IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR BREAKING, SEPARATING, AND DRESSING MINERAL SUBSTANCES
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Brown Jordan at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
12th October 1868.
I, THOMAS BROWN JORDAN, of South Lambeth, in the County of
Surrey, Mechanical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR BREAKING,
SEPARATING, AND DRESSING MINERAL SUBSTANCES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to improvements in machinery and apparatus
for breaking large stones containing valuable minerals to sizes suitable
for going to the crushing mill or stamping mill, and also for separating
the particles of crushed material into various parcels of different specific
gravity.
The breaking machine is a strong cast-iron frame or box containing
a hard iron ram and two wedge-shaped cheeks also of hard iron which
have faces curved in horizontal section, and are kept in adjustment by
massive wedges against which they are bolted to the frame by properly
arranged adjusting screws. Motion is communicated to the central ram
by an excentric shaft passing through the iron box. The excentric
part of this shaft fits accurately into the centre hole of the ram, while

page_text: its gudgeons which are concentric with the driving pulley and fly wheel
work in bearings fixed on each side of the box which forms the body
of the machine, thus obviating all complication of levers and articulated
joints and bringing the whole power of the first mover to bear directly
on the work to be done. The ram crushes the stones by each of its
opposite surfaces, which are not weakened by corrugations but are curved
in horizontal section so as to correspond with the curvature of the
side pieces opposite to each face. The radius of this curvature shortens
towards the bottom or outlet of the machine, for the purpose of preventing
thin flakes of stone escaping without being sufficiently broken. Motion
is communicated to the machine by a strap from any shaft to a
on the excentric shaft.
The separating or dressing machine is an improved arrangement of
self-acting jigging machinery, which accomplishes by a more perfect
and continuous and consequently cheaper process the same separation
of particles which is now performed partially by well-known machines
also acting by repeated pulsations of water.
My dressing machine consists of a large hutch or tank of any suitable
material for containing water. A sieve of any required mesh is fixed
in this tank a few inches below the water surface. Over this sieve at
one end is a large hopper from which a narrow adjustable opening
extending the entire width of the sieve, having its mouth on the required
level of the surface of the stuff under treatment, furnishes a self-acting
adjustment for the depth of sand on the sieve bottom. Water is caused
to rush upwards through this sieve and the stuff resting on it at
intervals and for times which can be readily adjusted to suit the quality
of stuff under treatment, and by means which prevents any of the
water from flowing back again through this sieve. I prefer doing this
by the pressure of a column of water alternately admitted and cut off
from the tank by a throttle valve and cam gear driven by a strap
working on cones to command various feeds; or in situations where
water is scarce I do it by a pump driven by the same adjustable means
and taking its water from a tank into which it again drains after
circulating through the machine.
The self-acting separation and delivery of the various classes of stuff
is accomplished within the sieve in the following manner :-From the
moment the sand leaves the lower opening of the hopper and is covered
with water its heaviest particles begin to descend by the separating

page_text: pulsating action of the water; at a short distance in front of the hopper
a perforated metal partition is fixed across the sieve, the bottom edge of
which dips slightly below the surface of the water when at rest; this
renders it impossible that any substance should pass beyond this line
without immersion, so that everything contained in the sieve must be
subject to thorough jigging long before it can arrrive at either of the
delivery ports situated at the other end of the machine. These ports
are varied in number as the materials contained in, the stuff vary,
but it will be sufficient to describe three, as any beyond this number
could be easily introduced by attending to the same pri ples.
The first or largest port will always be that delivering the htest
material; this port having to deliver the largest quantity occupies the
entire width of the end of the machine, and its level below what I.
may call high-water mark is nicely adjustable by a slide and screw;
all that remains on the top when the stuff arrives at this wear is cast
over it and flows with the water over another sieve which is slightly
inclined and forms the top of a second tank or hutch. At a short
distance in front of the dash of water and stuff striking this second
sieve there is a very slight bar or stop to the progress of the sand over
its surface which detains the particles nearest the sieve long enough for
them to get thoroughly washed, and if fine enough driven through
the meshes of the sieve into the slime hutch, while the coarse and
light particles which are all too large to pass through the sieve will be
forced on by the water over the bar and delivered into the tram wagons
or other means for carrying it away. The object of the inclined sieve
and hutch just described is to save the "slimes" or portions of rich
ores so finely divided as to remain suspended in the water and get
entangled with the waste; these particles are driven through the meshes
of the sieve by the fall of water, as above described, and are subject
to a further washing in the hutch by the current of water which at
first flows down perpendicularly under the bottom of vertical partition
across the hutch situated under the stop on the surface of the sieve,
and afterwards rises through the meshes of the remainder of the sieve
to assist in carrying off the waste; during the descent of the current
the heavy part of the dust receives a downward motion which its gravity
continues, while the fine particles of waste having less gravity remain
suspended and pass off with the water.
The second port in simple combinations is devoted to the delivery
of such particles as have a medium specific gravity, and generally

page_text: consist of pieces which contain both ore and waste and require further
crushing to separate them; this port is situated on one side of the
machine towards the delivery end, and the stuff arrives at it under the
bottom of a perforated partition which is adjusted to such a depth in
the mass of stuff on the sieve as will stop all the waste.
The third port is devoted to the delivery of the rich ore, and the way
to it is under a partition similar to the one above described but adjusted
to a lower level. These partitions will be differently arranged according
to the character of the stuff under treatment, but the ultimate adjust-
ment, dependent on the per-centages of each material contained in the
sand, is effected by making the port through a metal slide which can
be raised or depressed by a screw so as to make it deliver the exact
quantity due from the stuff under treatment.