Improvements in the Hydraulic Conveyance of Materials.
Year: 1891

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Hydraulic Conveyance of Materials.
A communication from WALLACE CORODON ANDREWS, of 2, Cortlandt Street,
New York, in the County and State of New York, United States of
America, Gentleman.
I, ALFRED JULIUS BOULT of 323 High Holborn in the County of Middlesex,
M.I.M:E., 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 :-
The object is to convey substances to long distances without the necessity of
actual carriage that is without cartage, conveyance by rail or similar carriage.
With this object in view the invention resides in the method of transportation
which consists in taking solid matter in an artificial or even a natural condition of
requisite fine division, introducing the same into liquid, conveying the mixture to a
distance through conduits, then separating by subsidence or by flotation of the
suspended matter or by mechanically separating the solid from the liquid or the
liquid from the solid matter the solid matter then to be taken away in quantities as
desired.
The substances which I have primarily in mind to transport are coal-slack, or
coal-dust, cotton or cotton-seed; but this invention is also applicable to the trans-
portation and conveyance of other substances such as wood or straw in a state of
fine division or in pulp form.
The substance to be transported is to be introduced into liquid and carried in
conduits to the point of destination. There the liquid carrying the substance is to
be run into suitable reservoirs, ponds or tanks and to be separated from the
substance. This can be done by allowing the substance to part from the water by
gravity where the substance is heavier than the water the same being deposited
and where the water is heavier than the substance the substance rising to the top
may be mechanically removed or the water may be drawn off, or the mixture may
be screened by running it upon suitable aprons or recls which will let the water
through but keep the solid substance back.
In the case of coal and similar substance before introducing it into liquid I
reduce it by grinding or crushing by any mechanical means to a state of fine
division that is to a very fine powder. The transportation through pipes is effected
by gravity or by pumping either direct or by the intermediate use of stand-pipes.
Operating on coal the mode of procedure is specifically as follows:-I first reduce
the coal to the condition of dust or fine powder, then I feed it to a stream of water
or other liquid passing through a pipe, the pipe emptying upon a screen or directly
into a pond or tank where I allow the dust to subside after which I draw off the
water remove the coal and if desirable dry it.
It is the intention of the inventor to take fine coal at the mouth of coal-mines
(now in many cases a waste product by reason of the cost of carriage) cotton or
cotton-seed from plantations now remote and transport it through a pipe to greater
or less distances as may be required or as circumstances may justify to distances of
even hundreds of miles to towns and cities or to navigable rivers, lakes and the sea-
coast. The propelling power to be hydraulic or static either or both, the coal,
cotton or cotton-seed riding on the water or in the water in suspension (and never
in solution).

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me
by my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :-
The method of transporting matter as described which consists in reducing the
same to a condition of fine division that is to a powder or pulp or taking it in its
natural state if suitably small and light introducing it into liquid conveying the
mixture through conduits and separating the matter from the liquid substantially as
described.
Dated this 31st day of March 1891.
W. P. THOMPSON & BOULT,
Agents for the Applicant.