Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 9th Aug., 1887
Complete Specification Left, 9th May, 1888
Complete Specification Accepted, 9th Nov., 188
I, GEORGE JONES ATKINS, of Tottenham, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman
do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
The crushing or grinding mill, forming the subject of the present invention, con-
sists of a more or less spherical ball enclosed within, or surrounded by, a more or
Motion is imparted
less close-fitting casing preferably constructed in two sections.
to the ball, or to the casing, or part thereof, or in some cases to both the ball and the
casing, by means of an oscillating rotating lever extending outwards therefrom in
any suitable or convenient direction, and the material to be crushed is introduced
between the surfaces of the said ball and the casing. When motion is imparted to
the ball, for example, the said oscillating rotating lever passes through a suitably
shaped opening in the upper portion of the casing, which opening may also serve
as a funnel or hopper through which the material it is desired to crush or grind is
fed, and the ball being moved in the casing by means of this lever, the said material
is forced into the space between the ball and the casing, and is crushed or ground to
a degree dependent somewhat upon the amount of clearance allowed between the
perimeter of the ball and the casing, and escapes through an outlet in the lower
portion of the casing. I sometimes impart the necessary motion to the said lever
through the intervention of a sleeve, or its equivalent, revolving loosely thereon, by
which greater freedom of movement of the ball is permitted.
When the upper portion of the casing is made to move upon the perimeter of the
ball by means of the lever (connected in this instance with the said casing), I some-
times weight the said lever in any suitable or convenient manner, and the material
it is desired to crush or grind may be fed to the mill through the said lever which
may be hollow for that purpose and may be provided with means for keeping the
material moving and thus prevent clogging.
When employed for crushing material of comparatively large size, I sometimes
fit the lower portion of the said lever with suitably shaped rings or pieces adapted

page_text: to crush the material against the sides of the said hopper before passing into the
space between the ball and the casing. The lever may also be weighted in any
convenient manner in order to increase the crushing power.
In order to permit of the easy and ready renewal of wearing parts, I prefer, in some
cases, to make the ball in segments, so that the upper and lower portions, for example,
may be renewed as desired or required. Portions of the casing may, in like manner,
be adapted for easy renewal. The ball may be supported either from above or from
below by any suitable means, and may be adjustable so as to regulate the space
between itself and the casing. The upper and lower sections of the casing may be so
arranged that either can be removed and one only used in combination with the ball.
When the ball is made in sections as above described, I sometimes provide springs
between the said sections so as to allow a certain amount of movement in the event of
any sudden strain. I also provide springs between the nuts of the bolts which hold.
together the sections of the casing."
In some cases I form hollows, corrugations, rings, or projections on the perimetors
of the ball and casing in order to facilitate the crushing or grinding action and also
the delivery of the ground material.
The mill may be driven either by hand direct or may be provided with any
suitable form of gearing, as may be necessary or convenient.
Dated to do. LA
1007

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
New or Improved Crushing or Grinding Mill.
I, GEORGE JONES ATKINS, of Tottenham, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman
do hereby declare the nature of this 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 two sheets of Drawings and to
the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
Figure 1 of the Drawings hereto annexed is a vertical sectional elevation of one
form and arrangement of the crushing or grinding mill forming the subject of the
present invention, and which consists of a more or less spherical ball A enclosed
within, or surrounded by, a more or less closely fitting casing B, preferably con-
structed in two sections united together by flanges B₁ and connecting bolts C. These
bolts C may be provided with springs D interposed between their nuts and the flange
in order to enable the upper part of the casing B to yield or separate somewhat from
the lower part, and thereby prevent breakage of such casing in the event of a
specially hard portion of the substance under treatment getting in between the ball A
and the said casing. Motion is imparted to the ball A by means of a lever E connected
thereto, and passing up through opening F in the upper part of the casing B.
This opening F may be furnished with a funnel or hopper G, through which the
material to be crushed or ground is fed, or introduced between the surfaces of the
said ball A and the casing B. The ball A being moved in the casing B by means of
the lever E, the material under treatment is gradually forced into the space between
the ball A and the casing B, and is crushed or ground by attrition between the
surfaces of those two parts, to a degree dependent somewhat upon the amount of
clearance allowed between the perimeter of the ball and the internal surface of the
casing, and then escapes through an outlet H in the lower portion of the said
casing.
an
The necessary motion may be imparted to the lever E, and thereby to the ball A,
by hand or by any suitable mechanism, such as that for example to be hereinafter
described and illustrated in Figures 5, 6 and 7 of the Drawings, in connection with
certain modified arrangements of the improved mill. The motion of the lever E
may be oscillatory in one plane, or oscillatory in all planes round the vertical centro
of the mill, but I prefer to cause the upper end of the said lever to describe a circle
round the centre line I of the mill so that the lever E describes an imaginary cone
round the said centre line 1, the centre of the ball A being the apex of such cone.
Instead of the ball being moved in a fixed casing, the casing, or a part thereof, may
be moved on a fixed ball, or in some cases both the ball and the casing may have
motion imparted to them in opposite directions, or in the same directions at different
speeds.
Figure 3 is a vertical section, and Figure 4 a plan of a mill, constructed in
accordance with my invention, in which the ball is stationary, and the casing is made
to move. A is the ball, shown in the Figure in full lines as a hemisphere only, but it is

page_text: obvious that it may be made of any other portion of a sphere, or of an entire sphere
if preferred as shown in dotted lines in Figure 3. It is carried on a stem A* fixed
to or formed with a foot A**, and may be formed in one with the stem or be screwed
or otherwise secured thereto. I prefer to make the ball A detachable from the stem
or from the foot, so that it may be easily renewed when worn out. B is the casing
which is moved on the ball by means of the lever or handle E secured to the said
casing B. The said lever E may be made hollow to enable the material intended to
be crushed or ground to be fed to the mill through it. B* is a weight which may be
applied when necessary to produce the requisite pressure of the casing B on the
material between it and the ball A to effect the crushing or grinding of such material.
To prevent clogging of the material in the hollow or tubular lever E, a rod Ex may
be inserted therein of smaller diameter than the internal diameter of the lever E, and
the moving about of this rod in the lever E as the latter is moved from side to side,
or round and round so as to describe a conical part as shown in dotted lines in
Figures 3 and 4, keeps the material in a divided condition suitable for being delivered
between the surfaces of the ball A and casing B.
When the lover E both in the arrangement shown in Figures 1 and 2 and in that
shown in Figures 3 and 4 is caused to describe a conical path the resistance of the
material in course of being crushed or ground, and the friction of the same on the
surfaces of the ball and casing, or of those surfaces on each other cause the ball or
the casing, as the case may be, to rotate on the axial line passing through the centre of
the lever E; and to prevent this rotation from injuring the hands, or producing
undue friction against mechanical parts effecting the rotation I sometimes employ a
loose sleeve E** threaded on to the lever and free to revolve loosely thereon.
Figure 5 is a side elevation, Figure 6 a sectional elevation on line 1-1 of Figure 5,
and Figure 7 a plan of a mill constructed in a modified form of the arrangement
shown in Figures 1 and 2 and illustrating one method of driving the lever E by
mechanical means.
A is the crushing or grinding ball as before but shown of hemispherical shape
only. B is the upper half of the casing shown in Figure 1, the lower half not being
required in this case because the lower half of the ball A is suppressed. The casing B
is supported by pillars J or other suitable supports on a bed plate K. The hemi-
sphere A is supported by a prop L, the upper end of which is rounded and takes into
a hemispherical recess in the bottom of the half ball A, coincident with the centre of
the sphere of which the said half ball or hemisphere forms one half. The other end
of the prop is made conical and rests in a corresponding recess in the upper end of
the adjustable bearing piece M, sliding vertically in a recess in the base plate K. The
bearing piece M is supported by one end of a lever N the other end of which
carries a weight O which tends to constantly press the hemisphere A upwards towards
the casing B to an extent limited by the adjusting screw N¹. A similar effect may
be produced by a spring arranged to press the bearing piece M upwards and the
upward pressure may be regulated by a screw. G is the funnel or hopper connected
to the casing B for conducting the material to be crushed or ground to the space
between the hemisphere A and the casing B. E is the lever by which the hemi-
sphere A is set in motion; E' is a sleeve or roller turning loosely on the lower part
of the lever E. P is a casing to prevent the escape of dust or small pieces of the
crushed material; Q is a shoot for conducting the inaterial to the hopper G; R is a
framing the upper part of which carries a cross bar S in a bearing in which rotates
the upright shaft T, carrying at its lower end the disc or flywheel U or a crank arm
and at its upper end the bevil wheel V gearing with the bevil wheel W on the
horizontal shaft X which turns in bearings Y, and receives motion from the strap
pulley Z U is a radial slot in the disc or fly wheel U, into which the upper end
of the lever E passes.
It will now be understood that when motion is imparted to the disc U by means of
the strap pulley Z and gearing V, W, the lever E is moved round by reason of its
upper end engaging in the slot U' so as to describe a conical path within the casing P,
the centrifugal force tending to press its upper end outwards towards the circum-

page_text: ference of the flywheel U; and when necessary this centrifugal action, and consequently
the outward pressure of the lever E, may be increased by applying a spring, (or a
weight E as shown in dotted lines in Figure 6) at the upper end or other suitable
point on the lever E. The material to be crushed or ground being introduced by the
shoot Q is crushed more or less by being squeezed between the rolling sleeve E¹ and
the hopper G, as the lever E rotates in its conical path, and is gradually reduced by
the rolling action of the said sleeve until the pieces are broken into particles small
enough to pass into the space between the hemisphere A and the casing B where they
become triturated by the grinding action between those two surfaces, the powder
passing away out of the machine by the shoot Z'. It will be seen that in the event of
a piece of material getting between the roller E¹ and the surface of the hopper G,
which is too large, or too hard to be crushed by the lever E and roller E', the said
lever, being free to move radially inwards in the slot U yields, and the roller E' rolls
over such piece without causing injury to the machine. The fineness of the trituration
can be regulated by varying the upward pressure of the hemisphere A against the
casing B by varying the position of the weight O on the lever N and by raising
or lowering the bearing piece M by the adjusting screw N¹ or by other suitable
moans.
The crushing roller or sleeve E' shown in Figure 6 may also be used as shown in
the arrangement illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 in which it serves the same purpose
and acts in the same way as that above described.
In order to permit of the easy and ready renewal of wearing parts the ball may be
made in segments, so that the upper or lower portions, or both, for example, may be
renewed as desired or required. Portions of the casing may,
in like manner,
be adapted for easy ronowal. I have deemed it unnecessary to illustrate the con-
struction of the ball or its casing in this way as such construction is well known and
is obvious to any one skilled in the art of designing and constructing crushing and
grinding machinery.
In some cases hollows, corrugations, rings, grooves, or projections may be formed
on the convex surface of the ball and the concave surface of the casing, in order to
facilitate the crushing or grinding action, and also the delivery of the ground
material, but I make no claim to such hollows, corrugations, rings grooves or
projections.
My improved mill is not only applicable for crushing or grinding, but is also useful
for effecting what is known as the polishing of ground metallic ores, preparatory to
their being subjected to the amalgamating or other process.
I am aware that it is not novel to employ a more or less spherical pestle in a
mortar having a hemispherical bottom of the same, or nearly the same, diameter as
the pestle, and to impart motion to such pestle by means of a pin or spindle in such
mannor that an imaginary line drawn from the centre of the postle and passing
through the centre of the said pin or spindle describes an imaginary conical path, and
I make no general claim to such arrangement.
Having now particularly described, and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
First The improved crushing or grinding mill, consisting of the ball A, the
casing B formed of an upper hemispherical part having a receiving hopper G, and of
a lower hemispherical part having a delivery opening H in the bottom thereof, the
actuating lever E and the crushing roller or sleeve E¹ combined, arranged, and
operating as herein before described, and illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 of the Drawings
hereto annexed.
Second-The improved crushing or grinding mill, consisting of the partly or
wholly spherical fixed ball A, the moveable casing B working on the upper part of the
said fixed ball A, and the hollow actuating lever E combined, arranged, and operating
as hereinbefore described, and illustrated in Figures 3 and 4 of the Drawings hereto
annexed.

page_text: Third The improved crushing or grinding mill, consisting of the partly or wholly
spherical moving ball A, the fixed hemispherical casing B and hopper G placed over
the said ball, the actuating lever E with or without the crushing roller or sleeve E¹
and means for pressing and adjusting the ball A towards the casing B combined,
arranged, and operating as herein before described, and illustrated in Figures 5, 6
and 7 of the Drawings hereto annexed.
Fourth. In crushing or grinding mills, the combination of a partly or wholly
spherical grinding ball A, contained in a corresponding cover or casing B, having a
feeding hopper G, an actuating lever E, and a preparatory crushing roller or sleeve E¹
on the actuating lever E, all arranged and co-operating together, substantially as
hereinbefore described, and illustrated in Figures 1, 2, 5 and 6 of the Drawings hereto
annexed.