AN IMPROVED MODE OF OBTAINING AURIFEROUS DEPOSITS AURIFEROUS DEPOSITS FROM THE BEDS OF RIVERS AND LAKES, AND FROM PITS CONTAINING WATER
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Ludewig Hahn Danchell, of Elm
Grove Villas, Acton Green, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer,
and William Startin, of Heathfield Terrace, Turnham Green, in
the same County, Engineer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
MODE OF OBTAINING AURIFEROUS DEPOSITS
AURIFEROUS DEPOSITS FROM THE BEDS OF RIVERS
AND LAKES, AND FROM PITS CONTAINING WATER."
Sealed the 8th December 1853, and dated the 8th June 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Ludewig
Hahn Danchell and William Startin at the Office of the Con-
missioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 8th June 1853.
We, FREDERICK HAHN DANCHELL and WILLIAM STARTIN, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MODE OF
OBTAINING AURIFEROUS DEPOSITS FROM THE BEDS OF RIVERS AND LAKES, AND
FROM PITS CONTAINING WATER," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a mode of raising auriferous deposits from
the beds of rivers, &c., by creating an upward current of water from the
bottom, while the deposit is temporarily held in mechanical suspension

page_text: in the water thus carried upwards. For this purpose a tube with open
ends is sunk in the water, and a disturbance is made in the deposit by
means of a kind of ploughshare attached to the bottom of the tube, or
by other suitable contrivance. As the tube fills with water the upper
part of the column is displaced by injecting air into the tube a little
below the surface of the water, or a suction pump may be used. By this
means the turbid water is caused to rise, and it is then discharged upon
a screen or riddle, set on a slanting platform or tray, carried by a raft
or vessel which lies on the surface of the river. The screen receives
and keeps back any large pieces that are thrown up, and the water and
finer particles of matter fall on to the platform. This platform is made,
by preference, of corrugated metal, and across the corrugations partitions
are arranged for the purpose of directing the water, as it runs towards
the lower edge of the platform, in a serpentine direction, and causing it
to flow across the corrugations. By this means the discharged water
will be slightly retarded in its flow, and a tendency to deposit the
auriferous earth which it contains will be induced; and thus, before the
water leaves the platform, the metallic particles which it brought up
from the bottom of the river will be deposited in the corrugations. The
continued action of the flowing water will have the effect of washing
out the light earthy particles from the gold, and thereby leave a clean
metallic deposit.
It will be understood that this Invention is applicable wherever
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, 2
filed by the said Frederick Ludewig Hahn Danchell and William
Startin in the Great Seal Patent Office, on the 8th December
1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we,
FREDERICK LUDEWIG HAHN DANCHELL, of Elm Grove Villas, Acton 3
Green, in, the County of Middlesex, Engineer, and WILLIAM STARTIN,
of Heathfield Terrace, Turnham Green, in the same County, Engineer,
send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the sixteenth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said Frederick Ludewig Hahn Danchell and
William Startin, Her special license that we, the said Frederick
Ludewig Hahn Danchell and William Startin, our executors, admini-
strators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Frederick Ludewig
Hahn Danchell and William Startin, 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 "AN IMPROVED MODE OF OBTAINING
AURIFEROUS DEPOSITS FROM THE BEDS OF RIVERS AND LAKES, AND FROM PITS
CONTAINING WATER," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the
said Frederick Ludewig Hahn Danchell and William Startin, by an
instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand
and seal of one of us, 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 Frederick Ludewig Hahn
Danchell, one of the parties hereto, 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):
Our Invention relates to an improved mode of raising auriferous
deposits from the beds of rivers and lakes, and from pits, and wherever
auriferous deposits are to be found under water, and consists in creating
an upward current of water from the bottom of such said places, while
the auriferous deposits are temporarily held in mechanical suspension
in the water thus carried upwards. In order to explain our said In-
vention as completely as possible, we now proceed to describe the best

page_text: means we are acquainted with for carrying our said Invention into
practical effect, reference being had to the illustrative Drawing hereunto
annexed, and to the numeral figures and letters of reference marked
thereon respectively, as follows:-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1, exhibits a top plan view of an apparatus constructed
according to our said Invention, and adapted for raising auriferous
deposits. Figure 2, is a transverse and vertical section thereof through
the line A, B, at Figure 1. At each of these Figures we employ
similar letters of reference to denote corresponding parts. A, A, marks
a raft, composed of logs of timber roughly squared and suitably bound
together by cross pieces B. C, is a tube or conduit of wood or other
suitable material, the upper part whereof is connected to the platforms
D, and E, by a flexible joint; the lower part of the tube C, is shod
with a piece of iron F, to which ropes G, are attached, for the purpose
hereafter mentioned. H, is a flexible tube, one end whereof is
connected to the tube C, and the other end is connected to the engine,
machine, or apparatus employed for injecting or forcing air or other
fluid into the tube C. The platforms D, and E, are maintained in the
desired position by fixing them to pieces of timber which form the
sides of said platforms, the whole being securely fixed to the raft in any
convenient manner. K, marks a piece of wire gauze or other suitable
perforated material constituting a screen or sieve, which is fixed to the
platforms D, and E, and sides I, in an inclined position, as exhibited.
The platform E, which is also inclined, is formed of corrugated plates
of metal or other suitable material, with partitions placed across them,
or any modification thereof, for arresting and diverting the course of the
water as it runs down the same. L, is a receptacle containing quick-
silver. M, a crab to the barrel, whereof the ends of two ropes N,
and O, are made fast, and to the other ends of said ropes anchors are
securely fixed, same being employed in conjunction with ropes P, P,
for mooring the raft in any desired position. And we would here remark,
that, for the purposes of our said Invention, it is necessary that the
head A, of the raft, and the mouth F, of the lower end of the tube C,

page_text: be so moored as to be opposed to the direction of the stream; and this
being effected, the operation of raising auriferous deposits is effected in
the following manner:-A disturbance is made in the bottom of the
river or other place by pulling the open ends of the mouth F, from side
to side, by means of the ropes P, P, by which the auriferous deposit
contained therein will be agitated, and, mixing with the turbid water,
will be carried up the tube C, by the pressure of the head of the
surrounding water; this, however, will only have the effect of filling
the tube to the same level as the water in the river or other place. In
order, therefore, to cause a continuous flow of the turbid water through
the tube, so as to obtain the auriferous deposits suspended therein, we
proceed as follows:-We displace the upper part of the column of
water which is contained between the parts a, and b, of the tube, by
injecting or forcing air or other suitable fluid therein sufficiently com-
pressed for that purpose; and the water thus displaced will be replaced
by the pressure of the external water which surrounds the tube; and in
this manner and by these means a continued succession of lifts will be
effected; and as the water flows over the platform D, and screen or
sieve E, the large pieces of auriferous and other extraneous deposits
mixed therewith are kept back by the screen or sieve, whilst the water.
together with the smaller particles of matter, pass through the said
screen and fall on to the corrugated platform E, and passing down the
same the water is slightly retarded in its flow by the partitions, and
thereby causes the earthy and metallic particles contained therein to be
deposited in the corrugations of the platform, and the continued action
of the water as it flows over the platform effects the washing out and
separating of the light earthy particles from the gold, and thereby leaves
a clean metallic deposit upon the platform, which may be removed by
means of a brush or in any other convenient manner, the other opera-
tions of the machine or apparatus being temporarily suspended for
that purpose.
The receptacle L, containing quicksilver, is employed
for the purpose of arresting, and thereby securing any minute par-
ticles of auriferous matter which may have passed over the platform E.
Q, marks a barge for the reception of the larger pieces of auriferous
deposit, which are kept back by the screen or sieve, and which the

page_text: workman examines and separates from the earthy and other extraneous
matters before depositing them in the barge.
Having now described the nature of our Invention of an improved
mode of obtaining auriferous deposits from the beds of rivers and lakes,
and from pits containing water, and in what manner the same is to be
and may be performed, we declare our Invention to consist in, and
we claim, the injecting or forcing of air or other fluid into and through
the upper portion of a tube or other conduit for the purpose of creating
an upward current or flow of water through said tube, by displacing
that portion of the column of water which is above the point at which
the air or other fluid is injected or forced in, for the purpose of raising
auriferous deposits which are under water, as hereinfore particularly
described, set forth, and represented by the illustrative Drawing here-
unto annexed, or any modification thereof by which the same result
may be obtained.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Ludewig Hahn Danchell,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of Decem-
ber, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-three.
F. L. H. DANCHELL. (L.S.)
Witness, ALEX. PRINCE,
4, Trafalgar Square.
Patent Agent,