GOVERNMENT CRUSHER. TO THE EOITOR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 3254, 11 July 1872, Page 3

GOVERNMENT CRUSHER. TO THE EOITOR.

Sin—Your correspondent "W. J." in reviewing the Government Battery on the reclaimed ground, has omitted to notice the greatest defect in it, so far as strength is concerned, inasmuch as they have cut away the upright nearly one-half where the cam-shaft rests on it; whereas it ought to have been strengthened:and'Stiffened at that part, by additional pieces of hardwood, to prevent vibration. This is only one of the many defects not pointed out by "W. J." His (" W. J.s") remarks about the shaking table as being useless or inefficient are perfectly orrect. But I myself cannot see what they want with an amalgam barrel, because if their tables and ripples wero properly managed, there would \va no further amalgamation necc&Bary. Should they go through the process of amalgamating in the barrel, ami use acid to aesistthe process by destroying sulphurets, whatwillhetheeflectof the acid on the iron drum, which I «cc they have got ? I perceive th<y have got another help in a shaft—hung by the two ends—one resting in the wall plate of the shed, the othsr attached to the cam-shaft, giving it a good spring in tho centre—no doubt greatly assisting the vibration of the whole battery. The whole affair, I must say, gives one the idea of its being conducted by a man who may have passed through a battery-shed in Victoria about 14 or 15 years since, and was now doing everything from memory—that i», requiring everything he then saw—but without having the slightest knowledge, practical or otherwise, of tho utility of any single article now under the roof of the shed. Whoever he may bo, I hope that he has had more experience than is at present apparent.—l am, &c, Quartz.