Improvements in Apparatus for Washing and Separating Coal and other Minerals.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 4th Jan., 1893
Complete Specification Left, 2nd Oct., 1893-Accepted, 4th Nov., 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Washing and Separating Coal and
other Minerals.
We, JOHN MORISON, of Newbattle, Dalkeith, in the County of Mid Lothian,
North Britain, Mining Engineer, and ANDREW KESSON, DUNCAN CAMPBELL,
and SAMUEL POTTS, of Greenfield Foundry, Hamilton, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows, that is to say :-
This invention has for its object the washing or separating of coal and other
minerals in an improved, efficacious, expeditious, and economical manner.
In carrying out the invention the coal or mineral which may be in a more or less
broken or crushed condition, is fed into a tank containing a considerable quantity of
water; and as the coal or mineral sinks through the water it is acted on by a
horizontal or nearly horizontal motion of the water, which motion produces a
separation between the materials according to their different specific gravities, so
that divergent descending streams of the materials are formed. The lower part of
the tank is divided into two or more compartments by one or more plates or
partitions capable of adjustment so as to be exactly between the descending streams
of materials. The separated materials are taken out of the tank by separate
endless bucket elevators or dredgers or in any other convenient way. A series of
tanks may be used into which the coal or mineral may be fed in pieces of uniform
size for each tank.
The motion of the water may be either continuous, intermittent, or pulsating. In
one modification of the apparatus the motion is produced as in an ordinary jigger by
a reciprocating piston working in a vessel or compartment, such vessel being,
however, made with a perforated plate which is vertical or nearly so. The coal or
mineral is fed in so as to sink in front of the perforated plate and so as to be acted
on by the motion produced in the water by the jigger piston. The return or
upward strokes of the jigger piston may draw the water.back exclusively through
the vertical plate, in which case a simple pulsating motion will be produced, or
more or less water may enter the jigger vessel through inlet check valves, so that
whilst the motion will be to some extent pulsating or intermittent there will be more
movement from the vertical plate than towards it.
The portions of the materials separated from each other may, if found necessary,
be subjected to further similar treatment in supplementary apparatus either in the
same tank or separate therefrom.
If found desirable air may be mixed with the water acting on the coal or mineral,
and in that case the air may be injected into the water in a manner to impart the
desired motion to it.
Dated this Thin f 1
1000
EDMUND HUNT,
Applicants' Agent.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Washing and Separating Coal and
other Minerals.
We, JOHN MORISON, of Newbattle Dalkeith, in the County of Mid Lothian,
North Britain, Mining Engineer, and ANDREW KESSON, DUNCAN CAMPBELL
and SAMUEL POTTS, of Greenfield Foundry, Hamilton, in the County of Lanark
North Britain, Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
Price 8d.1

page_text: what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement, that is to say :-
This invention has for its object the washing or separating of coal and other
minerals in an improved, efficacious, expeditious, and economical manner.
In carrying out the invention, the coal or mineral, which may be in a more or less
broken or crushed condition is fed into a tank containing a considerable quantity of
water; and as the coal or mineral sinks through the water it is acted on by a
horizontal or nearly horizontal motion of the water, which motion produces a
separation between the materials according to their different specific gravities so
that divergent descending streams of the materials are formed. The lower part of
the tank is divided into two or more compartments by one or more plates or
partitions capable of adjustment, so as to be exactly between the descending streams
of materials. The separated materials are taken out of the tank by separate
endless bucket elevators or dredgers or in any other convenient way. A series of
tanks may be used into which the coal or minerals may be fed in pieces of uniform
size for each tank.
The motion of the water may be either continuous, intermittent, or pulsating ;
and may be due to the head of the water supplied, or to centrifugal or other pumps,
or to jigger apparatus.
And in order that the said invention and the manner of performing the same may
be properly understood there is hereunto appended an explanatory drawing repre-
senting in vertical section the main parts of one modification of the improved
apparatus.
The tank, A, is represented as built up of cast iron plates, but may be constructed
of wood or other suitable material. It is made with vertical sides, and with inclined
ends, B, C, and is shown as arranged for separating the materials into two portions
of different specific gravities. The materials are fed continuously into the tank
down a shoot, D, and they drop down near a perforated vertical plate, E, extending
across the tank, and forming one side of a box, F, in which is fitted to work a
jigger piston, G, made to reciprocate by an eccentric, H, on an overhead rotating
shaft, J. Just above the perforated part of the plate, E, there is fixed an inclined
plate, K, to deflect any part of the materials tending to strike the perforated plate.
The motion of the water produced by the jigger piston, G, causes such portions of
the materials as are of lighter specific gravity to move further away from the
perforated plate than the heavier portions, the materials becoming more or less
completely separated into two descending streams. The heavier materials fall
directly down into a space partitioned off by a curved shell, L, extending across
the bottom of the tank, this space having working in it the lower part of an endless
chain of buckets, M, which raise the heavier materials out of the tank. The lighter
materials are guided by a dividing or deflecting plate, N, into a second space
partitioned off by a shell, P, and having working in it a second chain of endless
buckets, Q, which raise and deliver the lighter materials over the other end of the
tank. The deflecting plate, N, is connected by a rod, N 1, to a lever, N 2, on a
short shaft having on it outside of the tank a hand lever (indicated by dotted
lines) N 3, by means of which the deflecting plate can be adjusted to suit the
materials operated on and the amount of motion imparted to the water.
The water may pass inwards and outwards through the perforated plate, E, or
wholly or partly outwards, the box, F, or the piston, G, being fitted with inlet
check valves proportioned to allow of the entrance through them at each up stroke
of the piston of a quantity of water equal to or less than that ejected through the
perforated plate at each down stroke. Or instead of the jigger piston a double-
acting pump may be employed to make the water pass or circulate through the
tank; or a centrifugal pump or a head of water derived in any convenient way may
be used. When the jigger piston, G, is not used the box, F, may be closed by a
cover indicated by dotted lines, and the water may enter the box through an inlet
indicated by a dotted circle, R..

page_text: The portions of the materials separated from each other may if found necessary
be subjected to further similar treatment in supplementary apparatus either in the
same or separate tanks. And if found desirable air may be mixed with the water
acting on the coal or mineral, and in that case the air may be injected into the
water in a manner to impart the desired motion to it.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is :-
Improved apparatus for washing and separating coal and other minerals in
which the materials are dropped through water in a tank and are subjected to
horizontal motion of the water, such motion being continuous, intermittent, or
pulsating, substantially as hereinbefore described.
Dated this Thirtieth day of September 1893.
EDMUND HUNT,
Applicants' Agent.