PULVERIZING, WASHING, BEPARATING, AMALGAMATING, AND OTHERWISE TREATING ORES, GOSSANS, EARTHS, AND ROCKS, SO AS THE BETTER TO OBTAIN AND EXTRACT THEREFROM THE GOLD AND OTHER METALS AND MINERALS WHICH MAY BE CONTAINED THEREIN
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Westlake, of Totnes, in the County of Devon,
Mine Agent, for the Invention of "PULVERIZING, WASHING, BEPARATING,
AMALGAMATING, AND OTHERWISE TREATING ORES, GOSSANS, EARTHS, AND
ROCKS, SO AS THE BETTER TO OBTAIN AND EXTRACT THEREFROM THE GOLD AND
OTHER METALS AND MINERALS WHICH MAY BE CONTAINED THEREIN
"
.Sealed the 26th May 1854, and dated the 23rd January 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Westlake at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 23rd
January 1854.
I, JOHN WESTLAKE, of Totnes, in the County of Devon, Mine Agent, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "PULVERIZING, WASHING,
SEPARATING, AMALGAMATING, AND OTHERWISE TREATING ORES, GOSSANS, EARTHS, AND
ROCKS, SO AS THE BETTER TO OBTAIN AND EXTRACT THEREFROM THE GOLD AND OTHER
METALS AND MINERALS WHICH MAY BE CONTAINED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
A machine consisting of one or more circular cast-iron horizontal trough or
troughs, cistern or cisterns, of any required size, each trough or cistern fitted
into and upon a vertical cast-iron shaft which works upon a common centre
and collar at the top; the lower part of the shaft is larger than the upper part,
and forms a socket or shoulder for the trough to rest upon horizontally; and
around the base of the said shaft is a case of cast iron forming a furnace or
fire-place to generate heat for the operations to be performed by the said
machine, and the case of the fire-place is contrived to form a continuous
bracket to support the weight of the trough above, into which trough I place
four cast-iron or stone cylinders or rollers fitted with common centres and
cheeks working in open collars. The collars are formed in the sides of two

page_text: frames of an octagonal shape made of iron, and of the proper width to receive
the cheeks and centres of the rollers between them, and these iron frames are
supported and confined in their proper position by inverted pillars or stays,
strongly bolted and secured to a wood framework above, and which framework
is used as a platform, from which the ores, gossans, carths, and rocks to be
operated upon can be delivered into the trough, and subjected to the action of
the cylinders or rollers; the trough is made to revolve around and with the
shaft at any required rate, by ordinary cogg'd gear wheels and pinions driven
in the usual way by steam, water, or other power, and the cylinders or rollers
revolve upon their own axis by the motion of the trough, thus presenting a
crushing surface equal to the width of the cylinders or rollers. In order to
send the quicksilver or other substance employed for the purpose of amalga-
mation to one point, I employ two collars at the top of the shafts spill; the
upper I term a false or loose collar, and the under the true collar, in which the
shaft works. I make the true collar divisible in two halves or portions, one
balf being fixed, and the other half moveable in a sliding frame; and I attach-
the false collar to the moveable half of the true collar, and by means of a screw
I draw the moveable half of the true collar a few inches apart from the
fixed half, and it carries with it the false collar and the shaft, which then
throws the machine on the required incline, and then the quicksilver or other
substance and amalgam can be readily drawn off through a plug hole made in
the trough for that purpose. I supply the machine with the requisite water
by a pipe fixed in any convenient manner, and I discharge the foul water from
the trough by a pipe or pipes fixed in its side at different distances and places,
and the apertures of these pipes are fixed so far above the crushing action of
the machine that no quicksilver or other substance employed in obtaining an
amalgam can escape out of the trough while the pulverized ores, gossan, earths,
and rocks are discharged in solution with the waste water.
I do not confine myself to the size or number of these troughs, shafts, and
cylinders, and I claim such variation or modification of them as may be neces
sary to adapt the machine to the quantity and kind of ores, gossans, earths, and
rocks intended to be operated upon.
The cogg'd gear wheels and pinions I do not claim; but the arrangements
and combination of the shafts with fire-places around their bases, and the
troughs revolving horizontally, and the cylinders or rollers revolving upon their
centres within octagonal frames, secured to the platform above, and the screw
divided collar and false collar, for throwing the machine out of its vertical
position, I do claim as new and as my own Invention.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Westlake in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
21st July 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
WESTLAKE, late of Totnes, but now of Newton Abbott, in the County of Devon,
Mine Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-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 John Westlake, Her special license that I, the said John Westlake,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Westlake, my executors, admiinstrators, 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 "PULVERIZING, WASHING, SEPARATING,
AMALGAMATING, AND OTHERWISE TREATING ORES, GOSSANS, EARTHS, AND ROCKS, 50
AS THE BETTER TO OBTAIN AND EXTRACT THEREFROM THE GOLD AND OTHER METALS
AND MINERALS WHICH MAY BE CONTAINED THEREIN," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said John Westlake, by 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 is 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 John Westlake, 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
and the Drawings hereunto annexed (that is to say):-
Figures I., II., III. represent an elevation, plan, and section respectively of
my Invention, the same letters referring to like parts in each Figure. A, A,
are the basins or troughs to receive the ores, gossans, or other matters to be
treated, and are made to revolve on their upper and lower centres b, and B,
by the drum and cog-wheels, as shewn in the several Figures. The spaces
(F, F, Figure III.) between the under side of the basins and the hollow cast-
iron conical cups upon which the basins rest may be constructed as furnaces,
to heat the basins or troughs, and thereby promote the amalgamation of the

page_text: metals. The centres d, d, Figures 1. and III., upon which the rollers C
revolve, move freely up and down in perpendicular slots, shown in Figure III.,
and press with their whole weight upon the bottoms of the basins, or upon any
ores or other matters they may contain. As the basins move round on their
axes b, and B, the rollers C at the same time revolve on their axes d, d. These
basins are made of cast iron, or with the bottoms of cast iron and the sides of
wood, and are supplied with water by pipes fixed in any convenient positions.
The rollers are made of stone or of cast iron, and weigh about three tons each.
The frame may be constructed of wood or cast iron.
I will now direct special attention to four most important and original features
of my Invention:
Firstly, to the internal form of the basins;
Secondly, to their particular construction;
Thirdly, to the means by which the pulverized solution is removed from
them;
Fourthly, to the arrangements provided for cleaning the basins, and removing
the refuse ores and the amalgamated quicksilver.
On referring to Figure I. it will be seen by the dotted lines that the sides of
the basins slope or incline towards the bottoms, which are precisely of the same
breadth as the rollers C, so that the material or object to be pulverized, washed,
separated, or amalgamated will be always in immediate contact with the
crushing surfaces of the basins and the rollers, and will not require either
scrapers or other provision to prevent its spreading or escaping from this
contact.
Secondly, I construct and support the basins in the following manner :-The
basin H, H, Figure III., is cast separately with a square aperture in the centre
to fit a corresponding square.in the shaft, and with a fillett within the circum-
ference i, i, Figure III. The hollow cast-iron cone h, h, has also a square
aperture at its apex, which fits a square towards the bottom of the shaft, and
the top of the cone just passes within the fillett (i, i,) on the under side of
the basin. By this arrangement the whole weight of the basin is thrown
upon the shoulder (q, Figure III.), and the greatest strength and stability is
obtained to prevent any derangement from the weight and action of the
rollers.
Thirdly, the basins are provided with pipes fixed on their sides at intervals,
as shewn at f,f, Figures II. and III. to. carry off the waste water and pul-
verized solution, which is received in troughs fixed below on supports or columns,
as shewn at g, g, Figures I. and III. whence it passes into some other con-

page_text: venient receptacle. Theso pipes can be raised or depressed and fixed by set
screws at any height above the outer sides of the basins. This arrangement
enables the person in charge of the machine to draw off the pulverized solution
in different degrees of fluidity, dependent upon the height of the orifices or
tops of these pipes above the bottom of the basins where the quicksilver and
the heavier and least pulverized portions of the ore or other matter will be
always found.
Fourthly, when it is desired to send the quicksilver and refuse or uncrushed
ore to one part of the basin, to facilitate their removal, and to clean the basins, the
rollers C must first be drawn up out of the basins by the screws D acting upon
the sliding frames which guide and sustain the axes of these rollers. The basin
may then be tilted outwards by the screw E, far enough to throw the contents
to the lowest side of the basin. The operation of the screw E requires some
further explanation. The brass or collar M, Figure III., (in which the upper
centre of the shaft that carries the basin turns,) banks against a portion M,
Figure III. of the same collar, cut away or removed from it, and fixed per-
manently to the frame of the machine. When the screw E is drawn outward,
the collar still retains a firm hold on the shaft, and is kept from rocking by the
slile in which it travels, as shewn in Figure II. The shoulder of the nut R,
Figure III., is rounded, and the sides of the socket in which the lower centre
of the shaft revolves is hollowed to allow of this slanted or tilted position of
the basin. On turning the screw E inwards, the shaft will be returned to its
place. The rollers may be then let down upon the bottom of the basins, and
the whole machine will be readjusted.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Westlake, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the above-
named John Westlake, in the presence of
J. W. MIRFIELD,
JOHN WESTLAKE. (L.S.)
9, Bedford Row, Middlesex.