Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1900-09-14
NEW MINING MACHINE.

Gates Is an extremely simple one. A
child could do the work. If the reader
will go outside his house and get a
handful of sand, not the white stuff
that forms the Atlantic coast, but the
sand so common along certain beaches
and inland rivers, called magnetic
sand" and look at the sand very close
ly In the direct sunlight, he will notice
that it contains tiny black grains and
timer yellow specks. 1t is no secret
among people who know anything
about minerals that the specks that
shine so brightly are gold and that the
black Specks are iron oxide. Ask any
geologiSt, and he will tell you that
magnetic sand" is what today is left
of what were once great mountains of
stone that had an abundance of iron
and gold strewn throughout them. The
rains of a million or two centuries have
washed the lofty mountains of rocks
down to level plains of sand but with
the splitting of the mountains into
fragments the particles of iron, gold
and rock of which the mountains were
originally composed have continued to
hold themselves together in the form Of
grains which we call sand The miner
alogist will also tell you that the iron
in the sand is the best iron that can be
found anywhere in the world.
This iron Is separated from the sand
by magnet Professor Gates has
made a machine consisting of an cleo
tric magnet to the end of which is fas-
tened piece of steel shaped like the
whiskers of Trilbys friend Taffy.
Really there is nothing that this piece
of steel resembles more strikingly, so
that even among the humdrum engi-
neers In Professor Gates workshop it
is referred to as "Taffy's whiskers."
The face of these whiskers Is not
smooth. 1t Is composed of a series of
cells like honeycomb. Over the face
of these whiskers, under it, behind it
and above it runs a belt of rubber cloth
on four rollers so arranged that when n
handle is turned the rubber belt moves
and keeps moving continually down
over the face of the "whiskers."
When current of electricity is turn
ed into the magnet, the attraction of
"Taffy's whiskers" is so strong that If
you hold penknife in front of it the
whiskers will snatch 1t out of your
hand in wink. Hold handful of
gold ore dust in the same place, and
they will not be at all affected Now,
1t Is according to natural law that
those parts of the "whiskers" which cor
respond to the walls of the honeycomb,
the walls of the cells, have many thou
sand times more magnetic attraction
than have those parts of the 'whis-
kers" which correspond to the vacant
cells in the honeycomb. So when a
handful of sand is thrown against the
belt the iron sticks and the sand falls
away. The attraction Of the gold par
ticles to the iron particles Is so great
that the gold goes with the iron parti-
tract the gold of its own accord.
The rush of the metal particles from
the sand to the embrace of the "whis-
kers" is so rapid that particles of sand
adhere to the iron. But the belt below
the sand and "whiskers," which is all
the time moving, releases and grips the
iron continually while the sand is thus
shaken loose.
In another machine called magnet
entangler the iron and gold particles
are mixed together when they leave
the machine. They do not remain to-
gether very long, however. Professor
Gates has only to pass them through
third sort of separator, which he calls
a "diamagnetic separator" the first
one is called simply magnetic separa-
tori, and these gold and iron specks
part company absolutely. Both metals
are then ready for smelling.