A GOLD-SAYING MACHINE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1894, 9 March 1888, Page 12

A GOLD-SAYING MACHINE.

A number of gentlemen interested in mining met at Messrs A. and T. Burt's foundry on Tuesday to wjtness a test of a gold-saving machine recently patented by Mr G. J. A. Richardson. The machine on view, which had been constructed by Messrs Burt, was of the dimensions of a model only. It is called by the patentee a rotary amalgamator, and is intended for saying very fine gold from black sand, &c, or it might go at the end of a battery. Iv either capacity it would do very excellent work, as was shown by Tuesday's test ; but the principle is by no means a new one. In Mr Richardson's machine a disc with its lower surface covered with spiral grooves fits into a circular pan and revolves at a moderate speed only. The bottom of the pan presents a surface of quicksilver, and over this the sand, which enters by a funnel from the top, is slightly spread by the grooved surface of the disc. Almost every particle of the finest gold will, it is claimed, be saved by this process, and there can be little doubt of the usefulness of tho machine as it is exactly on the principle of the Hungariaa mill, the value of which ' has been recognised upon the Continent for many years past. In this mill, though, knives are used to distribute the {stuff over the quicksilver. A test was tried upon Mr Richardson's model on Tuesday with some sand from Waipapa Point, said to contain some2£dwt of gold to tho ton. A email quantity of the dust was first washed iv the presence of the spectators to show that it did contain a little very fine gold, and it was then passed through the amalgamator, with the result that scarcely the colour could be detected on washing the tailings. What little gold there was in the small quantity of sand experimented upon had been successfully amalgamated. Most of the gentlemen seemed to hold the opinion that the introduction of such machines would be a decided advantage I