IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR CRUSHING, WASHING,
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Tendall, of Hoxton, near London, Engineer,
and William St. Clair Trotter, of the City of London, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR CRUSHING, WASHING,
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Tendall and
William St. Clair Trotter at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 27th January 1854.
We, HENRY TENDALL, of Hoxton, near London, Engineer, and WILLIAM
ST. CLAIR TROTTER, of the City of London, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR CRUSHING;
WASHING, AND AMALGAMATING AURIPEROUS QUARTZ AND OTHER ORES" to be as
follows:-
Our Invention consists of improvements in machinery for crushing, washing,
and amalgamating quartz and other auriferous ores. The machine we use for
the purpose consists of a heavy body of iron or other metal of a conical or
semicircular form, and so constructed as to rest upon one side only of its base,
which may be made either smooth or corrugated, as required. Below this
conical or semicircular body (which forms the crusher) is fitted a metal plate
on which the conical crusher rotates. In the centre of the plate is a pivot
upon which the cone rests; at the top of the cone is another pivot, which
passes through a horizontal wheel or disc fitted to the upper part of the

page_text: machine. The upper pivot works in a groove, so as to allow the cone to pass
over any lumps of mineral that may occur. and thus avoid straining the
machinery by sudden jerks. At the upper part of the shaft of the horizontal
wheel we place another wheel in gear with it, and give motion to the same by
horizontal or vertical wheels and shafts, as in ordinary use. The crushing cone
or body is made either solid or in hollow sections; if the latter, the joints must
be accurately fitted together so as to be water-tight, and at the upper part
there should be an aperture for the purpose of loading it to any required
weight. To give greater effect to this increased weight we use mercury for
the purpose, which will always fall to the lowest side of the cone where the
power is required. Within the cone is placed a quantity of this metal, and as
it does not waste at ordinary temperatures by evaporation, its value would not
be diminished. We cover the-cone-with-a-metal-dome-shaped casing, made
in sections for portability, and secured together by screws. This casing is to
be fastened to the bed plate or base of the machine.
-
! The ore, when crushed, is amalgamated in the following manner :--Beneath
the body of the machine is placed a large shallow pan in which is a quantity
of mercury. The ore, as it is crushed, passes through wire gauze, and is con-
ducted by inclined troughs into the pan, where it is thoroughly washed in the
mercury so as to extract all the gold, the mercury being kept in agitation by a
revolving fan. From the mercurial trough it passes into a box or trough, one
side of which is formed of fine wire gauze; through this trough a stream of
water flows, which carries off the impurities and leaves the "tailings" or amal-
gamated gold thoroughly washed and ready for removal. The accompanying
Drawing represents a vertical section of the machine.
We reserve the right to vary the details; the foregoing is, however, sub-
stantially a description of our Invention.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Tendall and William St. Clair Trotter in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 27th July 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, HENRY
TENDALL, of Hoxton, near London, Engineer, and WILLIAM ST. CLAIR TROTTER,
of the City of London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of January, in the year of our

page_text: 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
us, the said Henry Tendall and William St. Clair Trotter, Her special licence
that we, the said Henry Tendall and William St. Clair Trotter, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Henry Tendall
and William St. Clair Trotter, our 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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR CRUSHING, WASHING, AND AMALGA-
MATING AURIFEROUS QUARTZ AND OTHER ORES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said Henry Tendall and William St. Clair Trotter, by an
instrument in writing under our hands and seals, 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 we, the said Henry Tendall and William St. Clair
Trotter, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement :-
Our improvements in machinery for crushing, washing, and amalgamating
ores consist of a heavy body of iron or other suitable metal or material, wrought
or cast, of a conical, semicircular, or other suitable form, but we prefer the
conical form, the base of this conical body being made to form an acute angle
on either side of a perpendicular line drawn through its centre, and it must be
tilted upon one side in order to make it revolve upon its base. The conical
body revolves in a metal basin, and is held therein by a pin projecting upwards
from the centre of the basin; this pin fits into an aperture in the bottom of
the conical or other shaped crushing body; the upper part of the crushing
body is held by a pin which fits into a slot cut in the arms of a wheel con-
nected with bevil gearing, by which the crushing body is put in motion. From
the peculiar form of this crusher, and the manner in which it is supported, a
cone of considerable weight may be caused to revolve with a trifling expenditure
of power; but in order that our Invention may be fully and clearly understood,
we will proceed to describe the same in detail, referring to the accompanying
Drawing, and to the letters and figures marked thereon. Fig. 1 is an eleva-
tion of the machine; and Fig. 2, a vertical section of the same. a, a, is a

page_text: stout wrought or cast-iron casing, formed in sections or parts for convenience
of carriage; these are secured together by means of bolts and nuts, as shown.
The casing is secured in a similar manner to a heavy wrought or cast metallic
basin b, in which the crushing body rotates; the basin & rests upon and is sup-
ported by a strong wooden or metallic framing c. Below the basin and within
the framing is a pan or trough d. One or more openings e are made in the
casing a, and through these openings the material to be crushed is fed, either
by hand or by hoppers, or other suitable means adapted to the particular use to
which the machine is applied. ff, are pipes or shoots for conveying the ground
substance to the trough d; the apertures in the casing a leading to these pipes
or shoots are covered with wire net work, to prevent all but the finest particles
passing through. is a channel for conveying the pulverized matter to the
trough h, which is fitted with a series of wire work screens which retain all the
solid matter within the trough, the refuse water alone passing through them.
i is a tap by which the water and other matter in the lower part of the machine
may be run off when desired. To the upper part of the casing a is bolted the
rim, within which the horizontal wheel rotates, to the axis of which is
keyed a bevil wheel m, in gear with a similar wheel n; the shaft o of the wheel
n is supported by bearings p, fitted in the standards q, q; to the outer end of
the shaft o is fitted a handle 1, if the machine is to be actuated by manual
power, or with bevil gear or fast and loose pullies, if steam power be used.
The form of the crushing body, which we designate the "cone," and internal
arrangement of the niachine are shewn by Fig. 2. s is the metal cone; this
may be cast or wrought in separate parts for more readily conveying it from
place to place; the base of this cone forms two acute angles, with a perpen-
dicular line drawn through the centre of it. The upper part of the conc
terminates in a solid pin or stud. An aperture is left in the side of the cone, so
that it may be filled with any solid or liquid body to increase its weight. When
the cone rests on the basin of the machine it leans over upon one side, the whole
of its weight being thrown upon the comparatively small space immediately
beneath it, and it is retained in this position by the pin t, which projects from
the centre of the basin and fits the orifice t in the base of the cone; the pin u
at the top of the cone passes through a slot in the wheel ; the slot is made
long enough to allow the pin u to traverse to and fro therein; at the inner
end of the slot a piece of vulcanized india-rubber is secured by a wedge.
The object of this arrangement is to allow the conc to roll over any large
pieces or other substance that may get beneath it; the pin traversing
freely in the slot of the wheel admits of this freedom of motion, the india-
rubber lessening the effect of a sudden jerk. When the machine is put in

page_text: action a quantity of quartz or other mineral or substance to be crushed is
put into the machine by the apparatus e, and a sufficient quantity of water
added to it; the cone is put in motion, and the ground material flows through
the tubes f, f, into the trough d, and from thence the lighter portion is carried
off through the channel 7 by a stream of water supplied to the machine to the
trough h, the wire network placed before the openings of which arrests all the
solid substance, allowing only the water and soluble matters to run off to
waste, leaving the finely ground mineral perfectly washed, and in a fit state
for any subsequent operation. If the process of amalgamation be performed
simultaneously with the crushing, then a quantity of mercury is put into the
trough d by removing one of the pipes leading thereto, or a separate channel
or tube may be fitted for the purpose; the trough d may be heated to the
requisite temperature either by steam or other convenient means. As the gold
combines with the mercury the pulverized quartz is carried off as before
described; the amalgam may be removed from the trough d by a pipe or
tube fitted to the bottom.
In the foregoing we have described the improved crushing machine, and its
application to crushing quartz and other minerals only, but it will be obvious
that the machine is equally applicable to the crushing and grinding of other
substances and materials as well as minerals. We wish it to be understood,
therefore, that we do not confine ourselves to any particular application of the
machine, or to the precise arrangement of the details for the supply of the
material to be ground and its withdrawal from the machine; neither do we
confine ourselves to the precise shape or form of the crushing body herein-
before described and shown by the Drawings. But what we claim and desire
to secure by these Letters Patent is, -
The peculiar arrangements of machinery for crushing, washing, and amal-
gamating, substantially as herein-before described and shown by the Drawings,
with the use of a crushing body of the form and shape and in the manner
described and shewn.
In witness whereof, I, the said William St. Clair Trotter, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
W. S. TROTTER. (L.B.)