Improvements in or relating to Winning or Getting Gravel, Sand, or the like.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 9th Apr., 1891
Complete Specification Left, 6th Jan., 1892-Accepted, 6th Feb., 1892
TROVISIONAL DI TIQATION.
Improvements in or relating to Winning or Getting Gravel,
Sand, or the like.
I, GEORGE FOUNTAINE WEARE HOPE, of 39 Coleman Street, in the County
of Middlesex, Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
At present when sand or gravel are required for building or other purposes it
commonly happens that it has to be brought from great distances for various
reasons; for example in the case of sharp sand it must be washed and sea sand is
therefore frequently procured. In the case of gravel or sand which need not be
washed it has to be screened, generally by hand, and it will be at once seen that
either the long carriage of the sea sand or the screening of the other is expensive.
Now by my present invention I am enabled in most cases to procure the sand or
gravel within a reasonable distance of the point where it is required if not absolutely
close to, and in the very process of winning it. I both screen and wash it so that I
am enabled to dispense with the long carriage, with the hand labour incident to the
usual screening, and with the separate washing process. My invention may be
carried out in various ways but the following description of it will enable it to be
well understood.
Instead of digging out the sand or gravel I provide a pit into which I introduce
water and then pump the sand, gravel and water out and deliver it from the pump
to any suitable kind of screening or settling apparatus, part of which apparatus may
if desired even be the railway trucks or road carts in which the material is to be
taken away, or may be upon such trucks carts or equivalent. When commencing
operations it is desirable to construct a caisson dam or equivalent so as to form a
pit or tank in which to operate and in which the suction pipe of the pump may be
placed into this pit or tank the water is introduced and a sufficient quantity
maintained within it during the working, and it is also desirable to have a suitable
stirring device or apparatus within the pit so as to stir up the sand or gravel to
supply it to the pump. This stirrer may be of any convenient description as for
example a series of arms or blades arranged around the suction pipe or a series of
revolving jet nozzles worked by power or on the principle of the Barker's mill, the
exact construction of the stirrer being thus as will be seen immaterial so long as
sufficient stirring action is produced. A suitable water supply must be introduced
into the pit or tank and this may be accomplished in any convenient manner as' from
any local stream or town supply, artesian well or otherwise, and as it is desirable that
a sufficient quantity of comparatively clean water should be supplied to the suction
pipe so that the product may be clean an artesian well is a convenient arrangement
to have the pump then sucking both the muddy or dirty water which contains the
sand or gravel and the clean water from the artesian well.
It will be at once apparent that the exact application of this invention may be
according to circumstances considerably modified'; for example in a case where the
sand or gravel happens to lie at a higher level than the place where it is desirable
to place the pit or tank and which latter place may be upon solid rock or earth
which it is not desirable to use the pit or tank may be made complete in itself and
provided with a complete bottom the material to be operated upon being then
projected into it from above by a shoot or otherwise and a sufficient amount of
water also supplied the apparatus then becoming practically a suction pit in which
the material and the water are mixed and drawn up by the pump.
In other cases
a simple framework presenting the necessary sides may be employed the sand or
gravel forming the bottom which gradually recedes as the material is loosened and

page_text: pumped up the framework following the receding bottom or not according to
circumstances.
Sometimes the stirrer need not be employed at all though generally speaking it
will facilitate the work.
When applying this invention to the winning of clay and similar strongly
adhesive materials the stirrer may be arranged so as to cut or shave the material
which would not be readily detached or disintegrated by the mere action of the
water or of ordinary stirrers and in the further treatment of such last named
material the screening and similar apparatus required for sand or gravel would be
displaced by a pug-mill apparatus or the like so as to deliver the clay in a plastic
condition suitable for brick making or otherwise according to the requirements of
the case.
Dated this 9th day of April 1891
W. P. THOMPSON & BOULT,
Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to Winning or Getting Gravel,
Sand, or the like.
1. GEORGE FOUNTAINE WEARE HOPE of 39 Coleman Street, in the City of
London, Merchant, 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 :-
At present when sand or gravel are required for building or other purposes it
commonly happens that it has to be brought from great distances for various
reasons, for example in the case of sharp sand it must be washed and sea sand is
therefore frequently procured. In the case of gravel or sand which need not be
washed it has to be screened, generally by hand, and it will be at once seen that
either the long carriage of the sea sand or the screening of the other is expensive.
Now by my present invention I am enabled in most cases to procure the sand or
gravel within a reasonable distance of the point where it is required if not absolutely
close to it, and in the very process of winning it I both screen and wash it so that 1
am enabled to dispense with the long carriage, with the hand labour incident to the
usual screening and with the separate washing process. My invention may be
carried out in various ways but the following description of it will enable it to be
well understood.
Instead of digging out the sand or gravel I provide a pit into which I introduce
water and then pump the sand, gravel and water out and deliver it from the pump
to any suitable kind of screening or settling apparatus, part of which apparatus
may if desired even be the railway trucks or road carts in which the material is to
be taken away, or may be upon such trucks carts or equivalent. When commencing
operations it is desirable to construct a caisson dam or frame so as to form a pit or
tank in which to operate and in which the suction pipe of the pump may be placed,
into this pit or tank the water is introduced and a sufficient quantity maintained
within it during the working, and it is also desirable to have a suitable stirring
device or apparatus within the pit so as to stir up the sand or gravel to supply it
to the pump. This stirrer may be of any convenient description as for example a
series of arms or blades arranged around the suction pipe or a series of revolving
jet nozzles worked by power or on the principle of the Barker's mill, the exact con-
struction of the stirrer being thus as will be seen immaterial so long as sufficient
stirring action is produced. A suitable water supply must be introduced into
the pit
or tank and this may be accomplished in any convenient manner as from
any local stream or town supply, artesian well or otherwise, and as it is desirable that
a sufficient quantity of comparatively clean water should be supplied to the suction
pipe so that the product may be clean an artesian well is a convenient arrangement

page_text: to have the pump then sucking both the muddy or dirty water which contains the
sand or gravel and the clean water from the artesian well.
It will be at once apparent that the exact application of this invention may be
according to circumstances considerably modified, for example in a case where the
sand or gravel happens to lie at a higher level than the place where it is desirable
to place the pit or tank and which latter place may be upon solid rock or earth
which it is not desirable to use, the pit or tank may be made complete in itself and
provided with a complete bottom the material to be operated upon being then pro-
jected into it from above by a shoot or otherwise and a sufficient amount of water
also supplied, the apparatus then becoming practically a suction pit in which the
material and the water are mixed and drawn up by the pump. In other cases a
simple framework presenting the necessary sides may be employed the sand or
gravel forming the bottom which gradually recedes as the material is loosened and
pumped up, the framework following the receding bottom or not according to
circumstances.
Sometimes the stirrer need not be employed at all though generally speaking it
will facilitate the work.
When applying this invention to the winning of clay and similar strongly adhesive
materials the stirrer may be arranged so as to cut or shave the material which
would not be readily detached or disintegrated by the mere action of the water
or of ordinary stirrers and in the further treatment of such last named material
the screening and similar apparatus required for sand or gravel would be displaced
by a pug-mill apparatus or the like so as to deliver the clay in a plastic condition
suitable for brick making or otherwise according to the requirements of the case.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is,
1. The method or process of winning and cleaning sand gravel and other similar
materials which consists in applying water to the practically dry materials and
then conveying them by pumping to the screening or settling apparatus sub-
stantially as described.
2. The method or process of winning and cleaning sand gravel and other similar
materials which consists in forming a pit in or upon the ground in which the
materials to be dealt with are mixed with water and from which they are
pumped substantially as described.
Dated this on day of January 1892.
G. F. W. HOPE.
W. P. Thompson & Boult,
Agents for the Applicant.