IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING GOLD FROM MATTER MIXED OR COMBINED THEREWITH
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Marcus Spring, of 25, Church Row,
Hampstead, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING GOLD FROM MATTER
MIXED OR COMBINED THEREWITH."-A communication.
Scaled the 26th July 1853, and dated the 29th January 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Marcus Spring
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 29th January 1853.
I, MARCUS SPRING, of 25, Church Row, Hampstead, in the County
of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING GOLD FROM MATTER MIXED
OR COMBINED THEREWITH " to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of constructing an apparatus by com-
bining the following parts: a washing vessel by preference of a
cylindrical form is employed, open at top and closed at bottom;
on the bottom are fixed a series of circular rings of metal plate,
rising three or four inches above the bottom, by which annular
confined spaces are formed opening into each other, so that the

page_text: materials from the outer annular space may pass into the next and
the next space, and so on till they arrive at the central one, where
the refuse passes away through an opening in the centre of the
apparatus, protected by a conical guard. Quicksilver is placed in
these annular spaces, and water is constantly supplied above so as
to keep the vessel nearly full. The water is kept constantly in motion
by means of a central revolving shaft, having fixed thereon two
agitators, the lower one being circular, and covers all but the outer-
most annular space, by which the quartz and gold will be thrown
outwards, and fall into the outermost space on to the quicksilver,
and by the openings from space to space will arrive at the central
one, and there pass away. The other agitator consists of radial flat
arins, which are above the other one just mentioned. In order
better to grind or crush the quartz to powder a wedge form of
periphery of the crushing wheel (working in a corresponding groove
in the bed plate) is employed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, filed by the said Marcus Spring in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 29th July 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
MARCUS SPRING, of 25, Church Row, Hampstead, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in
the sixteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Marcus Spring,
Her special licence that I, the said Marcus Spring, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Marcus
Spring, 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 law-
fully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom

page_text: of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man,
an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS POR SEPARATING GOLD FROM
MATTER MIXED OR COMBINED THEREWITH," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Marcus Spring, 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 Marcus Spring, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performer, to be particularly described and ascer
tained in and by the following statement thereof (that is to say):
.
This Invention consists of constructing an apparatus by com-
bining the following parts: a washing vessel by preference of a
cylindrical form is employed, open at top and closed at bottom; on
the bottom are fixed a series of circular rings of metal plate, rising
three or four inches above the bottom, by which annular confined
spaces are formed opening into each other, so that the inaterials
from the outer annular space may pass into the next and the next
space, and so on till they arrive at the central one, where the refuse
passes away through an opening in the centre of the apparatus,
protected by a conical guard. Quicksilver is placed in these
annular spaces, and water is constantly supplied above, so as to
keep the vessel nearly full. The water is kept constantly in motion
by means of a central revolving shaft, having fixed thereon two
agitators, the lower one being circular, and covers all but the outer-
most annular space, by which the quartz and gold will be thrown
outwards, and fall into the outermost space on to the quicksilver,
and by the openings from space to space will arrive at the central-
one, and there pass away. The other agitator consists of radial flat
arms, which are above the other one just mentioned. In order
better to grind or crush the quartz to powder a wedge form of
periphery of the crushing wheel (working in a corresponding groove
in the bed plate) is employed.

page_text: And in order that the said Invention may be fully understood,
and readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the means
pursued by me.
This Invention, communicated to me by Arnold Buffum, of New
York, in the United States of America, the mechanical arrangement
of which consists of a flume, say four feet long, eighteen inches
wide, and eighteen inches deep, closed on the bottom sides and ends
except a small aperture in the bottom at one end, through which
the water, crushed ore, sands, &c. are carried off. The flume
is divided into, say, five apartments by crosswise perpendicular
partitions, having a connecting open passage way the width of the
flume or box at the bottom of the partitions, formed by the cutting
away of the lower part of the partitions, and being about one inch
in breadth: The apartments 1, 2, 3, and 4, are centrifugal amalga-
mating apartments, and No. 5, is a centripetal discharging apart-
ment. Centrifugal acting agitators, each about eighteen inches
long and six inches diameter, composed of central shafts, having
attached to them water moving appendages or dashers, are sus-
pended one in each centrifugal apartment crosswise of the flume at
a clear elevation of two inches from the bottom, and are connected
and acted on by pulleys and belts outside of the flume. The
discharging aperture is in the centre of the bottom of the
centripetal apartment, and is surrounded by a conical inclined
plane, which is five inches in diameter at the base, two and a half
inches at the top, and one and a half inches high; it is made of
sheet iron or other metal. A series of circular channels within one
another surround the conical inclined planes, which are formed
by true circular divisions of sheet iron, rising from the bottom two
inches, having connecting openings of three inches each cut out
from each division; immediately above these channels there is a
circular. guiding table or whirl, suspended and revolving hori-
zontally when in motion, and the object of which is to produce the
centripetal action, which carries off the water with the sands, &c.
through the aperture in the centre of the apartment by a whirlpool
movement.
This whirling table may be geared to run by a con-

page_text: nection at the top or bottom of the shaft through its centre, as may
be deemed advisable. When put into practical operation the bottom
of the flume is covered with a bed of quicksilver; the water and pul-
verized ore or sands are poured in at the top of the apartment No. 1,
where the sands, &c. settle down into contact with the quicksilver;
the revolving of the dashers carries the water circularly around
their centres, and produces an agitation, which washes the sands,
&c., and moves the whole through the connecting openings from
one apartment into another directly over the surface of the quick-
silver;
the rotation of the agitators produces a downward centri-
fugal action, throwing and pressing the particles of gold upon and
into the quicksilver, thereby securing the most sure and perfect
amalgamation and saving of the gold. The action of the whirl-
pool in the centripetal apartment carries the whole mass of sands,
&c. circularly in the channels, passing through the openings in the
divisions, till, having circulated around every channel, they reach
the central aperture and pass off, the water and sands going over
the inclined plane, but the quicksilver being arrested by it, so that
not a partical escapes or is lost.
In the Drawings Figure 1 represents a top view of the flume with
its arrangements; 1, 2, 3, 4, are the centrifugal apartments with
the centrifugal acting agitators; 5, is the centripetal apartment
with the guiding table; 6, represents a crank to give revolving
motion to the table and the agitators; 7, represents the line of con-
necting belts. Figure 2, is an inside view of the bottom of the
centripetal apartment with the table removed; A, represents the
circular channels; B, the openings in the dividing flanges; C, the
base of the conical inclined plane; D, the central aperture through
which the sands, water, &c. pass away. Figure 3, represents a
sectional elevation of the whole machine. 1, 2, 3, 4, are the centri-
fugal apartments; 5, is the centripetal apartment; 6, 7, 8, 9, are the
centrifugal acting agitators; 10, is the revolving table; 11, thé
conical inclined plane; 12, the discharging aperture; 13, the circular
flanges. The size and the proportions of the arrangement admit
of variations. The number of apartments may be increased or

page_text: diminished. The circular channels in the centripetal apartment may
be dispensed with, or an additional centrifugal apartment with
à discharging aperture in the end of the flume, at an elevation suffi-
cient to prevent the escape of quicksilver may be substituted for
the centripetal apartment.
What I claim as my Invention in the arrangement of gold sepa-
rators, and desire to seucre by Letters Patent, is, First, the
arrangement of a flume divided into separate apartments by a succes-
sion of perpendicular crosswise partitions with connecting openings
between the lower end of the partitions and the bottom of the flume,
allowing the ore to be passed from one apartment to another on the
surface of the quicksilver. Secondly, I claim the application of the
downward acting agitators, so arranged and operated as to produce
the downward centrifugal pressure upon the surface of the quicksilver
in connection with the necessary agitation to wash the ore and move
it longitudinally in the flume. Thirdly, I claim the furnishing of
the centripetal apartment with a horizontal revolving table in com-
bination with a discharging aperture surrounded by a conical
inclined plane at the centre. Fourthly, I claim the arrangement
of the circular channels with openings so adjusted as to secure an
irregular spiral passage to the aperture at the centre. I claim
these arrangements for gold separators, whether the centrifugal and
centripetal apartments be used in combination or either of them
separately.
In witness whereof, I, the said Marcus Spring, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this First day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
Witness,
JNO. ALCOCK.
MARCUS SPRING. (L.S.)