IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR AMALGAMATING OR INTERMIXING, DRY. SEMI-FLUID, OR AQUEOUS MATERIALS, AND FOR AGITATING SOLIDS WITH LIQUIDS FOR COMBINING, Dis- SOLVING, OR WASHING THE SAME
Year: 1863

page_text: the County of Chester, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR AMALGAMATING OR INTERMIXING, DRY. SEMI-FLUID, OR AQUEOUS
MATERIALS, AND FOR AGITATING SOLIDS WITH LIQUIDS FOR COMBINING, Dis-
SOLVING, OR WASHING THE SAME."
Sealed the 10th May 1864, and dated the 23rd November 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Carr at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd November 1863.
I, THOMAS CARR, of New Ferry, near Birkenhead, in the County of
Chester, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR AMALGAMATING OR INTERMIXING DRY, SEMI-
FLUID. OR AQUEOUS MATERIALS, AND FOR AGITATING SOLIDS WITH LIQUIDS FOR
COMBINING, DISSOLVING, OR WASHING THE SAME," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to machinery which is particularly applicable for
amalgamating mercury with gold and silver ores, vitriolizing or phosphating
coprolites, bones, and other substances, making or tempering mortar and clay,
mechanically mixing, chemically combining or dissolving chemicals and drugs,
washing fleshings for glue makers, rags and other substances for paper
makers, and washing fine ores from earths, and for various other purposes.
-
My Invention consists in combinations and arrangements of machinery and
apparatus having peculiarities described as follows:-The materials to be
FD
1

page_text: operated upon are placed in a dish, vat, or pan, over which one or more sets of
arms are rotated. The arms are in some cases rotated in the same direction,
in other cases in opposite directions; these arms carry blades or bars, which
descend to nearly the bottom of the pan. These blades are made broad and
flat in some machines, and their flat sides are set at various angles to the line
of motion, so that they will push the material on one side when passing
through it; but in some machines I propose to make them simple bars.
These blades or bars are made of iron or other suitable material, or iron
coated with lead or other suitable material, when intended to resist the action
of acids; the pan is also lined with lead or other suitable material when it is
to be protected against the action of acids, and where heat is required in the
process it is obtained from steam, hot air, or hot water, made to circulate
through lead or other pipes coiled in the bottom of the pan, or the pan is
made with a hollow bottom and supplied with heating fluid.
Another peculiarity of my Invention consists in mounting the pan in such
manner that the materials may be easily supplied to it and discharged from it
when sufficiently operated upon by so arranging that it can be tipped or
turned over by mounting it on trunnions, by allowing one edge to descend,
the other being carried upon an axis or upon trunnions, by lowering it or
raising the agitators so as to get the pan from underneath the agitators.
The pan may be arranged on a carriage supported on wheels, so that it can be
tipped to discharge the material at any convenient place and taken to be
charged with a fresh supply of material, and then taken under the agitators,
so that the material may be acted upon.
In operating upon materials where noxious fumes arise, the peculiarity of
my Invention consists in covering or enclosing the pan and connecting it with
a flue into which the fumes may be discharged and (when required) in
employing a fan or other suitable exhausting apparatus to draw the fumes
from the pan or the enclosure of the pan. A door is formed in the cover or a
spout is arranged to charge the pan with material.
When acids are used with my machines, one peculiarity of my Invention
consists in distributing the acid when required by pipes passing along the
arms carrying the agitators (or by a pipe rotating with the agitators), the
pipes being perforated with small holes and supplied with acids from a cistern
placed at the centre of the arms, or from a fixed cistern by a pipe dropping
the acid into a funnel placed at the centre of the arms and in connection
with the distributing pipes In place of the agitators being rotated, all or
part of them may be stationary, and the pan may be made to rotate and
arranged so that it can be tipped to discharge the material either when in

page_text: motion or detached from the driving gear.
But in that particular combina-
tion and arrangement which I prefer to use, and in which my Invention also
consists, the pan is arranged on trunnions, so that it is nearly balanced, space
being allowed below so as to be able to turn it and discharge the material, this
being accomplished by a worm wheel or quadrant fixed upon one of the
trunnions, which worm wheel gears with a worn on a shaft which can be
rotated by a suitable handle. A hollow pillar is fixed to the bottom of the
pan, which pillar forms the bearing for one or more shafts working within it;
if two shafts are used, one of them is hollow and the other passes through its
interior. To the upper ends of the shafts in the hollow pillar the arms
carrying the agitators are secured; if two shafts are used, one set of arms is
fixed to the solid and the other set to the hollow shaft. The lower ends of
the shafts (if two are used) are in gear with a wheel (so as to be driven in
opposite directions if required) on one end of a shaft secured in bearings to
the under side of the pan, and the outside end of this shaft has a spur wheel
upon it which gears with one fast to the driving pulley which rotates loose
on one of the trunnions of the pan. By this means the agitators can be
rotated even when the pan is tipped, which forms another feature of my
Invention. The gearing driving the agitators may be placed above the pan.
When heat is used the heating fluid may be conveyed to the pan by a pipe
passing through or coming in the line of the axis of one of its trunnions.
These machines may be driven by any convenient power, and they can be
made upon a small scale so as to be adapted for manual power. When acid
is used the carboys are secured in a cradle having trunnions and a handle like
a camp kettle, by which they may be suspended. These truñnions are each of
them lengthened, so as to terminate like a fork, with two prongs for handles,
by which the cradle may be carried, and when hoisted may be turned so as to
empty the bottle with perfect ease and safety.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Carr in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 20th
May 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS CARR,
of New Ferry, near Birkenhead, in the County of Chester, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of November, in the year of our

page_text: Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Thomas Carr, Her special license that I, the said Thomas Carr, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas
Carr, my 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR AMALGAMATING OR INTERMIXING DRY, SEMI-FLUID. OR AQUEOUS
MATERALS AND FOR AGITATING SOLIDS WITH LIQUIDS FOR COMBINING, DISSOLVING
OR WASHING THE SAME," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Thomas Carr, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE that I, the said Thomas Carr, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement and the accompanying Drawings (that is to say):-
My Invention relates to machinery which is particularly applicable for
amalgamating mercury with gold and silver ores, vitriolising or phosphating
coprolites, bones, and other substances, making or tempering mortar and
clay, mechanically mixing, chemically combining or dissolving chemicals and
drugs, wasing fleshings for glue makers, rags and other substances for paper
makers, and washing fine ores from earths, and for various other purposes.
My Invention consists in combinations and arrangements of machinery and
apparatus having peculiarities described as follows:-The materials to be
operated upon are placed in a dish, vat, or pan, over which one or more sets of
arms are rotated; the arms are in some cases rotated in the same direction, in
other cases in opposite directions; these arms carry blades or bars, which descend
to nearly the bottom of the pan; the blades are made broad and flat in some
machines, and their flat sides are set at various angles to the line of motion,
so that they will push the material on one side when passing through it; in
some machines I propose to make them simple bars. These blades or bars
are made of iron or other suitable material, or iron coated with lead or other
suitable material when intended to resist the action of acids. The pan is also
lined with lead or other suitable material when it is to be protected against

page_text: the action of acids. Where heat is required in the process it is obtained from
steam, hot air, or hot water made to circulate through lead or other pipes.
coiled in the bottom of the pan, or the pan is made with a hollow bottom and
supplied with heating fluid.
Another peculiarity of my Invention consists in mounting the pan in such
manner that the materials may be easily supplied to it and discharged from it
when sufficiently operated upon by so arranging that it can be tipped or turned
over by mounting it on trunnions, by allowing one edge to descend, the other
being carried upon an axis or upon trunnions, by lowering it or by raising the
agitators so as to get the pan from underneath the agitators. The pan may be
arranged on a carriage supported on wheels, so that it can be tipped like the
waggon used by railway excavators and others to discharge the material at
any convenient place, and taken to be charged with a fresh supply of material
and then taken under the agitators, so that the material may be acted upon.
In operating upon materials where noxious fumes arise, the peculiarity of
my Invention consists in covering or enclosing the pan and connecting it with a
flue into which the fumes may be discharged, and when required in employing
a fan or other suitable exhausting apparatus to draw the fumes from the pan
or enclosure of the pan. A door is formed in the cover, or a spout is arranged
to charge the pan with material.
When acids are used with my machines one peculiarity of my Invention
consists in distributing the acid when required by pipes passing along the
arms carrying the agitators, or by a pipe rotating with the agitators, the
pipes being perforated with small holes, and supplied with acid from a cistern
placed at the centre of the arms, or from a fixed cistern by a pipe dropping
the acid into a funnel placed at the centre of the arms and in connection with
the distributing pipes. In place of the agitators being rotated all or part of
them may be stationary, and the pan may be made to rotate, and arranged so
that it can be tipped to discharge the material either when the agitators are in
motion or when they are detached from the driving geer. But in that par-
ticular combination and arrangement which I prefer to use, and in which my
Invention also consists, the pan is arranged on trunnions, so that it is nearly
balanced, space being allowed below so as to be able to turn it and discharge
the material, this being accomplished by a worm wheel or quadrant fixed upon.
one of the trunnions, which worm wheel gears with a worm on a shaft, which
can be rotated by a suitable handle. A hollow pillar is fixed to the bottom
of the pan, which pillar forms the bearing for one or more shafts working
within it, if two shafts are used one of them is hollow, and the other passes
through its interior. To the upper ends of the shafts in the hollow pillar (if

page_text: two shafts are used) the arms carrying the agitators are secured, one set of
arms is fixed to the solid, and the other set to the hollow shaft. The lower
ends of the shafts (if two are used) are in gear with a wheel (so as to be
driven in opposite directions if required) upon one end of a shaft secured in
bearings to the under side of the pan, and the outside end of this shaft has a
spur wheel upon it, which gears with one fast to the driving pulley, which
rotates loose on one of the trunnions of the pan; by this means the agitators
can be rotated even when the pan is tipped, which forms another feature of
my Invention. The gearing driving the agitators may be placed above the pan;
when heat is used the heating fluid may be conveyed to the pan by a pipe
passing through or coming in the line of the axis of one of its trunnions.
These machines may by driven by any convenient power, and they can be
made upon a small scale, so as to be adapted for manual power.
I shall now proceed to describe more particularly the manner in which my
improvements may be carried into effect.
Each of the accompanying four Sheets of Drawings represent three views,
and shows my principal improvements combined together to form a complete
machine, in the manner in which I prefer to carry my intention into effect.
Fig. 1, Sheet 1, Fig. 4, Sheet 2, Fig. 7, Sheet 3, and Fig. 10, Sheet 4,
are each plan views; Fig. 2, Sheet 1, Fig. 5, Sheet 2, Fig. 8, Sheet 3, and
Fig. 11, Sheet 4, are each elevations partly in section; Fig. 3, Sheet 1,
Fig. 6, Sheet 2, Fig. 9, Sheet 3, and Fig. 12, Sheet 4, are each end
elevations. In Figs. 6 and 12 the vat or pan is shown in its position when
the material is to be acted upon, and in Figs. 3 and 9 the vat or pan is shewn
in its position when discharging the material.
In the machine shown by Sheet 1, a are side frames or stands (secured
to the floor) in which bearings are formed for the trunnions (b) secured to
the pan or vat (c). This pan or vat may be made of wood hooped as shown,
or of cast or wrought metal, but if the trunnions are to be attached to the
side of the vat or pan, as shewn, I prefer to make them of metal, as they will
then be strong enough to hold together properly and keep their shape. On
the outside end of one of the trunnions (b) a toothed quadrant (d) is placed
which gears with a worm (d) upon a vertical shaft (d) having its bearings
in one of the side frames (a), this vertical shaft (d2) having a hand wheel (d³)
upon its upper end, so that the shaft can be rotated to tip or turn over the
pan (c) into the position shown by Fig. 3, when the material is to be dis-
charged. It will be seen that a hollow pillar (e) is secured in the centre of
the vat or pan (c) through which a hollow shaft (f) is passed, and that
through the hollow shaft a solid shaft (¹) is passed. Both shafts are free to

page_text: rotate separately, the lower end of the solid shaft (f) running in a bearing
in a bracket (f) secured to the under side of the vat or pan (c.) A bevil
wheel () is fixed at the lower end of both the solid and hollow shaft, as
shown, the two being geered together by a bevil pinion (f) on the end of a
shaft (g), having one of its bearings in the bracket (f) and the other in
another bracket from one trunnion. Upon the outer end of the shaft (g)
a spur wheel (g') is placed which geers with one (g) free to rotate upon
the axis of the trunnion. It will thus be seen that the hollow and solid
shaft ( and f) will be in geer with the driving power in every position of the
vat or pan (c) upon its trunnions. At the upper end of the hollow and solid
shaft arms (and f) are secured, having bars (f) which descend to the
bottom of the vat or pan (c) but without touching it. The bars () having
motion from the hollow shaft () are at the central part of the yat, and
those receiving motion from the solid shaft (f) are at the outside, as shewn,
the bars (f) being carried round in opposite directions. Upon the upper end
of the solid shaft (f) a small vessel (h) is fixed for the purpose of supplying
acid or other fluid to be gradually mixed with the material. The liquid is
conveyed from the vessel (h) by a pipe (h) along one of the arms (,)
which pipe may be perforated if required. Motion is given to the machine
by a pinion (3) in geer with the spur wheel (g) centred upon the trunnion (b),
which pinion is placed upon one end of a short shaft (g), having its bearings
upon one of the frames (a), and upon the other end of the short shaft a
pulley (g) is placed, if the machine is to be driven by power, or a handle (g)
if by hand. When acid is used, the central pillar (e) is cased round, and all
the surfaces likely to come in contact with the acid are protected by a covering
of lead or other acid-resisting material.
Sheet 2 shows one of my improved mixing machines, which is substantially
the same as that shewn by Sheet 1, except in the points which I shall now
explain. This machine is intended to be used so that the pan or vat (c) may
be charged and the material may be operated upon in one room, and then
discharged when sufficiently operated upon into a room below; it is therefore
arranged in the space formed in the floor of a room or platform. The
trunnions (b) of the pan or vat (c) are carried in bearings in brackets (a)
secured to beams of the floor or platform, as shown. The vertical shaft (d),
having the worm (d¹) upon it at one end and the hand wheel at the other end,
or tipping or turning the vat, is arranged in a hollow pillar secured to the
beam in the floor. The wheelwork for driving the arms (and f) is sub-
stantially the same as that shewn in Sheet One, except that the driving
pulley (g) is fixed directly upon the boss of the wheel (g) loose on the

page_text: trunnion (b.) In this machine flat blades (f) are used in place of bars set
at an angle, so that their sides tend to stir the material to and from the
centre of the vat or pan, as well as in the direction in which they are carried
round.
Sheet 3 represents a machine' similar to that shewn by Sheet 1, but different
in the mode of mounting the vat or pan (c) in the arrangement of the
bars (f) for acting upon the material and in the vessel (h) for supplying the
acid or other liquid. It will be seen that the trunnions (b) are in this case
secured to cross beams (k,) and that the hollow pillar (e) is also secured to
the cross beams (k) as well as the vat or pan (c), this mode of constructing
being specially intended where the vat or pan is made of staves hooped
together. The arms (5) from the hollow shaft () turn down close to the
covering of the central pillar (e) and then pass just clear of the bottom of the
vat or pan. The bars (f) from the arms of hollow shaft (f) ascend and
the bars (f) from the arms of the solid shaft (") descend, the bars from
one set of arms passing between those from the other set, as shewn.
vessel (h) is made with a cone top, as shewn, so that any small quantity of
acid or other liquid left in it when the mixing operation is completed. will be
retained in the vessel when the vat or pan is tipped or turned over.
The
Sheet 4 represents a machine similar to that shewn by Sheet 2, but
modified in construction in the mode of mounting the vat or pan (c) in the
arrangement of the arms giving motion to the blades (), and in the
vessel (h) for carrying the acid or other liquid being in this respect similar
to the machine shewn by Sheet 3. When heat is required the pan may be
made of metal and with a hollow bottom, or a pipe may be coiled flat in the
bottom of the vat or pan, and steam may be supplied to heat the hollow of
the pan or the coiled pipe by means of a pipe taken through a hollow in the
axis of one of the trunnions (b), and the condensed water may be removed by
a pipe passing through a hollow in the axis of the other trunnion (b), the
joints between the pipes and trunnions being secured by the ordinary stuffing-
box arrangement. When the pan is of metal it may be heated with gas
instead of steam, suitable pipes and burners being arranged under the pan for
the purpose.
When operating upon materials where noxious fumes arise, the machines
may be placed in small rooms or fixed casings, or casings or hoods so arranged
and suspended by means of levers or balanced weights that such casings or
hoods may be lifted off the machine to uncover it. The material to be operated
upon may be supplied through doors or down spouts leading into the vat or pan,
and the fumes may be drawn away into a flue, by means of a centrifugal

page_text: or other exhausting fan. Agitators may be arranged so as to be driven by
a solid and hollow shaft passing through a fixed pillar descending from the
geering placed above, the whole being fixed in position; the vat in this case
may be separate, and hinged at one edge to a lever having a balanced weight
at one end, so that the vat can be tipped by turning it on the axis of the
lever, thus allowing one edge to fall and discharge the material. The vat or
pan may be mounted on wheels arranged so as to be tipped like the waggons
used for railway excavating and other work, and this waggon, with its vat or
pan, may be brought upon a square platform under the fixed agitators, which
platform may be arranged so that it can be lifted vertically by means of two
cross shafts fixed in bearings to the framing, having toothed pinions at each
end working in toothed racks placed in a vertical position at each corner of
the square platform, so that by rotating these shafts by suitable geer each
toothed rack will be simultaneously acted upon, and the platform will thus be
lifted vertically and maintained in a level position. One or more levers or
weights may be employed to counterbalance the weight of the platform,
waggon, vat, or pan, and its load. In this case clicks taking into ratchets
upon the shafts actuating the platforms or catches will have to be employed
to hold the platform down at its lowest position against the action of the
balance weights when the waggon is removed from the platform. In place of
a lifting platform, the whole of the mechanism of the agitators and its driving
geer may be arranged so as to slide up and down two fixed pillars, one at
each end of the cross beams carrying the hollow pillar (e), and toothed racks
may be attached to each end of the cross beams geering with pinions on the
ends of a shaft extending horizontally between the two fixed pillars. T'his
shaft would have to be rotated by suitable geer to cause the agitators to
descend into or to be withdrawn from the vat or pan; if driven by power, the
driving belt would have to come to the pulley in an horizontal direction or
nearly so, so that the belt would become slack when the agitators were
elevated, or the driving belt might work upon a fixed pulley having a spur
wheel upon its boss geering with the spur wheel on the horizontal shaft (g)
driving the agitators, and in this case the wheels would be withdrawn out of
geer when the agitators were lifted, but would come into geer when the
agitators were lowered into the vat or pan. For some purposes, one set of
moving agitators may be sufficient in combination with bars or blades with
one of their ends fixed in the bottom of the vat or pan; and in this case the
pan may be fixed, when the material to be operated upon will flow out through
a hole which can be opened or closed in the bottom of the vat or pan, and

page_text: small pans or vats may be mounted on trunnions so as to be "tipped" or
turned over to discharge their contents by hand.
I have now particularly described the nature of my Invention, and the
manner in which it may be carried into effect, and claim as my Invention, for
the purposes herein-before mentioned,-
Firstly, the use of a series of flat blades set at angles to their line of motion
when two separate sets of such blades are worked in combination and
rotate round a common centre at varying speeds in the same or in opposite
directions.
Secondly, the arranging of vats or pans when used in connection with
mechanical agitators, so that they can be tipped, tilted, or turned over to
discharge the materials operated upon, as herein-before explained.
Thirdly, the mode of applying heat to vats or pans when combined with
mechanical agitators, as herein-before described.
Fourthly, the system or mode of gradually distriuting acid or other liquid
upon materials operated upon by mechanical agitators, as herein-before
described.
Fifthly, the arrangements and use of a centrifugal or exhausting fan for
removing noxious fumes given off by materials operated upon by mechanical
agitators, as herein-before described.
Sixthly, the arrangement and combination of pans or vats upon trunnions
of the agitating mechanism, and of the means for distributing acid or other
liquid, substantially as herein-before described and shewn in the accompanying
Drawings.
Seventhly, the combination of one set of moving agitators with bars or
blades fixed in the bottom of the vat or pan, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Carr, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Eighteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
THOMAS CAKK. (L.S.)