IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Stovold, of Barnes, in the County of Surry,
Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Stovold at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 3rd
January 1854.
I, JAMES STOVOLD, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR SIPTING AND WASHING GRAVEL
OR OTHER SIMILAR SUBSTANCES " to be as follows:-
I place a cylinder of any size in a sloping or angular position, supported by
a framing. On the top of this framing is a water tank. The end of the
cylinder which first receives the gravel is formed with a groove, into which
gears a chain or rope, which when power is applied causes the cylinder to
rotate, and supports it in position during such rotation. Through the centre
of the cylinder a perforated water pipe passes, which receiving its supply from
the tank saturates the gravel during its passage through the cylinder, which is
so divided or arranged with more or less elevated compartments (perforated)
similar in appearance to the slides of a telescope.'. The evolutions of the
cylinder, which is fed by means of a hopper through a shaft communicating
with the cylinder at its upper end, causes the sand or smallest particles to fall
from, through, or from the first or lowest compartment of the cylinder; the

page_text: third size through the second compartment; the second size through the third
compartment; while the large stones are discharged from the perforated end
of the cylinder at its junction with the framing, that is to say, at its extremity.
Any power, manuel, horse, or steam, may be applied, and the object attained
by the use of this Invention is great saving of labor and better treatment of
material, by which the various sizes of gravel from sand to large stones are
perfectly seperated.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Stovold in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 3rd
July 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
STOVOLD, of Barnes, in the County of Surrey, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said James Stovold, Her special licence that I, the said James Stovold, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James
Stovold, my executors, administrators, 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 OR
APPARATUS FOR SIFTING AND WASHING GRAVEL OR OTHER SIMILAR SUBSTANCES,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Stovold, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and scal, 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 James Stovold, 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,
reference being had to the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, on which are
drawn two diagrams having similar letters of reference marked on each to shew
similar parts, where such parts appear or may be seen in each of the Figures
respectively.

page_text: The Invention has for its object the sifting or seperating gravel or other
similar substances into various kinds or sizes. The usual mode of so doing is
too well known to need any description, is performed by hand labor, and results
only in seperating the coarse particles from the fine, thus losing (unless a
second, or even a third sifting or screening takes place) a considerable portion
of useful material. By my apparatus or machine, I obtain four (or more if
desirable) screenings at one operation, the apparatus being operated upon by
horse or steam power. It may be put in motion by hand power, but from
its usual size such power would be inefficient and expensive. I place the
material to be operated upon in such a position as to ensure a constant supply
thereof to the apparatus, and receiving it into a perforated cylinder (which is
placed in a sloping or angular position and rotates), will seperate and deliver,
first, the coarsest or large stony portion of such material; secondly, the second
or next size; thirdly, the smallest size gravel; and finally, the sandy portion
of the mass.
I will now proceed to describe the parts of the apparatus. In the Drawing
there are two diagrams shewn; Figure 1 being a side clevation, and Figure 2
an end view of the apparatus. a, a, denotes the framing supporting the
various parts of the apparatus; b, b, the tank from whence the requisite
supply of water for saturating the mass of material during its revolution in the
cylinder is obtained; c, c, the supply pipe; d, d, the first motion rigger,
which being driven by power conducted from the horse, wheel, or steam engine
by the rope e, c, communicates motion to the entire apparatus; f, f, denotes
a cylinder in three compartments, one within another, made of perforated
metal or wire, and firmly bolted or otherwise secured together, so as to ensure
their simultaneous revolution. The interior compartment or cylinder having
the largest space between its wires, or the largest perforations, permits only the
coarsest of the gravel or material to pass through it, which is shot out or delivered
at its extremity; the rest passes through the wires or perforations falling upon
the second screen, whose wires or perforations are suited to the second size
gravel i, then to the third, which is again finer. The third delivers at its
extremity the finest or smallest sized gravel j, and through its wires or per-
forations falls the sand or hogging k, thus entirely seperated from any of the
gravels.
During the foregoing operation the mass is saturated with water from a
pipe g, which passing from the tank b, through the centre of the inner com-
partment of the cylinder f, and being in that portion of its length which
enters or works within the cylinder perforated with holes, allows the water to

page_text: be ejected into or on to the mass as the cylinder revolves. The cylinder is
placed and shewn in a sloping or angular position in order to allow the gravel
to incline and roll downwards from the moment it is passed into the cylinder.
The benefit derived from the use of the water during the operation is two-fold;
it thoroughly cleanses the gravel, sand, &c., and seperates therefrom all earthy
matter which passes away with the used water underneath the cylinder. This
apparatus, allowing seven to eight revolutions per minute, is capable of
washing and seperating from one hundred and fifty to two hundred yards of
gravel and sand in ten hours. But the quantity is of course somewhat
dependant on the nature or quality of the material operated upon. A modification
of the apparatus herein-before described is used for washing, screening, and
seperating sand only, and for this purpose a simple cylinder (not divided into
compartments) is sufficient, and the fittings, position, and water supply of or to
the cylinder are similar in all respects to that described for gravel sifting, the
cylinder being composed of perforated metal or wire, and to be driven at the
rate of about twenty revolutions per minute, the jets from the perforated
water pipe in its centre washing and cleansing the sand. The cylinder is fed
with the material to be operated upon, the stones and refuse are delivered at
the extremity of the cylinder, and the fine sand falls through the wires or
holes, being sifted during its revolutions in the cylinder and partially cleansed,
and for the further and more perfect cleansing, the sand should be allowed to
fall into a trough stream of water below the cylinder, which stream running
down an inclination of, say, about one in nine, acquires sufficient velocity to
carry away the whole of the sand in suspension to tanks or other receivers
beyond, depositing the sand, the water running over the edge of the tanks, and
leaving the sand fit for use. This machine or apparatus, like that before
described for sifting and cleansing gravel, requires but little power to work it,
and such power may be either manual, horse, or steam, as may be most con-
venient; the quantity of sand treatable by this apparatus in a day appears to
be only limited by the quantity of rough material that can be supplied to it in
that space of time.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the means by which
it is carried into practical effect, I desire it to be understood that I do not
confine myself to any particular size, or relative proportion, or quantity of
parts of the apparatus herein-before described, as the size may be regulated by
the greater or less power employed, and the parts by the material to be
operated upon, and the nature of the siftings or screenings required. Nor do
I lay any claim to the exclusive use of the various parts of the apparatus

page_text: herein-before described, taken simply as parts, and not in combination for the
purposes of my Invention, which I declare to be, and I claim, the combination
of parts herein described and shewn in the Drawings, forming, when so com-
bined, a machine or apparatus for sifting and washing gravel, or other similar
substances.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Stovold have hereunto affixed my
hand and seal, this First day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
JOHN GEDGE,
Patent Agent,
4, Wellington Street, Strand,
London.
JAMES STOVOLD. (L.S.)