CLEANING AND SEPERATING ORES OF EVERY DESCRIPTION WHEN BROUGHT INTO A STATE OF Low PULVERIZATION
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Hancock, of Great Polgooth Mine, in the
Parish of St. Austell, Cornwall, for the Invention of "CLEANING AND
SEPERATING ORES OF EVERY DESCRIPTION WHEN BROUGHT INTO A STATE OF
Low PULVERIZATION."
Sealed the 16th May 1856, and dated the 30th November 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Hancock at
the Offico of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
30th November 1855.
I, RICHARD HANCOCK, of Great Polgooth Mine, in the Parish of St. Austell;
Cornwall, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "CLEANING
AND SEPERATING ORES OF EVERY DESCRIPTION WHEN BROUGHT INTO A STATE OF
Low PULVERIZATION" to be as follows:-
The ores and accompanying waste are brought into a state of solution by
water, and are then by adjustment made to pass over a slight fall, so as to
produce the greatest regularity in its flow over tables fixed upon a given incline,
each table having a sufficient drop from the table above. When the tables are
sufficiently charged, the flow is reversed to pass over another set of tables on
the same principles, and clean water is introduced to pass over the charged
table. The surface of the tables are subject to the action of brushes or brooms
during a part or the whole time of both operations until the ores are suffi-

page_text: ciently cleaned. In some cases the use of such brushes or brooms will be
dispensed with. The ores (on the tables) thus cleaned are washed off into
cisterns by the action of water passing over the surfaces of the tables after
they are raised to nearly perpendicular positions.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Hancock in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
30th May 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
HANCOCK, of Great Polgooth Mine, in the Parish of St. Austell, Cornwall,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Ifer most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Richard Hancock, Her special licence, that I, the said Richard Hancock, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Richard
Ilancock, 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 make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "CLEANING AND SEPARATING
OBES OF EVERY DESCRIPTION WHEN BROUGHT INTO A STATE OF LOW PULVERIZATION,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard Hancock, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their,
or one of their hands and scals, should particularly describe and ascer-
tain 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
snid Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Richard Hancock, 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
thereof, that is to say:-
The ores and accompanying waste are brought into a state of solution by
water, and are then by adjustment made to pass over a slight fall, so as to
produce the greatest regularity in its flow over tables fixed upon a given

page_text: ores are sufficiently cleaned. In some cases the use of such brushes or brooms
will be dispensed with. The ores (on the tables) thus cleaned are washed off
into cisterns by the action of water passing over the surfaces of the tables after
they are raised to nearly perpendicular positions.
And in order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the Drawing hereunto
annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
1, framework to carry the gear on each side of the machine; 2, the stretcher
or pivot piece on which all the tables are resting; 3, centre bearings of the
tables, to which is attached an adjusting screw for rising or falling them; 4, a
slide valve, which admits or shuts off, as required, the ores, which are previously
brought into a thin consistency or fluid with water; 5, launder through which
the ores pass to the heads, which are divided into sections and numbered;
6, the ores, &c. dropping from the heads into a launder 7, the working edge
of which is made level by an adjusting screw at each end for the ores to pass over;
8 is a stretcher, passing over the heads in both ends, bolted to 1, from which
6 and 7 are supported by three drop adjusting screws; 9 are four tables over
which the ores have to pass, first receiving the deposit of the cleanest or best
ores, and the rest in degration; 10, the drop or fall from one table to another;
11, the balance cistern, into which the refuse from the tables passes, and when
full, by lifting the catch 12 it forms a balance for turning up the tables to be
washed down, each table being connected with rods and lever A; this done,
such catch is lifted up, and 13 forms a returning balance for the tables; at 14
a stream of water is introduced, passing into 15 as a receiver; on the turning
up of the tables, valves 16 are lifted by lever and rod 17, and admits the
water into perforated launders 18 to wash off the ores into receivers 19,
through which it passes out into deposit hutches. The slide valve 4 having
admitted a sufficient quantity of ore, which has been deposited on the tables, is
now closed, and the valve 20 is opened by the conductor's hand at rod handle
21, through which a supply of water passes into launder 22, and flows over
the tables, for the purpose of cleaning the ores. The framework for the
brushes 23 is carried on four wheels 24, each table being supplied with a
brush 25, which brushes its respective table upwards, and on arriving at the

page_text: head of the tables, the brushes being all connected, are lifted by lever, and
26 slips into the catch 27, and the brushes pass back over the tables without
touching, until the lever of the catch is struck out by 28, and the brushes drop
ngain on the tables. Each brush is adjusted by screws, and carried on arbors
running across the frame. This frame with its appendages is propelled by a
rod 29, attached to a beam 30, that can be worked by any sufficient power
that may be applied.
The ores passing from the third and fourth tables through the two lower
receivers 19 into a cistern are lifted by a plunger B, attached to beam 30 by a
rod 31, and passes back by launder 82 to be re-admitted into slide valve 4 and
repass the tables. In 11, balanco cistern, is a valve 88, which on the dropping
of the tables lets out the contents. 34 is a catch for holding the frame and
brushes during the time of turning down and washing the tables. The
machine is to be worked with or without brushes, as the character of the orcs
may require. It may be extended or diminished to any number of tables, and
their size may vary, as may be found necessary, on the same principle. C is a
wheel acting as a parallel motion for the plunger pole and running on a bar
of iron.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Hancock, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
RICHARD HANCOCK. (L.S.)
Witness,
MARY BROWNE, of St. Austell.