Improved Method of Working Small Coal Washing Establishments, and Apparatus therefor.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 5th July, 1895-Accepted. 10th Aug., 1895
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improved Method of Working Small Coal Washing Establishments,
and Apparatus therefor.
I, FRITZ BAUM, of 3 Fabrikstrasse Herne, Prussia, Engineer, do hereby declare
the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This invention has for its object a simplication of the working of small coal
washing establishments. Heretofore the washed small coal coming from the
jigging machines were first led into tapering boxes or sumps situated below those
machines, with which arrangement it was necessary to provide mechanical
conveying apparatus for conveying the small coal to the loading and storing towers,
thus rendering the washing plant complicated and costly.
If the washed coal was dried in the tapering boxes a travelling scraper belt was
required for carrying the dried coal to chain buckets which raised it up to the
storage towers, where, lastly, a distributing worm or a distributing scraper belt was
required for uniformly distributing the coal. When using collecting sumps, the
discharge of the water was effected by perforated chain buckets which raised the
coal to a distributing worm or a distributing belt.
According to my present invention the said conveying devices, distributing
worms and belts are dispensed with, by causing the small coal together with the
washing water to be raised from the jigging machine and conveyed directly to the
storage towers by means of pumping apparatus. The water is thus made to travel
in a circuit being led back clarified from the storage tower to the jigging machine.
With this arrangement may be farther combined a supplemental jigging machine.
The accompanying drawing shews by way of example a vertical section of an
arrangement of the apparatus according to my invention.
The washed small coal after leaving the jigging machine a is conveyed by means
of a centrifugal pump through the conduit e up to the storage tower, where the
mass flows into a sieve apparatus d to which a jigging motion is imparted by means
of an eccentric for other suitable device.
g
The particles of coal are thereby divided into two qualities. The coarser coal
passes from the sieve apparatus through the shoot directly into the storage tower h,
while the finer coal passes with the water into the jigging machine i, where it is
subjected to a repeated washing and whence it then passes down through the
shoot g.
There are generally several collecting chambers arranged side by side in one
storage tower, which are alternately charged through suitable channels.
On its introduction into the several compartments of the storage tower, the
water carrying the fine coal with it assumes a very slow velocity, in consequence of
which the coal is deposited. The clarified water collecting over the coal Hows off
continuously through the overflow gutters k, and is again lead to the depositing
machine by means of the conduit l.
When a storage chamber has been filled in the above described manner, the next
following one is charged. The first one is then drained of water by means of the
perforated tubes m m (described in the Specification to my Patent No. 2972 of 1894)
upon opening the valves or sluices at o'o. In order that the water obtained by
means of the draining pipes m m after the filling of the storage chamber may be at
once utilised for the working and that the draining may be effected as completely
as possible, the draining pipes m m are connected to a centrifugal pump n, which is
in its turn connected with the jigging machine a by means of the conduit p.

page_text: This conduit can also be arranged to lead to the collecting chamber of the
pump b. The water discharged from the storage tower is thus led back to the
working apparatus, forming a closed circuit, so that no special water tank for
receiving the discharged water is required.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed 1 declare that what I
claim is
1. In apparatus for washing small coal, the method of conveying the mixture of
small coal and washing water together from the jigging machine directly by means
of a a pump to a storage vessel or tower from which the clarified water collecting over
the deposited coal is made to flow back through an overflow conduit to the jigging
machine again, substantially as described.
2. In small coal washing apparatus such as is referred to in the first claim, the
combination with the jigging machine of a pump adapted to convey the small coal
and washing water to the storage vessel or tower, and a conduit for conveying the
clarified water from the storage vessel back to the jigging machine, substantially
as described.
3. In small coal washing apparatus such as is referred to in the first and second
claims, the use of sifting apparatus, such as d, and a supplemental jigging machine
such as i, so arranged that the mixture of coal and washing water delivered by the
pump from the first jigging machine, is made to flow on to the sieve from which
the coarser particles of coal pass directly into the storage vessel while the finer
particles pass together with the water into the supplemental jigger and thence after
being again washed into the storage vessel, substantially as described.
4. In small coal washing apparatus such as is referred to in the first and second
claims, the use of a supplemental pump such as n for drawing off the water drained
from the storage vessel through draining pipes such as m, and delivering the same
either direct to the jigging machine a or to the collecting chamber of the main
pump p, substantially as described.
Dated this 5th day of July 1895.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.