IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPA- RATUS FOR SEPARATING MINERALS AND SUBSTANCES OF DIFFERENT SPECIFIC GRAVITIES
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Joseph Eugéne Dumont, of Liège, in
Belgium, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPA-
RATUS FOR SEPARATING MINERALS AND SUBSTANCES OF DIFFERENT SPECIFIC
GRAVITIES."
Sealed the 28th December 1860, and dated the 3rd July 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Joseph Eugéne
Dumont at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,'
on the 3rd July 1860.j
I, CHARLES JOSEPH EUGENE DUMONT, of Liège, in Belgium, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY.
OB APPARATUS POR SEPARATING MINERALS AND SUBSTANCES OF DIFFERENT SPECIFIC
GRAVITIES," to be as follows:-
My improved machinery or apparatus is or are constructed on the principle-
of putting in motion, in a horizontal or nearly horizontal direction, a layer of
ore or mixed minerals, which are at the same time gradually separated in the
order of their specific gravities by agitation in water. The minerals are sup-
ported on a wire cloth or perforated plate, which is rapidly moved up and
down, or the water is rapidly moved up and down through the cloth or per
forated plate by a piston, or otherwise. The mineral may be carried on by
employing an endless wire cloth, and keeping it in motion, or by inclining the

page_text: wire cloth or perforated plate towards one end. At this end at which the
mineral passes away is or are fixed one or more transverse blades or knives,
which divide the mass of mineral, and direct each layer of different specific
gravity into a separate receptacle. Thus an impure coal may be separated
into three layers, of which the uppermost is pure or nearly pure coal, while
the next layer is schist, and the lowest layer pyrites.
The aforesaid blades are adjustable by screws or otherwise, and are so
regulated as to effect the most perfect separation of the different substances.
The motion of the wire cloth or perforated plate or sieve may be the same or
different at each end; and I also, in some cases, give an end motion to the
same, jerking, intermittent, or otherwise, to facilitate the separation and
advance of the mineral. A hopper, with a self-acting valve or throat, is
employed to introduce the mineral, and an adjustible sluice to direct it into
the sieve or separating vessel. The different minerals separated by the afore-
said blades are directed into different compartments, from which they are
removed by endless chains of buckets, or by chambers with double valves, or
otherwise.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Joseph Eugéne Dumont in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 28th December 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
JOSPH EUGENE DUMONT, of Liège, in Belgium, send greeting.
VHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Paent, bearing date the Third day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thasand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her reign,
di for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Chrles Joseph Eugéne Dumont, Her special licence that I, the said Charles
Jeph Eugéne Dumont, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
oters as I, the said Charles Joseph Eugéne Dumont, my executors, admi-
ntrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
te to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed,
Fuld and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United
Ingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of
An, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR SEPA-
VING MINERALS AND SUBSTANCES OF DIFFERENT SPECIFIC GRAVITIES," upon the con-
on (amongst others) that I, the said Charles Joseph Eugéne Dumont, my

page_text: executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their,
or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be
performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Joseph Eugéne Dumont, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say :-
Figure 1 is an end elevation of a complete machine; Figure 2 is a side
elevation of the same; Figure 3 is a sectional elevation taken through the
sieve and trough.
Sheet II., Figure 4, is a sectional elevation taken through the sieve.
hopper, &c. of a machine made according to one modification of my Invention;
Figures 5 and 6 are separate sections through a sieve.
Figure 7 shows another modification in the mode of actuating the sieve.
Figures 8 and 9 show another modification in the construction of the
sieve; similar letters are used to denote like parts in each of the Drawings.
In Figures 1, 2, and 3, Sheet I. A, A, is a large box or trough containing
water, in which the sieve B works; D, D, D, are compartments in the trough
to receive the minerals of various specific gravities after their separation; E
is the hopper into which the minerals are placed by hand, or by any ordinary
mechanism as is well understood; F is a screw for adjusting the door G, so
as to allow the minerals to fall from the hopper E into the sieve B at a proper
rate; H is a pulley or wheel on the shaft I for receiving motion from the
motive power; J, J, are two cams fixed on the shaft I for lifting the levers
K, K, the opposite ends of which turn upon centres L, L; from the levers
K, K, are suspended two rods M, M, the lower ends of which are attached
to the sieve B at N, N. The sieve B is fastened on two levers 0, 0, sus
pended from the points P. P. At the lower of the sieve B are fixed one,
two or more adjustable knives Q. Q, which can be raised or lowered by the
screws R, R. On giving rotary motion to the shaft I, in the direction of the
arrow, the cam surfaces J, J, will lift the levers K, K, and with them the
sieve B a certain height upwards through the water, and on the continued
rotation of the shaft I the levers K, K, will drop from off the cam surfaces
on to the adjusting screws S, S, and thus the sieve will fall quickly a short
distance through the water, and any minerals or other substances lying on the

page_text: sieve B, will be acted upon from below by the rush of water passing through
the openings in the sieve, and they will be lifted to a greater or less height
from the surface of the sieve according to their different specific gravities, and
the operation being continuous the minerals or other substances will (a short
time after they have been deposited on the sieve) become separated into layers
or strata of different specific gravities, the lightest being at the top and the
heaviest at the bottom. The sieve B is capable of adjustment and is set at
an incline suitable for advancing the particular substance under treatment
which gradually passes off the lower end of the sieve, at which point it comes
into contact with the knives Q, Q, which divide it into separate layers which
passes into the separate compartments D, D, D. When the minerals are
thus separated according to their specific gravities, and deposited into the
compartments D, D, D, they may be withdrawn therefrom by hand or by
opening a door or sluice at the bottom of each compartment, or they may be
withdrawn into a box placed the bottom of each compartment, and having
double doors or sluices, so as to allow the minerals to descend without letting
out a large quantity of water from the trough, or the minerals may be lifted
out of the compartments, by means of endless chains of buckets working in
the manner of a dredging machine, as shown on Sheet I., where T is the upper
tumbler, and U is the lower tumbler or reel over which the endless chain
V, V, passes, carrying the buckets W, W. The upper tumbler T is fixed on
a shaft X, driven by means of a strap and the bevel wheels Y, Z. The
plummer blocks a, a, for the shaft X can be adjusted by the screws b. b. The
minerals lifted by the buckets W, W, are shot into the boxes or shoots c, c, c,
from whence they pass out at the mouths d, d, d. Sheet 2, Figure 4, is a
sectional elevation taken through the sieve and trough hopper, &c. In this
modification the sieve B is suspended by four rods M, M, e, e, and the shaft I,
with its cams J, J, being placed over the lower end of the sieve, that end
receives more motion than the higher end in consequence of the levers K, K,
being centred at L, L. These centres are supported on bars f,f, which can be
fixed in any given position by the pins 9, 9, passing through the armis h, h, in
which are provided a series of holes corresponding with holes in the bars K, K,
so that if it is necessary that the higher end of the sieve B should have
less motion, the centres L, L, and pins g, g, are removed, and the bars f,f
being placed nearer to the sieve, the centres L, L, and pins 9, y, are
replaced in the proper holes. Beneath the hopper E is placed a sliding plate i
which is moved by a rod j actuated by a lever k moving on a centre 1, and
acuated by another lever m, by means of a rod n moved by a crank or eccentric
on the shaft I. The minerals falling from the hopper E on to the plate i are

page_text: shaken down and fall through the small hopper o against the plate p, and into
the sieve B. The plate p is capable of adjustment by means of the screws 9, 9.
Figures 5 and 6 show one modification of my Invention, in which the sieve B
is placed horizontal; in which case the minerals after passing under the plate p
will form an incline on their surface r, r, owing to the combined action caused
by the motion of the sieve and the water through the sieve.
Figure 7 shows a modification in the mode of actuating the sieve, it being
moved by a rod s in a horizontal direction, as well as in a vertical direction,
by the rods M, M, e, e.
Figures 8 and 9 show one mode in which I construct the sieve, the bottom
being formed of an endless wire cloth or other flexible sifting surface. The
position of this endless band is shown at t, t, and it passes in the direction of
the arrows over rollers u, u, one or both of which are driven by the mechanism.
This form of sieve may be used in place or either of the others above described.
In place of the sieve having a vertical motion up and down in the water, the
water may be moved up and down by means of a pump or piston working in
a cylinder, and alternately elevating and depressing the water, so that the
same effect may be produced on the minerals lying on the sieve.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do not
claim the washing out from a mass of minerals by means of water such
portions as may be of a less specific gravity than the remainder, such having
been before accomplished by hand and by mechanical means, as in the case of
Berard's and Mackworth's machines; but what I do claim is, the arranging
on the surface of a sieve in layers one above another by the action of water
the various portions of a mass of minerals which may have different specific
gravities in combination with the separating of such layers by means of knives,
in the manner described; I also claim the machinery, as above described,
for the separation of minerals and other substances having different specific
gravities.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Joseph Eugéne Dumont, have
hereunto set my band and seal, this Twentieth day of December, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
CHARLES JOSEPH EUGENE DUMONT. (L.9.)