FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS TO REDUCE AND WASH MINERALS TO EXTRACT METAL THERE- FROM, ESPECIALLY GOLD
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Stopford Thomas Jones, of 3, Union Court, Old
Broad Street, in the City of London, for the Invention of "FURTHER
IMPROVEMENTS TO REDUCE AND WASH MINERALS TO EXTRACT METAL THERE-
FROM, ESPECIALLY GOLD."
Sealed the 18th February 1855, and dated the 21st August 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Stopford Thomas Jones
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st August 1854.
I, STOPFORD THOMAS JONES, of 3, Union Court, Old Broad Street, in the
City of London, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS TO REDUCE AND WASH MINERALS TO EXTRAC
METAL THEREPROM, ESPECIALLY GOLD," to be as follows:-
I make a metal pan of any sufficient dimensions; I prefer it of iron, and to
be about five feet in diameter at the lip, tapering to about four feet at the
bottom, about three feet deep, the bottom to be very substantial, and concave
inside, with an aperture in the centre for a spindle (about five inches in
diameter) to pass through. The object of this spindle is herein-after described.
I make a granulator, pulveriser, or amalgamator of cast metal, about three
feet in diameter, tapering upwards, but convex underneath;. I secure and work
this pulveriser by a spindle attached to it, passing through brasses fastened to
a strong iron bar firmly fixed from lip to lip across the diameter of the
pan. I

page_text: gear this spindle with the engine power by means of bevil wheels and drums,
to revolve when required to pulverise, granulate, and to wash or amalgamate;
but to facilitate and effect this process, I make a hole in the centre of the bottom
of the granulator or pulveriser to receive a spindle, which passes through
the bottom of the pan (air-tight by means of a stuffing box); this spindle
rests upon a lever underneath the pan. I raise and depress the granulator,
pulveriser, or amalgamator at pleasure, when granulating, pulverising, washing,
or amalgamating, as it revolves on the spindle, by lifting and lowering
the lever, by a bolt supporting the lever passing through a lug attached to the
pan, and worked by a thumb screw or other lever to rise and fall, and thereby
I reduce the mineral to any degree of fineness. The washing water will con-
centrate the mineral and quicksilver under the amalgamutor, and rapidly
promote washing and amalgamation; during this process the pulveriser will
revolve backwards and forwards by reversing gear. I make several washing
ports round the pan, about one foot from the bottom, to carry off the wash,
water, and tailings; I draw off the quicksilver and amalgam through an
interior hole, bored in the under spindle, having one or more lateral apertures
to the exterior. By raising the spindle, the inlets will admit the quicksilver
and amalgam then in the concavity of the pan immediately to flow through the
spindle into a receiver..
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Stopford Thomas Jones in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 21st February 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, STOPFORD
THOMAS JONES, of Number 3, Union Court, Old Broad Street, in the City
of London, send greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Ier reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Stopford Thomas Jones, Her special licence that I, the said Stopford Thomas
Jones, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such other's as I, the
said Stopford Thomas Jones, 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
nake, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

page_text: and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "FURTHER
IMPROVEMENTS TO REDUCE AND WASH MINERALS TO EXTRACT METAL THEREPROM,
ESPECIALLY GOLD," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Stopford Thomas Jones, an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
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 Stopford Thomas Jones, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement (that is to say):-
The principle of my Invention is to bring the crushing, granulating,
grinding, pulverising, washing, and amalgamating power under immediate
controul, according to the character of the mineral or material required to
be wrought upon, whereas hitherto most machines (if not all) introduced
for crushing minerals and extracting gold, &c., consisted of a combination
of a pan with ponderous dead weights in the form of spheres, cones, &c.,
perfectly uncontroulable; in some the pan was revolved, in others the cones,
but all had the dead weight on the bottom of the pan without any controling
power, by which all minerals were treated alike. To obtain my object, I
make a metal pan of any sufficient dimensions; I prefer it to be about six
feet in diameter at the lip, tapering towards the bottom to about five feet,
and three feet in depth. I prefer the pan to be made of iron, and very
substantial at the bottom, with a hole passing through the centre to receive a
spindle, which I call the "lower spindle," and which is made air-tight by
proper stuffing and packing; the bottom of the interior of the pan is to be
concave. I then make, also of iron, nearly the diameter of the pan, and
about twelve inches thick, what I term the pulveriser, granulator, washer, or
amalgamator, and which I herein-after designate the "pulveriser," the bottom
of which is to be convex, equivalent to the concavity of the pan, with a hole
bored in the centre of the pulveriser to receive the lower spindle, upon which
it is to revolve. The spindle is supported by a bar, attached by a swivel joint
at one end, and at the other end connected with a bolt, passing through a lug
attached to the pan. By a screw or lever on this bolt the bar is raised and
depressed; consequently the spindle raises and depresses the pulveriser when
grinding, washing, and amalgamating, and admits the charge to be centred in
the bottom of the pan. Near the top of the pulveriser I form a basin to receive
the mineral, quicksilver, and wash water, which pass by holes bored through

page_text: the pulveriser to near the centre of the pan, and thus feeding in the centre of
the machine, to facilitate and assure the amalgamation. Across the diameter
of the pan from lip to lip, and supported by brackets attached to the pan, I
place a substantial elevated bar, to carry the driving gear, and then connect
the pulveriser with an upper spindle, which, passing through the necessary
plummer block and brasses attached to the bar, receives the horizontal bevil
wheel to revolve the pulveriser, and by means of a loose key through the
bearing and wheel, the up and down action of the pulveriser is free. On the
upper part of the elevated bar are placed the plummer blocks, to receive the shaft,
with the bevil pinion, and the requisite driving pulleys attached, to gear it with
the motive power. In order to give the pulveriser a more effecting grinding
power when revolving, I raise and let it fall by means of an ordinary lever,
working on a fulcrum near the end, the bar supporting the lower spindle, or
by a connection at the top of the upper spindle with the engine shaft. The
wash water escapes through ports, about one foot above the bottom of the pan,
into a channel, affixed round the exterior of the pan, and thence into the cistern
with the tailings. To draw off the charge the lower spindle is perforated from
the bottom upwards to a certain length, communicating with lateral apertures,
and by raising it the charge will pass down into a receiver; but the perforation
may be extended with its lateral communications, so as to require the spindle
to be lowered instead of being raised to deliver the charge.
I claim a pan in combination with the perforated pulveriser and hollow
lower spindle, as described, for the objects proposed, to reduce and wash
minerals to extract metal therefrom, especially gold.
In witness whereof, I, the said Stopford Thomas Jones, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
STOPFORD THOMAS JONES. (L.S.)
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the above-nanied
Stopford Thomas Jones, in the presence of
W. T. NOKES, Sol",
11, George Yard,
Lombard St.