Improvements in Apparatus for Separating Gold and other Metals from their Ores by the Aid of Electricity.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 19th June, 1889
Complete Specification Left, 19th Mar., 1890-Accepted, 26th Apr., 1890
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Separating Gold and other Metals
from their Ores by the Aid of Electricity.
I, GEORGE JONES ATKINS, of 1 Pembury Avenue Tottenham, in the County of
Middlesex, Electrician, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows
This invention relates to improvements in the construction of certain parts of
the apparatus for separating gold and other metals from their ores by the aid of
electricity for which Letters Patent were granted to me bearing date the 28th day
September 1886, No. 12,295.
In the specification of the said patent is described, and illustrated in the Drawings,
a rotating carbon screw, or other equivalent part, serving as the anode pole of an
electric apparatus, or as an instrument for retarding the descent of ground ore through
the anode chamber of the said electric apparatus.
Heretofore I have constructed the said carbon screw or equivalent instrument by
making it in sections and threading such sections on to a timber shaft or axis, but I
have found that this method of construction is not quite satisfactory, inasmuch as it
is difficult to fix the sections on to the wooden shaft so firmly that there shall be no
movement of the said sections one against the other; a movement which causes
attrition of the surfaces in contact and thereby either a gradual shortening of the
screw or breach of its continuity. The latter effect occasions a loss of conductivity,
or increase of resistance, which causes less work to be done at one end of the screw,
or other equivalent instrument, than at the other.
Now according to my present invention I construct the screw in the following
way :-
I mould or otherwise form the carbon screw in a number of separate sections
or pieces in the same way as heretofore; but, instead of threading them on to a
timber shaft, I take a copper or other metallic shaft, preferably of square section, and
I tin the surface of this shaft; I then thread a section of the screw
on to the
shaft and fix it in position thereon by running molten lead, type metal, or other
suitable conductive material into the space between the boss of the screw section and
the shaft. The lead or other conductive material unites to the tin on the shaft and
forms a solid bearing for the screw section on which the latter cannot move. I then
add another screw section and secure it to the shaft in the same manner, and so on
until the whole screw is built up.
By these means I am enabled to construct the screw so that on the one hand
the sections composing it are firmly fixed on the shaft and there can be no attrition
or grinding action between them, and on the other the electric conductivity of all
parts of the screw is more nearly equal than in the arrangement heretofore employed,
since the current is conducted by the shaft and its lead or other conductive casing,
equally to every section of the screw.
I employ similar means to connect the parts of the anode poles or ore retarding
instruments when they are formed as a series of shelves as described in the Specification
of the aforesaid patent, or whenever they are formed of separate pieces or sections of
carbon which are required to be connected together electrically.
It will be understood that all parts of the metallic shaft and its covering of
lead, or other conductive material that are not covered or protected by the sections
of the screw or other equivalent instrument, should be covered with suitable insulating
material to protect them from the action of the solutions in which they are immersed ;
and in order to preserve the carbon composing the screw or other equivalent
instrument from the disintegrating action of the solution, I impregnate the said.
.

page_text: carbon with black earth wax by steeping it therein, or otherwise, while in a heated
state.
The screw or other equivalent instrument may be constructed as above described
by securing a number of carbon sections on a single metallic shaft so as to form a
continuous length of any required dimensions, or it may be made in parts by securing
one or more carbon sections in the same way on separate short shafts which are
afterwards connected together so as to make up the required total length.
Dated this 18th day of June 1889.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Separating Gold and other Metals
from their Ores by the Aid of Electricity.
I, GEORGE JONES ATKINS, of 1 Pembury Avenue, Tottenham in the County of
Middlesex, Electrician, do hereby declare the nature of the said invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to he particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement that is to say :-
This invention relates to improvements in the construction of certain parts of
the apparatus for separating gold and other metals from their ores by the aid of
electricity for which Letters Patent were granted to me bearing date the 28th day
of September 1886 No. 12,295.
In the specification of the said patent is described, and illustrated in the drawings,
a rotating carbon screw, or other equivalent part, serving as the anode pole of an
electric apparatus, or as an instrument for retarding the descent of ground ore
through the anode chamber of the said electric apparatus.
Heretofore I have constructed the said carbon screw, or equivalent instrument,
by making it in sections and threading such sections on to a timber shaft or axis, but
I have found that this method of construction is not quite satisfactory, inasmuch as it
is difficult to fix the sections on to the wooden shaft so firmly that there shall be
no movement of the sections one against the other; a movement which causes attrition
of the surfaces in contact and thereby either a gradual shortening of the screw, or
breach of continuity. The latter effect occasions a boss of conductivity or increase of
resistance, which causes less work to be done at one end of the screw, or other
equivalent instrument, than at the other.
Now according to my present invention I construct the screw in the following
way :--
way
Í mould or otherwise form the carbon screw in a number of separate sections
or pieces in the same way as heretofore; but instead of threading them on to a
timber shaft, I take a copper or other metallic shaft of any suitable section but
preferably square, and I tin the surface of this shaft. I then thread one or more
sections of the screw on to the shaft and fix it or them in position thereon by running
molten lead, type metal, or other suitable conductive material, into the space between
the boss or bosses of the screw section or sections and the shaft. The lead, or
other conductive material, unites to the tin on the shaft and forms a solid bearing for
the screw sections on which the latter cannot move. I then add other screw sections
and secure them to the shaft in the same manner, and so on until the whole screw is
built up.
By these means I am enabled to construct the screw so that on the one hand
the sections composing it are firmly fixed on the shaft and there can be no attrition or
grinding action between them, and on the other the electric conductivity of all parts
of the screw is more nearly equal than in the arrangement heretofore employed, since
the current is conducted by the shaft, and its lead or other conductive casing, equally
to every section of the screw.

page_text: I employ similar means to connect the parts of the anode poles or ore retarding
instruments when they are formed as a series of shelves, as described in the
Specification of the aforesaid patent, or whenever they are formed of separate
pieces or sections of carbon which are required to be connected together
electrically.
It will be understood that all parts of the metallic shaft and its covering of
lead, or other conductive material, that are not covered or protected by the sections
of the screw or other equivalent instrument, should be covered with suitable insulating
material to protect them from the action of the solutions in which they are immersed;
and in order to preserve the carbon composing the screw or other equivalent
instrument from the disintegrating action of the solution, the said carbon may be
impregnated with black earth wax by steeping it therein or otherwise while in a
heated state.
The screw or other equivalent instrument may be constructed as above described
by securing a number of carbon sections on a single metallic shaft so as to form a
continuous length of any required dimensions, or it may be made in parts by securing
one or more carbon sections in the same way on separate short shafts which are
afterwards connected together so as to make up the required total length.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:
The method of constructing the carbon screw, or other equivalent instrument,
hereinbefore referred to, which consists in threading the sections or parts of the
screw, or other equivalent instrument, on to a tinned metallic shaft, and in securing
such sections or parts on such shaft by running molten lead, type metal, or other
suitable conductive material, into the spaces between such sections or parts and the
said shaft, substantially as herein before described.
3244
tors for day of ma
G. J. ATKINS.
Per W. H. Beck,
115, Cannon Street, London, Agent.