IMPROVEMENTS IN DRYING AND SORTING COALS, PEAT, AND MINERAL ORES, IN SEPARATING EXTRANEOUS MATTERS THEREFROM, AND IN APPARATUS USED IN THOSE PROCESSES
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Ferdinand Heury Warlich at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 14th
March 1865.
I, FERDINAND HENRY WARLICH, of No. 4, Creed Place, Maze Hill,
Greenwich, in the County of Kent, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN DRYING AND SORTING COALS, PEAT, AND MINERAL
ORES, IN SEPARATING EXTRANEOUS MATTERS THEREFROM, AND IN APPARATUS USED
IN THOSE PROCESSES," to be as follows:-
These improvements consist in the method of drying and sorting coals, peat,
and mineral ores, in separating extraneous matters therefrom, and in appa-
ratus used in those processes.
According to my Invention I take the small and duff coals or slack as it
comes from the pit, and shoot them into a circular chamber built of brick or
constructed of iron. This chamber is surrounded by flues, and is heated by a
furnace or furnaces placed beneath. The interior of this chamber is provided
with a spindle, or shaft, or shafts fitted with arms or knives similar to those of
a pug mill, which revolves amongst the coals, causing them whilst undergoing
the process of drying to be continually stirred up and equally acted upon by
the heat of the chamber. After this process has been conducted, until the
coals are thoroughly dry, they are let out through an opening in the bottom

page_text: By this
of the chamber into trucks placed below to receive them, or they may be
caused at once to descend into the hopper of the sorting apparatus (if this
apparatus should be built underneath), whence they descend on to a wheel
fitted with paddles or fans which revolves with great velocity at one end of an
enclosed chamber, and throws the coals towards the other end.
operation the dried coals are sorted according to their different sizes, and fall
through openings into trucks placed beneath to receive them. If the coals are
sufficiently dry when they come from the pit they may be sorted by the above
apparatus without undergoing the process of drying.
To remove the extraneous matters, such as iron pyrites, stone, slate, or
shale from small and duff coals or slack, the small and duff coals or slack are
first thoroughly dried, and it is preferred should be then subjected to the pro-
cess of sorting as above described. Each size of dried coal is then taken and
shot into a hopper, and descends into a chamber, where it falls on to a wheel
fitted with paddles or fans revolving with great velocity, and are thrown
towards the other end of this chamber, where the coals and their extraneous
matters fall on to perforated or reticulate trays, and are acted upon from below
by a strong current of air, which rushing through the perforations drives the
coals from tray to tray until they ultimately fall in a clean state through the
opening in the bottom of the farthest end of the chamber into trucks placed
to receive them, the impurities remaining on account of their weight behind
in the trays.
The process of sorting and cleaning peat may be performed by the
apparatus described, but it must be first in a dry and divided state.
The process of sorting and cleaning mineral ores will be conducted in the
same manner as for coals after being calcined, roasted, or dried, and in a
powdered or pounded state.