NEW CRUSHING MACHINE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume V, Issue 1305, 21 January 1868, Page 3

NEW CRUSHING MACHINE.

VV k inspe ;ted, yesterday, a very ingenious contrivauce or quartz crushing. The idea is so simple an i the power can be so multiplied that it is scai -ely possible that such an invention should ni ', command a very considerable amount of interest '1 he invention is by Mr. Pratt, of "Wangarei, and needs but little description. The principle upon which it works is that of what is called tlie " recovery lever." The stamper or weight is enclosed in a stout casing of wood. It may b<! incri.Msed to any weight, and made to c -vcr any amount of surface according to the pover tvliich the.- machine is to be worked. 'J he lerer being depressed, the weight is, by mean? of a pulley, thrown over the opposite arm and fills upon the substunr-e to be crushed. Mr. Prut; calculates that a 501b. weight will give hal' a ton pressure, but as the average lift uf an a'ic-bodied man would be, perhaps, one hundred weight and a h-ilf, of course the machine can be worked by hand, giving a ton and a half pressure. F"r this i>re.s>ure the machine can be ■worked constantly by a single hand, but of course two or more could h< , employed with in-crr.-'.sjd effect. vl r. Pratt seems to have regarded the portability of.the machine as an important consiileriilioii; and hi> first idea is to construct an implement which may berernored from pli'c? to place with ease, for taking the stamper out, the separating die various parts and putting them together is the work of very few minute*. The iiimh'l which we saw working

yi-sterdav certainly iviiuceil the quartz to a fine ■white pon-iU-iv 'i'li--' in-, fiition has been ret?i.s- ---• toivd, :iiid fron? its siuiplicity, compactness, and

the results proved, is, we think, a successful invention, certainly to tho extent the inventor bespeaks for it, namely, as a machine that will, xith the greatest economy of space, and labour, effectually crush any kind of quartz.