US782425A - Gold-separating machine. - Google Patents

Description

. PATENTED FEB. 14, 1905. F. G. STEVENSON & C, E. HEFT.

GOLD SEPARATING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 4.1904.

No. '7B-2,425.

Fig/j;

rJ C'. Stevenson harefE. Hefz- @Vl hummm UNTTED STATES FRED O. STEVENSON `AND CHARLES rammed February i4, 1905.

PATENT OFFICE.

E. HEFT, OF GRANTS PASS, OREGON,

ASSIGNORS OF ONE-HALF TO GEORGE W. SANFORD, OF HONEOYE FALLS, AND-CHARLES M. SMITH, OF MARION, NEW YORK.

GOLD-SEPARATING MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 782,425, dated February 14, 1905.

I Application filed .Tune 4, 1904:. Serial No. 211,177. i

T o aZZ w/wm/ it may concern:

Be it known that we, FRED C. S'rEvENsoN and CHARLES E. HEFT, citizens of the-United States, residing at Grants Pass, in the county of Josephine and State of Oregon, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Gold-Separating Machines, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to improvements in machines for separating gold from gold-laden sand and other base'minerals; and its objects are, first, to provide a separator that may be used either with the gold-bearing sand in a dry formpor with water owinggover it; second, to provide for thoroughly sifting the gold-laden sand and bringingitin contact with the amalgam in a tine powder, so that the smaller particles of gold will be more readily taken up by the amalgam, and, third, to provide a machine with which air may be passed forcibly through the sifting sand as it approaches the amalgam and passes through the machine. We attain these objects by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which-,-

Figure l is a longitudinal section of themachine on the line X Xof Fig. 2, showing the relation of the several parts; and Fig. 2 is a top plan of the machine with the hopper re- Similar letters refer to similar parts throughout both views. Y

rThis machine is constructed with an outer cylinder A, supportedin heads K and L, the

head K being fitted to revolve freely1 upon the bearing K', which may be aball-bearing, if desired, on the pillow-block Y', and the head L is fitted to revolve freely on the roller-bearings M, which are supported to revolve in the 40 pillow-block Y. The cylinder A may be made to revolve by means of` the gear-wheel Z meshing in the gear Z at the end of the cylinder A. The gear-wheels Z and G are supported upon the same shaft, so that they must revolve together, and the gear-wheel G is driven by the gear-Wheel F, Which is secured to the driving-shaft D. We prefer to place an idler G' between the gear-wheels F and G,

so that the gear-wheels G and Z" will turn in the same direction that the gear-wheel F does and willl cause the cylinder A to revolve in the opposite direction.

- The shaft D is supported to revolve freely in the boxes N and N and has an inner cylinder B C secured thereto, said inner cylinder being divided at Z. The end O of this cylinder is designed to receive the gold-laden sand from the hopper O through the spout O.

O represents a screen that may be made to vibrate, if desired, by meansof the angle-lever U U', which is pivoted to a support, as at V, and has one arm pivotally attached to the screen O and the other end arranged -to be actuated by knobs W on the cylinder-head L or by lany other of the many available appliances for this purpose.

The portion O of the inner cylinder is provided With numerous apertures c or otherwise arranged to rescreen the gold-laden sand before it passes into the outer cylinder A and comes in contact with the amalgam a therein, and the portionB of the inner cylinder is provided with like perforations for the passage of air which is impelled by the fan J The outer cylinder A and-the inner cylinder B C, as hereinbefore suggested, revolvein opposite directions and are so geared that the inner cylinder revolves relatively fast-say three h und red revolutions per minu tie-and theouter cylinder revolves relatively slow-say forty to sixty revolutions per minute-it being desirable that the inner cylinder should revolve fast enough to thoroughly mix and sift the sand and4 that theouter cylinder should revolve slow enough sothat there would be no danger of carrying the sand and amalgam around with it and yet that it may have sufjcient motion to cause the sand to travel toward the openings 71: of the cylinder.

It is desirable that the fan J should revolve fast enough to force a strong current of air through the cylinders, and for this purpose We place a pulley I upon the end of the shaft D and connect it by a belt S with a smaller pulley I', mounted upon a counter-shaft that is supported in the boxes N and upon which is mounteda pulley H, and this pulley is connected, by means of the belt S, with the pulley H, which in turn is secured to the hollow shaft J, that supports and carries the fan J It will be noted that the shaft J is designed to revolve closely but freely upon the shaft D as a bearing, but to be entirely free from contact with the bearing K.

P represents a section of water-pipe to be used for Howing a stream of water through the cylinder A for the purpose of keeping the gold-laden sand agitated, so that the particles 'of gold maybe made to settle to the bottom and be taken up by the amalgam a'.

To describe the action of the fan J we will place the observer facing the left end of the machine and looking toward the right end.

If dry gold-laden sand is being passed through the cylinder, the fan should revolve over toward the right to draw a current of air through the cylinders and force it out of the openings thus keeping the sand thoroughly agitated and allowing the heavier portion, gold, to drop into and be taken up by the amalgam. On the other hand, if a stream of water is forced over the gold-laden sand the fans J should revolve over to the left to draw a strong current of air through the openings It' and force it through the apertures c in the cylinder B upon the surface of the Water in the cylinder A, thus thoroughly agitating the sand and water and greatly facilitating the process of seprating the finer particles of gold from the san E represents a pulley secured to the shaft D for driving the cylinders by belt connection with other pulleys, &c., in the usual way, and I) represent supporting-bearings by means of which the inner cylinder B C is secured to theshaft D.

T represents the base of the machine.

R represents, or rather suggests, a'form of support for the hopper O, andQQ show rods and turnbuckles for securing the heads K L and strengthening the construction of the cylinder A.

To reverse the motion of the fans, as hereinbefore mentioned, it is simply necessary to substitute a half-wind belt for the straight belt S, a mechanical change so well known in the art as to need no further description or illustration in this connection.

The outer cylinder Ais provided with a series of annular ribs a, designed, first, to retain the several quantities of amalgam a', and, second, to retard the iiow of the gold-laden sand through the cylinder, so that the gold may be more thoroughly sifted from it, and the entire cylinder is made to incline downward, as indicated in Fig. 1, so that the natural inclination of the sand will be to travel toward the openings le.

We do not desire to restrict ourselves to applying the fans J as herein shown and described, as a fan may be used entirely separate from the cylinder and connected by an air-pipe; but we prefer the construction herein shown, as it makes the machine more complete and compact.

Having thus fully described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

l. In a gold-separating machine, an inner cylinder mounted upon a shaft, an outer cylinder mounted upon independent bearings, a train of gear-wheels connecting the cylinders `to revolve them in opposite directions and at dierent speeds, annular ribs'within the outer cylinder, the inner cylinder divided longitudinally and perforated, and a hopper and screen connected therewith.

2. In a gold-separating machine, an inner cylinder mounted upon a shaft and open at both ends, a partition dividing it longitudinally and the shell of the cylinder perforated, an outer cylinder mounted upon separate bearings, open at'both ends and having annular ribs within, a train of gear-wheels connecting said cylinders to revolve them at different speeds, a fan within the inner cylinder connected to revolve independent thereof, and a hopper and screen.

3. In a gold-separating machine, an inner perforated cylinder, a shaft supported in pillow-blocks, and carrying said cylinder, an outer cylinder mounted on independent bear ings on said pillow-blocks a train of gearwheels connecting said cylinders to revolve them at different speeds, annular ribs in the outer cylinder, both of said cylinders open at the ends, a fan mounted upon a cylindrical shaft to revolve upon the cylinder-shaft, a train of multiplying-pulleys and belts connecting the cylinder-shaft with the fan-shaft, and a hopper.

4. In a gold-separating machine, an inner revoluble perforated cylinder open at both ends, a shaft mounted on pillow-blocks and supporting said cylinder, an outer cylinder open at both ends and mounted on independent bearings on the pillow-blocks, annular ribs in the outer-` cylinder, a train of multiplying gear-wheels connecting the two cylinders, a fan connected with the inner cylinder, a hopper and an oscillating screen connected with the inner cylinder.

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Signed at Grants Pass, Oregon, this 14th A day of May, 1904.

FRED o. s'rEvENsoN.' CHARLES E. HEFT.

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