US2136280A - Method of recovering ozocerite - Google Patents

Description

Nov. 8, 1938. H. R. DICKINSON METHOD OF RECOVERINC- OZOCERITE Fi led Oct. 16, 1954 Patented Nov. 8, 1938 UNITED S..T-A-TES PATENT YOF-FICE v r 7 72,136,286"; I .I

7 METHOD OF REC'OVER ING QZO CERITE Henry Randel Dickinson, Grand Rapids, Mich.

Application October 16, 1934, SerialNo. 748,552

6 Claims.

This invention is .a method of separating ozocerite from its ore and associated impurities, without requiring the use of either heat or sol-- 5 Heretofore, the most commonly practiced method of recovering ozoceritefrom its ore, as sociated'rock and other impurities has been to bring the raw materials into association with hot Water at a temperature above the melting point of the ore, in a trough or vat. The pure ozocerite which separates fromthe rock and other undesirable impurities, being lighter than water, naturally floats to the top and is skimmed off of I the surface of the Water in any desired manner. The rest of the material is' then subjected to further soaking inv a digester, in which separation is supposed to take place in approximate-- ly three layers, consisting of the melted ozocerite at the top, the rock and heavier particles at the bottom, and an intermediate layer consist- "ing of a mixture of the two with water. vAfter the melted'material has been skimmed off the top of the water, the heavier particles composing the lower layer are discarded, and the contents 26 0f the intermediate layer are "again subjected to the previously described treatment, along With the untreated material. The cost of this method is high and the eificiency thereof is very low, because the melted ozocerite clings very tenacious- 80 ly to the rock and other foreign materials which settle out during the process, resulting in a very high percentage of loss of ozocerite originally contained in the ore. Another method involves the use of solvents, but this method is also objection- 35 'able because of the fire hazard involved in the use of highly volatile solvents, and is expensive in that the proportion of recovery is lowas compared to the cost involved. One of the objects of the present invention is 4 to so treat ozocerite ore and its associated impurities that commercial ozocerite may be recovered by gravitational separation in cold water, advantage being taken of the'diiferences in spew cific gravity of the ozocerite and its normally as- 45' sociatedimpurities, with respect to cold water.

A'furth'er object is to. obtain a maximum recovery of commercial ozocerite from a given quantity of ozocerite ore. a

The invention will be hereinafter fully set forth 50. and particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawing:-

Figure 1 is a side elevation illustrative of one form of apparatus with which the invention may be practiced. Figure 2 is'an enlarged longitudinal sectional view of a portion of said apparatus In a copending application filed concurrently herewith, two 'forms of apparatus are disclosed, each capable of carrying out the method herein claimed. Inasmuch as the present invention is notlimited to any particularapparatus, it is con- 5. sidered suiiicient for purposes'of illustration here, to describe the invention with respect to one of theforms of apparatus above referred to.

Referring'to the drawing, I0 designates a storage, bin; which may be of any desired form or 10 construction, the form shown for purposes of illustration having an automatic feeder conventionally illustrated at ll. 'Located adjacent to said bin, and in a lower plane is a grinding or k H pulverizing machine P, which may be of any 15' well-known or preferred type, provided that it is capable of grinding or pulverizing'ozocerite oreytogether with its associated rock and other undesirable'impurities. In the drawing, for purposes of illustration and without intentto limit 20 the invention, a pulverizing mill of the hammer type is' shown, being provided with the usual pulverizing chamber 12, which issuppliedfrom a hopper l3, in communication with the bin Ill. The grindingor pulverizing function is efiected in awell-known manner by means of rotating pivotally supported hammers ll, acting against separated grids l5, the material as it is pulverized falls through the spaces between the grids into a trough l6. c a r The trough I6 communicates with a conduit ll, having a downturned discharge end [8, extending'into a gravitational separation tank T. A pipe 20 connected with a. water supply (not shown), under any desired pressure, is so 10- cated as to project a stream of water across said trough, and into and through the conduit d1. The pressure however, should be sufficient to cause said stream to entrain and .carry the pulverized material with it, and'to set up a certain 4 amount of turbulence during the travel of the mixture through the conduit. The pulverizing may beefiected while the materialis dry, but if desired watermay be mixed with the raw material before grinding, by means of a pipe 2|, connected with a suitable source of supply, (not shown). The tank may be initially supplied with water through branch pipe '22, and all of said water pipes are provided with suitable controlling valves I9, as shown. 5

Any desired number of tanks T may be employed, a single series of such tanks being shown for purposes of illustration. Inasmuch as all of these tanks are of similar construction, a description of one will suiiice for all. Each tank 55.

T may be of any desired shape and of any desired or suitable material, each one being provided at its bottom with an outlet 23, connected with a discharge pipe 24, leading upwardly therefrom, and having a downturned discharge end 25 projected into the next adjacent lower tank. The discharge pipe is controlled by a suitable valve 26, and the tank is provided at its bottom with a trap 21, also controlled by a suitable valve, and through which the tank may be flushed for removal of sludge and other accumulations which might tends to interfere with the operation of the apparatus. The discharge end of the conduit 11, and the discharge ends of the respective pipes 24 are all located below the normal water level within the tanks into which they respectively discharge.

Each tank is also provided with an overflow.

opening 28, at a level to permit the floating off of ozocerite as it accumulates on toptof-the Water in the tank, said opening being connected with a conduit 29, which in turn discharges into a settling. tank 30. The bottom of the tank 30 is connected with the top of a similar tank soa, by 'meanso-f a pipe 31.

It will be observed that each tank T is in a lower plane thanthe next preceding tank, so that the water and pulverized materials will float from one tank to another 'by gravity, due to the differences in elevation of the respective tanks. All of the tanks T are initially filled with cold water by means of pipe 22, the water flowing from one tankto another until the desired water level is obtained in all of the tanks, after which the supply ofwater necessary to support the required flow depends upon that which is delivered by the pipe 20, plus that furnished by the pipe 2|, if the latter is employed. In any event, the volume and velocity of flow of water through conduit I! and the successive pipes 24 are so controlled that each tank T con tains a body of water of approximately con- .stant dep-thf The discharge pipe 24 of the last tank T is connected with the waste pipe 32 into which the tailings are discharged. The discharge pipe of the last settling tank 30a leads to a suitable place of storage (not shown), but this lastv tank may be omitted if desired.

In practice, after the tanks T have all been initially filled with cold Water, the ozocerite ore with its mixed rock and other associated impurities are fed to the pulverizer or mill P,and the material as pulverized is deposited into: the trough l6, and is flushed out of the trough and into the conduit I! by means of the stream of water delivered from pipe 2! The force of the stream of water imparts. a certain turbulence to the mixture of water and. pulverized material during passage through said conduit l1, so that there is an initial separation of the fine particles of ozocerite from the fine but heavier particles of rock and other impurities, dueto the agitation of the mass before it reaches the first.

tank T. As the mixture of water and pulverized materials is delivered into the first tank T, the pulverized particles are deposited into the water below the surface thereof, so that a gravitational separation immediately commences, due. to the rise to the surface of the lighter ozocerite particles and the settling of the heavier particles, the latter normally carrying with it ozocerite particles which cling .to the heavier impurities- The. ozocerite particlesxwhichrise to the surface of the Water are floated ofiinto the conduit 29. while the heavier particles are. slowly settling to the bottom of the tank. Such heavier particles as ultimately reach the bottom of the tank are then carried by the force of the water flow through conduit 24, and are delivered into the next tank T, the passage of the mass through the conduit being accompanied by a certain amount of turbulence or agitation which will effect a further separation before the material is discharged from said conduit. The pure ozocerite which is fioated off through the conduit 29 is delivered to the first settling tank 30, where the last traces of entrained dirt and other impurities are given a chance to settle to the bottom, and the settling operation will be repeated in tank 30a. The material which settles in each tank T is transferred to the next lower tank to undergo further separation, the above described process being repeated in each tank until the tailings are discharged from the last tank of the series.

The advantages of the invention will be readily understood by those skilled in the art to which it belongs. For instance, it will be readily understood that by pulverizing or grinding the ozocerite ore, rock and other associated impurities, all tendency of the ozocerite to cling to the rock and other impurities, as it does while in a melted state under the hot water process above described, is entirely eliminated, and the great cost of maintaining an adequate supply of hot water, at the temperature necessary to heat the materials to the melting point is done away with. A further advantage is that a great increase in the efficiency of recovery of ozocerite is obtained at an infinitely smaller cost than by other knownmethods. It is to be understood that when water is referred to in the specification and claims, naturally cold or unheated water is meant.

Having thus explained the nature of the invention, and described an operative manner of practicing the same, although without attemptifngto set forth all of the forms of apparatus which may be used, or, all of the forms. of its use, what is claimed is:--

l. A method of separating ozocerite from its ore and associated impurities comprising providing a body ofwater in a normally fixed location, introducing a continuously flowing stream of water and entrained ozocerite material into said/body of water at a submerged position and thereby causing the lighter ozocerite particles to float upwardly through the water to the surface thereof by reason of their natural buoyancy, and simultaneously causing the heavier particles to. gravitate to the bottom of the body of water, creating a normally downward movement of the water by continuously withdrawing said heavier particles by entraining them in a stream of water gravitationally withdrawing at a position lower than that at which the incoming stream is introduced, and so relatively proportioning the volumes of the inflowing and outfiowing streams as to maintain thebody of water at a predetermined depth.

2. A method of separating ozocerite from its ore and associated impurities comprising providing a body of water in a normally fixed location, introducing a continuously flowing stream of water and entrained ozocerite material into said body of water at a submerged position and thereby causing the lighter-ozocerite particles to float upwardly through the water to the surface.

thereofby reason of their natural buoyancy, and

simultaneously causing the heavier particles to.

gravitate to the bottom of the body of water, creating a normally downward movement of the water by gravitationally discharging a continuous stream of water from said body of water at a position adjacent the bottom thereof, and discharging the withdrawn stream at a position above the plane of withdrawal and s0 relatively proportioning the volumes of the inflowing and outfiowing streams as to maintain the body of water at a predetermined depth, removing the floating particles from the surface of the body of water, and utilizing the hydrostatic force of the moving water of the outgoing stream to entrain and remove the heavier particles which have previously settled to the bottom of said body of water.

3. A method of separating ozocerite from its ore and associated impurities comprising providing a continuously flowing stream of water and entrained pulverized ozocerite material, effecting an initial partial mechanical separation of the wax from the rest of the pulverized material by causing the said stream of water and entrained materials to travel in a turbulent manner, introducing the stream of water and entrained ozocerite material into said body of water at a submerged position and thereby causing the lighter ozocerite particles to float upwardly through the water to the surface thereof by reason of their natural buoyancy, and also to cause the heavier particles to gravitate to the bottom of the body of water, creating a normally downward movement of the water by continuously Withdrawing said heavier particles by entraining them in a stream of water gravitationally dis' charged from said body of water, at a position lower than that at which the incoming stream is introduced, and so relatively proportioning the volumes of the inflowing and outflowing streams as to maintain the body of water at a predetermined depth, and removing the wax particles by drawing off the surface water and the particles floating thereon.

4. A method of separating ozocerite from its ore and associated impurities comprising pulverizing ozocerite material and depositing the pulverized material into a stream of water, applying sufiicient pressure to said stream to impart turbulence thereto so as to effect an initial separation of the wax from the pulverized material, providing a body of water in a normally fixed location, introducing said stream of water and entrained ozocerite material into said body of water at a submerged position and thereby causing the lighter ozocerite particles to float upwardly through the water to the surface thereof by reason of their natural buoyancy, and also to cause the heavier particles to gravitate to the bottom of the body of water, creating a normally downward movement of the water by gravitationally discharging a continuous stream of water from said body of water at a position lower than that at which the incoming stream is introduced and discharging the withdrawn stream at a position above the plane of withdrawal, and thereby causing the natural hydrostatic force applied to the withdrawn stream to entrain said heavier particles and remove them from said body of water, and so relatively proportioning the volumes of the inflowing and outflowing streams as to maintain the body of water at a predetermined depth.

5.'A method of recovering ozocerite from its ore and associated material, comprising subjecting pulverized ozocerite ore to a plurality of gravitational separations each consisting of depositing a stream of water and entrained pulverized material into a body of water below the surface thereof so as to cause the light wax particles to float upwardly through the water to the surface thereof by reason of their inherent buoyancy and also to cause the heavier constituents to fall to the bottom of said body of water, collecting the wax which floats on the surface by drawing off the surface water and the wax constituents floating thereon, causing a stream of water to flow by gravity from the bottom of each body of water except the last and to be introduced into the next body of water at a position below the surface thereof, but higher than the level at which it is withdrawn, and causing the hydrostatic force applied to said outgoing stream to entrain and convey the heavier particles from the bottom of each body of water to the next successive body of water so that the same will be deposited in the subsequent body of water below the surface thereof at a position to effect a further gravitational separation of the unseparated constituents removed from the preceding body of water.

6. A method of recovering ozocerite from its ore and associated impurities comprising providing a plurality of bodies of water each in a normally fixed location, supplying said first body of water by means of a continuously flowing stream of water carrying entrained ozocerite material, and introducing the same into the first body of water at a submerged position and thereby causing the lighter ozocerite particles to float upwardly through the water to the surface thereof by reason of their inherent buoyancy, and

also to cause the heavier particles to gravitate to the bottom of said first body of water, creating a normally downward movement of the water of the first body of water by gravitationally discharging a continuous stream at a position lower than that in which the incoming stream is introduced, and discharging it at a position higher than the position of withdrawal, so relatively next successive body of water at a position below:

the surface thereof so as to effect a further similar gravitational separation, and removing the floating particles from the surfaces of the respective bodies of water by causing the surface water to overflow therefrom.

HENRY RANDEL DICKINSON.

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