the new mineral deposits being found around the world required fine grinding to separate the valuable particles from the rock in which they were embedded, and the flotation technologies available at the time were relatively inefficient for recovering fine particles. Kitchener felt that improvements could best be achieved by an increased knowledge of the physics of flotation, rather than the chemistry of the reagents. Jameson had gained some expertise in the properties of bubbles and particles in suspensions whilst a PhD student at Cambridge. He began research into the fluid mechanics of the flotation process and set in train a series of experimental projects into the effect of particle diameter and bubble size on the flotation rate constant. Much of the research was conducted by honours students in chemical engineering. Jameson accepted the challenge of coming up with practical solutions to remedy the situation, if these could be identified.
Jameson's research showed that the kinetics of flotation of fine particles was a strong function of the bubble diameter and that the way to improve recoveries was to use small bubbles in the order of 300 microns (μm) in diameter. What was needed was a practical method of making such bubbles in large quantities, of the order of billions per second. The device needed to be simple to construct and operate, capable of running for long periods with minimal maintenance, and should be resistant to blockage by stray large particles in the feed. He began to look at the theory of bubble breakup in sheared flows, that is, in flow fields in which layers of liquid slide over each other. Lewis and Davidson had recently published a theory to predict the maximum size of bubbles in a well-characterised flow environment. By balancing the forces acting on a bubble in a shearing flow, including the disruptive dynamic stresses from the liquid motion and the restoring force of surface tension, it was possible to predict the critical shear rate required to produce a bubble of given size. Jameson then looked for simple and practical ways of generating the required shear rates, and found inspiration in the kitchen sink. If a jet of water from a tap plunges into a basin full of water, a shear layer develops around the jet, that entrains air from the atmosphere into the water, and at the same time, breaks up the entrained air into fine bubbles. The effect is magnified if there is a detergent in the water. Detergents, known as frothers, are used in flotation to prevent bubble coalescence, and to create stable froths. By the correct choice of jet velocity and diameter, it is possible to provide a controlled shear environment that can generate bubbles of a suitable size for flotation, with the added advantage that the air is naturally aspirated by the jet, so there is no need for a compressor or blower. Thus the idea of the Jameson Cell was born.
After a number of failures, the radical new process for flotation emerged in the laboratory at the University of Newcastle. Jameson filed a provisional patent application in 1986. After an initial trial at the Renison Bell tin mine in Tasmania, certain design features were modified. He led a further plant trial with a small cell in the lead-zinc concentrator at Mt Isa Mines Ltd in Queensland, initially working alone. The plant metallurgists took an interest in the technology and helped to refine it, particularly checking the scale-up procedures that Jameson had devised. In 1988 a recent graduate was assigned full-time for a year to verify and validate the performance of the Cell. In 1989 a worldwide exclusive license was negotiated between Tunra Ltd on behalf of the University of Newcastle, Jameson, and MIM Holdings Limited, for the use of the Cell for metallurgical purposes. Summary papers on the theory and practice have been published.
There have been ongoing significant changes to the design of the Cell since it was first developed in the late 1980s.