THE CYCLONE ROLLER CRUSHER. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 1932, 30 November 1888, Page 10 (Supplement)

THE CYCLONE ROLLER CRUSHER. TO THE EDITOR.

Sm,— l notice in your is?ue of last Thursday an interesting letter on the above subject from Mr Baldwin, of Milton, in which that gentleman gives a decidedly laudatory account of recent trials of Walls' improved crushing rolls, or " the cyclone crusher," held at the Melbourne Exhibition. In your following issue Mr Robert Neill, agent for the patentees, takes up the cudgels on behalf of the machine, and attempts to jicove (or indirectly asserts) that " the directors and manager of Green's Reef Company hive blundered." Will you, Sir, accord me space to reply fully to both your correspondents? There has been so much controversy on the subject of this crushing machine, that & discussion as to its merits will prove of universal interest. In the first place, Sir, permit me to remark that I attended the recent trials of the machine held at Ophir, in company with several of my co-directors, and that the report given by your Central Otago correspondent in his " Mining Notes " as to those trials was absolutely correct in every detail. „,-,., So far as the assertions of Mr Baldwin's authority are concerned, I am somewhat in a dilemma. While not desiring to throw discredit on his statements, I must still remark either that the machine exhibited in Melbourne is not the same as that imported by Green's Reef Company, or else the stone was fed into the hopper in much the same form that it came through the mosh- screen— "24o holes to the square inch."' Of course, Sir, I base these assertions solely on the results of the trial of this company's machine. I challenge disproof by inviting the patentees to send one of their own men to Ophir to give the crusher a thorough trial. The company will offer him every facility for doing so. At the trial of our crusher, stone of all grades, sizes, and descriptions was fed into the hopper — in every instance with distinctly negative results, No "apparently slight instruction" was overlooked, either by the compauy or its manager, "either in putting the machine together, the size of the quartz fed to the rollers, or the rat* at which they were fed." He received printed instructions and illustrations from Mr Neill as to the erecting of the machine, and these were faithfully followad in every particular. In fact, the machine is so very simple that he would be a very poor engineer indeed who could not erecl one of then:, even without such aids. I have every confidense in the ability of our manager to successfully combat the difficulties (if any] contingent en its erection. He has had con' siderable experience in the erection of mining machinery ; and has, I understand, been con cerned in running up more than one rollei machine. If his skill is doubted, then we shal be happy to learn that the patentees have re solved to send oao of their own men to give thi mill a trial. Permit me to remark with regard to the tria that some of the stone, previous to being re duced, was of a size no greater than that of nut: or very small-sized walnuts, and weighing fron 2d\vt up to sdwt. It was thoroughly clean au( free from all impurities, such as clay or pug Every course that could be thought of was pur sued in order to try and make the mill do it work, but; the result was still the same, the rocl not being more than half reduced, while somi pieces dropped into the sluice box unscathed o untouched. In support of these statements ' refer anyone interested in the matter to Mr J E. Denniston, solicitor, Dunedin, who saw thi mill at work. Now for Mr Neill's letter. In the pamphlet describing the mill purchasers, in setting up thi machine, are directed to so place the roller " that they will revolve freely without touchini or impinging on each other . . . If a fim product is required, the rollers may be placet within |th or l-16th of an inch of each othe ... If the feed is coarse (such as the pro duct of the common rock breaker) the roll should be held apart by the check nuts at leas Jth of an inch, and §ths of an inch will givbetter results." Now, having regard to thes instructions, will any practical miner or me chanical engineer for a moment believe that cyclone crusher, with the rollers set Jhh or §th of an inch of each other, would be capable o reducing ore sufficiently fine for it to find itswsv through a 240 mesh screen ? lam of the opinio: that there is no stamper battery in the countr; that uses so fine a screen as this — 160, 180, an< rarely 200 perforations are used, — and eve: where the largest sized is adopted, the proces is by no means so remarkably rapid, and not b any means equivalent to a reduction of " four o five tons per hour." The mill at Ophir has a crushing or reducin capacity of not more than cue ton of clea quartz per hour. When I say " crushing capacity, I do not mean that the mill reduce the ore sufficiently fine to permit of the fre amalgamation of the gold with the quicksilvei I semi you, Sir, a few ounces of stone which ha been put through the roller, and which I mysel took from the tables over which the tailing ran . Previous to erecting the machine I receive several letters from Dunedin people condemnin the mill and saying that "it was a mere toy, and would never prove suitable to the company' requirements. This opinion has been confirme by the tests (during which, by-the-bye, some 7 or 80 tons of ore were treated), and severs practical engineers and miners who hay specially visited the claim for the purpose c witnessing the experiments have 'given expres sion to a similar opinion. One gentleman (M Moritz Bowron) came all the way from Christ church to see it, and directly he had inspected i he remarked to the mine manager, " That i useless. Condemn it at once and get differen machinery. It will never do the work repre sented." I have also received several letters, both fror Victoria and from New South Wales, denounc ing roller machinery generally, and the Cyclon crusher particularly. My correspondents affirE not only that these machines have, as in ou i case, been proved to be utter failures, bu several companies have disbanded them aud re I verted to the old-fashioned battery. One gentle man advises me that the Golden Gully Compan; (Limited), of Ironbarks, N.S.W., sent severa tons of rich ore for reduction by one of thes Cyclone crushers, erected in Sydney by Park and Lacy, the patentees. The stone was so im I perfectly reduced, and the loss ofsgold so mani festly significant, that the directors of the com pany instituted proceedings against the paten tees for damages. The suit was heard, but i was lost, I understand, on some technica grounds. Then, another gentlemen specially called oi Parke aud Lacy, in Sydney, and during a eon versation that ensued, the patentees stated tha the Cyclone crusher was never intended for re ducing gold ores — " that it would not save gold and that it waa rather intended as a rod breaker." In face of this statement, it is diffi cult to understand why the patentees claim ii their pamphlets that the mill "is the most per feet, efficient, economical, and durable crushe: ever offered to the public for the crushing o pulverisation of gold, silver, and tin ores . . and all hard and refractory substances " ; an< that its " crushing capacity is more than double effective durability more than seven time; greater, and the required driving power 40 pc: cent, less than any other form of roller crushe; now in use." If the testimonials alluded to by Mr ' Neil (and of which I have a copy) are absolutely cor •rect in details, and bonajide t it is a most extra ordinary circumstance that we are unable to ob tain similar results in Australia. Indeed, it ii those selfsame testimonials, upon which (com bined with a guarantee from Parke and Lacj that the crusher would do all that was repre' sented of it) the_ directors of Green's Reef Com' pany placed so much dependence anil faith, thai has been the means of causing the company s loss of several hundred pounds, as well as oi several months of precious time. It is to be hoped that the patentees , will at once t-ake steps to ( erect a working plant iv Dunedin. If they do so, ,1 hope they will rejsgmfe that Green's Reef and. Seam Workings

easonable distance of Australia, from which she ian obtain feed supplies ; and although present >rices tcsy bs obtained for a time by very firm loiding, ifi will not be for long. I should not be surprised, if the Australian merchants have xeard of the advance of Is 6d to Is 9d per jushel in oats here within a fortnight, that ;he first outgoing mails take orders. to Calcutta tor oats, to California for oats and barley, and to South America for maize, where it is sometimes is low as 8d per bushel of 601b. Before New Zealand's nest harvest fa garnered Australia may be flooded with ship» ments from the places named, and instead, c£ our farmers getting good paying prices for Xtest year's oats, say 2s 6d to 3s per bushel, thejf fcv»y find them only worth 2s or less, and this enbiray due to the present unwise speculation. Most of the Australianstocfc is not so valuable that it will pay, to feed them with corn at any price, and whilst many might pay 3s to 3s 6dlor oats to keep their stock alive, they would not do so were the price 5s 6d to 6s per bushel or over, as but a very few bushels would be the value of most animals, whether horse, beast, or sheep ; consequently they will cease buying corn and" let the animals take their chance, and only those at hard work, and which are earning their food would be fed on corn.— l am, &c, Dunedin, November 26. Look Ahead. THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE. TO THE BDITOE. Sic, — I have pleasure in thanking your correspondent " D. G." for his letter in your issue of the 23rd inst., and especially for his valuable suggestion in regard to having a practical man to represent the producer in the London market. If it be not advisable that the grower should have retail shops through wkich to dispose of his products, it is, at least, absolutely necessary that he should have good, reliable, practical men in London, who would work entirely in hisinterests, and see to the proper handling of themeat from the time of its reaching the docksuntil its arrival at the retail butchers' shops,, and whose duty it should also be to sell directto the retailers, to co-operative stores, to large restaurants and hotels, &c, and so do away with the large profits of the middlemen, therebybringing producer and consumer within touch? and benefiting both. Viewed from a producer's point, those who* have at present the handling of New Zealand meat in London have dealt with it, not in the interest of the grower, by whom they are well paid, but (to put the most charitable construction possible) have allowed the " rings " and " middlemen "to " best " them at every point. In my former letters I have dealt with sheep of best crossbred quality, and to quote Mr Douglas," the best of the best only are shipped ;" therefore, with all due respect to "D.G.'s" statement, I have very grave doubts of any NewZealand sheep of this quality having been sold at 2d to 3d per lb— the consumer having had to pay two to four times these prices; but I quite understand that spurious and inferior frozen mutton, and possibly inferior merino, from this colony are sold as New. Zealand at low prices so as to fix low wholesale values favour superior half bred meat ; and it is to protect, us from such tricks, &c, that we" want our own; special representatives in London. The whole year's export of mutton from this colony only represents about ljlb per head per year of the population of the United Kingdom, and there should not be much difficulty in disposing of this to advantage if properly and fairly handled. "Trade allowances."— Although this iniquitous practice may have been in force " from time immemorial,"" that is no reason why it should be continued. It is undoubtedly a wrong, and to the producer here, who has to pay all charges to London, it is a grievous injustice ; and more particularly so when coupled with the many other grievous wrongs to which his meat is subject at the hands of those who have the manipulation* of it. — I am, &c, Dunedin, November 26. Wm. Royse..