IM- PROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SEPARATING OR SORTING AND WASHING COAL AND OTHER MINERALS
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street,
in the City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SEPARATING OR SORTING AND WASHING COAL
AND OTHER MINERALS."-A communication from abroad by Maximilien
Evrard, of St. Etienne, France.
Sealed the 24th February 1863, and dated the 27th August 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald
Brooman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 27th August 1862.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SEPARATING OR SORTING AND
WASHING COAL AND OTHER MINERALS," (communicated to me from abroad by
Maximilien Evrard, of St. Etienne, France,) to be as follows:-
The machinery hereafter described may be used for effecting the separation
and washing of coal and other minerals, or for effecting one or other of those
operations.
The machinery for separating and sorting minerals is as first hereafter
described. The material is introduced through a hopper, and is delivered on
to a revolving horizontal disc, from whence it is forced by a stationary scraper
on to a circular classing table composed of a grating divided into several
concentric belts or zones, in each of which the grating is of a different degree

page_text: of fineness. When rotary motion is imparted to the horizontal disc at the
rate of four or five revolutions a minute, the classing table is made to make
one revolution per minute. A central shaft passing through the table
supports one or several rakes which stir up the material on the table; when
the table has made about three-fourths of a revolution a fixed stop bars the
passage to such portion of the material as may not have passed through the
grating in the outermost belt, and projects or guides it on to the next belt
nearer the centre, and so on for all the belts. The matter passing through
the several gratings falls in sorted masses on to separate annular tables under
each belt, and is taken off for use, or is received for washing in buckets on an
endless belt, which raises it to the washing machine hereafter described. In
the machinery last described the gratings are in the same plane, but a modifi-
cation of the machine is made by placing gratings of different degrees of
fineness under one another. Scrapers remove or scrape from each grating
such matters as may not have passed through them. In acting upon coal I
subject the finest particles, after leaving the tables and before entering the
buckets to be washed, to a strong blast, in order to drive off the lightest
particles, which otherwise would form a kind of mud in the washing machine.
The washing apparatus, which may be combined with or separated from the
sorting machine.-A large piston made to move up and down is fitted in an
open cylinder in a large tank; the piston is surrounded by a flat belt placed
horizontally between two upright rings, and free to move upon rollers. The
belt is formed of a grating covered with metallic cloth, upon which the
materials to be washed are placed. The materials, when the two machines
are combined, are delivered by an endless chain carrying buckets into the
washing machine. The belt is so inclined that each of the points of its
circumference in the course of its rotation plunges successively at the same
spot in the tank, while each point diametrically opposite is entirely out of the
water. The material to be washed is delivered on to the belt, and passes
under a rule or guide to regulate the thickness of the layer on the belt; the
belt then carries the materials under rakes which stir it up and mix it with
the water; the belt takes on the materials under a scraper made to descend a
given distance into them; this scraper removes the upper layer and guides it
into a bucket wheel, which delivers the materials out of the machine; another
set of scrapers acts in a similar manner on a deeper layer. When coal is
being washed these two layers comprise the best of the coal of two different
degrees of purity. The third and remaining layers are removed by other
scrapers and wheels, and any remaining refuse may be taken off by hand.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 27th February 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Richard Archibald Brooman, Her special licence, that I, the said Richard
Archibald Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of
Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SEPARATING OR
SORTING AND WASHING COAL AND OTHER MINERALS," (communicated to me from
abroad by Maximilien Evrard, of St. Etienne, France,) upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, my
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 Richard Archibald Brooman, 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 Drawings hereunto
annexed, that is to say :-
The object of this Invention is the construction of machinery in which the
two operations of separating or sorting and washing coal and other minerals
may be carried on together, or either of them separately. The Invention will
be best understood by reference to the accompanying Drawings, Figures 1
and 2 of which are vertical sections, and Figures 4 and 5, plans of the
improved machinery.

page_text: I. MACHINERY FOR SEPARATING OR SORTING.
The material is introduced through a hopper a, Figure 2, and is delivered
on to a revolving horizontal disc b, from whence it is forced by a stationary
scraper c on to a circular classing table A, composed of a grating divided into
. several concentric belts or zones f.f¹, f", Figure 5, in each of which the
grating is of a different degree of fineness. When rotary motion is imparted
to the horizontal disc 6 at the rate of 4 or 5 revolutions a minute, the classing
table A is made to make one revolution per minute. A central shaft B
supports one or several rakes d, Figure 5, which stir up the material on the
table; when the table has made about three-fourths of a revolution a fixed
stop bars the passage to such portions of the material as may not have passed
through the grating in the outermost belt f, and projects or guides it on to the
next belt f, and then to the belt f". The matter passing through the several
gratings falls in sorted masses on to separate annular tables C, D, E, F, and
is taken off for use; or is received for washing in buckets e on an endless belt
which raises it to the washing machine, as shewn in Figures 1 and 2. In
the machinery last described the gratings are in the same plane, but in
Figure 6 I shew a modification of the machine in which the gratings or belts
fff", are placed under one another; the material stirred up by rakes falls
from one belt to another, the finest particles reaching the bottom belt f
which is solid. Scrapers remove from each grating such matters as may not
have passed through them. If desired, rollers may be arranged on each
grating to crush or break the mineral. Sorting by hand may take place on
the outermost belt f, Figures 2 and 5, or on the uppermost belt f, Figure 6,
in such case the attendants stand exteriorly and interiorly round the table, see
Figures 5 and 6, on supports P, P. They throw the stones or other
impurities through spaces V on to the bottom belt, from which they are
scraped or removed into a wagon or other receptacle; other belts S may be
arranged in the interior for the reception of material of a different quality.
In acting upon coals I subject the finest particles, after leaving the tables and
before entering the buckets e to be washed, to a strong blast, in order to drive
off the lightest particles, which otherwise would form a kind of mud in the
wasbing machine; or I separate the dust by emptying the buckets on to
ordinary sieves or sifters above the washing machine.
The characteristic features in the separating or sorting machine herein-
before described are, first, the circular table A with concentric belts or gratings
on the same plane or under one another; second, the employment of rakes for
stirring up the material; and, third, the employment of fixed scrapers to force
the material from one belt to another.

page_text: 11. APPARATUS FOR WASHING.
This apparatus may be coml ined with or separated from the sorting machine.
A large piston F made to move up and down by the lever K and excentric 1,
Figure 3, is fitted in an open cylinder in a large tank. This piston is
surrounded by a flat belt G placed between two upright rings H and J, and
free to move on rollers h; the belt is formed of a grating covered with metallic
cloth, upon which the materials to be washed are placed; they are raised from
the sorting machine, Figure 2, by the buckets e into the shoot d', and fall on to the
belt G. The belt is so inclined that each of the points of its circumference in
the course of its rotation plunges successively at the same spot in the tank,
while each point diametrically opposite is entirely out of the water; it receives
rotary motion through two screws V gearing into the circular rack R extending
round the circumference of the frame of the belt. The rollers o, o, o¹, o¹,
Figure 4, bearing against the rack R, maintain the different parts of the belt
at an equal distance from the centre. The weight of the lever K is counter-
balanced by a hydrostatic balance B (see Figure 3bis) in order that the load
of the piston may alone produce the downward movement; the lever rests on
a bracket T at the bottom of its course to prevent the shock of the roller on
the cam. The balance weight B is guided by two vertical tongue rods, on
which the grooved blocks R, R, slide.
Working of the apparatus.-The material to be washed is delivered at the
point N, Figure 4, and passes under a rule or guide to regulate the thickness
of the layer on the belt. A rake I receiving a to-and-fro movement from the
lever K, through three articulated rods, stirs up the material and mixes it with
the water; the material continues to be submitted to the action of the piston
until it reaches the point where it is out of the water. Two fixed scrapers
m, m, made to descend a given distance into the material, remove the upper
layer and guide it into the bucket wheel r, which delivers it out of the
machine. The scrapers m³, m³, and wheel r¹ act in a similar manner on a
deeper layer. When coal is being washed (coal being the material to which
this description more particularly refers) these two layers comprise the best of
the coal of two different degrees of purity. The third layer, composed partly
of coal and partly of stones, is removed by the scrapers m", m", but instead of
being delivered out of the machine it passes a second time through the
machine with fresh coal, for this purpose the wheel is furnished with
buckets which carry the material into a shoot beyond the scrapers m¹, m";
or the removal of this third layer may take place by means of a scraper r, r,
(Figure 2) which guides the material towards the inner edge in A to pass it

page_text: again into the machine; this scraper removes only a thin layer of the material
underneath the scrapers m", m". When after a certain number of revolutions
there only remain stones under the scrapemir, r; two scrapers m², m³, are
lowered to the level of the metallic cloth, these scrapers m², m*, are fixtures
on the lever l, the fulcrum of which is the wall which separates the piston
from the crown of the washing trough, and they are left in this position during
an entire revolution in order to gather the whole layer of stones into the
wheel; then the scrapers m*, m', are again raised from beneath the layer
determined by the fixed scraper r, r, until a new layer of stones has become
deposited. The layer of stones in the space between the extremity of the
scraper and the inner edge of the crown escapes the movable scrapers m*, m*,
but as it becomes level with the others at the next revolution no inconvenience
arises. The buckets of the stone wheel 7 should be as near the metallic
cloth as possible, so as to clear it completely, and also near to the shoot into
which they deliver the stones. This wheel has a stop which prevents its
movement, except at the moment when the movable scrapers are lowered.
Finally, the last layer, that composed of stones, which remains on the metallic
cloth, is removed by the bucket wheel r. The lower part of the tank is
conical, in order that the mud may all subside to one point, and be carried out
into a wagon or other receptacle when the trap T is opened; or if the situation
of the apparatus will not allow of the mud being removed in this manner,
it may be removed by an archimedean screw or in any other convenient manner.
If the material to be washed is classed according to its various sizes, I divide by
concentric partitions into as many coinpartments as there are sizes, the space
between the point where the material is deposited, and the rule or guide which
regulates the thickness of the layer to be washed; or I superpose the layers of
material of the different sizes over the whole extent of the belt, and place at
the different levels as many rules or guides as there are qualities of material,
but these two methods can only be employed if the various sizes are afterwards
to be mixed. When the sizes are to be kept separate I arrange supply hoppers
under the buckets, and empty them one after another on to the belt. For
some purposes the belt may be divided into several concentric compartments,
and the means herein-before described applied to each compartment by sub-
stituting for the bucket wheels, archimedean screws, endless chains furnished
with buckets or cups or shovels having a to-and-fro motion imparted to them.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I do not limit myself to
the precise arrangements herein-before described, as they may be altered in
various ways without, departing from this Invention, for example, the belt of

page_text: the washing machine may be placed horizontally instead of inclined, and that
I claim,-
First, the machinery for separating or sorting coal and other minerals,
herein-before described, and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings.
Second, the machinery for washing coal and other minerals, herein-before
described, and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings.
Third, the combination of the two machines, the one for separating or
sorting, the other for washing coal and other minerals, substantially in manner
berein-before described, and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of February, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
R. A. BROOMAN. (L.S.)