IMPROVED MEANS FOR SEPARATING SUBSTANCES OF DIFFERENT SPECIFIC GRAVITIES
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of "IMPROVED MEANS FOR SEPARATING SUBSTANCES
OF DIFFERENT SPECIFIC GRAVITIES."-A communication.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
19th March 1856.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, for IMPROVED MEANS FOR SEPARATING SUBSTANCES
OF DIFFERENT SPECIFIC GRAVITIES, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the construction and use of a novel arrangement.
of apparatus, which in conjunction with an upward blast of air is capable of
effecting the rapid and economical separation of granulated and other sub-
stances of different specific gravities. The substances to be separated are
supplied to a closed chamber through a hopper, from which they fall on to
a perforated plate or reticulated bed, forming the bottom of the chamber. An
endless band of scrapers, carried by suitable rollers mounted in the chamber,
by its rotation distributes the substances to be operated upon evenly over the.

page_text: perforated plate. Near the opposite ends of the plate is a shute for dis-
charging the separated substances, the lighter portion falling through one
shute and the heavier through the other. A blast of air is brought under the
perforated plate or bed and passing through it into the chamber drives towards
the upper surface of the mass (which is kept in constant agitation by the
rotation of the endless band of scrapers) the granules of lighter specific
gravity, which are then carried forward by the upper line of scrapers and
discharged down the proper shute. The granules, which have a superior
specific gravity, arrange themselves below the lighter particles, and are swept
off in the opposite direction by the lower line of scrapers, and discharged
down the shute at the other end of the perforated plate. To ensure the
equable action of the blast of air, it is conducted through a series of short
tubes to the perforated plate, and the space above the scrapers within the
chamber is divided into compartments by partition work, which causes the
substances borne up by the ascending air to rise and fall perpendicularly.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of, the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 19th September 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of, Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
3.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six; in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors; give and: grant unto me, the said
Alfred Vincent Newton, Her. special license; that I, the said Alfred: Vincent
Newton, my executors, administrators, cand assigns, or such others as: I;; the
said Alfred Vincent Newton; my executors; administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with; and no others; from time to time and at at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
uše, exercise; and vend; within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man; an Invention for "IMPROVED,
MEANS FOR SEPARATING SUBSTANCES OF: DIFFERENT SPECIFIC GRAVITIES," being a
communication from abroad, upon the condition: (amongst others) that: I; the
said Alfred Vincent Newton; by an instrument in writing under my hand and

page_text: 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 Alfred Vincent Newton, 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 tlé
following statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
:..
I
This Invention relates to the separation of substances of different specific
gravities by means of a blast or current of air, which is forced-upward through
a stationary screen or perforated table upon which the said substances are
placed, and through the said substances, and thereby, agitates the said sub-
stances in such manner as to cause them to-settle in layers upon the screen
or perforated table, one below another, according to their specific gravities;
while by a suitable arrangement of the surface of the screen or perforated
table, and of a series of moving scrapers, a movement of the separated layers
towards opposite ends of the screen or table is produced to convey the
separated substances away from each other into separate receptacles.
The accompanying Drawing represents a machine which embraces the
principle of the Invention; and although the machine is susceptible of con
siderable modification, a full description of the example represented with
reference to the Drawing, and some brief explanation of certain changes that
may be made in its construction, will serve to illustrate all the features of the
Invention.
*
܂
Fig. 1 in the Drawing is a-side elevation of the machine with a portion of
the framing broken away to show the interior; Fig. 2 is a' traverse vertical
section of the same. Fig. 3 is a plan view, on a larger scale' than Figures 1*
and 2, showing the construction of the scrapers. Similar letters of reference
indicate corresponding parts in the several Figures.
:
A is the framing which supports the stationary screen or perforated table
B; this screen or table is generally to be made of very fine wire cloth, that
will allow none, or as little as possible, of the substances to be separated to
pass through it, as it is not intended to serve as a sieve, but merely as a
resting place for the substances while a blast of air is forced upward through
them; it is set at an inclination lengthwise of about one in twenty or one in
twenty-five to the horizon, but is horizontal in a transverse direction; it rests
immediately on the top of a frame that is composed of longitudinal strips a, a,
and transverse strips b, b,.of wood, which form. a large number of oblong open-

page_text: bottomed compartments d, d. C is a board, suspended by strips of leather c, c,
or other flexible material, from the wooden strips a, a, and b, b, and con-
stituting, the moveable or vibrating portion of a bellows, which extends under
the whole of the screen, or, more properly. speaking, of a large number of
small bellows for every compartment; d is a separate bellows, having one or
more valves e in the board C, through which, by, the downward movement of
the board C, air is drawn, to be forced by the upward movement of the said
board through the screen or perforated table B. The reason for thus dividing
the bellows into a number of small compartments, or separate bellows, is to
secure, as nearly as possible, the passage of equal quantities of air through all
parts of the screen, which result could not be obtained with one large undivided
bellows covering the whole area of the screen, as the substances will sometimes
pack closer or lay deeper on some parts of the screen than on other parts, and
by that means, if one large bellows were used, more air would be caused to be
forced through the parts where the substances were less thickly distributed on
the screen. D is a box, with a closed top and with closed sides and ends, but
with an open bottom, placed above and covering the whole of the screen or
perforated table B. The sides of this box fit down closely on the screen, but the
ends are provided with openings fitted with sliding shutters f, f¹, to regulate
their width, and under each sliding shutter is an inclined shute q or q². The
box D contains the moving scrapers 9, g, which are attached to a pair of endless
chains h, h, which run round chain wheels i, i, mounted on two shafts E, E¹,
which pass transversely through the box D. The scrapers consist simply of
straight flat strips of iron, and the endless chains consist simply of angular
links h, h, of metal, rivetted to the said strips, and connected together by pins
jj, as shewn in Fig. 3. The ends of the scrapers of the lower half of the
chain rest upon guides k, k, so arranged at the sides of the box D (see Fig. 2)
as to keep the bottom edges of the scrapers parallel with and at a short
distance from the surface of the screen or perforated table. The bearings
1, 1, of the shafts E, E', are fitted to slots m, m, in the sides of the box D
in such a manner as to be adjustable nearer to or farther from each other by
means of screws m*, m, for the purpose of setting the chain up tight. At
the top of the box D there is a hopper F, through which the substances to bo
separated are fed into the said box. Below this hopper is a shelf G, which
stands immediately below the upper half of the endless chain of scrapers. On
one side of the hopper is a board n (see Fig. 1), which extends downwards, so
as to leave just room for the upper half of the endless chain of scrapers to
work between it and the shelf G, and on the opposite side of the hopper is a
sliding shutter p, by which to regulate the width of opening of the throat. By

page_text: the arrangement of the shelf G and the board n relatively to the chain of
scrapers, the throat of the hopper is caused to be closed or choked to stop the
supply of material as soon as the operation of the machine is stopped or sus-
pended by the collection of a heap of material on the shelf G, but while the
machine is in operation the throat is kept clear or open by the movement of
the scrapers, which scrape off the material from the shelf G as fast as it is.
deposited thereon. The box D is to be so fitted and secured at the top of the
screen that it can be removed for the repair of the screen.
His the main shaft of the machine, which receives rotary motion either
by a belt from some prime mover running to a pulley I, or by other suitable
means, and imparts the same to the bellows and to the endless chain of
scrapers; J is a large pulley upon the said shaft H; and K is a belt, running
from the said pulley to a small pulley L on a shaft M, to impart a rapid rotary
motion thereto. This shaft M is provided with a crank N, which is connected
by means of rods r, r, with arms s, s, secured to two rock shafts 0,0'. These rock
shafts are furnished with arms t, connecting with the vibrating bellows board C
by means of rods u, u; the crank N and its above-described connections with
the board C give the board a rapid movement upward and downward, and thus
a blast of air is produced and forced upward through the screen or perforated
table. The rods r, r,, may be made adjustable lengthwise in boxes attached to
the rock shafts, for the purpose of varying the length of stroke of the bellows.
P is a small pulley on the shaft H; and Q is a belt running from the said pulley
to a large pulley R on the shaft E', for the purpose of giving a slow rotary
motion to the said shaft, thereby giving a slow motion to the endless chain of
scrapers, the direction of the motion being such that the lower part of the
chain moves from the lowest towards the highest end of the screen or
perforated plate B.
The substances to be separated in the machine, when not consisting of
substances having the form of grains, should be crushed, broken, or otherwise
divided into a granular state before being introduced to the machine; and the
operation will be more perfect if they be also sorted into sizes, so that all. the
particles of the substances introduced to the machine at one time may be as
nearly as possible of an uniform size. The operation of the machine is as
follows: The hopper F being continuously supplied with the substances to be
sorted and the machine set in motion, the substances are swept off the shelf G
by the scrapers, and fall on the screen or perforated table B, upon which they are
spread by the scrapers, and agitated by the upward blast of air from the bellows,
and by the latter means are separated in layers, according to their specific
gravity, the heavier substance or substances settling down in a layer upon

page_text: the screen, and the lighter rising in a layer above. The agitation of the heavier
miatter upon the inclined screen causes it to travel toward the lower end of the
screen by gravitation, and escape through the opening of the shutter fand
down the shute g into a réceptable provided for it below, while the lower half
of the scrapers scrape and remove the lighter matter in the opposite direction
toward the opening of the shutter f', whence it escapes down the shute q¹¹to
another receptacle. Care should be taken to so regulate the relative degrees
of opening of the hopper slide p and the shutters ff', that the whole depth of
substance on the screen shall not reach much higher than the middle of the
scrapers of the lower. half of the chain. A drawer or box may be provided
under the bellows for the purpose of receiving such fine particles of matter as
may unavoidably pass down through the screen and through the bellows; but
as the screen will always be very fine, and the blast of air through the screen
upward, there will be very little escape through the screen. Instead of employ-
ing the power of gravitation to carry off the heavier substances by inclining
the screen C, the, lower separated' layer may be carried off-the-screen by the
arrangement of the endless chain of scrapers, so that the lower scrapers work
close to the screen; and the upper layer may at the same time bo carried off
by the upper scrapers, which will always move in the opposite direction to the
lower ones; or two endless chains of scrapers may be employed, arranged one
within the other and working in opposite directions; the lower half of the outer
chain, of scrapers serving to carry off: the lower separated layer, and the lower
half of the inner chain, the upper separated layer.
66
Having thus fully described the Invention of Improved Means for
Separating Substances of Different Specific Gravities," as communicated to me
by my foreign correspondent, I desire it to be distinctly understood, that I do not
confine myself strictly to the precise arrangements of the scrapers, as-lierein
described; nor to the precise arrangement of mechanism for operating the same,
as such may. be varied. or modified without departing from the principle of
action of the machine; neither do I confine myself to the employment of a
bellows, as other means of producing a blast may be used with the same effect;
but what I claim as new under the above in part recited 'Letters Patent is;
effecting the separation of substances of different specific gravities, by means of
a blast or current of air forced upward through a stationary screen or perforated
table upon which the said substances are placed, and through the said sub-
stances, thereby agitating the said substances in such a manner as to cause them
to settle in layers upon the screen or perforated table, one below another, ac-
cording to their specific gravities; while, by a suitable arrangement of the
surface of the screen or table, and of a series of moving scrapers, a moveineuit

page_text: of the separated layers towards opposite ends of the screen or table is produced,
to convey the separated substances away from each other, substantially,
as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Nineteenth day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)