US449942A - Conveyer and separator-apron for mining machinery - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

, W. A. MERRALLS. GONVEYER'AND SEPARATOR APRON FOR MINING MACHINERY. No. 449,942.

-Patented Apr. '7, 1891.

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. UNiTEn STAT S PATENT OFFICE.

VILLIAM A. MERRALLS, OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.

CONVEYER AND SEPARATOR-APRON FOR MINING MACHINERY.

SEECIFICATION forming pait of Letters Patent No. 449,942, dated April '7, 1891.

Application filed February 7, 1890.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM A. MERRALLS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Kansas City, in the county of Jackson and State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Oonveyer and Separator Aprons for Mining Machinery and Similar Purposes; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention is especially designed as an adgunct or attachment for the placer-mineapparatus'for which Letters Patent No. 412,643, dated October 8, 1889, were granted to me; but itwill be found useful for other descriptions of mining machinery, it being used as an endless-chain or a traveling grizzly and placed at the head of the sluice-box or as far to the head as will permit, so that the coarse rocks, gravel, or bowlders, or anything larger than the openings in the slats of the apron will be carried off and dumped in the most convenient place, thus doing away with the men who are kept constantly jerking out these larger substances.

The invention consists in certain novel constructions, combinations, and arrangements n an endlesschain apron or grizzly of mining machinery and in a novel combination and arrangement of the apron or grizzly compr1s1ng,in combination, the novel parts hereinafter described, with a concentrator and a water-distributing pipe above and between the ends of the apron or grizzly.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a top View of my invention and a portion of the frame, screens, and lateral sluiceways, shafting, and gearing shown in my aforesaid Letters Patent. Fig. 2 is a transverse section in the line as x of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the supply end of the concentrating apparatus, the supply-gutter being omitted in the view. Fig. 3 is a detail inverted plan View of an upper portion of the endless-chain or slatted-apron conveyer. Fig. 4 is an end elevation of a modified construction of the conveyer and separator, looking toward the supply end of the apparatus.

AAA in the drawings represent revolving Serial Ne. 339,542. ('No model.)

sluiceways; D, supporting-frame; G, shaft, and E gears, the same operating in a similar manner as in my aforesaid patent. Instead of these screens and sluiceways, any other suitable ordinary concentrator maybe adopted for receiving the partly-screened substances from my conveyer and separator and subjecting the same to the finishing concentrating operation. The parts named, except the conveyer and separator, are not specifically claimed under this application.

F is an endless-chain apron conveyor and separator; G, an inclined receiving, discharging, and directing chute arranged partly within the conveyer F; H, a Water-distributing pipe perforated with small holes and arranged about six inches above the apron-slats; H,

an inclined supply spout or gutter arranged above the top of the sluiceways, and I supporting and bearing standards of a suitable platform or frame I, which frame is indicated by dotted lines.

The conveyer and separator-apron or grizzly may be arranged preferably at right angles, or nearly so, to the screens A and sustained, as shown, by the standards I and frame I, and its chute G may be applied either centrally beneath the upper portion of theapron, as in Fig. 1,or to one side of the'center thereof, as shown in Fig. 4. The slats a of the apron are firmly fastened to chain-links b, which are united by join t-pins c and form endless chains d, the rollers f of which'ride on ordinary supporting-ledges (1 supported by the frame I, all in the ordinary manner or as illustrated in Figs. 1, 2, and 3, or they may be fastened to ordinary endless chains (1', as in Fig. at. When the chains are formed of links, as in Figs. 2 and 3, rollers, asf, are applied on eachjoint-pin c, and supporting-ledges, as (1 and chain-driving wheels g, with notches h in their peripheries for the reception of the rollers f, are provided for supporting and driving the chains; but when endless chains, as (Z, are adopted sprocket-wheels g are employed. Theslats a of the apron are perforated, as at m, over the whole or nearlythe whole of their surfaces, the perforations being one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter or of greater or less size, as circumstances require, said perforations extending entirely screens; A A A, semi-cylindrical concaves beneath the screens; B B, spouts and lateral through the slats,so as to discharge substances through the apron upon the chute G,

and thereby enable said chute to conduct these substances into or upon a screen A or other suitable screen or sieve of a concentrator. The apron F is driven or revolved by means of gears E and a shaft K or otherwise suitably, and it may be revolved eitherto the right or left of the concentrator by applying the gearing appropriately.

It Will be seen from the afore oing descrip tion that the placer-mine gold-carrying substances, comprising gold, sand, dirt, and gravel, or bowlders and water, are flowed or deposited from the spout or gutter H upon an intermediate portion of the apron F, as illustrated, and while carried along by the apron, subjected, if necessary, to the action of an additional stream of water through perforated pipe H, they are agitated and disintegrated, and such portions of the mixture as are capable of passing through the perforations m of the slats fall upon the chute G and enter the first one of the screens A, wherein the gold is finally concentrated, and while this is going on the refuse, such as gravel and heavy bowlders and the like, passes along the top of the apron and discharges at one or the other end thereof upon the dump, and as one quantity is separated another is taking its place and being treated in like maner as at the start. By my invention the concentrator is saved from the injurious wear resulting from heavy bowlders and large masses of refuse matter passing longitudinally through the screens or over sieves during the concentrating operation, the labor of men jerking out large bowlders saved, and the operation is very effectively performed. In Fig.4 the apron is shown with an intermediate chain or sprocket wheel g and the chute is between this wheel and an end wheel. If desirable, another chute may be applied in space a? or, and the two branch chutes unite in one connectiontail or discharging-chute leading into the concentrator.

It is sometimes necessary to use an apron or grizzly one or two hundred or a thousand feet in length, or to have one end of the apron one thousand feet above the first concentrator-screen, and in such case the proportions and arrangement of the parts will have to be changed accordingly, and a greater number of chain-driving supporting-wheels running onsuitable ledges d will have to be provided; but the discharging chute or chutes, as G, will be applied partly within the apron, as described and shown.

The breaks at w w in the drawings are intended to indicate that the apron and chute from bowlders and rocks, and that said material is received from the sluice-box separated at the point where the concentrator is located by the agitating motion of the grizzly or endless-chain slatted perforated apron and the action of a stream of water from a pipe above the apron and in close proximity to the dis charging end of the supply pipe or gutter, which is at right angles to the grizzly or apron, and that this separation is so effected that the gold or other precious metal and sand and small gravel descend through the apron or grizzly into a chute which is also at right angles to the apron or grizzly, and therefrom passed and discharged into the concentrator, while the bowlders, rocks, or other large debris are conveyed along upon the, grizzly and dumped at the end of the same upon the heap or into other receptacles beyond the end of the apron or grizzly, and that during this operation such substances as cling to the bowlders or pieces of rock, and conse quently do notpass off at once through the holes in the slats of the apron or grizzly, are subjected to the forcible washing action of water from the distributing-pipe, and thereby separated from the same and compelled to pass through the openings in the slats before the bowlders or rocks have passed beyond the range of the receiving, discharging, and directing chute, which conveys the partlyscreened substances into the concentrator.

\Vhat I claim is- 1-. In a mining-machine grizzly or apron, in combination, the transversely-arranged conveying and separating apron, the receiving,

discharging, and conducting chute supported within and extending from the inside of the apron a suitable distance, thelongitudinallyarranged supply pipe or gutter above the apron, the water-distributing pipe located above the apron and chute and in close proximity to the supplygutter and between the ends, of the apron, and. the longitudinally-arranged.- concentrating screens or sieves adapt.- ed for receiving the partly-separated substances from the said receiving and conducting chute at a point between the ends of the. apron, substantially as described.

2. In a grizzly or apron for conveying or separating goldand precious metals, from bowlders and rock in the passage of thesame from the mine or place of deposit to the concentrator, the combination of the endless chain, perforated slatted conveyer and separator, a chute leading out of it between, its ends, a longitudinally-arranged supply pipe or gutter above the apron, and a water-distributing pipe H, arranged above and be.- tween the ends of the grizzly or apron, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

IVILLIAH A. MERRALLS.

Witnesses:

RoLLINs BINGHAM, L. G. FARWELL.

IIS

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