COMBINED PULVERISER AND AMALGAMATOR.

Thames Star, Volume XX, Issue 6129, 27 November 1888, Page 2

COMBINED PULVERISER AND AMALGAMATOR.

In this machine the inventor, Mr Betts, has aimed at making a pulveriser which will also embrace the functions of an amalgamator, and which, being simple, compact, and easily worked, will be suit* able for any part of New Zealand. The machine Mr Betta proposes making will be about 4ft Sins high by 4ft |in diaateter, will weigh about 6 tons, and be driven by alO horse-power engine. It is calculated to reduce 2j tons of quartz to the consistency of flour in one hour (or equal the work of 15 head of stampers). In construction the machine resembles a large coffee mill, the difference being that instead of the inner cone being taper and the revolving part, it is the outer shell which revolves and tapers in circumference from its upper edge to the middle of the inner cone, then spreads out like a great flange to cover the butt of the cone. The quarts first enters the machine between the crown of the cone and the upper edge of the outer shell; the cone is fitted with numerous flanges of cast steel (which are removable at will), and these form the cutting edge to the revolving shell. When the quartz has passed through this first grinding portion of the machine it enters between the flange of the shell and the widest part of the cone; this wide part (or butt) of the cone is fluted to offer another out'inft edge to the powdered quartz, and to distribute it more equally over .the grinding surface. By the time the quartz has passed through the machine it is completely pulverised, and falls as a powder, or rather mud, into a copper trough, which completely encircles the base of the machinery. This trough ii charged with mercury, and the powdered stone is brought into contact with the mercury by the action of the forks attached to the lower edge of the revolving shell passing through the trough. The process of amalgamation is assisted by a current of elect yqtyf? which is conveyed to the copper trough; thus the stone,besides being thoroughly pulverised, is treated to a more complete process of amalgamation than is generally accorded to it.