Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1863-12-03
matchmaking Machinery,

From the time of the erection of the first
mill, in this Territory to the present, the at
tention of our inventors and mechanics has
been occupied with the subject of amalga-
mating machinery. The matter of crushing
ores had already been reduced to science in
California, and improvements in this branch
of milling could only tend to reduce the cost
of crushing and the wear and tear of the bat
teries, and from the difficulty of introducing
new styles of crushing apparatus on account
oftheir expense, andth small benefits which
would arise from the substitution of the most
perfect machinery, but little attention has
been paid to this department. Rowland and
Bryant standing at the head of the list
When the mills were first started in this Ter
ritory, with the exception Of Pauls Mill at
Devils Gate, the best amalgamating appara-
tus used was the Hungarian bowl, which is
too well understood to require description.
With these, about two-thirds of the precious
metals contained in the ores were allowed to
pass through the mill, and down the creek or
river as the case might be. Ores assaying
500 to the ton, yielding about $50, and the
tailings, showing by an. assay that the other
$40 was still retained by them. Here was
an opening for inventive genius, and with
what ability it has been employed, we can
proudly point to the present splendid mills
of this Territory for the answer. Paul made
an improvement in mullers which is success
fully used to the present day. Knox in
troduced the steam chamber underneath
and copper plates inside of the pan.
Wakely introduced the block-muller, which
not only ground, but thoroughly mingled the
pulp and mercury. Hatch introduced the
steam tub (made of wood, in order not to in
terfere with the operation of the chemicals,)
and the seven foot iron pan, or separator, be-
low it, for purposes of precipitation. Bre-
WORT introduced the dry and wet grinder, to-
gether with pan having groove in an in
clined bottom to prevent wash ofquicksilver,
and also in order that larger amount Of
this metal might be employed in the working
Of ores. Varney brought out wet grinder
and amalgamator combined, making sixty
revolutions per minute, which he has been
improving upon from that day to the present,
adding separators. Wheeler introduced a
pan making sixty revolutions in which steam
is introduced into the pulp, and iron blades
of the form of clycoids for returning the pulp
to the center and forcing it under the muller,
after it had been expelled to the circumfer-
ence of the pan by the centrifugal force ex-
erted BY the muller. Connected with these
pans are separators revolving slowly and hav-
ing bowl in the center, from which the mer-
curry is drawn by means of pipes for the pur-
pose of again using it in the pans. The Co.
leman Pan, which followed next, is mate
rally the same as the Wheeler, with the ex-
ception that stationary muller is used on
the top of the revolving one, in place of the
clycoids. The last being the Hepburn pan
and separator, which combines the principle
of the Hatch steam-tub for heating, the
Wheeler in grinding, the Brevoort in sepa-
ting; the difference from the other late styles
consisting in making the bottom of the pan
in the form of an inverted cone, with null
Ter concave on the upper, and convex on the
under surface, so that when the pulp is ex-
PEELED from under the muller to the outer
edge of the pan by the outer edge Of the pan
by the centrifugal force, it will return to the
ccnetr by its own gravity, and again pass un-
der the muller. Thus has improvement fol-
lowed upon til" heel of Improvement in this
class of machinery until Washoe stands I'M
rivaled among the mineral countries of the
world for the excellence of her amalgamating
machinery. At some future time we shall
speak of the merits and defects of the va
rious styles of machinery now in use, and as
we have used them all, think we can speak
to the point.