ROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING SUBSTANCES OF DIFFERENT SPECIFIC GRAVITIES
Year: 1858

page_text: 1.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Richard Archibald Brooman at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd February 1858.-A communication from P. Imbert.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166; Fleet Street, in the City of
London, E.C., Editor of the Mechanics' Magazine and Patent Agent, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING SUBSTANCES OF DIFFERENT SPECIFIC GRAVITIES,"
(a communication from P. Imbert, a foreigner residing abroad), to be as
follows:-
:
This Invention consists in constructing and arranging apparatus for sepa-
rating substances of different specific gravities in the following manner :-A
conical or tapering drum having its larger end closed by a cover, and its smaller
end open, is mounted by means of arms or spokes upon a horizontal or nearly
horizontal axle. The cover of the larger end has formed in it a hole through
which the feeding hopper passes. The drum at its larger end is placed par-
tially in a trough or vessel containing water, and is pierced around its circum-
ference, and near the end with slots or holes through which the water which
is higher than they enters as the drum is rotated. The surfaces of contact
between the rotating drum and the side of the trough into which it is fitted
are packed with any suitable fibrous or other packing to prevent the escape of
the water between the two. The drum is caused to rotate by means of any

page_text: suitable contrivances, such as bands and pulleys, gearing, &c. The materials
to be separated being fed in through the hopper, and the drum made to rotate,
the centrifugal action of the drum and the motion of the water will stir up
the materials, and while the heavier roll down the inclined side of the drum
and through the slots or holes into receptacles in the water trough below, the
lighter will be carried up the side of the drum, and passing out at the end will
fall down a draining grating, and be deposited in suitable wagons or other
receptacles for coking or other purposes. Any convenient number of the
drums before described may be combined in the same apparatus with one
trough and one grating, or with more, as may be preferred.
In some cases the Inventor also employs, in conjunction with the parts
before described, a perforated cylinder or a series of perforated cylinders,
placed on an inclined revolving axis, to which cylinder or cylinders the
materials to be separated are supplied by a hopper, and from which cylinder
or cylinders the said materials pass into the hoppers which supply the drums.
Portions of these materials too large to pass through the perforations of the
cylinder or cylinders are led away by a spout to wagons or other suitable recep-
tacles. In all cases the water which drains from the wet materials through
the draining gratings is led to a reservoir, whence it may be pumped back to
the trough.
The apparatus before described may be employed for washing coal, grain,
ores, and all other materials which are capable of being separated into por-
tions of different specific gravities, as before described.
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