IMPROVEMENTS IN CLEANING, SEPERATING, AND DRESSING ORES OF PULVERISED TIN, COPPER, LEAD, SILVER, AND OTHER MINERALS, ORES, AND SUBSTANCES
Year: 1857

page_text: application for Letters Patent was not given within the time prescribed
by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Westlake at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th May
-* 1857.
JOHN WESTLAKE, of Helston, in the County of Cornwall, Mining Agent,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
CLEANING, SEPERATING, AND DRESSING ORES OF PULVERISED TIN, COPPER, LEAD,
SILVER, AND OTHER MINERALS, ORES, AND SUBSTANCES," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of combining certain apparatuses or machines in
order to seperate, clean, and dress pulverised ores of tin and other minerals
and substances, and consists, first, of an apparatus, which I call a seperator, of
any. proposed dimensions or shape, made of wood or iron, into which the tin
or other mineral flows, with a proper quantity of water from the stamps or
other pulverising machine into the first division of the seperator; the heavy
particles fall to the bottom, which is a V-shape or inverted cone, to prevent any
lodgment of stuff, and is let off by a sliding door at the bottom, and the fine
and light particles pass on to the second division in an ascending or upward
direction, and in this manner the water and ores pass on from one compart-
ment of the seperator to the other until the finest portion of the ore in
solution is discharged into the second apparatus, which I call the slime dresser
and which consists of two or more vessels or cisterns, made of wood or other
suitable material, in the shape of an inverted cone. One cistern is placed
within the other, and as the ore in solution reaches the bottom edge of the

page_text: inner cistern it ascends or passes upward through an opening which is pre-
served between the two cisterns, and as the, ore in solution is in the act
of ascending, the heavy particles fall to the bottom, by reason of their greater
specific gravity, and the foul water and slime flow over the edge of the outer
cistern and are carried off by a waste shoot.
I use any number of these double cisterns, required to clean the different
descriptions of minerals, by passing the ores in solution from one pair of
cisterns to another, and repeating the operation until the requisite cleaning
and dressing is obtained. The heavier portions of the ores which are drawn
off from the bottom of the seperator by sliding stop doors are carried into one
or more vibrating buddles, which are made of, wood or iron of any required
dimensions, and are suspended by iron hoops or short chains on sharpened
edges of iron, and one end of the buddle is made to rise or fall by screws, so
as to adjust the buddle to a required inclined plane, and the buddle is kept
in a state of vibration or shaking motion by working a short crank, to which
is attached an iron rod which strikes against the buddle as the crank works;
and the buddle being hung upon the sharpened edges of iron bars, the con-
tinuous striking of the iron rod maintains the required vibrating motion, which
causes the tin or other heavy substances to seek the bottom of the buddle,
while the sand and waste are carried off by the flowing of the water over the
end, which is fitted so as to be raised or lower'd by an iron rack or other on-
venient method. I occasionally use a perpetual filter for the purpose of
'seperating the slime and tin or other minerals from the foul water and for
obtaining a supply of cleansed water. The filter is made of wood or iron, of
any dimensions, and divided into two or more compartments; the foul water is
let into one part, and is made to pass out under the sand, shot, charcoal, saw-
dust, or other filtering medium, and the water seeks its level by rising upward
through the sand or other medium, and the slimes fall to the bottom, which is
bevil'd or diagonal, to prevent any accumulation, and are let off at a plughole
when necessary. The sand or other medium is placed on a perforated metal
plate about the middle of the filter, and on the upper part a shoot is fitted
with stop doors, and turns the water from one compartment to another for the
purpose of cleansing each part when required.