US810196A - Ore-washing plant. - Google Patents

Description

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Y way f 6 57%? No. 810,196. P-ATENTED JAN. 16, 1906. F. EGGERS.

ORE WASHING PLANT. APPLICATION FILED APR. 6. 1905.

FREDERICK EGGERS,

PATENT OFFICE.

OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

ORE-WASHING PLANT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 16, 1906.

Application filed April 6, 1905. Serial No. 254 089.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, FREDERICK EGGERS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cincinnati, I-Iamilton county, State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ore-WVashing Plants; and I do declare the following to be a clear, full, and exact description thereof, attention being called to the accompanying drawings, with the reference characters marked there on, which form also a part of my specification.

This invention relates to improvements in means and devices for separating matter and particles of different specific gravity where such matter and particles occur in a mixed mass or conglomerate and where such sepa ration is obtained by the use of water in which such mass or conglomerate is disintegrated and agitated, permitting thus the particles and ingredients to separate according to their individual weight. Devices of this kind and operating by use of water or washing are found in means for separating ores or metallic, particularly auriferous, sands, and my invention relates to that class and particularly to such devices thereof in which the separation or washing takes place in circular pans which containwater or are supported in or under water and to which the matter to be separated is supplied while said pans are rotated, so that the separation results from centrifugal action.

My invention is more particularly intended for use in connection with ore or sand washers where materials are handled in more extensive quantities and where the devices and machinery used are arranged to be portable, so as to readily follow the workthat is, the material. In such connection the various devices and machinery constitute what may be called a plant or outfit, which consists of digging devices, usually a steamshovel or digger, whereby the sand is scooped up. It consists, further, of washing-pans into which this material is delivered by the steam-shovel. Suitable devices, like beltoperated buckets or elevators, are provided to remove the separated material and particularly the waste. Motors and auxiliary machinery, like engines, pumps, &c., are also added to suit special requirements. In the most expeditious arrangement of such aplant these devices are mounted on railwaycars which may be flat cars, and are arranged to travel on tracks, so that as the steamshovel removes the material, usually called I dirt, it may be moved up to keep in reach of such dirt and follow the formation of its deposits. The separating and washing devices and other auxiliary machinery follow, of course, the steam-shovel, whether mounted on the same or on independent carriers, so that all parts of the plant remain at all times within operative reach of each other. The useful producing effect of such a plant depends on the quantity of material (dirt) handled by it with certain given facilities, as limited by sizes and capacities of carriers, of width of track, available motive power, quantity of water obtainable, &c., and the leading object of my invention is to so arrange and construct such an ore-washing plant as to impart to it as large a capacity in moving and handling dirt as is possible with certain given facilities and within fixed limits. The facilities I have here in view would be the kind of motive power and machinery on hand, meaning thereby the digging mechanism, the ore separating and washing devices, and the means for removing the waste material. The limits of these facilities would be the sizes and capacities of all these devices as de pendent on and determined by the size of the carriers on which they are mounted, the facilities for moving these carriers, kind of dirt handled, facilities for obtaining fuel, &c., and particularly water as to sufficient quantity.

In order to make myself better understood, I proceed now to describe my invention in connection with a given case and given devices, and for such purpose I refer to the accompanying drawings, in which I Figure 1 shows in side elevation, partly in section, ore or sand washing devices mounted upon a carrier in shape of a flat car. Fig. 2 is a top view of the ore-washing device shown in Fig. 1.

washing-plant, which carrier is a flat-car resting on rails 6, and to which the ore-bearing dirt or sand is supplied by any suitable means, which have no direct bearing on my invention. These means may, however, be the steam-shovel mentioned, also mounted either on the same or on an additional flatcar and traveling on the same or on an addi tional track beside the track first mentioned. In either case the two advance together that is, the washing plant follows the digger as the same advances into the dirt. The washing devices in this case are circular pans 7, mounted for rotation on upright shafts 8,

5 indicates the movable carrier of the which shafts are supported for rotation in suitable frames and bearings, as at 9, at their lower ends and at 11 at or near their upper ends. The rotation is in any manner accord ing to approved mechanical rules and may be as best shown in the drawings, which is by complementary sets of bevel-wheels 12, one set being mounted on the upper end of shaft 8- and the other on horizontal shafts 13. These latter shafts are operatively connected for operation by suitable motor, which may be a steam-engine 14, which drives one of the shafts 13, and which latter by means of a pulley 15 drives the other horizontal shaft. These pans 7 are supported in the manner stated within a common tank 16, sustained on the flat-car by means of a suitable supporting-frame 17. This tank is filled with water to a depth to submerge more or less the pans mentioned, these latter being all supported at the same height. The dirt being thrown upon these pans is disintegrated by the rotation of the pans through the water and by centrifugal action moved toward the edge of these pans at which edge an annular pocket 18 is provided, in which specific ally heavier matter is arrested, while lighter stuff is washed over and out, after which it sinks to the bottom of tank 16. From here it is removed bysuitable means, preferably by belt-operated buckets 19, arranged as a so-called elevator, operated in any suitable manner, or as shown, in which case its operating-shaft 21 is driven bya set of bevelwheels 22. The buckets may dump upon a chute 23, which discharges at the side of the track. To prevent the operation of one pan from interfering with that of another, I pro vide upright circular Walls 24, which surround each pan and confine the action thereof and agitation of the water by it to the space surrounded by such walls. It will be noted that the size of this washing outfit is limited by the width of the car.

As before stated, the leading object of my invention is to attain the largest productive working effect in any case under certain fixed limitations, and in this case I attain this object by the arrangement of the pans, as best shown in Fig. 2, and which shows a number of them arranged in a group within the common tank 16 and as distinguished against the usual arrangement of one of such pans of larger diameter in such a tank or of several of them alined in a row. Assuming the size of the tank in two such compared instances to be alike, the washing capacity of the pans, as represented by the added lineal length of pockets 18, is very much larger in the case of a plurality of pans arranged in a group of, say, four as it would be in the case of one pan, notwithstanding this latter would be as large as a tank of similar size would admit. More dirt can be handled, since more can leave over the circular edges of the pans without requiring more space or a larger tank and a larger carrier for it, thus obtaining a much greater working capacity. The tank not being any larger does not require any more water, which is of importance in localities or under circumstances where sufficient water is not readily obtained. Interfering counter-currents are prevented by circular walls 24, before described. In the arrangement shown it is preferable to have the waste-elevator in the central space resulting between the pans, as shown, the same reaching down into a conical pocket 25, which forms the deepest part of tank 16.

Having described my invention, I claim as new 1. In an ore-washing plant, the combination of a common water-tank, a group of circular oreseparators arranged therein, means to rotate them and stationary partitions in the upper part of the tank which surround each separator to confine the effect of the operation of the same to the space so surrounded.

2. In an ore-washing plant, the combina tion of a water-tank terminating below into a central conical pocket, circular ore-separators grouped therein'around this pocket and each equidistant therefrom, means to operate them, a bucket elevator arranged in the central space surrounded by these separators and dipping into the pocket below, of the tank, to remove therefrom the waste material and a railway-car upon which all these parts are mounted.

In testimony whereof I hereunto a'fl'ix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

FREDERICK EGGERS.

Witnesses O. SPENGEL, O. MEYER.

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