IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN TREATING AND SEPARATING MINERALS, EARTHS, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES WHEN GROUND OR PULVERIZED
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Israel Swindells, of Kegworth, in the County of
Leicestershire, Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
PROCESS OF AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN TREATING AND SEPARATING
MINERALS, EARTHS, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES WHEN GROUND OR PULVERIZED."
-Sealed the 28th January 1868, and dated the 16th November 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Israel Swindells at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 16th
November 1867.
I, ISRAEL SWINDELLS, of Kegworth, in the County of Leicestershire,
Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE PROCESS OP AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN TREATING AND SEPARATING
MINERALS, EARTHS, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES WHEN GROUND OR PULVERIZED," to be
as follows:-
The minerals or earths, such as baryths, gypsum, steatite, ochre, or other
substances, may be ground or pulverised by machinery of the ordinary con-
struction. The pulverised substances are fed into a feeding hopper which is
placed at any required height. From this hopper they fall upon and are
passed through an agitated sieve or sieves, or other distributors. The fine
particles are then allowed to fall from a convenient height into a chamber

page_text: where they are subjected to the action of a blast of atmospheric air obtained
by or from a fan blower or bellows, or other means, by which blast the
particles are driven onward and are distributed through a chamber or cham-
bers. The rougher or coarser or heavier particles are deposited nearest the
place where the blast enters the first chamber, where more than one are
used, and the fiuer particles are deposited at a proportionally increased
distance according to the fineness or lightness of the particles operated upon.
At the bottom or floor of the first chamber there are holes or outlets to allow
the rougher or coarser particles to fall through into sacks or other receptacles
below, which particles can if required be then collected and re-ground so as
to reduce them to any requisite degree of fineness. The size of the chambers
and the number employed should be regulated according to the nature and
quantities of the material required to be operated upon and the fineness of
the particles required to be produced. Where more chambers than one are
employed the blast of air is made to drive the finer particles which do not fall
to the floor through an opening or openings in the wall at the end of the first
chamber into another chamber, where they are allowed to subside, forming a
bed of fine powder, or they may be conducted into sacks or other receptacles
♥ means of spouts passing through the floor of this second chamber by out-
as described in the first chamber. To enable a more perfect settlement
a separation of the particles to be affected the current of air is by preference
conducted through a return chamber or passage made of wood or any
other suitable material back again to the fan, blower, or bellows. The size
of this return chamber or passage will have to be regulated by the size of
the chambers in which the material is blown and the quantity required to
be acted on.